Ankit's Oracle Fusion Blog

Key Parameters Migrating a Monolithic to Micro-services Architecture

2019-04-07T09:50:00.002+05:30

Microservices Architecture:
Microservices as a group of loosely coupled components working together to perform tasks. Below Diagram can also provide a fair example of Microservice architecture.

While Migrating from a Monolithic to a Microservices Architecture below key parameters we need to keep in mind.

Loose Coupling: The application we are building should be loosely coupled
Re-usability: Application Components should be reusable
Easy to Manage: The Applications build should be easy to manage and should be independent
Security: The Infrastructure and Application Services should be secured
Easily Scalable: The environment should support scalability
Support for Monitoring and Reporting

Integration Security using OAuth and JWT

2017-07-21T06:00:00.000+05:30

Integration Security used to be an important point for any project Implementation. Oracle Fusion Middleware components provide various type of Security features, commonly SSL Certificates, OSB Service Accounts, OWSM Security Policies like Username Token, SAML Token, HTTP Token etc. But there are few more security features which we can use out of the box for more secured integration design like OAuth and JWT Security.

For implementing OAuth and JWT we will first understand what are these related to and how it will contribute to Integration.

What is OAuth and JWT Security features?

OAuth is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for Internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords. Generally, OAuth provides to clients a "secure delegated access" to server resources on behalf of a resource owner. It specifies a process for resource owners to authorize third-party access to their server resources without sharing their credentials. Designed specifically to work with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), OAuth essentially allows access tokens to be issued to third-party clients by an authorization server, with the approval of the resource owner. The third party then uses the access token to access the protected resources hosted by the resource server.

A JSON Web Token (JWT) is a JSON object which is composed of a token and is a safe way to represent a set of information between two parties. The token is composed of a header, a payload, and a signature.

The JWT Token should be build as a base64encoded string in format “header.payload.signature”.

As JWT is a Jason object so the JWT Header, will be a JSON format data with Key’s for Authorization and Algorithm Type (as below format)

{

"typ": "JWT",

"alg": "HS256"

}

In a similar way, JWT Payload will also be a JSON format data as below.

{

"userId": "b08f86af-35da-48f2-8fab-cef3904660bd"

}

The JWT Signaturewill be computed with the algorithm as below,

data = base64urlEncode( header ) + “.” + base64urlEncode( payload )

signature = Hash( data, secret );

Implementing OAuth and JWT with Oracle SOA

OAuth uses digital signatures instead of sending the full credentials with each request. Digital signatures help the recipient to verify that the content of the request hasn’t changed in transit.

OAuth is an Out of the Box security functionality which can be embedded with Oracle SOA Rest Services. In Oracle Service Bus 12.2.1, we can secure services with REST endpoints by attaching OAuth OWSM policies, for which we must configure OWSM and the OAuth server to secure REST endpoints with OAuth policies in Service Bus.

Note: The Server Configurations for OAuth are described can be accessed from “Configure OAuth Server”

As OAuth being a authorization security feature only, so it uses JWT to secure the services. For OAuth and JWT configurations with OWSM policies are described here.

Post configuration of the OAuth Server with OWSM, we can attach the OWSM Security policies with the OSB Proxy and Business Services as below.

The oracle/http_jwt_token_service_policyor oracle/http_jwt_token_over_ssl_service_policypolicies can be attached to proxy services, and the oracle/http_oauth2_token_client_policy or oracle/http_oauth2_token_over_ssl_client_policy policies can be attached to business services.

References:
https://docs.oracle.com/middleware/1221/osb/develop/toc.htm
https://medium.com/vandium-software/5-easy-steps-to-understanding-json-web-tokens-jwt-1164c0adfcec
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth

Handle SOAP Version Mismatch issue using OSB

2017-05-12T07:53:00.001+05:30

What is SOAP?

SOAP is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of web services in computer networks. Its purpose is to induce extensibility, neutrality and independence.

