How to create a VBC without Script - XML Gateway

This article is a continuation of the Impossible Solutions Poll Results post.

If you have been following this blog, it probably dosnt need any further introduction.

This solution has been contributed by Michael Feng, a respected colleague, who dosnt know the meaning of impossible and is an all round nice guy.

[ Michael's solution ]

Key Points:

• Using XML Gateway Business Service to serve the VBC
  
• Using Business Integration Manager (Server Request) as Transport Protocol
  
• Create your own workflow to deal with the logic
  

Architecture:

• VBC trigger XML Gateway: Init(), Query(), etc
  XML Gateway generates xml files corresponding to the command. Eg. It generates xml file
  

  
  <siebel-xmlext-fields-req>
  <buscomp id="1">Contact</buscomp>
  </siebel-xmlext-fields-req> 



Matching Init() command

• XML Gateway triggers Business Integration Manager to invoke SendReceive() method


• Business Integration Manager sends the xml files generated by XML Gateway to Workflow


• Workflow gets the xml file and passes it to external application like MQ Series, MSMQ, HTTP Web Application or processes it inside the Siebel


• Workflow gets the result xml file from external application or Siebel Application and passes it back to Business Integration Manager (BIM)


• BIM receives the result xml file and passes back to XML Gateway to populate the VBC

Points of configuration:

• Create a BC of Class CSSBCVExtern


• Configure the above BC with following user properties
  Service Name: XML Gateway
  Service Parameters: Transport=EAI Business Integration Manager (Server
  Request);ProcessName=<Name of WF>;


• Create a process property as type of binary/string. Set the default to <Value>. It will hold the xml file generated by XML Gateway


• Create a process property as type of binary and named <Value>. It will pass back to BIM and XML Gateway to populate the VBC


• Analyse the xml file generated by XML Gateway to determine what action to be taken. (Query, Insert…)


• Use XSLT to transform the result xml file to the format XML Gateway needs to populate the VBC

Sample Workflow Design


Workflow Process Properties

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
SaveIncomingXML	Business Service	Send	EAI File Transport
Input Argument	Type	Value	Property name
<Value>	Process Property	IncomingXML
FileName	Literal	C:\XMLGateway.txt
AppendToFile	Literal	True

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Analyse Incoming XML	Business Service	Echo	Workflow Utilities
Output Argument	Type	Value	Property name
CheckPoint	Expression	InStr([&IncomingXML],"fields-req")

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Is Init Request?	Decision Point
Branch	Condition	Expression
Is Init	Condition	(CheckPoint Greater Than('0'))
Not Init	Default

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Get Init XML Response	Business Service	Receive	EAI File Transport
Input Argument	Type	Value	Property name
FileName	Literal	C:\TEMP\TestVBCInit.xml
Output Argument	Type	Value	Argument name
<Value>	Output Argument		<Value>

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Analyse Incoming Query XML	Business Service	Echo	Workflow Utilities
Output Argument	Type	Value	Property name
CheckPoint	Expression	InStr([&IncomingXML], "query-req")

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Is Query Request?	Decision Point
Branch	Condition	Expression
Is Query	Condition	(CheckPoint Greater Than('0'))
Not Query	Default

Step	Type	Method	Business Service
Get Query XML Response	Business Service	Receive	EAI File Transport
Input Argument	Type	Value	Property name
FileName	Literal	C:\TEMP\TestVBCQuery.xml
Output Argument	Type	Value	Argument name
<Value>	Output Argument		<Value>

TestVBCQuery.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<siebel-xmlext-query-ret>
<row>
<value field="Title">Mr.</value>
<value field="First Name">Sara</value>
<value field="Last Name">Chan</value>
</row>
</siebel-xmlext-query-ret>

TestVBCInit.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>
<support field="Last Name"/>
<support field="First Name"/>
<support field="Title"/>
</siebel-xmlext-fields-ret>

This solution provides a proof of concept for you to build upon, and therefore dosnt include the steps needed to send/recieve or transform your XMLs and there are more elegant ways of querying your XML for a string, but that is left for the reader to play with.

Working with Transports, XML and VBCs are probably one of the most difficult areas of Siebel to work with, but Michael has provided us with a nice foundation for any of us to take this further, and all without writing a line of code.

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