BEA WebLogic Integration - Business Connect Release  Notes

WebLogic Integration - Business Connect Release 7.0
Date: June 2002

This document includes the following topics:

About This Release of BEA  WebLogic  Integration - Business  Connect

WebLogic Integration - Business Connect, the lightweight trading partner software for BEA WebLogic Integration, enables businesses to connect supply chains with demand chains, down to the smallest partners and suppliers. In a configuration in which a business uses BEA WebLogic Integration as a hub and its partners use WebLogic Integration - Business Connect as spokes, all participating businesses can automate the sharing of information while lowering the costs and time-to-market of B2B commerce.

What Is New and Improved in This Release

BEA WebLogic Integration - Business Connect 7.0 delivers the following new features:

Application Programming Interface

WebLogic Integration - Business Connect now includes an HTTP/HTTPS application program interface (API). The API enables you to write programs that manage the exchange of documents between WebLogic Integration - Business Connect and your application, and that pass WebLogic Integration - Business Connect status messages to your application.

The Javadoc and sample applications are also installed with the product. After installation open installation_dir/api/documentation/index.html in your preferred browser to view the Javadoc. The sample applications are found in the installation_dir/api/samplecode directory.

Evaluation License

WebLogic Integration - Business Connect now supports a 30-day evaluation period. If you do not provide a license during installation, a 30-day evaluation license is automatically created.

System Requirements

Required and Recommended Operating System Patches

Patches for the following operating systems are recommended or required before installation of WebLogic Integration - Business Connect:

Details about the patches required for each operating system are provided in the following sections.

IBM AIX 4.3.3

Hewlett-Packard HP-UX 11.0

The following patches are available:

Sun Solaris 2.6, 7, and 8

The following table describes the available patches.

FOOTNOTES:

We recommend applying the Libthread patch last.

Tuning WebLogic Integration - Business Connect

In addition to the document tuning capabilities available on the Company Profile Tuning tab, values in the vm.properties file in the installation directory can be adjusted to improve application performance. We recommend that you contact technical support before changing any values in this file. We also recommend that you make a copy of the file for backup purposes before making any changes. For example, you can make a copy of the file and name it vm.properties.original.

Known Limitations

This section provides information about the following known limitations:

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not support POP and SMTP transports

Although WebLogic Integration - Business Connect supports ebXML trading with bundled HTTP, bundled HTTPS, SMTP, or POP transport, only HTTP and HTTPS are supported with a WebLogic Integration trading partner.

Do not configure the POP or SMTP transport if you are exchanging documents with a WebLogic Integration trading partner.

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not support document encryption

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not support document encryption. Turn off document encryption by clearing the encrypt documents check box on the Security tab in the Partner Profile window. For secure transport, use the HTTPS transport protocol.

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not import certificates as part of the company profile

When a WebLogic Integration trading partner imports a company profile that was exported from WebLogic Integration - Business Connect, the certificate information is not imported. Therefore, when distributing a certificate to a WebLogic Integration trading partner, you must export the certificate to a file. The WebLogic Integration trading partner can then import the certificate independently of the company profile.

WebLogic Integration trading partners require DER-encoded binary X.509 format for certificates

When exporting a certificate to a file for use by a WebLogic Integration trading partner, you must select the DER-encoded binary X.509 (.cer) format.

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not support synchronous acknowledgments (MDNs)

WebLogic Integration trading partners do not support synchronous acknowledgments (MDNs). Do not select the Request Synchronous Acknowledgement option on the Partner Profile Security Tab.

The Agent Configuration fields on the Monitoring tab should be ignored

The Agent Configuration fields on the Monitoring tab of the Preferences window are associated with a feature that is not supported. Ignore these fields.

Local IP address represented by zeros in server.log

In the server.log file, the local IP address is represented by a series of zeros. For example:

WebLogic Integration - Business Connect throws a nullpointer exception during partner removal /update

If you remove a partner and add it back during the server startup process, a null pointer exception can result because the outboundAgent has not completed started up. Do not delete a partner and add it back during the server startup cycle.

ebXML user-defined data may be lost during resubmit operations

When an outbound document is resubmitted from the rejected table, data that has been defined by an ebXML user may be lost. When outbound documents are resubmitted after a Partner not found error has been generated, the document is copied to the appropriate outbound directory and the user data is lost. The rejected document must be resent through the API since ebXML user-defined elements are not supported when a document is sent from the file system.

After the 30-day evaluation license expires there is no license expiration alert displayed upon server startup

The server application has no user interface. As a result, it does not display a dialog if the server fails to start up. When the server fails to start up, the reason for the failure is recorded in the installation_dir\logs\server.log file.

If you attempt to start the server after the evaluation license expires, the server attempts to start, but then shuts down with no screen output. To determine the reason for the failure, see the server.log file.

Service may fail under heavy traffic

On rare occasions, during periods of heavy traffic between a WebLogic Integration trading partner and a WebLogic Integration - Business Connect trading partner, WebLogic Integration - Business Connect may fail to generate alerts or error messages in the WebLogic Integration - Business Connect log file when it fails to send or receive ebXML messages. If this situation arises, shut down and restart the WebLogic Integration - Business Connect server. Message exchanges will resume.