IT Integration SOA/BPEL Developer – HR Management at Salesforce.com (San Francisco, CA)

Oracle’s Fusion Middleware, such as WebLogic and SOA Suite (BPEL Process Manager, Service Bus). You will also need to … using Oracles SOA Suite and specifically the Oracle BPEL Process Manager. To be successful at this position, you…
Bpel jobs | Simply Hired

IT Integration SOA/BPEL Developer – Oracle Financials at Salesforce.com (San Francisco, CA)

Oracle’s Fusion Middleware, such as WebLogic and SOA Suite (BPEL Process Manager, Service Bus). You will also need to … using Oracles SOA Suite and specifically the Oracle BPEL Process Manager. To be successful at this position, you…
Bpel jobs | Simply Hired

Latest SOA Need: Assistance with JBI Application Integration

The methodology of Enterprise Integration has advanced to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) because of its ability to weave disparate applications and services to produce a business structure where data can flow as a business process. Environments have been built over time with diverse layers of applications. The development time and maintenance cost to manage these layers is driven down when integration components are built on standards. The most compelling standard in the integration space is Java Business Integration (JBI) which allows for the creation of a Service Oriented Architecture with interchangeable components that are vendor-independent.

Isn’t all development easier with a standard?

Not really. Don’t confuse the ease of using the standardized run-time components with the creation of those run-times. The creation of JBI run-time components is a whole new technology, with layered naming conventions and rules for each binding and service engine components. As with any new technology, JBI brings with it a sizable learning curve.

Plan time to learn JBI technology

Developers interested in JBI will need to reserve some time to learn. This type of exposure is mostly reviewing code snippets from existing open source JBI applications, like ServiceMix, and supplementing that learn-as-you-explore strategy with the 228 page JBI specification document publicly available from the Java Community Process organization. SOA integration experts, like Scott Ganyo with Moongate Technologies, agree that it can take a long time to learn the rules of the JBI spec nomenclature and nuances to code within the standard. While it is not brain surgery, even an experienced integration developer will need to devote targeted time to get up to speed.

The Holy Grail of Simplified Integration

So here is the hitch. Everybody is focused on SOA, and the push-point of that statement is everybody is everybody, from code crunchers to web designers.

The use of standards, like JBI, simplifies the combining of components but it is the ability to make those high-learning-curve standards accessible to all levels of coders that is the Holy Grail enterprises will be striving to acquire.

Less sophisticated audiences, one proven method

It is an early adopter assumption to think everyone using your product knows what they are doing. The first implementers of any new technology will cater to the most sophisticated users. But the SOA audience is as varied as the many applications they are trying to integrate, so this market will need a splay of products to cover different levels of expertise. A graphical interface, as we have seen successfully implemented in workflow and business process applications, is a proven method to simplify the design and implementation process. Just as BPEL maps out high-level business processes as a workflow, an intuitive graphical interface for the lower level integrations has a definite market for a technical user that wants to keep their distance from the detail specifications and simply drag and drop functionality.

Graphical Interfaces hide mundane details from developers

If vendors create graphical interfaces that generate standards-based code under the covers, a developer can avoid understanding the intimate details of the specification while still enjoying the benefits of developing a standards-based integration. A robust graphical interface allows each SOA developer to visualize the integration path and then simply click to define the properties in a fill-in-the-blank format. This expands the standards-based playing field to include a broader base of developers. The true beauty of the interface is to ultimately create standards based code so that the resulting run-time components integrate easily with other internally and externally developed components.

Graphical Interfaces are not always a priority

It is a certainty that more organizations will eventually go the graphical direction. First vendors develop the functionality and then they make it easier to reuse. While a couple of vendors have already started down a user-centric graphical path, an across-the-board improvement to robust graphical interfaces for integration will take a year or more.

E-Commerce Integration: What You Don’t See Can Hurt You

The year is 2025. You are at the Detroit Auto Show. The internal combustion engine is on the decline, and alternative energy vehicles are no longer alternatives. Walking the show floor, two apparently identical vehicles, parked side by side, captivate you. Both are ruby red. Both have the classic lines that scream performance.

However, it is the engineering and extreme performance under the hood that real car aficionados desire — and when you pop open both hoods, the differences are startling. The first vehicle’s engine compartment is a mess of exposed machinery. Traditional in its design, every component is clearly custom fitted. Pipes, wires, belts and rods are visible everywhere. To replace a component requires a mechanic certified for the vehicle caste and model.

