I have installed the following components:

• Oracle 11g Database
• OC4J Container 10.1.3.5.0
• Oracle Fusion Middleware MapViewer 11.1.1.2
• Oracle Spatial Demo Data Set

upgraded the SQL Developer to version 2.1 and installed the GeoRaptor plugin to visualize oracle spatial data

Step 1: “Validate Demo Data and working of GeoRaptor”
Step 2: “Validate Working of MapViewer jsp client”
Step 3: “Validate Working of MapViewer JavaScript client”
Step 4: “Include the JavaScript client in APEX page”

Step 1 – Validate Demo Data and working of GeoRaptor
After installing the software i tested the working of georaptor if it could visualise the counties supplied in the demo data

Now the data is available in the database we can can configure mapviewer (if not already done after installation).

Step 2 – Validate Working of MapViewer jsp client
Go you the mapviewer application http://[server]:[port]/mapviewer/ in my case: http://oracle11g:8888/mapviewer/. Don’t click on the link. That will send you to the 10g version. Let the redirection preform to enter the 11g application.

Click on the Admin link in the top left and login with oc4jadmin account.

Create a data source to access the demo data.

After defining the data source you can check if the data is available for the application by clicking on the tab ‘Meta Data’

Here you can check what map’s, themes and styles are present in the defined data source. If you specified everthing correct you will see the maps and themes from the demo data.

Now it’s time to show a map on the screen!!

Start the MapViewer jsp client by selecting the Demo tab and click on the link mapclient.

On the following page you have to enter DataSource, BaseMap, X,Y position, Zoom level. After entering the requesten info you click on Submit and you will see the following map:

Step 3 – Validate Working of MapViewer JavaScript client

Enter the flowing url in your browser: http://[server]:[port]/mapviewer/fsmc/omaps.jsp in my case: http://oracle11g:8888/mapviewer/fsmc/omaps.jsp

This application ask again for the datasource and other data to display the map. After suppling the information and pressing the Proceed button you will be presented a map with control buttons to navigate over the map.

Step 4 – Include the JavaScript client in APEX page

Step 4.1 Create page on in you APEX application

Step 4.2 Configure the Page Attributes:
* Header Text
* Body Attribute

Enter the following text in Header Text:

<script language="Javascript"
src="http://oracle11g:8888/mapviewer/fsmc/jslib/oraclemaps.js">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
function on_load_mapview()
{
var baseURL = "http://"+"oracle11g:8888"+"/mapviewer";
// Create a MVMapView instance
var mapview = new MVMapView(document.getElementById("map"), baseURL);
// Add a map tile layer
mapview.addMapTileLayer(new MVMapTileLayer("mvdemo.demo_map"));
// Set the initial map center
mapview.setCenter(MVSdoGeometry.createPoint(-120,36));
// Set Zoomlevel
mapview.setZoomLevel(1);
// Add navigation controles
mapview.addNavigationPanel('east');
// Add a scale bar
mapview.addScaleBar();
// Show map
mapview.display();
}
</script>

Here we load the oraclemaps.js for the communication with the MapViewer. Don’t forget to change the url’s to fit with your environment.

Enter the following text in HTML Body Attribute
onload="on_load_mapview()"

This will call the function on_load_mapview() specified in the header of this HTML page.

Step 4.3 Create a HTML region with the following HTML:
<div id="map" style="width: 1200px;height: 600px"></div>
Now your application is ready to run! Hopefully you will have the same result as i have presented below:

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ORA-29273: HTTP request failed
ORA-06512: at "SYS.UTL_HTTP", line 1577
ORA-24247: network access denied by access control list (ACL)
ORA-06512: at line 1

His is the result of the improved security in 11g. When you want to create a connection to a remote server with one of the util packages: TCP,HTTP,SMTP besides the privileges on the package you need to configure the connection in a Access Control List (ACL). In a ACL you can configure in detail the allowed connections by entering the following parameters:

• Server name or IP
• Port number range
• Database user/role
• Start date
• End date

The package DBMS_NETWORK_ACL_ADMIN enables you to create and configure ACL’s.

The ACL is a nice security feature but when migrating applications to 11g it’s something you will encounter.

More information:

• dbms_network_acl_admin documentation
• Article writen by Arup Nanda

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• fault-policies.xml, fault-policies.xsd
• fault-bindings.xml, fault-bindings.xsd

You have to enable the fault policy by adding the files to your sca component, or you can add a reference in the sca component to hem, for example when they are placed in the mds.

fault-bindings.xml
Examples of fault-bindings.xml files can be found in oracle’s documentations:

• Fault policy on composite level, the chapter is called fault-buildings.xml but they are talking about fault-bindings.xml don’t let this confuse you
• Fault policy on component level

fault-policies.xml
An detailed fault-policies.xml file can be found here.

Mediator
The Fault Management Framework is only applicable for mediators that processes their rules parallel, see documentation Fault Policies Mediator. If an error is matched in the fault policy an possible predefined fault action in the mediator will be ignored. Be aware of this when you are defining your fault policies and error handling.

