WebLogic Integration Administration and Design Tools

This section provides the information you need to get started with the WebLogic Integration design and administration tools. It includes the following topics:

Web Browser Configuration Requirements

To use WebLogic Integration you must also use Netscape Navigator 4.7 (or above) or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x (or above). In addition you must configure your browser to accept cookies and to bypass the proxy server.

Note: On UNIX systems, you must include the browser executable netscape in your system path variable.

Accepting Cookies

Configure your browser to accept cookies by completing the steps for the appropriate browser:

Bypassing the Proxy Server

If your Web browser is configured to use a proxy server to access the Internet, you must bypass the proxy when you access any of the following:

Bypassing the Proxy Server in Netscape

To bypass the proxy server in Netscape:

Bypassing the Proxy Server in Microsoft Internet Explorer

To bypass the proxy server in Microsoft Internet Explorer:

Starting the Samples Launcher

Once you have configured your samples domain, you can access the samples launcher at any time. If the server is running, you can open the samples page in your browser or use the shortcuts as described in the following procedure.

To start the samples launcher:

Learning to Use the Samples

Information about the sample applications is provided in the following documents:

Starting the WebLogic Server Administration Console

The WebLogic Server Administration Console allows you to view or modify the configuration of the WebLogic Integration resources deployed on WebLogic Server.

To start the WebLogic Server Administration Console:

Note: Bookmark the WebLogic Server Administration Console for quick access.

Learning to Use the WebLogic Server Administration Console

For detailed information about WebLogic Server administration, see the WebLogic Server 6.1 documentation at the following URL:

Information about using the WebLogic Server Administration Console is also provided through online help. For help at any time, click the question mark in the upper right-hand corner of the page.

Starting the Application View Console

The Application View Console allows you to define application views for adapters you develop using the WebLogic Integration Adapter Development Kit (ADK). You can define application views only for adapters that are deployed in the active domain. When you define an application view, you are creating an XML-based interface to an enterprise application. In conjunction with the application integration plug-in, this view can then be used to include operations that use the application in the workflows you model in the Studio.

To start the Application View Console:

From this page, you can navigate to an existing view or define a new view for a deployed adapter.

Select the name of an Application View to access a page on which a summary of the specified view is displayed. For example, the summary page for the WLISAppView application view, which is used in the WebLogic Integration sample, is shown in the following figure.

Figure 2-5 Summary Page for the WLISAppView Application View

Starting the Studio

The WebLogic Integration Studio is the process-modeling client application that allows you to create and monitor workflows. When you execute the studio.cmd (Windows) or studio (UNIX) command, you are prompted to log in to the process engine running on a local or remote instance of WebLogic Integration.

The following sections provide the information you need to start the Studio:

Note: If you installed the client applications on a system that is remote from the server, you must copy two files, weblogic.jar and xmlx.jar, from the lib directory of the WebLogic Server installation (for example: C:\bea\wlserver6.1\lib) to the lib directory of the client installation (for example: C:\bea\wlintegration2.1\lib).

Start Procedure for the Studio

To start the Studio:

Once you are connected, the Studio application window is displayed. The following figure shows the Studio application window as it appears when connected to the process engine in the samples domain. In this case, the requestor partner public workflow for the Hello Partner sample is selected.

Figure 2-7 Sample Workflow Displayed in the Studio

The functionality of the WebLogic Integration process engine and the Studio client application can be extended by built-in or customer-developed BPM plug-ins. The plug-ins deployed are dependent on the configuration of the active domain. The following table summarizes the deployment of plug-ins in the preconfigured domains.

To view a list of the plug-ins currently deployed, choose Start—>Programs—>BEA WebLogic E-Business Platform.

Learning to Use the Studio

Information about using the Studio is provided in the following documents.

Information about using the Studio is also provided in the online help.

Starting the Worklist

The Worklist can be used to manage user task notification and response for workflow tasks that require human intervention. The following procedure describes how to start the Worklist.

Note: If you installed the client applications on a system that is remote from the server, you must copy two files, weblogic.jar and xmlx.jar, from the lib directory of the WebLogic Server installation (for example: C:\bea\wlserver6.1\lib) to the lib directory of the client installation (for example: C:\bea\wlintegration2.1\lib).

To start the Worklist:

Once you are connected, the Worklist application window is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 2-9 Worklist Application Window

Starting the Format Builder

The Format Builder allows you to create Message Format Language (MFL) files—also known as message formats—that describe the content and structure of the binary data used by other systems in your organization. In conjunction with the data integration plug-in, these message formats are used by the process engine to translate binary data to XML, and vice versa. This translation capability simplifies the task of incorporating actions into your workflows that send or receive data from these systems. The following procedure describes how to start the Format Builder.

Note: If you installed the client applications on a system that is remote from the server, you must copy two files, weblogic.jar and xmlx.jar, from the lib directory of the WebLogic Server installation (for example: C:\bea\wlserver6.1\lib) to the lib directory of the client installation (for example: C:\bea\wlintegration2.1\lib).

To start the Format Builder:

Once you are connected, the application window is displayed. You can create new message formats, or retrieve and modify existing formats. For example, to retrieve items from the XML repository, Choose Repository—>Retrieve. The retrieve dialog box is displayed, as shown in the following figure.

Figure 2-11 Retrieve Dialog Box in the Format Builder

Information about using the Format Builder is also provided in the online help provided with the Format Builder. To view the help, choose Help—>Help Topics.

Starting the B2B Console

The WebLogic Integration B2B Console allows you to:

To start the WebLogic Integration B2B Console:

Note: Bookmark the B2B Console for quick access.

Learning to Use the B2B Console

Information about using the B2B Console, including descriptions of the fields and options on each page, is provided in the online help. For help at any time, click the question mark in the upper right-hand corner of any page displayed by the B2B Console.

Starting and Stopping the B2B Engine from the B2B Console

This section provides instructions for shutting down and restarting the B2B engine from the B2B Console.

When you use the B2B Console to shut down or restart the B2B engine, only the B2B engine is affected; all other WebLogic Integration applications, including the Web application that supports the B2B Console itself, continue to run.

Stopping the B2B Engine from the B2B Console

To shut down the B2B engine, while keeping other WebLogic Integration applications and services running:

Restarting the B2B Engine from the B2B Console

To restart the B2B engine after shutting it down from the B2B Console:

The restart process may take a couple of minutes. You are returned to the Monitoring General tab when the process is complete.