The Next Generation Messaging Technology - Makes Web Services Effective Maria E Orlowska The University of Queensland School of ITEE Australia

APWeb04 – April 04 2 Overview Process oriented computing, Issues with BPM (Business Process Management), WS (Web Services) – a new promise, Why it is hard to deploy WSs, Will HMT (Harmonising Message Technology) – a smart messaging help ?

APWeb04 – April 04 3 Process meets Technology Could web services live up to their promise and spell the end of integration dramas forever? –Several success stories already reported, –Web services standards around collaborative capabilities of UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration) WSDL ( Web Services Description Language) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) which respectively catalogue, describe and publish the various Web services offered by a service provider, –Web services should hide the complexity of business processes and focus on getting data flow as efficiently and simply as possible,

APWeb04 – April 04 4 It is a massively complex undertaking and the devil is literally in the detail David Clarke, Managing Director, Webjet

APWeb04 – April 04 5 Process-Oriented Computing Business Process Management Application Services and Components Database Management User Interaction Configure, Coordinate, Collaborate, Integrate Execute Persist Present, Interact Presentation Logic Process Logic Business Logic Data Logic

APWeb04 – April 04 6 Process-Oriented Computing Business Process Management Application Services and Components Database Management User Interaction Configure, Coordinate, Collaborate, Integrate Execute Persist Present, Interact Presentation Logic Process Logic Business Logic Data Logic Focus of Business Process Modeling and Management

APWeb04 – April 04 7 Process-Oriented Computing Business Process Management Application Services and Components Database Management User Interaction Configure, Coordinate, Collaborate, Integrate Execute Persist Present, Interact Presentation Logic Process Logic Business Logic Data Logic Focus of Application Development

APWeb04 – April 04 8 Process-Oriented Computing Business Process Management Application Services and Components Database Management User Interaction Configure, Coordinate, Collaborate, Integrate Execute Persist Present, Interact Presentation Logic Process Logic Business Logic Data Logic Focus of process- oriented application development and deployment

APWeb04 – April 04 9 Key issue - Separation of Process Logic Process Logic Application Logic Data Process Logic Application Logic Data DBMS Process Logic Application Logic Data DBMS WFMS

APWeb04 – April Wfs - Current Computational Model Isolation of process logic triggers; –User initiated flow - reflecting activity/task progress –Workflow engine initiated flow- reflecting process progress Activity

APWeb04 – April Wfs - Current Computational Model (cont) Each task has predefined, generic FSM, –Creates difficulty to map activity logic to engine readable states, –Provides a strict meaning of the process flow, Simplicity for the price of restrictions,

APWeb04 – April Activity Execution Scheduled Active Completed Allocate Complete Terminated Abort Recall Process Model level Workflow Engine level User level Activity

APWeb04 – April Process Execution Scheduled Active Completed Allocate Complete Terminated Abort Recall Activity Scheduled Active Completed Allocate Complete Terminated Abort Recall Activity

APWeb04 – April Instances Execution Instances Execution

APWeb04 – April Impossible Instances Execution -

APWeb04 – April End to End Process Management (Example) Create Purchase Request Create Purchase Order Send Purchase Order Receive Goods Receive Invoice Send Payment Process Purchase Request Service Purchase Order Service Shipment Notice Service Payment Service Application Services Database Application Database

APWeb04 – April BPM, Application Services, and Data Model (N – M) PR POSN INV PR IPO ISN IINV I N M N MN M N MN M N M 1 N 1 N 1 N 1 N Create Purchase Request Create Purchase Order Send Purchase Order Receive Goods Receive Invoice Send Payment Purchase Request Service Purchase Order Service Shipment Notice Service Payment Service

APWeb04 – April Process Modeling PR 1 A 20 B 30 C 20 PR 2 A 30 D 10 E 15 PO 1 A 50 B 30 PO 2 C 10 D 10 PO 3 C 10 E 15 SN 1 A 50 B 30 C 10 SN 2 D 5 SN 3 D 5 SN 4 C 10 E 15 INV 1 A 50 B 30 C 10 D 10 INV 2 C 10 E 15 Create Purchase Request Create Purchase Order Send Purchase Order Receive Goods Receive Invoice Send Payment