Example
I have made a simple sca component to show the working of the framework. This sca component has two components {BPEL and Mediator} which are exposed as services to the outside world.

They will pass the message to a BPEL that throws a remote exception so we can test the working of the configured fault policies and bindings. In this case a simple available exception but in real it could be an custom defined Business exception to trigger the fault handling. We will see also the way to recover an BPEL instance and a Mediator instance.

The fault-policies.xml that’s configured in this project

This fault-bindings.xml that’s configured in this project

If you would like to define on component level the fault policies the fault-bindings.xml would look like this

Testing the composite
We deploy the composite and test if all the instances are cached by the defined fault policy.

Mediator Routing
First i invoked the service that’s connected to the mediator routing.

De defined fault policy works fine because the instance is been marked recoverable. By clicking on the link ‘Recoverable’ you get a popup where you can modify the payload (if needed) and select a recover action.

BPELRouting
Second i tested the service that’s connected to the BPELRouting component.

We have here also the same link to recover this instance.

That’s the end of a simple example to get started with the Fault Management Framework.

This example has been executed on
Fusion Middleware 11g (11.1.1.2.0)

Reference documentation

• Using Mediator Error Handling
• Using Fault Handling in a BPEL Process

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I have made the following sca component that returns a greeting. The input is quite simple a name and a greeting type (‘Hello’ or ‘Bye’). The message is routed depending on the greeting type to a BPEL which response the greeting with a return greeting.

A quite simple component not useful but good for this example. I deployed this component by uploading the generated Jar file to the server. Then i tested it by manual sending to requests from the enterprise manager:

<ns1:process>
<ns1:input>Arnold</ns1:input>
<ns1:greeting>Hello</ns1:greeting>
</ns1:process>


I have also tested the Bye greeting by sending the following request from the enterprise manager:

<ns1:process>
<ns1:input>Arnold</ns1:input>
<ns1:greeting>Bye</ns1:greeting>
</ns1:process>


To automate the tests i created a test suite where i added the same test scenario’s an Hello Message and a Bye message. You see here the flow defined in JDeveloper for the ‘Bye’ case.

The blue circle in the exposed service shows us that an initial message is defined. On the wire between the exposed service and the Mediator you see a document with a green arrow. This shows that there are actions defined on this wire. It could be an emulation but in our case an response assert to validate the response message from the Mediator to the exposed service.

Initiation message

Response Assert

To activate the test we have to redeploy the application.

After deployment go to the enterprise manager and loging

Select the application that’s available in the soa-infra

Select the tab UnitTest and check the items you want to test. I this case all of them.

Start the test by giving it a name. You can also change some test parameters but in this case we leave them default.

Refresh to see the results of the unit test.

After time i expected to have two successful completed unittests. But the test case that tests the bye path fails.

You can see directly why this testcase failed. In the testcase we expect the value ‘Bye Theo’ but it found ‘Hello Theo’. To check out what went wrong you click on the link of the faulted testcase. In this case ID 1005.

You get an overview of all the instances that are connected to the testcase that’s executed.

We see that for instance 1005 (the faulted instance initiated by the ‘bye’ test case). Looking closer to the flow we see that the BPELHelloWorld has been executed instead of the BPELByeWorld. So we click on the mediator that has routed the message to the wrong BPEL.

We see now in detail the execution of the mediator. We see the evaluation of the different xpath expressions.

The first evaluation results False but why? I have tested the same application in two way’s:

1. I have executed only the bye testcase ( test fails result=’Hello Theo’)
2. I have manual tested the webservice ( test passes result = ‘Bye Theo’ )

Making your SOA composites including their unit test goes rapidly but in this case there is still some work to do with the testframework.

This test has been preformed with the following components:

1. Weblogic Server 11g rel 1. (10.3.2.0)
2. Fusion Middleware 11g Rel 1 (11.1.1.2.0)

UPDATE (09-12-2009)

On request of Tom i have added this screen print with the requested information.

I have also put the project online to download

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The way we work is quite simple: every quarter we decide upon what questions we want to have answered. As you can imagine, SOA Suite 11g is quite prominent there. Each and every question has to be answered by delivering a workshop, white paper or presentation. These are collected and presented to an audience consisting of people from the participants. That way we not only build the knowledge, but spread it within our companies as well. And, all of us can use that material to train others, both inside and outside of the companies.

Usually the results are qualitatively really good. Some are extremely good. Such a one has just been posted on OTN, which is a nice feat anyway. You can find the article Jumpstart for OSB development here. We look forward to share a lot more results in the future.

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Put the following in your vm arguments to increase the initial and max heap size.

-Xms512M -Xmx512M

Other ideas are Welcome!!

