Architect Consultant blog

Introduction Today I was struggling with the File Connector in combination with CARS authentication and the multi-tenancy within Cordys. I really like the multi-tenancy concept, but some features in Cordys are not mature yet. Context We have a project with a lot of Organizations using the same BPM processes. These processes are deployed within the System Organization. The Organizations (the number can be up to 2000 !) are provisioned using Cordys Cloud Provisioning (CCP). The (Cordys) Users are authenticated through WS-Security within the soap headers. In one of the processes we want to do a call within the context of another Organization. Options When I read the community blogs and asked some people they came up with 1 - UDDI Interceptor In this case you call a webservice of Cordys through a UDDI connector and use an interceptor to add the WS-Security header. The user authenticated has been put within a default Organization, so this way the call is done within the context o

Introduction This blog item shows an example on how to define an application that can be used by other Organisations. In this example we have a simple Cordys BOP4 setup. We have only the Default Cluster. In this example the ISV packages are made and it will show how to define the application within CCP. It will show how easy this is within CCP. After this you are able to Provision organisations to use applications within the Cloud. An introduction to CPP was already given here . Define the Business Partner First you will have to define a business partner that developed the ISV. This business partner is needed when defining the Application. Goto System Organization Open Global Business Partners Select +-sign Fill in the details Click Save Define the Application Note: A CCP application is NOT a synonym for a ISV package. An application can encompass several packages and a package can be used for the definition of severa

When designing short lived processes you have to watch out. An example short lived process with several different types of activities. Within a process you can use several Activities: Calling a subprocess within the same package Calling a subprocess within another package A webservice call: - A runtime reference webservice call - A UDDI webservice call - A webservice call (drag-and-dropped from another package) Execution The short lived process is executed within a BPM service container and uses a thread for it. It holds the http connection for this call. However be aware that the runtime behavior of the 3 activities is different. Another BPM process can be executed within the same service container and on the same thread Same as 1) A webservice call is done through the Bus again and Cordys does not know where the call will be executed eventually. Note that this can be the SAME service container as the one, where the current short lived process is executed. Anothe

Today I ran into the following problem: <log4j:event logger="com.cordys.xds.internal.transaction.query.XQYQuery" timestamp="1308643015133" level="ERROR" thread="Monitor Stream Reader Thread"> <log4j:message><![CDATA[Failed to execute query. Error: + ' <error TYPE="Enumeration"> <elem>Error :com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: The value is not set for the parameter number 1.</elem> </error> ']]></log4j:message> <log4j:MDC><![CDATA[host=cvzlaca004 processid=1314]]></log4j:MDC> <log4j:throwable><![CDATA[com.cordys.xds.transaction.exception.DatabaseQueryException: Failed to execute query. Error: + ' <error TYPE="Enumeration"> <elem>Error :com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerException: The value is not set for the parameter number 1.</elem> </error> ' Trace: at com.cordys.xds.internal.transaction.query.X

Introduction In my current Cordys project I am using the Cordys Cloud Provisioning (CCP) functionality of Cordys. I am very excited about this produkt and this blog item I will share my knowledge about it. First I will explain something about provisioning. What is Provisioning? Provisioning is the process of managing Organizations (also called Tenants) and Users to let them use Applications. It manages the usage of applications that can be used as SaaS applications by tenants. It can be used to create new business models. Cordys has made a separate package for this, on top of BOP4 called CCP. With CCP it is possible (among others): Managing Cordys-Applications and non-Cordys applications Managing of Tenants Managing of Users and Roles Keeping track of the usage of the Applications (Metering) Some Terminology The next picture shows the Cordys-ecosystem. A  Tenant  makes use of  SaaS  applications that are delivered by a  PaaS . These applications are developed by  Apps Pro

During installation of Cordys BOP4 (CU17) we ran into the following problem. I tried to change the client connection point address of the WebGateway, but still no success. Eventually it appeared to be an Apache Config problem. In <Apache_Install_Dir>/conf/extra/httpd-mpm.conf there is a setting. # worker MPM # StartServers: initial number of server processes to start # MaxClients: maximum number of simultaneous client connections # MinSpareThreads: minimum number of worker threads which are kept spare # MaxSpareThreads: maximum number of worker threads which are kept spare # ThreadsPerChild: constant number of worker threads in each server process # MaxRequestsPerChild: maximum number of requests a server process serves <IfModule mpm_worker_module>     ServerLimit           1     ThreadLimit         200     StartServers          1     MaxClients          200     MinSpareThreads      25     MaxSpareThreads     200      ThreadsPerChild     200     MaxRequestsPerChild

