Before starting this white paper let me tell you that I am also like you

(readers) who are from the world of Oracle, PLSQL, Oracle E-Business
Suite work areas who is trying to get comfortable with the upcoming
technologies related to Service Oriented Architecture. I am not an expert in
SOA arena. I am going to try to put things in simple terms. Some of you will
differ with my opinion of starting developments related to ESB/BPEL
without fully understanding the concept but I think this can also be one way
of getting to the debth of the subject by actually developing it.
For Oracle Apps folks I would suggest, just start thinking about Oracle
Workflow. All things which you can do using workflow can be done using
BPEL and interfaces using (FTP/Shell Script/PLSQL) can be built using
ESB.
I will be using Oracle SOA Suite 10.3.1.1 and Oracle JDeveloper 10.3.3.3
software for demos/screen shots.

Defining Acronym Jargons in SOA world

When we enter the world of Service Oriented Architecture
we come across various acronyms viz. XML, SOA, ESB, BPEL,
WSDL, XSLT, SOAP, XSD, DTD etc. Let’s define each of them.
XML is the eXtensible Markup Language accepted by the
industry as ideal vehicle for sharing structured data among
applications and organizations. XML is becoming universally
understood, many applications provide inputs and outputs in
XML. XML makes data self describing. XML eliminates fixed
formats.
XSD (XML Schema Definition), a Recommendation of the
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), specifies how to
formally describe the elements in an Extensible Markup
Language (XML) document.
DTD is Document Type Definition which is again one of the
industry accepted way of defining XML structure.
WSDL (Web Service Definition Language) is an XML format
for describing network services as a set of endpoints
operating on messages containing either document-oriented
or procedure-oriented information. The operations and
messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a
concrete network protocol and message format to define an
endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into
abstract endpoints (services).
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) a message-based
protocol based on XML for accessing services on the Web.
SOA A service-oriented architecture is essentially a
collection of services. These services communicate with
each other. The communication can involve either simple
data passing or it could involve two or more services
coordinating some activity. Some means of connecting
services to each other is needed.
ESB is an open standards-based distributed synchronous or
asynchronous messaging middleware that provides secure
interoperability between enterprise applications via XML,
Web services interfaces and standardized rules-based
routing of documents.
BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) for Web
services is an XML-based language designed to enable task-
sharing for a distributed computing or grid computing
environment - even across multiple organizations - using a
combination of Web services.

Installing Oracle SOA Suite

Download SOA Suite installable
soa_windows_x86_101310_disk1.zip from oracle.com. Unzip
the file in C:\OracleSOAInstall and run setup.exe. During
installation you will get two options viz. Basic Install and
Advanced Installation. Generally SOA Suite needs a database
for installation. If Basic installation is selected then it
automatically installs Oracle Database Lite on the machine
while Advanced Installation needs Oracle Database 10G
(10.2.0.3 or higher). For advanced installation, oracle
database needs to have following schemas ORAESB,
ORABPEL and ORAWSM.
Basic installation installs following components
· Oracle Containers for J2EE
· Oracle SOA Suite including Oracle BPEL Process Manager,
Oracle Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), Oracle Web Services
Manager (OWSM), and Oracle Business Rules.
· Oracle Enterprise Manager 10g Application Server Control
· Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server
· OC4J Java Single Sign-On
Advanced installation includes all the above components
along with Oracle HTTP Server with SSL Support.
I would suggest not going for advanced installation if you are
installing Windows XP Professional desktop/laptop because I
always found issues Oracle Web Services Manager and
Oracle BPEL manager during advanced installation. Using
Basic installation as well at the Oracle BPEL Process Manager
fails to configure at the end of installation but without exiting
installation screen you can restart SOA Suite using windows
start menu and retry BPEL process manager configuration.
During installation please make a note of Application Server
Instance Name (e.g. SOA_AS) and administrator username
oc4jadmin and password. This will be needed all the time for
login on to Application Server Console, BPEL Console, ESB
Console and WSM Console.
After Basic installation, application server is accessible at
URL http://localhost:8888 or http://<machine>:<port>
where you will find all the links to BPEL Process Manager,
Web Services Manager Console and ESB Console.

