TIBCO iProcess Practice: An Introduction about Integrate with BusinessWorks

TIBCO BusinessWorks is a very powerful enterprise application integration platform. TIBCO iProcess intergrate with BusinessWorks will provide very strong integration function for BPM platform. This document will describe how the iProcess integrate with BusinessWorks.

Software

TIBCO iProcess Engine (iPE) and BusinessWorks (BW) should be installed on the server side and iProcess Workspace should be installed on the client side. To integrate iPE and BW, beside the software mentioned above following software must be installed.

TIBCO iProcess BusinessWorks Connector

TIBCO iProcess BusinessWorks Connector is required in the integration of iProcess and BW. iProcess BusinessWorks Connector is to provide an efficient and easy to use interface between BusinessWorks and the iProcess Engine. The iProcess BusinessWorks Connector can be used in the following ways:

• A TIBCO BusinessWorks process definition can invoke a TIBCO iProcess Engine procedure. For example, a BusinessWorks process starts or suspends a case of an iProcess Engine procedure.

• A TIBCO iProcess Engine procedure can invoke a TIBCO BusinessWorks process definition. For example, a step in a TIBCO iProcess Engine procedure calls a BusinessWorks process and waits for a reply.

The iProcess BusinessWorks Connector consists of three components:

• TIBCO BusinessWorks iProcess Plug-in — this component is installed on the same machine as TIBCO BusinessWorks and provides a set of resources that allow a TIBCO BusinessWorks process definition to communicate with the TIBCO iProcess Engine.

• TIBCO iProcess BusinessWorks Client Plug-in — this component is installed on the same machine as the TIBCO iProcess Client and the TIBCO iProcess Modeler. It provides a set of steps that allow an iProcess Engine procedure to invoke a TIBCO BusinessWorks process definition.

• TIBCO iProcess BusinessWorks Server Plug-in — this component is installed on the same machine as the TIBCO iProcess Engine and provides the communication mechanism that allows the engine to make calls to TIBCO BusinessWorks.

TIBCO Enterprise Message Service

TIBCO Enterprise Message Service (EMS) is a TIBCO Message Oriented Middleware product which based on Java Message Service (JMS) standard. In the integration, iPE and BW transfer the message between them thought EMS server. (It seems the BWC can use other JMS product beside TIBCO EMS, but I never tried it.)

Environment Introduction

The two figures above illustrate the integration environment of iPE and BW. This section describes the relationship of these components.

1. iPE procedure develop client tool connect with iPE server, the tool can get iPE procedures which had been released in the server. Users can modify, delete or create procedures using the tool. The client tool which installed with iProcess BW Client Plug-in can create, modify and release the procedures which include BW EAI Step that can invoke BW Process.

2. On the iPE server which had been installed iProcess BW Server Plug-in, when start the iPE procedure that include EAI BW Step. The EAI Step will send EMS message to EMS server according the user's configuration when release the EAI Step.

3. On the BW Server which had been installed BW iProcess Plug-in, start the application which include iProcess Service Agent and this application will connect to a queue on EMS server. When the iProcess Service Agent receive a message that send by iPE, it will invoke relevant BW Process.

4. When the BW Process in the step 3 finished running, the process result will return to iPE through EMS . The Procedure in iPE will receive this message and continue release to next BPM step.

5. The operation to the iPE procedures in BW Process is actually operation on the iPE database. All these operations are encapsulated in the Activities of BW.

6. There is no relevant with the integration in this step, just introduce the data of the iPE all stored in database. So if we operation to the database in step 5, the iPE procedures can be operation.