Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform

4.5. Details Tab Options

Table 4.5. Details Tab Options

Name Description
Partner Links Partner Links help define the conversations between two services. They define the roles each partner plays in the conversation and the types of messages that can be exchanged between them. The Details tab allows you to choose the Expression language and Query language for selecting elements of a Partner Link.
Variables Variables are used in BPEL to store inbound and outbound messages for examination and manipulation by the business logic. They can also be used to save intermediate results and the process state. The three kinds of variable declarations are messages types, XML Schema types and XML Schema elements. The Details tab allows you to define the variable declared type and its structure by selecting from known types. Once a variable type has been defined, the structure of the variable is shown. Clicking on the hyperlink will open the WSDL or XML Schema editor for the selected type or element.
Empty The Empty activity is a placeholder for any undefined Basic Activity and is intended to eventually be replaced by a real activity before the process can actually be executed. If the BPEL engine encounters an Empty activity, it is ignored. The Details tab allows you to select one of four basic actions: Invoke, Receive, Reply and Assign. Hovering the mouse over one of the selection buttons displays a brief description of that activity.
Invoke The Invoke activity requires a Partner Link name and an Operation as defined in the WSDL for that service. You can use the Quick Pick tree control on the right to select the Partner Link and Operation. For one-way invocations, specify only an Input Variable. For request-response invocations you must also specify an Output Variable. The checkbox labeled Use WSDL Message Parts Mapping provides an alternative to using variables for the request message.
Receive A Receive activity requires a Partner Link name and an Operation as defined in the WSDL for this service. You can use the Quick Pick tree control on the right to select the Partner Link and Operation. A previously defined variable can be used to hold the message data, or the Use WSDL Message Parts Mapping checkbox can be set to store the incoming message in an anonymous WSDL message variable. The Create a new Process Instance checkbox, when enabled, will cause the BPEL engine to start a new process. This will start a new conversation with a client.
Reply A Reply activity requires a Partner Link name and an Operation as defined in the WSDL. You can use the Quick Pick tree control at the right to select the Partner Link and Operation. A previously defined variable can be used to provide the response message data, or the Use WSDL Message Parts Mapping checkbox can be set to use the data from the anonymous WSDL message variable.
Opaque Opaque activities are only used in abstract processes and are meant as placeholders for other activities yet to be determined. When you drag and drop an Opaque activity onto the drawing canvas, the process will be converted to a non-executable, abstract process.
Assign The Assign section contains an array of variables including message options and management buttons. Additional type selection or data entry widgets will appear below the From and To combo boxes, depending on the source and target item categories selected in the combo boxes. Initially these will be controls for the selection of process variables, since the default combo box selection is Variable.
Validate The Validate details tab contains a list of variables to be validated.
While and RepeatUntil These activities have the same details tab, which allows you to specify an XPath expression to be evaluated for the conditional activity.
Link The Link detail tab allows you to specify a condition that will cause Flow synchronization to be satisfied and allow the target activity to continue. This is similar to the details tab of the other conditional activities.
Pick The Pick tab allows you to specify whether the event will create a new process instance.
OnMessage The OnMessage activity is used in Pick and event handlers. The Details tab allows you to specify the Partner Link, Operation and Message Type expected by the activity, and the process variable that will contain the received message data.
OnAlarm The OnAlarm activity is used in either a Pick or event handler to handle timeouts while waiting for messages to arrive. This activity can be configured to wait for a certain period of time or until a specific date and time. The Details tab allows you to specify the Partner Link, Operation and Message Type expected by the activity, and the process variable that will contain the received message data. Repeat conditions are only allowed for an OnAlarm in an event handler. This allows the activities enclosed in the activity to be executed repeatedly. Repeat duration is the amount of time the process will wait before each repetition.
ForEach ForEach allows you to specify a counter variable to be used for keeping track of the loop iterations. The Parallel execution checkbox will execute all iterations in parallel. The Counter Values tab is where the starting and ending counter values are specified. The optional Completion tab allows you to specify the early termination condition for the loop.
Wait The details tab of the Wait activity allows you set a delay ( Duration) or specify a date and time to continue process execution.
Scope The details tab for the Scope activity allows you to define whether the Scope is isolated.
Throw The Throw activity will invoke a fault handler in an enclosing Scope activity. Throw requires the name of either a standard BPEL fault, or the name of a user-defined fault message. A variable is used to hold the value of the fault data.
CompensateScope The CompensateScope activity will invoke a compensation handler in the Scope or the Invoke activity given by the name of the Target Activity.