Difference Between SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2

SOAP Version 1.2 can do everything that SOAP/1.1 does, and more. Below are some of the properties SOAP 1.2 has over SOAP 1.1.

Provides clear processing model
Testing and implementation requirements leads to better interoperability
Based on XML Information Set i.e. it is specified as an Infoset which is carried from one SOAP node to another. While SOAP/1.1 was based on XML 1.0 serialization
Gives developers protocol independence by providing a binding framework
Includes HTTP binding for better integration to the World Wide Web
Delivers a very well-defined extensibility model
Has better support for Web standards

WSDL changes observed in SOAP-1.2

Namespace Changes: SOAP 1.2 supports below namespace definition.

xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"

SOAP 1.2 uses "application/soap+xml" as Content-Type and SOAP 1.1 uses "text/xml".
SOAP:Operation and SOAP Binding need to be specified in SOAP 1.2 WSDL

Use Case Scenario:

We had a requirement where we should create a OSB service which should call first a SOAP1.2 web service (say as service-A) and get data from the service-A. Then the OSB service need to add the retrieved data from service-A and call up another SOAP service based on SOAP 1.1 (say as service-B) to process the data.

In this scenario we have created a OSB Service which was build on a WSDL which was first calling Service-A and then Service-B, but during Testing of the OSB Service, we found that services were failing due to SOAP version mismatch issue as Service-B is built on SOAP version 1.1 and Service-A being a latest release services are built on SOAP Version 1.2.

Solution

To overcome this versioning issue, we have followed below steps:

1. Generate the OSB Proxy as a Message Based Proxy service which will be based on the XSD which will have only the “body” part with required parameters to call Service-A and Service-B.

2. Create a Pipeline Service based on the same methodology explained in point#1.

3. In the Pipeline Service, go to message flow and add a pipeline pair and rename it as per the process standards.

4. In the Request Pipeline node, add a Stage and renamed it as per standards.

5. Inside the stage, add a Service callout, and browse for the proxy service for wrapper of Service-A or business service of Service-A, and configure the Service Callout as shown in below diagram, and assign the required message to Service-A parameters.

6. Now after the above Pipeline Pair, add a RouteNode .

7. Inside the Route Node add a Routing Operation and configure the same for the Business Service of Service-B

8. Inside the Request Actions, assign or replace the Body and Header to make a successful call for Business Service. Below snapshot will help on the same.

CSF Key Credentials Configurations Programmatically

2017-03-01T21:42:00.000+05:30

Hello Friends,

Today I am sharing with you all my experience over the CSF Key Credentials Configurations for Creating, Updating and Deleting the CSF Keys.
We can find many Blog Posts to Read the CSF Configurations using a BPEL Process etc. but for Creation, Updation and Deletion we have only 2 ways:

Manual Configurations via EM Console
Using WLST Scripts

I have already shared with you in my earlier posts the steps to configure the Key using EM console. Today I will sharing the other part like how we can do it Programmatically.

For WLST Script execution, we need to first login to WLST utility, and then execute the commands.

Below steps will help us on the same.

Open Command Prompt or Shell Terminal
cd <<ORACLE_HOME>>/wlserver/common/bin
For CMD type "wlst" and enter, for unix ./wlst
connect('weblogic','welcome1','t3://localhost:7001')

The above commands will log in us to the server using WLST prompt. Now execute below commands:

For CSF Key Creation:

createCred(map=<<keyMapName>>,key=<<keyName>>,user=<<keyUser>>,password=<<keyPass>>,desc=<<keyDesc>>)

For CSF Key Updation:

updateCred(map=<<keyMapName>>,key=<<keyName>>,user=<<keyUser>>,password=<<keyPass>>,desc=<<keyDesc>>)

For CSF Key Deletion:

deleteCred(map=<<keyMapName>>,key=<<keyName>>)

If we want to automate the above functionality during deployment time, then we can use the ANT Scripts as well.

Below ANT Target will focus on the same.

