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 > PeopleSoft Enterprise
Overview of WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise
With WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise, you can create integrated processes that exchange information with PeopleSoft Enterprise through a standard interface. This interface shields the client application from analyzing lower-level details about implementation of the application or data structures used on the PeopleSoft Enterprise server.
With the adapter, a client application can send and receive requests from a PeopleSoft Enterprise server.
For example, the application can send a request to query an employee record in an HR table, or it can receive events such as notification about an updated employee record from the server.
To make it possible to communicate in a standard way, WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise complies with the Javaâ„¢ Platform, Enterprise Edition (JEE) Connector Architecture (JCA). JCA standardizes the way application components, application servers, and enterprise information systems, such as PeopleSoft Enterprise server, interact with each other. WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise enables JCA-compliant application servers such as IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus to connect to and interact with the PeopleSoft Enterprise server. Clients running on the JCA-compliant server can then communicate with the PeopleSoft Enterprise server in a standard way using business object.
The adapter can run in JCA-compliant environments such as IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, WebSphere Application Server, and WebSphere Message Broker. The way you set up and use the adapter depends upon the environment in which the adapter runs.
For example, consider that you are setting up an adapter using IBM Integration Designer tooling on IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus, and your company uses PeopleSoft Enterprise to coordinate most of its business operations. PeopleSoft Enterprise includes a business function that returns a list of employees in response to a range of skill codes. A client application might be able to use this function as part of an overall business process.
For example, the technical support department within the company dispatches employees to customer sites to troubleshoot and repair equipment and, as part of that process, must obtain a list of employees with certain skills within a defined geographic region.
To use this function, however, the client application that the technical support department uses must understand the low-level implementation details and data structures of the PeopleSoft function. Information technology resources and time must link the client application and the PeopleSoft function.
With WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise, you can automatically generate an interface to the PeopleSoft function to hide the lower-level details of the function. Depending on your plans for using the adapter, you can either embed it with the deployed application or install it as a stand-alone component that more than one application uses.
The embedded adapter is part of an application that is deployed to IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus. The application component interacts with the adapter instead of interacting with the PeopleSoft function.
The component that you generate with the external service wizard of IBM Integration Designer uses a standard interface and standard business objects, taking the business object sent by the client application, and calling the PeopleSoft function. It then returns a business object to the client application.
The client application does not deal directly with the PeopleSoft function. Instead, the component calls the function and returns the results.
In the example, the client application that needed the list of employees sends a business object with the range of skill codes to the PeopleSoft adapter component. The client application, in return, receives the results (the list of employees) in the form of a standard business object. The client application does not need information about the way the function worked or the structure of the data. The adapter component performs all interactions with the PeopleSoft function.
Similarly, the client application might be alerted about a change to the data on the PeopleSoft Enterprise server (for example, a change to the skills set of a specific employee). You can generate an adapter component that polls for such events on the PeopleSoft Enterprise server and notifies client applications with the update.
- Hardware and software requirements
The hardware and software requirements for WebSphere Adapters are provided on the IBM Support website.- Technical overview of WebSphere Adapter for PeopleSoft Enterprise
The adapter supports the exchange of business data between the PeopleSoft Enterprise server and IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus by connecting to two layers of PeopleTools application programming interface classes that reveal the underlying business data for integration.