Connect for PeopleSoft User's Guide

CHAPTER 1

Welcome to Novell exteNd Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®

Welcome to the Novell exteNd Composer Connect for PeopleSoft® User's Guide. This Guide is a companion to the Novell exteNd Composer User's Guide, which details how to use all the features of Composer except for the Connect Component Editors. So, if you haven't looked at the Composer User's Guide yet, please familiarize yourself with it before using this Guide.

Novell exteNd Composer provides separate Component Editors for each Connect, including the Connect for PeopleSoft®. The special features of each component editor are described in separate Guides like this one.

If you have been using exteNd Composer and are familiar with the core component editor (the XML Map Component Editor), then this Guide should be enough to get you started with the PeopleSoft Component Editor.

NOTE:   To be successful with this Component Editor, you should already be familiar with PeopleSoft and basic XML integration concepts.

 
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About Novell exteNd ComposerTM

Novell exteNd Composer is the XML integration-broker piece of the Novell exteNd suite. It encompasses a set of design tools for building XML integration applications and web services, plus a runtime engine that enables execution and administration of the services you build. The applications and services you build with Composer can be deployed to any popular J2EE application server or servlet container. (Supported servers include JBoss, IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic in addition to the Novell exteNd application server. Tomcat is also supported. Be sure to consult the Novell web site for latest platform-support information.)

At the core of Composer is a robust XML transformation engine capable of performing a wide range of data transformations, including joining of multiple documents, decomposition of documents, and/or creation of entirely new documents on the fly. The underlying enabling technologies include not only XSLT but XPath, ECMAScript, and Java. Composer's design environment offers a rich, intuitive graphical user interface, making it possible for you to specify XML transformations and mappings visually, using wizards, dialogs, and drag-and-drop gestures. You never have to write raw XSL or Java code.

Composer supports numerous kinds of data-source connectivity, through individual adapters called Connects. Using the functionality exposed in the various Connects, you can design EAI applications and/or web services that pull data in from or push data out to a variety of different kinds of back-end systems, using a variety of transport protocols and technologies, ranging from 3270 and 5250 terminal data streams to Telnet, HP3000, Unisys T27 (and UTS), Tandem, Data General, etc., in addition to HTML screen-scraping, JMS messaging, and CICS RPC transactions. You can also take advantage of JDBC, LDAP, and other mechanisms to reach back-end data repositories and systems that might or might not natively understand XML. Composer Connects allow you to connect to these systems inobtrusively, so as to marshall non-XML data into XML form or vice versa without any need to modify host-system setups or code.

1RuntimeArchitecture

In addition to legacy data-stream and protocol-specific Connects, Composer has Connects for ERP and CRM systems, including Baan, PeopleSoft, SAP, Siebel, Lawson, JD Edwards, and Oracle Financials. As with other Connect solutions, the ERP and CRM Connects are fully integrated into Composer's design-time environment so that you can use intuitive visual tools to create powerful custom integration solutions, eliminating the need to write Java code or edit raw XML or schemas by hand. You can also test the components you build against live PeopleSoft connections, using the design environment's animation facility (step-through debugger). As part of the design and debug process, your PeopleSoft-aware components can call other Composer Components (such as XML Map Components, JDBC Components, etc.) and make use of any of the core actions that Composer defines (such as Map, Function, Log, and other actions).

 
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About the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®

The Novell exteNd Composer Connect for PeopleSoft® allows you to leverage PeopleSoft's Component Interface technology to build powerful XML-based integration solutions.

The Composer Connect for PeopleSoft® enables you to access a PeopleSoft component using the Component Interface mechanism provided by PeopleSoft. (Here, "PeopleSoft component" means a component defined by the PeopleSoft API, not a Composer xObject.)

You do not need to manually generate or install PeopleSoft XML schemas in order to use the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®. The Connect will generate schemas for you, as needed, automatically.

