Calling a Java method in an integration service

If the implementation for an activity requires calling methods from a Java class, you can use the Java Integration step in an integration service.

Before you begin

To perform this task, you must be in the IBM® Process Designer desktop editor.

Before creating the Integration service, add the JAR file that contains the classes that you need. After you add the JAR file as a server file, you can select the class and method that you want to use for your service. If the JAR files that you need are included in an IBM Business Process Manager toolkit, you can add a dependency to that toolkit to access those files. See "Creating a toolkit dependency in the Designer view" for instructions.

Procedure

Open the Process Designer desktop editor.
Create an integration service.
Drag a Java Integration step from the palette to the service diagram and then use sequence lines to connect the step to the Start and End Events.
Click the Java Integration step in the diagram and then click the Definition option in the properties.
Click the Select button next to the Java Class field to choose the JAR file and the class on the JAR file that you want to call.
The JAR files listed are the ones added as managed server files as described in topic "Managing external files". By default, the classes in the IBM BPM Java package are available in the integration.jar file, which is included in the System Data toolkit. If your current project has dependencies on other toolkits that include JAR files, those files are also available.
From the Discovery section (under the Properties and Definition tabs), click the Method field. From the drop-down list, choose the method that you want to call on the class that you selected in the preceding step.

Enable the Translate JavaBeans check box if you want the result of the Java method that is invoked to be serialized and returned to the Integration service as an XML element. The content of the element is based on the properties of the object's class.

For example, if you choose the teamworks.Users class from the integration.jar file (IBM BPM Java packages) and then select the getUser method with the Translate JavaBeans check box enabled. The result looks like the following example:

<userino type="com.lombardisoftware.core.UserInfo" description="UserInfo">
   <calendarId type="com.lombardisoftware.client.persistence.common.ID" description="calendarId" />
   <fullname type="java.lang.String" description="String">tw_author</fullname>
   <qualifiedName type="java.lang.String" description="String">tw_author</qualifiedName>
   <sendToAddress type="com.lombardisoftware.core.routing.Address" description="Address">
     <name type="java.lang.String" description="String">tw_author</name>
     <toGroup type="java.lang.Boolean" description="Boolean">false</toGroup>
     <toUser type="java.lang.Boolean" description="Boolean">true</toUser>
   </sendToAddress>
   <userData type="java.util.HashMap" description="HashMap">
     <entry key="Full Name" description="Map Entry">
    	  <key type="java.lang.String" description="String">Full Name</key>
    	  <value type="java.lang.String" description="String">tw_author</value>
     </entry>
   <userData>
   <userId type="com.lombardisoftware.client.persistence.common.ID$NumericID" description="ID$NumericID">
     <id type="java.math.BigDecimal" description="BigDecimal">2</id>
     <type type="com.lombardisoftware.client.persistence.common.POType$User" description="POType$User">
 	      <deleted type="java.lang.Boolean" description="Boolean">false</deleted>
 	      <exportable type="java.lang.Boolean" description="Boolean">false</exportable>
 	      <factoryName type="java.lang.String" description="String">com.lombardisoftware.client.persistence.UserFactory</factoryName>
 	      <id type="java.lang.Integer" description="Integer">2048</id>
 	      <libraryItem type="java.lang.Boolean" description="Boolean">false</libraryItem>
 	      <name type="java.lang.String" description="String">User</name>
 	      <tableName type="java.lang.String" description="String">LSW_USR_XREF</tableName>
     </type>
   </userId>
   <username type="java.lang.String" description="String">tw_author</username>
</userinfo>

Note: When you enable the Translate JavaBeans check box, the variable type that you select in the Integration service for the value returned from the Java method should be XMLElement or ANY.

If you do not enable the Translate JavaBeans check box, the Java method can only return objects of the types shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Types of objects returned by the Java method if Translate JavaBeans is not enabled
Object types
java.lang.String	java.lang.Double	java.lang.ArrayList
java.lang.Long	java.lang.Float	java.lang.HashMap
java.lang.Integer	java.lang.Boolean	org.jdom.Document
java.lang.Short	java.lang.Character	org.jdom.Element
java.lang.Byte	java.lang.Calendar	com.lombardisoftware.core.XMLNodeList and com.lombardisoftware.core.TWObject

Click the Variables tab for the Integration service to add any input variables that the service needs to receive and any output variables that the service needs to make available for subsequent steps in the service or BPD.
Click the Java Integration step in the service diagram and then click the Data Mapping option in the properties to configure the input and output mappings for the step.
Nest the Integration service in another service or select it as the implementation for an activity, depending on the requirements of the overall process.