IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > Lotus Domino > Overview of WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino > Technical overview
Inbound processing
WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino supports inbound processing of events. The adapter polls the event database in the Lotus Domino server for events at specified intervals. Each time a form is created or updated, the adapter tracks the process as an event. When the adapter detects an event, it requests a copy of the form, converts the form data into a business object, and sends it to the consuming service.
During inbound processing, the adapter first establishes a connection with the Lotus Domino server. The adapter then polls the event database in the Lotus Domino server at regular intervals for new events. When a document in a database in the Lotus Domino server is created, updated or deleted, the event monitoring agent of the adapter monitors the event and adds that event in the event database. The events related to a document in the database are captured in the same form that also contains the document. The form contains the business object based on the type of an event.
The following illustration shows the inbound processing flow for WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino. The adapter polls the Lotus Domino server for incoming events, converts them into business objects, and then the adapter sends them to a consuming service.
Figure 1. Inbound processing
The adapter provides an extension manager to monitor the create, update, or delete events of a document in the database in the Lotus Domino server.
You can configure the extension manager with a document in the Domino database.
When you create, update, or delete a document, the extension manager inserts an event record into the event table to record that event. When the adapter is polling events, it reads the information from this event record and retrieves the relative document. The adapter then returns the document as a business object. For an event type of either create or update, the adapter returns the document as a business object on the adapter workstation. For a delete event, the returned business object contains only the Universal ID of the deleted document.
- During inbound processing, an exception in the event table EventTab.nsf is handled by the configured exception handler.
- If you want to filter only those events that you have subscribed to, specify the EventTypeFilter property of the activation specification properties. If the EventTypeFilter property is set, the adapter delivers only those events that are in the filter list.
The adapter then forwards the business object to the endpoint which is an exposed interface from an SCA module that offers a business service to the outside world. Business objects contain the information that the adapter obtains from a document in a form structure.
Use the following steps to process the inbound events:
- Establish a connection to the Lotus Domino server.
- Poll events from the event table.
- Retrieve the relative business object based on the event type. For a delete event type, only the Universal ID of the form is retrieved.
- Deliver the business object to the endpoint.
Support for event based filtering
The adapter supports filtering of events based on the operations you select during the inbound processing. You can select the events to be processed for a single business object in the event table during the Enterprise Metadata Discovery (EMD) phase.
During run time, only the events corresponding to the specified operations are polled by the adapter. For instance, the filter can be specified for Create, Update, and Delete events or only the Create events of a business object, for processing during the inbound operation.
The filtering of events by the adapter ensures that only those events are polled for which the method bindings are created during the EMD phase. This results in successful delivery of events by the adapter.
Support for RichText and Attachments
During run time, the WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino supports retrieval of rich text and attachments. For an event type of either create or update, the business objects containing a RichText field retrieves texts and attachments. If the business objects contain the Attachments field, the value in the hexBinary form is retrieved.
- Event store
The event store is a persistent cache where event records are saved until the polling adapter can process them. To keep a track of inbound events as they make their way through the system, the adapter uses an event store. - Event recovery
The adapter supports event recovery for inbound processing in case of abrupt termination. During inbound processing, you can configure the recovery mechanism based on your requirements. - Inbound extension manager
During inbound processing, WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino (WALD) inbound extension manager monitors the operations on the Lotus Domino server. Whenever you create, update, or delete a document from the Domino database, the inbound extension manager generates corresponding events containing the operation information.
Technical overview of WebSphere Adapter for Lotus Domino
Related tasks:
Setting deployment properties for a runtime environment
Setting location properties for artifacts
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