What's up with Webservices and BPM integration?

Question

According to http://e-docs.bea.com/wli/docs70/design/intarch.htm, table
3-1, webservices are a key component of the Integration architecture,
which:
"Provides sample code to support WebServices integration using
WebServices technologies
such as UDDI, WebServices Description Language (WSDL), and Simple Object
Access
Protocol (SOAP). WebLogic Integration provides the ability to invoke a
WebService
from a BPM workflow, enable a BPM workflow as a WebService, and to
enable the
Application View as a WebService. For an introduction to WebLogic
WebServices,
see the WebServices and XML Tech Track in the BEA dev2dev Online at the
following
URL:
http://dev2dev.bea.com/index.jsp"
The only thing which comes close to this description is the BPM Plugin
for webservices, which is alpha code for WLI 2.1. To deploy this on 7, I
have only seen a message here describing loosely what to do.
So is this how we are expected to use webservices together with
Integration? With alpha code that requires tweaking to work with the
current version? Or am I missing something vital? The quote from the
docs suggest "sample code", however the webservices plugin is not
provided in source, so I don't see how it qualifies as sample code?
Somehow I also don't quite understand how "sample code" can be construed
as a "key component".
So what's up with webservices and Integration?
-Lasse
(only speaking for myself in news!)

Answer 1

Your comment about the lacking of web services in WLI is correct
and a fundamental issue I have signalled to BEA already many
months ago. I even followed the BPM course to make sure I did
not miss an important point. The BPM course did not deal with
webservices because it is not available. But the fundamental remark goes further
because webservices also have a dynamic
interface WSCI to behave within a choreography of webservices
within a business process. BPM is still mainly workflow based
and intracompany. This is not what is expected as business
processes which are collaborative and a new paradigm alternative for applications
conform BPML-WSCI or BPEL4WS-ws transaction.
I still wait from BEA a confirmation that webservices and collaborative business
processes according to (at least) one of
the above standards will be included within the next version of weblogic enterprise
platform due end of March 2002.
Kind regards,
Paul Meurisse
Email : [email protected]