BPEL Development with ActiveBPEL Brendan Tansey

What is BPEL? Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) Web service orchestration language Simple arithmetic and logical operators Lecture on Oct 26 th !

BPEL Development Requires: –BPEL Engine –BPEL Developer (or text editor, for the masochistic) BPEL Engine –Executes BPEL processes –IBM BPWS4J –ActiveBPEL Engine –Installation notes on Wiki

BPEL Developer Oracle BPEL Designer –Oracle BPEL Process Manager (OC4J, JBOSS, BEA WebLogic) Eclipse BPEL Project Parasoft BPEL Maestro Intalio Designer Many others

ActiveBPEL Designer Construct graphical workflows Assist with WSDL creation Simulate workflow execution Prepare service for deployment Deploy service to ActiveBPEL server Eclipse-based Makes your life easier

ActiveBPEL Designer Cons Windows-only –Windows lab in CSC 1-67 –Go to CSC 1-43 to get an account –Install onto network drive –Make workspace on network drive Quirky –Hence, presentation

ActiveBPEL Designer Demo Create a simple web service that adds 4 input numbers Uses an existing web service –Takes 4 numbers as input {a,b,c,d} –Returns two sums as output {a+b, c+d} Create client for service

Live Demo! (with slides) Using an external web service to add four numbers

Create project/BPEL Add external web references

Create sequence Drag ‘Sequence’ from palette In sequence, insert “Operation Wizard” Follow wizard instructions, creating a new WSDL file in your current project Refresh project so new WSDL is visible

Create service instance Force first element of sequence to create a new instance

Using external services Add WSDLs as imports

Using external services Create input and output variables for services

Create assignment activity Assign our service’s input to input for other service

Invoke web service Create invoke activity with Operation Wizard Select local copy of remote WSDL (can’t use remote copy – buggy) Choose port type and operation Create new PLT Add to existing WSDL (buggy)

Assign service output Use built-in arithmetic operator

Simulating execution

Providing sample input

Error! Need to initialize complex types before using Initialize with literals. 0.0 Red = Invoked service’s namespace Green = Your service’s namespace Yellow = Variable type & element types Magenta = Variable structure

Creating complex responses

Successful simulation Can now examine output variable

Deploying your service The ActiveBPEL Engine requires that all services are packaged into.bpr files. –These packages need deployment descriptors and manifests These files need to be placed in the Tomcat/bpr directory Or, deployed through ActiveBPEL Designer (easiest)

Creating a Deployment Descriptor

Finish deployment Change Deployment URL to Match ActiveBPEL Engine installation ‘Binding’ must be set to ‘RPC Encoded’

Creating a client See sample code on Wiki String endpoint = URL of service URL can be found in Axis servlet call.setOperationName(new QName(“”,” ”); from BPEL Admin Console

Engine admin client Can conflict with other Tomcat applications. Errors in the admin client are likely caused by this. Can view process graph for deployed services online

Tips If working from home, authenticate to access.cs.ualberta.ca to access non-standard remote ports. When creating an ‘invoke’ activity, copy remote WSDL to local project in order to use it. Local copy also needs to be added to web references.

More tips ‘Invoke’ creation wizard is buggy. If you can’t select your WSDL, click ‘Create new …’ then back to ‘Use existing …’. Remember the ‘…’ when creating static endpoints. There is more than one way to accomplish most things in ActiveBPEL.

Yet more tips If an import isn’t being read correctly, remove it and re-add it. If properties give errors when they should work, check imports, then re-select each value

References ActiveBPEL documentation: BPEL v1.1 Specifications: ibm.com/developerworks/l ibrary/specification/ws-bpel/ ibm.com/developerworks/l ibrary/specification/ws-bpel/ More on BPEL: next Tuesday in class