254 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
Figure 9-3 Creating the process model
Defining business items and data flow
The business item editor provides the location where you can specify the
attributes for business items that you create in the Project Tree. Business items
are reusable. You create business items by highlighting the Business Items
folder in the Project tree and selecting New
→ Business Item. The business
item editor for the specified business item opens after its creation. You can open
the business item editor at any time by double-clicking on the business item in
the Project Tree.
Figure 9-4 on page 255 depicts the business item editor for the Order Details
data object. To create new attributes for business items, click Add. The name
and type of the attribute are selected by clicking the corresponding table cell in
the editor. To select the available types, click the button that appears in the table
cell. You can choose from a set of standard data types, such as String and Long,
or you can select any business item that you have defined.
Chapter 9. Integration into business processes 255
Figure 9-4 Creating a business item
Having created the business items for your process you are now able to define
the data flow in the process model. To create inputs and outputs for tasks and to
associate business items to connections you have to switch to the Intermediate
user profile.
Define the data flow for the process model by right-clicking connections and
selecting Associate Data. You select the data type from the list of standard data
types and business items. WebSphere Business Integration Modeler creates
inputs and outputs for the tasks that are connected.
You can define additional inputs and outputs in the Attributes view. Figure 9-5 on
page 256 shows the Stock Analysis process model and the Attributes view for
the Validate Request task. Use the Add button to create and specify the input
256 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
and output for that task. In the process editor you are then able to connect task
outputs with matching task inputs.
Figure 9-5 Associate data to task inputs and outputs and to connections
In most cases, the process itself also has an input and output. You specify
process input and output in the Attributes view at the Input and Output tab,
respectively. Make sure that you click inside the process (do not highlight any
element) to set the scope for the process.
Note: If you associate data for connections to inputs of decision or merge
nodes, additional outputs are created. Their data type corresponds to the data
type of the input. You might have to delete the empty outputs and reconnect
tasks using the outputs that the modeler tool creates.
Chapter 9. Integration into business processes 257
Detailing decisions
Decision elements are used to model branches in the process model and are
dependent on context information that the process follows in different branches
in the flow. We recommend that you specify the branch conditions already in the
requirements capture phase. Because the data flow through the decision nodes
has been defined, business item attributes can be used to specify decisions in
more detail.
WebSphere Business Integration Modeler provides an expression builder that
you can access from the Output Branches tab in the Attributes view. If you
cannot see the tab, make sure that you highlight the decision node in the process
model to set the scope for the decision. In the Output Branches tab, you also
have to select the branch for which you are defining the condition. Figure 9-6 on
page 258 shows the expression builder.
258 Managing Information Access to an EIS Using J2EE and Services Oriented Architecture
Figure 9-6 Expression builder for decisions
To specify the branch condition, you first select the business item attribute from
the list below the label First Term. Then you chose from operators that are
available for the attribute. Finally, you select either another modeling artifact, text,
or order number from the list below the label Second Term. Click Apply to save
the branch constraint. The expression is displayed in the Expression text field.
You may repeat these steps for all branches of the decision node.
The Stock Trade business processes
To illustrate the results of our requirements capture activities, the Stock Trade
business processes are depicted in the following figures. Figure 9-7 on page 259
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