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 > Enterprise Content Management > Overview of WebSphere Adapter for Enterprise Content Management > Technical overview

Inbound processing

Adapter for Enterprise Content Management supports inbound processing of events. The adapter polls the event database in the CMIS server for events at specified intervals. Each time a subscription is created or updated, the adapter tracks the process as an event. When the adapter detects an event, it requests a copy of the subscription, converts the data into a business object, and sends it to the consuming service.

To setup the Adapter for Enterprise Content Management for Inbound processing, use the Content Engine Subscription wizard to create subscriptions on an Enterprise Content Manager system, such as the IBM FileNet Content Manager, for the object class you select. A subscription defines a request to execute an event action.

For example, you can create a subscription that notifies you by email when documents of a specified object class are created and saved in the object store.

You can create a subscription from an object class, an instance in the object class, or a version of the object class. If you create a subscription for an object class, the subscription automatically applies to all new objects to which you assign the class. An object can be a class definition, single instance, or a version. A class definition refers to a subscription associated with all instances of a given class. A single instance refers to a subscription associated with a specific version of an object. A version refers to a subscription associated with all versions of a versionable object, where each version is a separate instance.

When you assign subscriptions to classes, you can manage a set of common objects more efficiently. You can also limit the number of subscriptions to run at the same time, and ensure optimum system performance.

The following illustration shows the inbound processing flow for Adapter for Enterprise Content Management. The adapter polls the CMIS server for incoming events, converts them into business objects, and then the adapter sends them to a consuming service.

Figure 1. Inbound processing

When you create, update, or delete a document or a folder, the adapter 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 or folder 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 Object ID of the deleted document or folder.

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 as a form.

Use the following steps to process the inbound events:

1. Create a subscription on the Filenet Content Engine.
2. Poll events from the event table.
3. Retrieve the relative business object based on the event type. For a delete event type, only the Object ID of the form is retrieved.
4. Deliver the business object to the endpoint.

Technical overview of WebSphere Adapter for Enterprise Content Management