IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Get started with IBM BPM > Key concepts

Bindings

At the core of a service-oriented architecture is the concept of a service, a unit of functionality accomplished by an interaction between computing devices. An export defines the external interface (or access point) of a module, so that SCA components within the module can provide their services to external clients. An import defines an interface to services outside a module, so the services can be called from within the module. You use protocol-specific bindings with imports and exports to specify the means of transporting the data into or out of the module.


Exports

External clients can invoke SCA components in an integration module over a variety of protocols (such as HTTP, JMS, MQ, and RMI/IIOP) with data in a variety of formats (such as XML, CSV, COBOL, and JavaBeans). Exports are components that receive these requests from external sources and then invoke IBM BPM components using the SCA programming model.

For example, in the following figure, an export receives a request over the HTTP protocol from a client application. The data is transformed into a business object, the format used by the SCA component. The component is then invoked with that data object.

Figure 1. An export with HTTP binding


Imports

An SCA component might want to invoke a non-SCA external service that expects data in a different format. An import is used by the SCA component to invoke the external service using the SCA programming model. The import then invokes the target service in the way that the service expects.

For example, in the following figure, a request from an SCA component is sent, by the import, to an external service. The business object, which is the format used by the SCA component, is transformed to the format expect by the service, and the service is invoked.

Figure 2. An import with HTTP binding


List of bindings

You use Integration Designer to generate a binding for an import or export and to configure the binding. The types of bindings that are available are described in the following list.


See

  1. Export and import binding overview
  2. Export and import binding configuration
  3. Interoperability between SCA modules and Open SCA services
  4. Binding types

Key concepts