<target name="createCSFKeyCred">

<wlst debug="false" arguments="${admin.username} ${admin.password} ${admin.server} ${map} ${keyCredentialsName} ${user} ${password} ${desc}">

<script>

adminUser=sys.argv[0]

adminPassword=sys.argv[1]

adminUrl=sys.argv[2]

keyMap=sys.argv[3]

keyName=sys.argv[4]

keyUser=sys.argv[5]

keyPass=sys.argv[6]

keyDesc=sys.argv[7]

print('Connecting to WLST Server')

connect (adminUser,adminPassword,adminUrl)

print('Creating Security Credentials')

createCred(map=keyMap,key=keyName,user=keyUser,password=keyPass,desc=keyDesc)

disconnect()

print('Disconnecting....')

</script>

</wlst>

</target>

I hope these things will help you.

Please help with your feedback.

You can also view the post @
http://blogs.astcorporation.com/middleware/2017/02/28/automating-csf-key-credentials-configurations/

A workaround for Data Control Refresh in BPM-ADF Application

2016-11-01T08:47:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

Today i will be sharing my experience over the issue I have been facing related to data control refresh in BPM-ADF application, like if you add or delete or change any element in Human Task then it will not directly update the existing data controls in the existing ADF Project but creats a new adf related folder structure and duplicate dcx files in BPM project only.

For this issue, I have found a workaround to let the JDeveloper create new files for data controls and then carefully replace the ADF project files with the newly generated files. This process need to be done with proper backups of the code.

Then restart the JDeveloper and issue stands resolved.

I hope my this learning would be helpful.

Greetings,
Ankit Chhabra

Creating ADF Portal based on a properties file

2016-10-31T17:12:00.001+05:30

Hello Everyone,

This post is based on a requirement where we need to creat a ADF page which should have a table based on data present in a properties file, and the table need to be populate data on page load.

For this, I have created a JSF page and added the property file as a resource bundle to the Faces.config file. These configs will be accessible as a value bindings to the table columns.

This solution helped me to achieve my requirement.

Hope it will help others too....

Have a great day!!!!

Greetings,
Ankit Chhabra

Using Properties File with Java Code in SOA12c

2015-12-20T18:05:00.002+05:30

-------------------------------------------------------------------
This blog post contains few points which I learnt through my experience while working in Oracle SOA 12c Server Setup and Deployments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

I was working on a issue where I have to read properties file called in a Java Code through BPEL component. We copied the file in the code location, but post deployment it is not bee called by Java Class file. Then the best way we found to read the file as a Library present in SCA-INF folder, and this resolved our issue.

So, while calling a properties or any other file to be used by SOA component is to copy in <<Code_Location>>/sca-inf/lib folder.

Note:- This workaround is used when you are not allowed to copy the file at some server location or not allowed to copy it in MDS.

Please help me with your feedback and comments.

Import MDS in SOA 12c without using WLST Scripts

2015-12-15T13:18:00.001+05:30

In this post we will be going over the steps for Importing MDS in SOA 12c without using WLST Commands.

Before going over the Deployment steps, here are few of the Pre-Requisites to perform the deployment and verification.

We should be having Admin access to the server.
We should be having DB Credentials of MDS for verification.
The Files need to be imported should be available.

Using below steps we would be able to import the MDS.

Open JDeveloper 12c, and Create a New SOA Application "MDSApplication".
Create a Projects with Folder structure you want your MDS looks like.
Import the WSDL's and XSD's and Other files which you want in your MDS, in your Project.
Compile your Application and Check for any errors.
Create a New Deployment Profile for your application, and choose the application type of "SOABundle"
Under Files Section, Select the project jar files of your MDSApplication, so it would be imported in MDS.
Now Deploy your MDSApplication and Create a Jar File of the same.
Once Jar is prepared, Login to SOA Em Console
Go To SOA, and Right Click On SOA_INFRA and Go To Administration --> MDS Configuration.
For Import of MDS, choose the option provided by default and Browse the file generated in Step#7, and click Import.
Repeat the Step#9 and #10 for other Managed Servers as well.

