Summary

Before you can create a service with the Service Wizard (or manually), you must complete some setup and/or information-gathering tasks. Complete the tasks in the following sections, as appropriate for the services you want to create. When you are finished, continue with How to create services with the Service Wizard.

Note: To create EJB service rules, confirm that your Process Commander system is deployed as an Enterprise application rather than a Web application.

Quick Links

• Setup steps for file services
• Setup steps for JMS services
• Setup steps for MQ services
• Services that invoke custom activities
• Services that create work objects or complete flow actions

Setup steps for file services

To create a service rule of type file, you must know information about the files that the service is to process. Before you begin, obtain the following information:

• Location of input files. The file listener must have read/write access to this directory.
• How to identify the files – that is, what file extensions or other distinguishing characteristics they have.
• If your file service calls an initial activity that runs before each file is processed, you must create this activity. Then, after you have run the Service Wizard, open the service rule and specify the initial activity.

See also How to set up a file service and file listener

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Setup steps for JMS services

Before you can create a service rule of type JMS, you must obtain information about the JMS provider that hosts the queue or topic. To use a JMS service, Process Commander must be able to function as a JMS client.

See How to set up a JMS service (V5.4) for details about the tasks you should complete before running the accelerator to create a JMS service.

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Setup steps for MQ services

Before you can create a service rule of type MQ, you must obtain information about the MQ message queue, the queue manager, and the MQ server that hosts the queue. To use an MQ service, Process Commander must be able to function as an MQ client.

Note: When Process Commander is deployed as an enterprise application, you use a message-driven bean (MDB) as the listener for the message-based service rules. This means that although you can use WebSphere MQ as a JMS service provider, you must use JMS service type for your messaging services rather than the MQ service rule type.

Enable WebSphere MQ Support

Complete the following steps:

1.     Do one of the following:

• If the WebSphere MQ client is already installed on the Process Commander system, go to step 3.
• If the WebSphere MQ client is not installed on the Process Commander system, go to the WebSphere MQ Family products download page and download the client installation package:
  http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27007197

2.     Install the client application according to the instructions for your system.

3.     Make a note of the complete path to the com.ibm.mq.jar file and the connection.jar file.

4.     See About the Process Commander Version 5 Class Paths. Using the instructions in the section titled “Adding Third-Party jar Files and Java Class Files to the Class Paths”, and add both MQ jar files to the Process Commander compile time and runtime class paths.

Gather Data for Defining the MQ Listener and MQ Server

Before you begin creating an MQ service, obtain the following information:

• Queue name
• Queue manager name
• Backout queue name, if using transacted messaging
• Host name of the MQ server
• Port number the MQ server listens on
• MQ channel name
• User ID and password if the MQ server requires authentication

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Services that Invoke Activities

The Service Wizard displays forms for the service rule and the supporting data objects only. It does not generate a service activity or display activity forms and prompt you through the creation of a service activity. Therefore, to create a service rule that invokes an activity, the activity you want to use must already exist.

Before you begin creating a service that invokes an activity, create the activity. Remember that the Service Wizard creates the input and output lists for these services from the items that are defined on the Param tab of the activity. For more information, see How the Service Wizard works.

Services that Create Work Objects or Complete Flow Actions

The Service Wizard displays forms for the service rule and the supporting data objects only. It does not generate flows or flow actions and it does not prompt you through the creation of a flow or flow activity. Therefore, to create a service rule that creates a work object or completes a flow action, the workflow must already exist.

Before you begin, verify that the flow you want to use exists. If it does not yet exist, create it. You may be able to use the Application Accelerator to create the flow.

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