5.2 Product descriptions

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The next step after choosing a Runtime pattern is to determine the actual products and platforms to be used. It is suggested that you make the final platform recommendation based on the following considerations:

Existing systems and platform investments
Customer and developer skills available
Customer preference

The platform selected should fit into the customer's environment and ensure quality of service, such as scalability and reliability, so that the solution can grow along with the e-business.

Our sample application, based on the Application Integration pattern and Extended Enterprise business pattern, has been implemented using IBM WebSphere Application Server V5.0 in a Microsoft Windows 2000 environment.

The following alternatives are detailed for implementation of the point-to-point connection between applications:

For the Application Integration pattern:
- Web services using the Web services support provided with IBM WebSphere Application Server base V5.0.2
- Web services using the Web Services Gateway provided with IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0.2
- J2EE Connectors using IBM CICS
- Java Message Service (JMS) using IBM WebSphere MQ
- WebSphere Business Integration Adapters JDBC adapter
For the Extended Enterprise application pattern:
- Web services using the Web services support provided with IBM WebSphere Application Server base V5.0.2
- Web services using the Web Services Gateway provided with IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0.2
- Electronic Data Interchange using WebSphere Data Interchange

This section introduces the major products used in the application and provides an overview of the products as they apply to these two Runtime patterns.

Note

You only need a subset of the products detailed in this chapter, depending on the application connectivity needed. Refer to the product mapping diagrams to determine which products are needed for specific patterns.

5.2.1 IBM WebSphere Application Server

IBM WebSphere Application Server V5.0 represents a continuation of the evolution to a single, integrated, cost-effective, Web services-enabled, J2EE server foundation for applications that offers customers:

One deployment model
One administration point
One programming model
One integrated application development environment

With IBM WebSphere Application Server V5.0, IBM enables customers to expand their business opportunities and productivity through a world class infrastructure ready for e-business on demand™.

IBM WebSphere Application Server V5.0 comes in a number editions, each offering a unique combination of features geared toward different customer needs.

IBM WebSphere Application Server Express V5.0

IBM WebSphere Application Server Express V5.0 provides a combination of development tools and application servers in a single integrated package geared toward developing Web page-centric applications. It provides a simplified programming model that allows you to create new Web applications and to convert existing static applications to dynamic applications.

It provides a cost-effective starting point for businesses that want to have a presence on the Web. As your business needs grow, the WebSphere family provides a smooth migration path to higher-end WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Studio configurations.

More information about IBM WebSphere Application Server Express V5.0 can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/express

IBM WebSphere Application Server base V5.0

IBM WebSphere Application Server base V5.0 provides a robust application deployment environment for single-server light production situations.

It contains a base application server that supports the full J2EE 1.3 environment. It allows a full range of enterprise integration and offers enhanced security, performance, availability, connectivity, and scalability options. Administration is done through a Web-based interface or through a scripting tool.

More information about IBM WebSphere Application Server base V5.0 can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/

IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0

IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0 is designed to add non-programming enhancements to the features provided in the base edition. These enhancements add scalability features, allowing you to run applications on multiple servers and on multiple physical nodes.

In addition to the features included with the base edition of WebSphere Application Server, you get:

The Deployment Manager, which allows you to centrally manage a number of different application server instances and clustering for workload management and failover.
The Network Dispatcher and Caching Proxy Server. These features provide the edge-of-network functions required to set up a classic DMZ in front of the application server.
A private UDDI registry for easier deployment of internal Web services applications and a Web Services Gateway.

More information about IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0 can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/was/network/

IBM WebSphere Application Server Enterprise V5.0

IBM WebSphere Application Server Enterprise V5.0 provides all the features in IBM WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.0, plus programming model extensions for sophisticated application designs.

It offers additional capabilities such as advanced application adapters, application workflow composition and choreography, extended messaging, dynamic rules-based application adaptability, internationalization, and asynchronous processing.

WebSphere MQ is bundled with the package (except on z/OS).

More information about IBM WebSphere Application Server Enterprise V5.0 can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/webservers/appserv/enterprise/

5.2.2 IBM WebSphere MQ

IBM WebSphere MQ provides assured once-only delivery of messages across more than 35 industry platforms using a variety of communications protocols.

The transportation of message data through a network is made possible through the use of a network of WebSphere MQ queue managers. Each queue manager hosts local queues that are containers used to store messages. Through remote queue definitions and message channels, data can be transported to its destination queue manager.

To use the services of a WebSphere MQ transport layer, an application must make a connection to a WebSphere MQ queue manager, the services of which will enable it to receive (get) messages from local queues, or send (put) messages to any queue on any queue manager. The application's connection may be made directly (where the queue manager runs locally to the application) or as a client to a queue manager that is accessible over a network.