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Even now, in BPMN 1.1, the clarity of modeling in BPMN as compared to the clarity of, for example, activity diagrams is stunning. Especially the addition of several types of events, both throwing and catching, and the definition of gateways and other methods to handle these events allows an extremely precise process model. Just as a quick – and very simple – example, consider the process of handling a customer’s RFP. After receiving the RFP, you send a proposal, then wait 5 days for a reply before cancelling or closing the deal. Ignore the fact that this is bad salesmanship, please, that’s not what I’m being paid for

In a basic UML-activity diagram you would model this as follows:

Seems clear enough to you? Perhaps. Now consider the BPMN diagram of this exact same scenario:

The gateway being used here is the ‘Exclusive Event gateway’ which should basically be read as ‘whichever of the following events occurs first, follow that path and ignore all others’. Notice that not only does the gateway give more detail in (structured and validatable) symbols instead of (unstructured and unvalidatable) text, the diagram also presents more information that could not be given in the other diagram, such as the message flow and the start and end points. At least, not without adding undefined, unstandardized notation. Everything used in the BPMN diagram above, up to the type of arrows and whether or not an event symbol is solid (‘filled’) or blank (‘empty’) is defined in the notation. No more ambiguity!

The drawback here is that, for this to work, you have to have at least a basic knowledge of BPMN – such as what an event gateway is. Still, if you’re looking to standardize process modeling, look into it. It’s worth the time and effort, especially once you learn some basic ‘patterns’ that are common in process models, such as error handling, error throwing & catching and the pattern used in the above diagram, the time-out event. It certainly got me enthusiastic!

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In the digital age, this flow of materials is heavily supported by a flow of digital information between the information systems from all organizations in the value chain. Now, this information flow can designed and developed into software components in ad hoc solutions and point-to-point integration, but this will ultimately lead to a relative high cost of ownership for the life-time of these software components. Also, the ability of these software components to interact with other systems (aka interoperability) over the entire life-time will be moderate because of the lack of standards within one organization and between the connected organizations.

To get round these problems and enable global open markets in which all organizations speak the same language and use the same semantics while exchanging digital information, several communities and associations like IEC, ISA, OPC,  ebXML, OAGi, and more are creating (cross-) industry standards for exchanging information between organizations (B2B) and applications (A2A) using so called common information models (CIM). Some of these communities offer open standard models that can be used free of charge for developers of software systems and others are only accessible for paying members.

The difficulty is to find a suitable CIM standard and find consensus about this standard model with our business partners. Knowledge of the available CIM standards provided by the different communities is required to make this choice.

When a standard is chosen, the next challenge is how to merge this standard in your IT-landscape. When you already have a corporate data model or a canonical data model (CDM) in place, this challenge is a minor one. However, if no CDM exists, the CIM standard can help in defining a CDM. Two flies in one stroke! This is a major challenge, however because creating a CDM typically takes time. Creating a CDM is typically something that is part of the enterprise architecture and has (should have) strategic value.

Finally, when the CIM is merged with your CDM, software components which exchange messages based on the CIM standard can be developed or bought. This is the easiest part of the whole exercise because all message definitions and flow are already defined by the CIM standard and developers don’t have to worry about this. Software vendors like Oracle and SAP offer these software components. For example, Oracle’s AIA offering uses the OAGi standard (among others)  in their solution.

Additional side effect of using a industry wide standard is that you can use it as a selection criteria for commercial of the shelf (COTS) software. This will likely reduce the implementation cost of integrating these software into the organization.

Government: although the example used above is about manufacturing and retail, it also applies to governments as well. The products in the value chain are translated to licences and official documents and etcetera. A typical government also has business partners. In the Netherlands these are typically the providers of the GBA, BAG and other (local) governments etcetera. Take for example the process of a person that moves from from city A to city B. These information (GBA) is exchanged via the so called Overheids Service Bus. The common information model used here is the Referentiemodel Stelsel van Gemeentelijke Basisgegevens (RSGB), using Standard Uitwisselings Formaat (StUF) as the universal standard exchange format, the national standard for the government sector.

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Possible drawback of using CIM standards in general, in my opinion, is that it requires additional startup costs to learn and use the standards in respect to “just” do it quick, and with the posibility of doing it dirty also. So, the costs of adopting this standard approach in your information services will payback after a number of integration projects have completed. Also, I noticed that some TSOs are trying to use EIC CIM as their corporate data model, which I think is wrong. IEC CIM is designed for information exchange, so it should only be used primarily for information exchange areas which typically should be a subset of the total corporate data model. Finally, using IEC CIM as corporate data model is equivalent to trying to model the (your) world in one big model, which inevitably will lead to sematics issues. As en example take the entity Account. This entity has a different meaning and hence different attributes for a sales person than for a financial controller in the same organization.

On the other hand, the nice thing of communicating via an industry-wide common information model is that it likely might save work during information exchange and transforming messages from chain partners and interfacing with COTS-systems because the message definitions and semantics are standardized. Adhering to industry standards often lower the life-cycle cost (or in other words TCO) of B2B interfaces and increase the interoperability of IT systems using the B2B interface.

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