Connecting Systems With ASAP Keith D Swenson Fujitsu

Connecting Systems With ASAP Keith D. Swenson Fujitsu Software Corporation Workflow Management Coalition OASIS June, 2004

Overview n Motivation for a Standard l. Home Purchase Scenario n Key Concept l. It is not the “wires”, but the “plug” n ASAP interaction patterns n Wf-XML interaction patterns n Interoperability Demo n Summary

Home Purchase Scenario

Home Purchase Scenario Buyer’s Agent Appraiser Mortgage Company Buyers Geology Report Escrow Company Toxic Report Title Company Sellers Seller’s Agent Bank Credit Report Assessor

Many to many Escrow Company A Mortgage Company 1 Escrow Company B Mortgage Company 2 Escrow Company C Mortgage Company 3 Escrow Company D Mortgage Company 4 Escrow Company E Mortgage Company 5 Escrow Company F Mortgage Company 6 Escrow Company G Mortgage Company 7

Solution 1: Not Realistic Buyer’s Agent Mortgage Dept Buyers Appraisel Dept Geology Dept Megalithic International Finance Inc. Toxic Dept Title Dept Sellers Seller’s Agent Bank Credit Dept Assessor

Solution 2: Not anytime soon Buyer’s Agent Mortgage Company Appraiser Geology Report Buyers Toxic Report Integrated Marketplace Title Company Sellers Bank Seller’s Agent Escrow Company Credit Report Assessor

Constraints n Companies will continue to be different l Differentiation is their competitive advantage l Uniformity will not just occur naturally n Changes to a real market do not occur suddenly l Small changes applied incrementally l Manual and automated work side by side n “Connections” are made as needed (let me repeat this…) n “Connections” are made as needed

Essential Connectivity Telephone Company Connection wired by an electrician.

Essential Choreography System Developer /System Integrator WSDL BPEL WSDL System A SOAP XML System B C# System Developer /System Integrator

Empowering the Less-Technical Telephone Company Connection can be made by non-technician

Connections via A. S. A. P. BPEL System Developer /System Integrator WSDL System A SOAP XML System B C# System Operator System Developer /System Integrator

Home Purchase Scenario with A. S. A. P. Buyer’s Agent Appraiser Mortgage Company Buyers Geology Report Escrow Company Toxic Report Title Company Sellers Seller’s Agent Bank Credit Report Assessor

What’s needed to make a connection? n Assume that each company has an internal system for tracking their part. l Geological Report Company has a way to receive an order for a report, track the progress, and deliver result. l Mortgage company has a way to receive an order for a loan, track progress, and deliver result. l Companies are already automated or automating n Assume Internet connectivity n Assume XML

“Connection” only needs: n Select a service to start l Picking from a list services / companies. n Map data from one schema to the remote schema l Might easily be done graphically l Does not require a deep understanding of programming concepts … more like filling out a form using data values that already exist locally. n Wait for a service to complete l Receive documents or data l Service has a Context n Ability to check on status, or update l Things can change, it is not all predetermined

The Basic ASAP Pattern Create. Instance Factory Observer Instance XML Data: Completed Context Result

What is a Factory? n A factory represent a ‘class’ or type of asynchronous service. l e. g. “Loan Application” for a mortgage company n A given organization may have any number of factories for difference services they offer. n Each factory is a “Resource”. It has an address l Specify the factory address, you specify the asynchronous service, in the same way that a web address specifies a document n Factories can be introspected directly to discover how to interact with them.

The Basic ASAP Pattern Create. Instance Factory Observer Get. Data Instance Set. Data Notify Completed XML Data: Context Result

What is an Instance? n An Instance represents an ‘instance’ of a class. n The “Create. Instance” command is like the “new” operator in an oo programming language. n It is also a Resource, it has an address, and can be accessed with SOAP requests. n “Context Data” is the data supplied (as an XML structure) to the instance upon starting it. n “Result Data” is the data returned (as an XML structure) when the service is complete

What is an Observer? n An observer MAY be a resource with a web address. l It must be a resource in order to receive notifications from the instance. l If it is not a resource, it must use polling techniques to discover when the service instance is done. n Additional observers may register to receive notification events at any time.

Wf-XML Extension Patterns List. Factories Container Create. Factory Observer Factory List. Instances Instance List. Activities Get/Set. Data Activity

Interoperability Demo n June 23, 2004 n Hosted by the Brain. Storm Group at their BMP Conference in San Francisco n All clients/servers on internet n Demonstration client has a simple UI to invoke the asynchronous services from a web form. n Each implementation exposes a factory that can be called with a specified context structure, and returns a specific result structure a few seconds later. l The delay demonstrates asynchronous behavior

Observers n organizations (selected from over 500) have expressed interest in demo: AFLAC AG Edwards Agfa Health. Care Agile Software AIAI, University of Edinburgh AT&T Banamex Bank for International Settlements Bankers Systems, Inc. Bearing. Point Bombardier Aerospace Budapest University of Technics & Economics Capgemini Citigroup Computer Associates Computer Sciences Corporation Deloitte&Touche Ethiopian Airlines Fed. Ex Trade Networks France Telecom R&D Intel Corp. Johnson & Johnson Lockheed Martin Lucent Technologies Maersk Data Microsoft Business Solutions Nortel Networks North Wiltshire District Council Northrop Grumman Information Technology NSW Police Sandia National Laboratories Schlumberger Scotia. Bank Sears, Roebuck and Company The Associated Press The Bank of East Asia The Undersecretariat of Treasury The Vanguard Group U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission United Nations Office for Project Services Wellington City Council Westpac Banking Corp.

The ASAP Scenario customer order Customer Retailer customer order confirmation

The Wf-XML Scenario customer order Customer Retailer customer order confirmation manufacturer order Manufacturer manufacturer order confirmation

Committed Participants (as of June 7) Customer Retailer Manufacturer Fujitsu (Java) Demo Client (C#. Net) Staffware Easy. ASAP (Open. Source C++) Handysoft Demo Server (C#. Net)

Relationships Protocol Wf-XML 2. 0 Metadata WSDL 2. 0 ASAP SOAP WSDL

Evaluating Standards n Do both sides need to be designed to a common schema before connections can be made? l Does the schema has be be specified first? n Can connections be made without redesigning the internal system? l Is a programmer required to make a “connection” n Tight Integration vs. Loose Integration n Progress and Status Reporting l Is there a concept of “Context”

A. S. A. P. n Asynchronous Service Access Protocol l designed to meet this need. l XML / SOAP messages l OASIS technical committee http: //www. oasis-open. org/committees/tc_home. php? wg_abbrev=asap n Wf. MC Protocol Wf-XML l Layered on top of ASAP n Multi-Vendor interoperability demonstration June 23

Connecting Systems With ASAP Keith D. Swenson Fujitsu Software Corporation Workflow Management Coalition OASIS May 14, 2004