WebSphere Application Server Enterprise Edition provides the infrastructure for e-business applications. The e-business application interacts with an adapter by exchanging XML messages over JMS queues. The communications are encapsulated in Session Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and Message-Driven Beans (MDBs) to accommodate the various interactions.
The actual interface used to make the communication calls and handle message formatting is Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF). At runtime, WSIF uses Web Services Description Language (WSDL) definitions obtained from the adapter. These WSDL definitions describe the adapter interface and configuration (that is, the services available).
The adapter is configured through the WebSphere Business Integration System Manager perspective in WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition, which is based on the WebSphere Studio Workbench. The adapter definition and its associated business object definitions are represented as WSDL and XML schemas, and exported as a Service Project to the Business Integration perspective, where the runtime EJBs and MDBs are generated and deployed to WebSphere Application Server Enterprise.
The WebSphere Administrative Console enables monitoring and administration of the adapters. The WebSphere Business Integration Adapter Monitor perspective also provides basic monitoring and administration capabilities.
The adapter framework interacts with the message queues through the JMS interface, and translates between business objects in memory and the XML message representation of those objects. The adapter receives all of its configuration information from a local repository of XML schemas upon start-up.
Figure 6shows how the adapter is deployed with WebSphere Application Server.
Figure 6. Adapter deployed with WebSphere Application Server
In this deployment, the adapter runs in-process with the J2EE application, and application components interact directly with the J2C resource adapter through the Common Client Interface (CCI). The adapter's business objects may be represented as custom records within the CCI. The adapters will continue to be configured and deployed through WebSphere Studio Application Developer Integration Edition, enabling rapid deployment of business integration solutions.
A J2C implementation of the adapter framework may have some architectural advantages over the JMS implementation, but it will not replace it. A form of the JMS implementation will remain to provide enhanced quality of service in a distributed environment deployed over a WAN or across the Internet.