You also don't have to take any steps to preinstall RARs (resource adapter archives, defined by the Java Connector Architecture) on the target application server ahead of time. Composer handles RAR deployment for you automatically when you deploy any Composer-built service that utilizes the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®.

NOTE:   Some one-time setup and configuration steps are required in order to use the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®. The steps in question are described in detail under "Setup and Configuration" in the next chapter.

 
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About J2EE Connector Architecture

The J2EETM Connector Architecture defines a standard architecture for connecting elements of the J2EE platform to a heterogeneous Enterprise Information System (EIS). Examples of EIS components include (typically) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), mainframe transaction processing, database systems, and legacy applications that are not written in the Java programming language. By defining a common set of scalable, secure, transactional mechanisms reachable via a standard set of APIs, J2EETM Connector Architecture enables the integration of an EIS with an application server and enterprise applications.

The J2EE Connector Architecture permits an EIS vendor to provide a standard resource adapter for its EIS. The resource adapter plugs into an application server, providing connectivity to an EIS, and integrating it with the rest of the enterprise. If an application server vendor has extended its system to support J2EETM Connector Architecture, it is assured of seamless connectivity to multiple Enterprise Information Systems.

Before J2EETM Connector Architecture, most EIS vendors offered vendor-specific architectures to provide connectivity between applications and their software; each program interacting with an EIS needed to be hand-tooled by someone with a detailed knowledge of the peculiarities of the target EIS. Custom software to do this across multiple systems was time consuming to develop, debug, and maintain.

By providing a standard set of APIs and contracts for managing connectivity, exposing EIS APIs, and using application-server services (like transaction control and connection pooling), J2EETM Connector Architecture greatly reduces the need for custom programming. Developers can focus on business logic rather than connectivity and transaction-related logic and a variety of "plumbing issues."

How J2EETM Connector Architecture Works

The "major participants" in J2EETM Connector Architecture include these components:

The application server is not strictly required. Certain services like connection pooling and transaction control will not be available in a "server" that is just a servlet container. But J2EETM Connector Architecture resource adapters can still operate.

The RAR represents the interests of the underlying EIS.

The application interacts with the resource adapter using what J2EETM Connector Architecture calls standard contracts. Standard contracts define what interactions are to take place and how they are exposed. The contract between the application and the resource adapter is called the Common Client Interface (CCI). The resource adapter, in turn, interacts with the application server under the Service Provider Interface (SPI), which defines how the management of resource adapter interactions occurs. The aspects of this include:

In the normal course of events, the application uses a naming service to locate the appropriate resource adapter. The application server supplies the naming service, and so it recognizes that a request is being made to locate a resource adapter. In such a case, the application server interposes a resource-adapter-supplied intermediate object that interacts between the resource adapter and the application server. Through this intermediating object, the application server manages the items within the SPI contract below the awareness of the application.

For more information about J2EETM Connector Architecture, visit http://java.sun.com/j2ee/connector/.

 
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About iWay Technology

Novell exteNd Composer uses licensed J2EETM Connector Architecture adapter technology from iWay Software (a division of Information Builders, Inc.) to mediate EIS interactions in the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®. A leader in the J2EETM Connector Architecture technology space, iWay Software provide resource adapters and connectivity solutions across a wide array of EIS and other systems.

For more information about iWay, see http://www.iwaysoftware.com.

 
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What Kinds of Applications Can You Build Using the Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®?

With Composer Connect for PeopleSoft®, you can build any kind of web service or integration application that needs to push data into or pull data from a PeopleSoft-based data store using XML as the interchange format. Your integration application can be deployed to a J2EE application server and run as a public web service, or it can be used in "behind the firewall" scenarios. It can be triggered by a servlet, JSP, EJB, e-mail, timer, file arrival, JMS message arrival, or programmatically via your own custom code. It can also run standalone or as part of a workflow built using Composer Enterprise Edition's Process Manager. (For more information on deployment options, see the deployment chapter of the Composer User's Guide.)




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