This Process will Import your DB Based MDS. For Verification create a SOA-MDS Resource in your JDeveloper IDE and provide the MDS Credentials used during Installation.

I hope this will be helpful. Feedback is always welcome....

Important Features of Enterprise Scheduling Services in Oracle Fusion Applications

2015-04-08T12:43:00.001+05:30

-------------------------------------------------------------------
This blog post contains few points which I learnt through my experience while working in Fusion Apps Customization.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ESS(Enterprise Scheduling Services) is one of the Key technology used in Oracle Fusion Apps, which is a scheduling system similar to the Concurrent Request and Concurrent Manager in Oracle E-Business Suite.

ESS consist of 2 parts:

ESS Job and
ESS Job Sets

There are various types of ESS Jobs, like

PlSql JobType
Java JobType
C JobType and many more

We can execute the ESS Jobs using a Webservice call to essService or by calling through a DB procedure in ESS Metadatastore.

The Metadata Repository Schema for ESS jobs is FUSION_ORA_ESS and the main base tables for checking ESS Job Status is REQUEST_HISTORY.

Please help with suggestions over the post. I am planning to add one more post with few more details over ESS Job Creation using JDeveloper and Deployments.

Starting up with Oracle Fusion Applications 11g

2014-06-14T14:56:00.000+05:30

Oracle Fusion Applications is one of the latest technology which is being used by many customers for managing their Products and Process Information's.

The Technical Part of Oracle Fusion Applications consists of below technologies:

Oracle ADF (Application Development Framework) for all UI based Forms
Oracle ADF BC services which are used to create and update the data in the tables
Oracle PL/Sql API's similar to what we use to have in Oracle E-business Suite R12.
Enterprise Scheduling Services, Scheduling Jobs and Job Sets similar to E-business Suite concurrent programs.
Oracle SOA Suite Components for Integrating and Workflow management like Approval Processes and Seeded Integrating component.

For stating working in Oracle Fusion Applications, we should be aware of above technical stacks to prepare RICEFW components and customizing Fusion Apps and Integrating other legacy systems with Fusion Apps.

Some Facts for converting xsl:for-each-group to xsl:for-each

2012-07-07T10:36:00.000+05:30

XSLT 2.0 has provided many new features out of which one is of <xsl:for-each-group> defined as:

---------------------------------------------------------------

<xsl:for-each-group
  select = expression
  group-by? = expression
  group-adjacent? = expression
  group-starting-with? = pattern
  group-ending-with? = pattern
  collation? = { uri }>
</xsl:for-each-group>

---------------------------------------------------------------

In SOA 11g I have faced such an issue where <xsl:for-each-group> was not getting executed and producing errors. For such scenarios we need to convert the <xsl:for-each-group> to <xsl:for-each> of version 1.0. Hence some logic has been implemented for this conversion.

We can try to implement this conversion by Implementation of a Key based on some of the Common_Id's like some ID/Number. By this we can implement the logic of group-by function.

The main element used in this implementation if <xsl:key>

The pseudo code for implementing the logic is like:

---------------------------------------------------------------

<xsl:key
name="<<KEY_NAME>>"
match="<<Element_Match>>"
use="<<Common_ID>>"/>

---------------------------------------------------------------

<xsl:for-each select="key('<<KEY_NAME>>','<<Common_ID>>')">
<xsl:value-of select="<<Common_ID>>"/>

<xsl:value-of select="<<Element_Value>>"/>

</xsl:for-each>

---------------------------------------------------------------

Feedback and comments provided will be very beneficial.

Thanks.

References: w ww.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#xsl-for-each-group

www.w3schools.com/xsl/

Business Event Integration between Oracle FMW and Oracle EBiz

2012-04-28T08:11:00.004+05:30

There are some key points which are required for Integrating Oracle FMW and EBiz using Business Events a part of Integration Repository in EBiz R12.

