How to read user defined properties in BPEL.

- Create a user-defined OTD with one String field.

- Create an XSD-based OTD with repeating name and value fields of type String

- Create a "New Web Service" Java Collaboration whose input will be the first OTD, whose output will be the second OTD and whose operation will be named getProeprties, or some such

- Implement, in Java, the code necessary to read your properties, given the properties file name or path (given in the input OTD) and populate the name/valur pairs on the output OTD

- drag the operation of the collaboration onto the Business Process Editor canvas as an Activity

- Configure a Busienss Rule to set the input of the getProperties activity to the name/path of the properties file

- Configure a Business Rule(s) to use the name/value pairs returned from the ivocation of teh getProperties service

If you wish to take this one step further you could consider writing the java collaboration

a) generically so it can be reused from different business processes

b) to cache the properties on first read so each invocation after the first one simply returns the in-memory values instead of re-reading the proerties from disk

c) generically so it can read, cache and return different property sets depending on the properties file/path provided as input.

Bear in mind that IO from a java collaboration by means other than an eWay violates the EJB spec.. It works all the same.

Message was edited by:

mczapski

mczapski at 2007-7-6 23:56:33 >