WebLogic Integration help me?

Question

Hi,
We are planning to use WLS as our new portal
site platform. We already have an e-commerce
server and want to integrate it with WL server.
(The components of the e-commerce server are
written in Perl and communicate to each other in
their own protocol.) We want to use this server
as our shopping engine in our site.
I am just wondering how WL Ingegration can help me.
Can any body give me some suggestions?
What additional components that our original
server should provide?
Please let me know if I describe the scenario unclearly.
Thanks.
David Lin

Answer 1

David,
WebLogic Integration could provide a platform for easier integration of
other applications and businesses for your portal. You would have to
look at your Portal and Backend Application architecture. Chances are,
it will not always be one type of architecture/technologies or
applications. But you will need to share information between all of
them.
WLI provides several parts that help you do the end to end integration,
all built using the J2EE based WebLogic Server Platform:
1 - Business Process Management - this is a Process Engine that gives
you flexiblity on how your components are used in your application. Your
applications no longer need to be hardcoded at a source code level or
script level. It provides the glue between your different components
with a Visio like flowchart visual graphical interface. It also allows
you to monitor your business process instances in a runtime environment.
The business processes can be initiated either using Event Messages
(normally XML, but don't have to be) or using a java API.
2 - Application Integration - this is a integration framework built on
the J2EE Connection Architecture standard, that allows you to integrate
with backend applications at a business level (referred to as Enterprise
Information Systems, or EIS in the spec).
This framework allows you to integration with the EIS at a business
level (using XML msgs). The framework accesses the EIS using a resource
adapter (defined as part of the specification). Since the J2EE
Connection Architecture is a java standard (part of J2EE 1.3 spec),
resource adapters will be available for main EIS systems (applications
like SAP, ...). The business level services can be called from a
Business Process or they can be used to start a Business Process as
well.
3 - Data Integration - provides data translation (XML<->non-XML) and
data transformation (XML<->XML). These can be called from a Business
Process.
4 - B2B Integration - allows you to extend your Business Processes
across the internet with secure, reliable messaging to other companies
you do business with. These can be suppliers, distributors, logistic
companies ...
Since your current components are based on Perl, there would be some
initial work needed to access these from WLI. This could be done by
writing a java wrapper (either as a java class or an EJB) that would
call your perl scripts. This would allow you to call your perl scripts
from Business Processes.
The Business Process provides the flexiblity to change the process
without having to change source code. The process engine also allows you
to view active Business Process Instances, to see what point it is at in
the Process. You could then use the WLI Application Integration to share
information with your back end applications at a business level
interface.
There is a lot more information about each part of WebLogic Integration,
so I would suggest you contact a local BEA person for more information.
Online documentation on WLI is available at edocs.bea.com.
Hope this information is helpful.
Bill
David Lin wrote:
Hi,
We are planning to use WLS as our new portal
site platform. We already have an e-commerce
server and want to integrate it with WL server.
(The components of the e-commerce server are
written in Perl and communicate to each other in
their own protocol.) We want to use this server
as our shopping engine in our site.
I am just wondering how WL Ingegration can help me.
Can any body give me some suggestions?
What additional components that our original
server should provide?
Please let me know if I describe the scenario unclearly.
Thanks.
David Lin