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

Outbound processing

The WebSphere Adapter for Enterprise Content Management supports outbound request processing. When the adapter receives a request, which is sent in the form of a business object from the module, it processes the request and returns the result as a business object. The adapter provides a standard set of outbound operations.

Outbound processing begins when a module receives a business object from a service, which is called a request. When a request is received, the adapter uses the information stored in the business object and metadata from the interaction specification properties to perform an operation on the Content Management Repository.

The adapter supports the following outbound operations for Document Types:

• Create
• Delete
• Retrieve
• RetrieveProperties
• Update
• UpdateProperties
• RetrieveAll

The adapter supports the following outbound operations for Folders:

• Create
• Delete
• Retrieve
• Update
• RetrieveAll

The figure below shows how the adapter and module function together as part of an outbound service. A module created for outbound processing receives the request. The adapter determines the operation to be performed based on the information received in the metadata from the interaction specification properties. It then performs the operation on the Content Management Repository.

Figure 1. Adapter for Enterprise Content Management as part of an outbound SOA implementation

The adapter connects to the CMIS server with the repository URL, user name, and password information. After connecting to the Content Management Repository server, the adapter lists all available CMIS Repositories. In each Repository, there can be several types of Document types and Folders. Instances of these Document types and Folders are stored and managed by the Content Management Repository. The adapter lists all Document types and Folders in a Repository and allows the user to select the Document types and Folders as business object types. For each selected business object type, method binding artifacts are generated to support outbound operations.

• Outbound operations
  Application components use operations to perform actions such as creating instances of Document types or Folders on the Content Management Repository. The adapter provides certain outbound operations. The name of the operation typically indicates the type of action that the adapter takes, such as Create or Delete.

Technical overview of WebSphere Adapter for Enterprise Content Management