Service Oriented Architecture Issues todays IT: Heterogeneity: no interoperable interfaces, now we have web services Business Focus Agility, reuse and cost reduction Benefits of SOA Reuse of Services (at the business unit level) Agility: respond quickly to changing business requirements Simpler integration (by using standards) Architectural Principles Formal contracts (Thomas: Contract Standardization) Loose Coupling Abstraction Reusability Autonomy Statelessness Discoverability Composability (Durability) (Interoperability) (Standards compliance) (First all from Thomas Erl's books, last three added by Oracle) Service Definition principles Service encapsulation - A Service must perform a complete unit of work Service loose coupling - Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies between them Service contract - Services adhere to a contractual agreement, as defined collectively by one or more Service description documents Service abstraction -

Introduction I work as a Enterprise Application Integration / Service Oriented / Business Process Management consultant at a company. I started using Blogger , LinkedIn , Facebook and Twitter  almost 2 years ago. I started with LinkedIn and almost a year later with my blog, recently i started using Twitter and Facebook. I also tried Plaxo and Hyves but I dropped them. My first reaction to Twitter and Blogger was the same as the one I get today: I have no time to Blog I do not know what to Blog Why should I Blog? And with Twitter: I do not know what to Tweet I am not interested in what a person does in the bathroom Too may Tweets to read Stupid stuff Within this blog item i will try to explain why I think it is a necessity (or can be) for every consultant. Blogging I started blogging with knowledge storage in mind. When I found a solution for a particular problem or when I did not want to forget how I did some things, i started to make a Blog item for it. This way I could always look up

Overview Licencing Modeling tools and Users Business/Enterprise Architect Business Strategy Implement Business Architecture Process Analysis/documentation Business User Understands the business High level business processes Process Analyst BPMN 2.0 expert (business view) Understands the details of the business Make implementation decisions Process Developer BPMN 2.0 expert (technical view) WebServices, XML Enterprise Apps Implement processes and UIs Collaborative Design BPM Studio Process Analytics Social BPM SOA Platform End-to-End instance and Flow checking due to integrated platform. BPMN 2.0 support Change with BPMN 1.1 : Model execution Models are interchangeable XPDL and BPEL were used to interchange and execute Interactive task and workflow BPM Studio supports Simulation . BPM Studio Business Indicators Snapshots of business indicators must be added to the workflow and this is a little awkward because it blurs the process model. Good integrati

Today I had my SOASchool.com Module 8 exam for the SOA Certified Architect certification. Suggested preparation: You have to follow a course or buy the selfstudy kit Read the chapters of the SOA Design Patterns book Read the reader of the selfstudy kit You really need to understand the Patterns and also the use of the patterns in relation to each other Questions The questions are the same as the other exams Select All That Apply are the difficult ones and there were quite a lot Next is the final Module 9  for me, and this is the Lab. The Certification is valuable, because it shows that you know and understand the terms and challenges you face when working within a Service Oriented Architecture. Or trying to work towards a SOA. The nice thing about this certification is that it is Vendor Neutral. It does not mention a particular platform. It does however address the SOA standards out there and that is a good thing of course. The customers will also recognize this kind of

Introduction This blog item gives a short overview of the Oracle BPM Suite 11g.  If you as an architect, developer or sales person do no want to read all documentation, this can be a good starting point :-) More thorough documentation can be found here . Component Overview The BPM Suite contains the following components. As can be seen, the suite is layered on the Oracle SOA Suite and they share the following components Business Rules Engine Human Workflow Engine Adapter Framework for integration Oracle BPM Studio Tool within JDeveloper to create and simulate business models using BPMN 2.0. Oracle Business Process Composer Web-base application that enables business users to collaborate with developers and designers. A catalog of services, tasks and rules can be created in Studio and this catalog can be included in project templates, which can then be used to create new projects within  Business Process Composer. Here Business Rules can be edited at run time. Oracle Metadata Ser