The Business Event to be used should be active and in Subscribed state.
While Configuring the Business Events in Oracle Apps Adapter, we need to check the radio button for Schema as "Specific Schema", and select the WF_EVENT schema.
The flow of the BPEL process should be as follows:

The BPEL process should be One-Way in nature
Once the Event_NAME/ID is retrieved, it will call a custom procedure of EBiz via DB/OA adapter to fetch the data WRT the event id.
Once all information is retrieved, the data will be mapped to the target schema and published to the target.

These steps will make life easy for EBiz Integration for the Outbound Interactions.

Points to get down before start up of Technical Design

2012-01-26T11:37:00.000+05:30

Hi Friends,
This post is for the guys who use to work on TD's and sometimes due to stringent time lines miss some points for TD start-up.
Below are some of the points we need to keep in mind for TD start-up.

Complete Understanding of Functionality of the Use Case
Security Requirements
Type of Parameters used for input and output
Little or basic understanding of the end legacy systems
Technologies to be used and the decision over that based on its best practices
Schema files and web services used.
End System Requirements

Please guide me to add some more points, if I have missed anything.

Thanks,

Ankit Chhabra

ORACLE BAM Integration with Fusion Middleware 11g

2011-11-12T08:21:00.001+05:30

The Oracle BAM Adapter is a Java Connector Architecture (JCA)-compliant adapter which can be used from a Java EE client to send data and events to the Oracle BAM Server. Oracle BAM Adapter is configured in Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console to provide any of these connection pools. Oracle BAM Adapter provides three mechanisms by which you can send data to Oracle BAM Active Data Cache from an SOA composite application.

Oracle BAM Adapter provides three mechanisms by which you can send data to an Oracle BAM Server in your SOA composite application:

The Oracle BAM Adapter can be used as a reference binding component in an SOA composite application. For example, Oracle Mediator can send data to Oracle BAM using the Oracle BAM Adapter.
The Oracle BAM Adapter can also be used as a partner link in a Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) process to send data to Oracle BAM as a step in the process.
Oracle BAM sensor actions can be included within a BPEL process to publish event-based data to the Oracle BAM data objects.

Ways to Integrate BAM:

1. Using Mediator Service with a composite architecture

2. Using BPEL Composite service

3. Using OSB with BAM JCA adapter

1. Using Mediator Service with a composite architecture

Create a composite service and create an input web service (file adapter/WSDL partner link) for getting Input of the service.
In the Partner link panel create a BAM Adapter as per the guidelines.
In the Composite panel create a Mediator service and link it with both the WSDL Partner link (point a above) and with BAM adapter (point b)
Create a Transformation service as per the business requirements.

2. Using BPEL Composite Service

Create an Empty composite BPEL service and create an input web service (file adapter/WSDL partner link) for getting Input of the service.
In the Partner link panel create a BAM Adapter as per the guidelines.
Now Drag and drop the Receive activity, Transform, Invoke and other required activities for processing.
Link all the related activities as per instructions and business logic.
Deploy and test the code.

3. Using OSB and BAM Integration

Being OSB a different component and not a part of SOA Suite, we need to integrate it with BAM by using JCA, WSDL and Schema (XSD) files of BAM Adapter.

Below are some of the steps for working on the same process.

Create an Empty composite service in JDeveloper and drag and drop the BAM adapter. Configure the BAM adapter as done in above two types like in BPEL and Mediator.
In Eclipse IDE, create an OSB Project and Import the above created BAM adapter JCA, WSDL, and XSD files/folders.
Generate a Business service with the use of JCA file.
Create a Proxy Message service with the provided schema file and use activities, transformation and routing service to link it with the above generated business service.
Deploy and test the code.

Ingredients of a BPEL Process

2011-08-08T14:39:00.001+05:30

I was going through BPEL concepts for learning OFM 11g and found the below information, where an explaination was given for BPEL ingredients.
Below are the key Ingredients of a BPEL process.