The second car could not be more different. Opening the hood reveals what appears to be a sealed black box. On closer inspection, you see each engine component is itself a sealed black box, but smaller. Each has a handle, a latch, and is labeled with a function: CPU, fuse block, motor controller, DC fan, tach and more. A turn of the latch frees a component, which slides out easily for replacement or upgrade. Each component has a standardized connector that allows any compatible device to be used. Any mechanic, even trainees, can swap components in minutes .

EAI: The Legacy Approach to Integration

Fantasy? Perhaps when it comes to automobiles — but not when it comes to e-commerce. The first vehicle — the one with the patchwork quilt of customized parts — represents how most e-commerce sites are built today, using a process known as “enterprise application integration” (EAI).

Every connection from the e-commerce site to existing business systems (such as inventory, order entry, ticketing, payables, receivables, and marketing content) is cobbled together by hand. Every connection works only with the e-commerce system, and nowhere else in the organization. Connections often have to be “mended” when there is a technical change in the back office.

EAI requires custom code, proprietary third-party tools, interfaces, or middleware to work — sometimes all the above. Data moves through a EAI system slowly, typically not in real-time. Worse, the EAI learning curve for developers is steep, costly, and time intensive.

SOA: A Better Business Model

The second vehicle — the one with the modular black box for an engine — represents a new way of thinking. It is called a SOA, for “service-oriented architecture.” It is a seismic departure from decades of EAI, and its transforming information technology. Instead of focusing on point-to-point technology patchworks, a SOA treats integration requirements as a documented set of open, plug-and-play business services.

Industry-standard open technologies, such XML, XSD, WSDL, JAX-WS, and BPEL, are used to connect services. Data flows in real-time, giving customers’ up-to-the-second insight into inventory, accounting and so on — giving management unprecedented visibility into business metrics. For IT teams, all the SOA interfaces are governed, stored, and documented in a common corporate repository. This makes it easy for developers to find, understand, and reuse services when they need to integrate or adopt business applications and features.

Better still, major business systems from Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), SAP (NYSE: SAP), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and other leading vendors are now built with SOA in mind. Its internal working are offered as services using the same open technologies, interfaces, and documentation, making it easy for e-commerce teams to use them seamlessly.

The efficient development cycles delivered by a SOA speed time to market and lower costs. More important, a SOA’s standardized, rationale approach also makes the entire IT system more agile — that is, more reliable, resilient, and adaptable to change. Moreover, nothing could be more important than agility to an electronic marketer today.

SOA Approach to Integration: XML, Web services, ESB, and BPEL in real-world SOA projects

Product Description

XML, Web services, ESB, and BPEL in real-world SOA projects

• Service-Oriented Architectures and SOA approach to integration
• SOA architectural design and domain-specific models
• Common Integration Patterns and how they can be best solved using Web services, BPEL and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• Concepts behind SOA standards, security, transactions, and how to efficiently work with XML

In Detail

Integration of applications within a business and between different businesses is becoming more and more important. The needs for up-to-date information that is accessible from almost everywhere and developing e-business solutions — particularly business to business — require that developers find solutions for integrating diverse, heterogeneous applications, developed in different architectures and programming languages and on different platforms. They have to do this quickly and cost effectively, but still preserve the architecture and deliver robust solutions that are maintainable over time.

Integration is a difficult task. This book focuses on the SOA approach to integration of existing (legacy) applications and newly developed solutions, using modern technologies, particularly web services, XML, ESB, and BPEL. The book shows how to define SOA for integration, what integration patterns to use, which technologies to use, and how to best integrate existing applications with modern e-business solutions. It also shows how to develop web services and BPEL processes, and how to process and manage XML documents from the JEE and .NET platforms. Finally, it also explains how to integrate both platforms using web services and ESBs.

What you will learn from this book?

• How to design and develop SOA for integration
• Integration architecture patterns, principles, and best practices, with focus on the process-centric SOA approach
• The role of XML, web services, and ESBs in SOA for integration
• The role of service composition and BPEL in integration
• J2EE and .NET integration
• Why and how to use web services and XML for integration

Approach

After explaining the challenges, levels, and strategies of integration the book explains SOA, web services, and the Enterprise Services Bus before covering processing XML and web services on the .Net and JEE platforms in more detail. Then it covers BEPL and demonstrates service composition into business processes with a realistic, although simple example BPEL process. Finally it shows how ESB provides a concrete infrastructure for SOA.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for architects and senior developers who are responsible for setting up SOA for integration for applications within the enterprise (intra-enterprise integration) and applications across enterprises (inter-enterprise integration or B2B).

SOA Approach to Integration: XML, Web services, ESB, and BPEL in real-world SOA projects

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