APWeb04 – April Process Modeling PR 1 A 20 B 30 C 20 PR 2 A 30 D 10 E 15 PO 1 A 50 B 30 PO 2 C 10 D 10 PO 3 C 10 E 15 SN 1 A 50 B 30 C 10 SN 2 D 5 SN 3 D 5 SN 4 C 10 E 15 INV 1 A 50 B 30 C 10 D 10 INV 2 C 10 E 15 Create Purchase Request Create Purchase Order Send Purchase Order Receive Goods Receive Invoice Send Payment Item C is no longer required and is cancelled on the purchase request

APWeb04 – April The HMT Concept A technology allowing messages coordination from multiple parties, Some characteristics: –It should be easy to use – minimal technical skills required to set up a collaboration, –It should be easy to join (leave) the collaboration arrangement, –Rich and extensible language to specify relationships between messages, –Provide a natural subsumption of workflows-like collaboration,

APWeb04 – April 04 21Functionality HMT supports: –Checking the message template for completeness and authentication (check) –Storing the message persistently (store), –Evaluate specified collaboration rules (evaluate) with resulting one of the functions: 1. Create a new instance of a msg template (create), 2. Send a message (send), 3. Store for re-evaluation (delay), 4. Accept transaction (transac)

APWeb04 – April Collaboration Space Massage harmonization is defined within a Collaboration Space, A Collaboration Space (CS) consists of: –Registered Partners (security issues, who is allowed to participate) –Set of message templates, –Set of rules (temporal first order logic in terms of message attributes) Only one create function is expected to be applied before send, CS deals with many single steps to form the overall collaboration,

APWeb04 – April Message Template Each Message Template (MT) has its XML schema, Several functional parts can be distinguished; –Scheduling attributes such as CS_id, MT_type_id, instance _id (optional) –Content structural attributes (those which forms terms in rules specification), Attributes can be mandatory and optional, Other constraints

APWeb04 – April Rules Specification Each rule LHS is an expression (temporal first order logic expression) with literals being attributes of MTs from that CS, Each rule RHS is a HMT function either create (MT) followed by send (MT) or send (MT) Rules may be in conflict and not leading to a unique action – need for methods for design and verification,

APWeb04 – April Further issues for MT and Rules Those two entities must be tightly integrated, One framework for design and specification – systems completeness: –Each rule is supported (LHS and RHS), Impacts of modifications either rules or MTs

APWeb04 – April Collaboration Space in Messaging Service

APWeb04 – April Workflow-Oriented BPM using Messaging Service BPM Object X Message Templates Outgoing Messages Incoming Messages Public Methods Message Handler BPM Object Y Message Templates Outgoing Messages Incoming Messages Public Methods Message Handler ABCD Messaging Service

APWeb04 – April Message-Oriented BPM using Harmonization Messaging Service ensures that A, B, C, and D are performed in the right order as well as only messages are used to communicate with BPM Objects. This is the goal of the HMT invention. The HMT would provide a SINGLE platform to manage both coordinative and collaborative communication. Messaging Service BPM Object X Message Templates Outgoing Messages Incoming Messages Public Methods Message Handler BPM Object Y Message Templates Outgoing Messages Incoming Messages Public Methods Message Handler ABCD

APWeb04 – April Challenges Requirements for HMT: –Traditional Wf model must be a special case, –Simple graphical language to specify the rules, –Process modelling shouldnt be harder, –Validation and verification methods should assist with specification, –Process monitoring and transactional behaviour should be guaranteed, –The model should formally capture Wf integration, –Scalability for process-intensive environments,

APWeb04 – April Concluding Remarks Promise: HMT offers flexible service composition, HMT is applicable to communicating active RFID devices, Status: first demo scheduled for Nov 2004 at SAP Future Scope event, Germany, More Info: