IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Work with the Process Center repository

Emulating an advanced integration service

You can choose to run an implemented advanced integration service in the emulate mode, which means that you do not actually need to run the service during playback. You can emulate the interactions of the service by manually entering the outputs. This is useful if you want to test the business process when the service is not available.

Emulation is automatically turned on for advanced integration services that are not yet implemented. To emulate an advanced integration service that has been implemented, you must explicitly turn on emulation. To emulate an implemented advanced integration service, follow these steps:

  1. Open the advanced integration service in Process Designer and select the Emulate Service check box.

  2. When you playback the business process, an emulation coach will be displayed when the service is encountered.

  3. Enter the outputs of the service in the coach and click OK.

If the advanced integration service is deployed to an external repository then the user at the external repository must have at least a monitor administrative security role to use the advanced integration service.

When emulation is turned on for an advanced integration service, the service will always be emulated during playback in the Process Center. If the service is deployed to the Process Center, you will see the emulation coach if the service and implementation are not synchronized.

The emulation coach is also launched if deployment of your process application to the Process Center is in progress. In that case, you will see a Postpone button in the emulate coach.

You can then select postpone if you do not want to emulate the service, but want to wait until the actual service has been executed so that you can rerun the advanced integration service. Postpone is only available if the service would have been executed if it was deployed to the Process Center.

If you use complex output parameters, the generated form may exceed the maximum length of characters allowed. The generated HTML code needed to emulate the Advanced Integration Service may not be created.

If you experience this problem, simplify your existing Advanced Integration Service or disable the emulation. Alternatively, if you have not implemented your service, implement it as emulation will automatically be invoked each time the service is used with no implementation.

Process Center repository