A Service which needs to be called by the BPEL Process for performing a task
Various activities which are used to build up a BPEL Process for transformations and calculations etc.
Event handler or Fault handler for catching up exceptions.

Hope this information would be helpful for a starter in Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Some more interview Questions in Oracle Fusion Middleware

2011-08-05T14:20:00.000+05:30

I addition to my earlier post for Oracle SOA Suite Interview Questions, below are some more interview questions.

Difference between Agents and Gateways
What are design patterns?
What are designs Strategies you followed in your implementation?
Where do we choose Asynchronous and Synchronous flows?
How and Where to implement Human Workflow?
How can we implement fault handling in ESB?
How to use email activity in ESB?
Fault handling in BPEL?
How to design a fault policy?
What are Business faults and How do you consider a fault as business fault?
What are Correlation sets?
What are Dynamic Transactions?
Transaction Management with Database adapters.
What is Fire and Forget and where to use it?
What are AIA PIP's, CAVS, etc?
How your architecture is compatible with AIA?
How can you customize EBM's and name of the files along with location.
How do you use Error handling in BPEL as per AIA?
Which Adapters have you used, and Polling is required to be learnt in details for DB adapter?
What is difference between Sync Read and Read?

Start up with Oracle SOA

2011-08-04T12:08:00.003+05:30

I have received some queries from my friends and the BLOG followers to help them for starting up and initiating in learning Oracle SOA, so below are some of the practices which we can do for starting up in Oracle SOA.

The first step should be to learn WSDL, XML, XSL, XSD and basic concepts or service oriented architecture. We can go through www.w3schools.com for that.
After having a clear picture over the above steps, we should be able to understand Oracle BPEL and Oracle SOA. For this below documents would be helpful.

Please suggest if there are some other useful documents also for starting up.

Greetings,

Ankit

Valuable Suggestion from my friend George Evanios on Performance of BPEL Process

2011-07-31T16:19:00.001+05:30

For my previous post "Best Practices to Improve Performance of BPEL Process", I got some valuable comments from my friend "George Evanios".

We can also increase the performance of a BPEL Process and effeciency by creating Test Suites and BPEL Test Cases. By this we do not have to deploy and check and we can go through all happy cases as well as error cases to see if the flow breaks or not. Initially it becomes tedious to have sample xml's but later on it is very easy when you have change something and want to test it.

Please refer to the below link for creating BPEL Test Suites and Test Cases.

http://oracle-fusion-helper.blogspot.com/2009/08/building-test-suites-in-bpel-process.html

Thanks to all my friends and readers of the blog for their comments and suggestions, please continue to provide me your suggestions or comments inline in the posts.

Greetings,

Ankit Chhabra

Key Steps for Designing an Integration Flow

2011-07-17T17:28:00.000+05:30

During my analysis and study for designing an Integration flow for creating a BPEL or an ESB service.

Below are some of the key points to be kept in mind for designing a service.

The Service should be re-usable, and is compatible with the business
Performance of a service during its execution matters a lot, so performance should be kept in mind like if there is no complex logic implemented then if it is developed in ESB then it's much better
Use of activities should be like it should achieve best practices.
All the outage scenarios or the outage endpoint of a service should be kept in mind while designing a flow
Use of external adapters or applications only if these are necessary like if we can handle name value pairs in DVM's then why to use an external database..

These are some of the points and are of my thought process only, and will be furnished as per my daily learning process.

Suggestions are welcome.... :)

Transaction Management with external webservices

2011-07-15T16:03:00.000+05:30

I hope many of us are aware about the transaction management for database adapters or with databases which we usually do via XA-Transactions. Along with that I have worked on transaction management for rolling back the transactions in file adapters mentioned in my post: -
http://oracle-fusion-helper.blogspot.com/2011/02/transaction-handling-in-fileadapter.html
There are some other ways to perform transaction management with JMS adapters, which we can do via a manual java program to roll back the transactions, and in a similar way we can write a Java application code in a Java embedded activity to perform transaction management with external webservices.

