Dynamic partnerlink example

Question

Hello,
I am quite new to Oracle BPEL Process Manager. I was reading about the dynamic partnerlink and I checked the example. What I want to learn is: Do I need a separate wsdl file for the dynamic partnerlink as LoanService.wsdl in the example? If I want to make calls to public web services, do I have to write that wsdl file myself?
When I searched the forum I found this: ' As a workaround you can try dynamic partnerlink but your partnerlinks should be defined at design time. For details please refer to sample "orabpel\samples\references\DynamicPartnerLink" '.
Does it mean that I have to define the addresses of the web services that I might call during the execution of the process, at design time (in a separate wsdl)?
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Hi 55555 55555,
I'm not sure that I understand what you mean. It is true that you need to have a WSDL file in advance. But this WSDL file is necessary mainly to be able to define the port types and the SOAP binding information. The URLs of the services that your process uses at runtime do not necessarily need to be match those that you put in the element "service" of the WSDL file. Concretely, if you look at the file "Supplier.wsdl" in:
http://sky.fit.qut.edu.au/~dumas/ServiceInteractionPatterns/BPELCode/OneToManySendReceive-Dynamic.zip
You will see that there are three "service" declarations:
<service name="Supplier1">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://localhost:9700/orabpel/default/Supplier1"/>
</port>
</service>
<service name="Supplier2">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://localhost:9700/orabpel/default/Supplier2"/>
</port>
</service>
<service name="Supplier3">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://localhost:9700/orabpel/default/Supplier3"/>
</port>
</service>
These "service" elements are important, because they define the service names (i.e. "Supplier1", "Supplier2", and "Supplier3" in this example). However, the URLs that you put here ARE NOT IMPORTANT if you're doing dynamic addressing in the BPEL code. These URLs are only used by the BPEL engine if you're not doing dynamic addressing. Indeed, try replacing these lines in the WSDL file with the following ones:
<service name="Supplier1">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://www.dummy.com"/>
</port>
</service>
<service name="Supplier2">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://www.dummy.com"/>
</port>
</service>
<service name="Supplier3">
<port name="SupplierServiceP" binding="tns:SupplierServiceBinding">
<soap:address location="http://www.dummy.com"/>
</port>
</service>
And then try running again the process OneToManySendReceive.bpel. You will notice that it works! This is because in the process OneToManySendReceive.bpel, the addresses of the services Supplier1, Supplier2 and Supplier3 are determined by the "assign" statement between lines 74 through 83 of OneToManySendReceive.bpel. Thus, you can put "dummy" addresses in the "location" element of your WSDL file(s). Note that you do need to define the "service" and "location" elements in your WSDL file and it is important that the service names that you use in the BPEL code match the service names in the WSDL files (but the choice of these names is up to you and it doesn't matter if this is the actual name of the process that you're calling!). Importantly, the URLs that you use in the BPEL file and those that you use in the WSDL file do not need to match, and this allows you to achieve "dynamic addressing". Just try out the OneToManySendReceive.bpel process and you'll see.
If you wish, I can send you the whole Oracle BPEL project for the OneToManySendReceive. Please contact me at my e-mail (m.dumas at qut.edu.au). And for more information about what this process does, see http://www.serviceinteraction.com
Cheers
Marlon Dumas