Developing SCA applications for non-XML data

The SCA nodes allow non-XML data to be sent and received from WebSphere® Process Server by using the WebSphere MQ binding. For example, you can create a message model from a COBOL copybook, and use that message model to parse messages received from WebSphere Process Server.

About this task

If an MQ binding is specified, WebSphere MQ is required to process the messages, so you must ensure that WebSphere MQ is installed on the same computer as your integration node. WebSphere MQ is not provided as part of the IBM® Integration Bus installation package, but your license for IBM Integration Bus entitles you to install and use WebSphere MQ. For more information about using WebSphere MQ with IBM Integration Bus, see Installing WebSphere MQ.

Note: From Version 7.5 onwards, WebSphere Process Server has been renamed IBM Business Process Manager Advanced. Information in this topic that refers to WebSphere Process Server Version 7.0 is also applicable to IBM Business Process Manager Advanced Version 7.5. Similarly, from Version 7.5 onwards, WebSphere Integration Developer has been renamed IBM Integration Designer. Information in this topic that refers to WebSphere Integration Developer Version 7 is also applicable to IBM Integration Designer Version 7.5.

Both IBM Integration Bus and WebSphere Integration Developer use XML schema to describe the logical format of the message to be parsed. Extra information in the form of XML schema annotations is used to describe any physical formats that you define for the messages. The physical format describes the precise appearance of the message bit stream during transmission.

In IBM Integration Bus, using the MRM domain, you can model different physical representations using specific physical formats. These physical formats include Custom Wire Format (CWF) and Tagged Delimited String Format (TDS). Using the CWF physical format, you can model a message directly from a COBOL copybook.

Interoperability with WebSphere Process Server describes how the schema describing the logical format can be exchanged between IBM Integration Bus and WebSphere Integration Developer. However, the XML schema annotations that describe the physical format is not exchanged in those steps. This topic shows how to model the same message in both IBM Integration Bus and WebSphere Integration Developer. You create applications in IBM Integration Bus and WebSphere Process Server that use a message model derived from a COBOL copybook. You can use a similar method for other message models derived from other non-XML data structures such as C Header files.

Starting from WebSphere Integration Developer

Procedure

  1. Import the COBOL copybook into your WebSphere Integration Developer module. See Creating a business object from a source file in the IBM Integration Designer product documentation.
  2. Add the SCA Import or SCA Export to the assembly diagram that has an interface containing operations using message data types that were created from the COBOL copybook.
  3. Export the Project Interchange (PI) file from WebSphere Integration Developer.
  4. Import the PI file into IBM Integration Bus using the Importer wizard.
  5. Create the Inbound or Outbound SCA message flow from the SCA Definition file that the importer created.
  6. Create a second message set and import the same COBOL copybook that was used to import into WebSphere Integration Developer.
  7. Update the project references for your integration project so that it also references the second message set.
  8. In the message flow, select the Input message parsing tab in the SCAInput node, or Response message parsing tab in the SCARequest or SCAAsyncRequest node. Change the message domain from BLOB to MRM. For the message model, specify the second message set that you created. Select the relevant message type and message format.
  9. Continue developing the rest of the application in IBM Integration Bus.

Starting from IBM Integration Bus

Procedure

  1. Create a message set from the COBOL copybook.
  2. Generate the Integration Bus SCA definition.
  3. Export the SCA component.
  4. In WebSphere Integration Developer, import the SCA import or export component and WSDL that have been exported from IBM Integration Bus. Do not select the XSD files. See Importing WSDL files in IBM Integration Designer product documentation.
  5. In WebSphere Integration Developer, select the import or export component and select the binding tab. For the input data format and output data format, click Select and step through the Data Format Transformation wizard; the information required by this wizard is not exported from IBM Integration Bus.
  6. In WebSphere Integration Developer, create the data types in the same module by importing the COBOL copybook. See Creating a business object from a source file in IBM Integration Designer product documentation.
  7. Update the operations in the interface used by the SCA Import or Export so that they use the data types that you created.
  8. Continue developing the rest of the application in WebSphere Integration Developer.