Basic Principles for Building SOA

2011-07-12T10:31:00.001+05:30

There are some basic principles for building a service oriented architecture, which I have gone through while reading a book -

" Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design By Thomas Erl"

Below are some of the key points: -

Loose coupling Services maintain a relationship that minimizes dependencies and only requires that they retain an awareness of each other.
Service contract Services adhere to a communications agreement, as defined collectively by one or more service descriptions and related documents.
Autonomy Services have control over the logic they encapsulate.
Abstraction Beyond what is described in the service contract, services hide logic from the outside world.
Reusability Logic is divided into services with the intention of promoting reuse.
Composability Collections of services can be coordinated and assembled to form composite services.
Statelessness Services minimize retaining information specific to an activity.
Discoverability Services are designed to be outwardly descriptive so that they can be found and assessed via available discovery mechanisms.

Validating OWSM Message logs from Database

2011-07-09T18:17:00.000+05:30

I was doing some RCA for checking the Message Logs of internal and external gateway in OWSM for an older date suppose a week before. For this it was a bit difficult to search the logs for a particular date, so I have used the ORAWSM database schema for this.

The database tables used are: -

MessageLogs table where we can filter on a particular ProcessID i.e. SID and a type of log level which we want to select like Request or Response.
Logs_Object table, where we can use a join condition based on logid with messagelogs table.

The resultant would be of datatype BLOB i.e. we need to click it and view as a text.

How to handle Special Characters While Parsing String to XML

2011-04-29T05:50:00.001+05:30

I was facing an issue with parsing of International Characters in XML string data.
For Parsing International Characters in XML string data if we use "ora:parseXML()" inspite of "ora:parseEscapedXML()" function for parsing the XML String, the issue got resolved.

Oracle SOA Suite Version :- 10.1.3.5

How to get the deleted files in project content

2011-03-20T22:45:00.000+05:30

This problem I faced after mistakenly deletion of my transformation file from project and while retrieving the file back in JDeveloper Project view. We can follow the same procedure for any other types of files present in BPEL Project.

1. Go to source of your BPEL project .jpr file

2. Search for the deleted file name

3. Delete the entries for <string v="-<<fileName>>"/>

4. close the project, refresh and check for the files in contents.

Best Practices to Improve Performance of BPEL Process

2011-03-04T13:43:00.000+05:30

On the basis of my experience till date I am sharing some of the best practices, for improving performance of a BPEL process. I am not sure how much will these impact the performance but I think the system performance will get improved at least by some milliseconds.

Below are some of the key points which I have explored during my day today tasks.

We all usually use databases for our configurations like we create a configuration databases and create some tables to store error logs, some name value mappings etc. to avoid hard coding in our code. I have also used the same during my projects, but If we use DVM's (for those records for which there are very less chances to be changed) inspite of database will improve the performance of the BPEL Process, as there is reduction in Partner link call. The Function which we usually use for DVM's is orcl:lookup-dvm().
Cleanup/Purging of instances from BPEL console and dehydration database at regular Interval of time like we can have the backup of the schema and use Oracle API's to clean up instances in dehydration database.
There are some XSLT functions, which improve the processing of BPEL processes. Below are some of those.

Use of "for-each-group" in place of for-each
Very less use of "if" conditions and use of conditional statements under square brackets "[]"
One of the important point I have noticed is removal of comments provided in starting of XSLT but then the design view of xsl is not visible.
For the situations where one for-each condition is been used for multiple mappings, inspite of having similar for-each statement multiple times, use of multiple mapping statements in a single for-each. Like

<xsl:for-each test="">

<A>

<xsl:value-of select="">

</A>

<B>

   <xsl:value-of select="">
     </B>
   </xsl:for-each>

Use of Assign activities, inspite of Transformation (wherever possible) will also improve the performances. If we use ora:processXSL() function in assign for transformation rather than using transformation activity will improve the performance.

There are many more best practices which will improve the performance, which I will include those later on....