Dynamic workload distribution is another important feature of WebSphere MQ. This feature shares the workload among a group of queue managers that are part of the same cluster. This allows WebSphere MQ to automatically balance the workload across available resources, and provide hot standby capabilities if a system component fails. This is a critical feature for companies that need to maintain round-the-clock availability.

WebSphere MQ supports a variety of application programming interfaces (including MQI, AMI, and JMS), which provide support for several programming languages as well as point-to-point and publish/subscribe communication models. In addition to support for application programming, WebSphere MQ provides a number of connectors and gateways to a variety of other products, such as Microsoft Exchange, Lotus® Domino®, SAP/R3, CICS, and IMS, to name just a few.

More information can be found at the IBM WebSphere MQ Web site:

http://www.ibm.com/software/ts/mqseries

5.2.3 IBM CICS

IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS) is a family of application servers and connectors that provides industrial-strength, online transaction management and connectivity for mission-critical applications. Existing CICS installations process more than $1 trillion in transactions each day.

Our J2EE Connector scenario makes use of the following IBM CICS components:

IBM CICS Transaction Server
CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG)

More information can be found at the IBM CICS Web site:

http://www.ibm.com/software/ts/cics

IBM CICS Transaction Server

The IBM CICS Transaction Server is an online transaction processing (OLTP) environment for hosting business applications. It provides transaction management services, operating system services, database services, security services, and a variety of client access services. It allows resource managers to join transactions, and provides them with notification of transaction events, such as commit or rollback.

It supports numerous application development environments and models, including COBOL, PL/I, Java, EJB, and object-oriented (OO) development, in any combination. CICS Transaction Server runs on z/OS, OS/390®, and VSE/ESA™.

CICS Transaction Gateway

The CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) has a long heritage as a Java connector for CICS, originally being provided as the CICS Gateway for Java for use with the CICS Client. Since then, CICS TG has advanced along with the Java world and now provides three principal interfaces for communication with CICS:

Base classes
Common Connector Framework API
J2EE Common Client Interface

CICS TG is a well-proven and established product, available on multiple platforms, including AIX, Windows, z/OS, Solaris, HP-UX, and Linux on zSeries.

5.2.4 WebSphere Business Integration Adapters

IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters V2.2 are part of the WebSphere Business Integration family of products and offerings. They can be thought of as the "spokes" in a hub-and-spoke architecture radiating out to packaged applications, legacy systems, mainframe and e-business systems. They enable the exchange of data and transactions between systems. Their capability to transform data can be used to access databases and integrate disparate data formats.

There are more than 60 systems and versions of systems that are currently supported by WebSphere Business Integration Adapters. They are categorized into four strategic areas:

Technology adapters provide various ways to access data, technologies, and protocols that enhance an integration infrastructure.
Application adapters extract data and transaction information from both leading and industry-specific packaged applications.
Mainframe adapters provide access to application data in z/OS systems and to OS/400.
e-business adapters for securely connecting over the firewall to customer desktops, trading partner internal applications, and online marketplaces and exchanges.

More information about IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/websphere/integration/wbiadapters

5.2.5 WebSphere Data Interchange

WebSphere Data Interchange for Multiplatforms V3.2 provides advanced translation, validation, and batched information exchange capabilities for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards and for XML. WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 electronically translates EDI format data, such as invoices, purchase orders, and billing forms, for exchange with trading partners.

WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 supports industry implementations of the ANSI X12, EDIFACT, VICS, UCS and Rail standards. Translation can take place between any combination of EDI, XML, or structured Application Data Format.

WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 provides advanced data validation and standards compliance functions that allow the functional acknowledgments, defined by some standards, to be generated in response to inconsistencies in the data content. WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 can be configured to both construct and de-construct envelopes of EDI format data that contain batches of related EDI items such as invoices or purchase orders.

WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 is available on the Windows 2000, AIX, and z/OS platforms.

WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 supports integration with WebSphere MQ, enabling inter-operation with a wide range of enterprise applications, business process engines (such as the IBM CrossWorlds® InterChange Server), information brokers (such as WebSphere MQ Integrator), and ERP systems (such as SAP R3).

WebSphere Data Interchange V3.2 provides for communication with trading partners via both value added networks (VANs) or Internet B2B gateways. It provides an easy-to-use, configurable interface that enables connection to leading VAN and Internet gateways. The WebSphere Business Connection offerings that provide AS1 and AS2 support, and the IBM e-business hosting Expedite VAN gateway, are two examples of supported gateways from IBM.

More information about IBM WebSphere Data Interchange can be found at:

http://www.ibm.com/software/integration/wdi/

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