WebSphere Application Server (WAS) uses J2EE technology to fulfill the role of an integration broker, implementing data exchanges between disparate applications across a network or across the Internet.
The WebSphere Application Server environment supports four types of operations for the exchange of business data. These types are sometimes referred to as "interaction patterns." The following table describes each interaction pattern and the WebSphere MQ queues that are used to implement it:
Interaction pattern | Description | Queues used |
---|---|---|
Agent Request | Connector sends synchronous request message to WebSphere Application Server, reporting the occurrence of an event in the application, and waits for a response. (In the documentation for individual adapters, this is commonly referred to as Synchronous Event Delivery.) | SynchronousRequestQueue for request to broker.
SynchronousResponseQueue for response to connector. |
Agent Delivery | Connector sends asynchronous message to broker, reporting the occurrence of an event in the application. Connector does not wait for a response. (In the documentation for individual adapters, this is commonly referred to as Asynchronous Event Delivery.) | DeliveryQueue |
Hub Request | Broker sends synchronous request message to a connector and waits for a response. (In the documentation for individual adapters, this is commonly referred to as Synchronous Request Processing.) | RequestQueue for message from broker to connector.
ResponseQueue for response from connector to broker. |
Hub One Way | Broker sends asynchronous request message to the connector and does not wait for a response. (In the documentation for individual adapters, this is commonly referred to as an Asynchronous Request Processing.) | RequestQueue |
At a high level, the tasks necessary for implementing WebSphere Application Server as the integration broker for these exchanges are the following:
Integration components are the WBIA connectors that interact with applications and the WBIA business objects that contain the data that is exchanged. Part One of this guide introduces the necessary concepts for understanding the integration components, and provides links to more detailed documentation for the design and development of WBIA connectors and business objects.
Information for installing the connector is provided later in this guide in "WBIA Installation" and in additional documents referenced from that chapter. Information for configuring the connector and its business objects, including the tasks of setting up queues and using Connector Configurator, is provided later in this guide.
This includes the use of System Manager to create user projects from configured components, and the use of WebSphere Studio Application Developer to create service projects that can be deployed to WebSphere Application Server. These tasks are described later in this guide.