Application Service Control

• Click on Application Server Control, enter username (oc4jadmin) and
password and make sure all services are running. If any of the service
status is down then you can start the service by clicking start button.
 • Click on HomeàApplications to which displays list of all applications.
Click on Web Services Link to display all deployed web services

Configuring the Container

Once you install Oracle SOA Suite, you need to create a
connection pool, data source, and database adapter, Oracle
Applications Adaptor
Point your browser to the Enterprise Manager for your
installation of Oracle SOA Suite using URL
http://<machine>:<port> e.g. http://localhost:8888
From the right-hand side Manage Your SOA Suite portlet,
click the Application Server Control link. The Application
Server Control Console displays the administrator logon
dialog box.
Enter oc4jadmin as username and its password

Connection Pool and Data Source

Create a connection pool and JDBC data source for the
OC4J instance. Data source is used to get a connection
to a database server. You must define one connection
pool and its connection factory.
Select the home OC4J link, which takes you to OC4J
home page
Click on Administration Link
In Services > JDBC Resources, click the Go To Task
icon to navigate to JDBC Resources page
In the Connection Pools section, click the Create
button to navigate to connection pool navigation
page
Accept defaults, and click Continue.
Enter the connection pool name, Database SID, User
Name password etc.
 Test the connection. If connection is successful then
click finish
Under Data Sources, click Create (Similar to Step c)
and navigate to Create Data Sources screen.
Accept default and click continue
Enter values for Data Source Name and JNDI Location
(Please note this JNDI name should be used same
as JDNI Name while using DB adaptor in Oracle
JDeveloper)
Click Finish to complete Creation of data source
Create a similar Data Source using APPS username
for connecting to Oracle E-Business Suite
Database. This data source will be used for
creating Database Adaptor and Apps Adaptor

Adaptors in SOA Suite

In SOA world, systems talk to each other through various
adaptors. In the context of an SOA an adapter is an
intermediary service that bridges incompatible data formats
between services and its clients. An adapter often also acts
as a façade or technology gateway. Oracle SOA suite is
shipped with various such adaptors given in following
screenshot
In this article we will take a look at how to setup DbAdaptor,
AppsAdaptor, File Adaptor and FTP Adaptor

Database Adaptor
In Application Server Console, click on OC4J: home--
>Applications
Click on Default Application to arrive at screen displayed
above
Click DbAdaptor link and then click connection factories
link
 Click Create Button to create connection factory. Click
Continue
Specify Connection Factory JNDI Name and most
important xADataSourceName same as Data Source
JNDI Name created few steps before i.e.
eis/DB/APPS_SOADB
Oracle Applications Adaptor
In Application Server Console, click on OC4J: home--
>Applications
Click on Default Application to arrive at screen displayed
above
Click AppsAdaptor link and then click connection factories
link
Click Create Button to create connection factory. Click
Continue
Specify Connection Factory JNDI Name and most
important xADataSourceName same as Data Source
JNDI Name created few steps before i.e
eis/DB/APPS_SOADB

File Adaptor
File adaptors is already setup with default installation and can be used as it is
while developing ESB or BPEL applications. For File Adaptor the JNDI
location is eis/FileAdapter which can be used for writing files at any location
on machine hosting Oracle SOA Suite

FTP Adaptor
FTP Adaptors can be created for each destination machine by setting up
configuration properties needed for FTP process.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1) What is SOA, Oracle SOA suite, BPEL, ESB
2) Designer for Business process
3) difference between BPEL and ESB
4) role of XML in EAI
5) activities in BPEL
6) transactions and fault (exception) management
7) Run time components of SOA
8) calling external web service
9) calling asynch BPEL process within empty BPEL process
10) combination of ESB and BPEL and third party web services
11) java embedding
12) BPEL and ESB console
14) Adapter - concepts, integration, life-cycle mngmt, translation
errors
15) Oracle E-Biz adapter and capturing event from oracle ERP
16) fine tuning BPEL process
17) deployment framework
18) business rules and AIA
19) email notification and rejection handler
20 ) patches and installation - unix based and windows based
21) external resource management (example MQ shared library
and third party jar files)
22) OAS administration - 10.1.3.4 / 10.1.3.5
23) JMS and connection pools
24) transformation and iteration
25) which are the areas you think Oracle SOA fits perfectly
[answer - EAI with real-time data transfer, need heavy data
communication with rich business logic, Oracle ERP in existing
environement]
26) loose coupling and control at central point (orchestration vs.
choreography)

Java related questions with respect to EAI -

1) XML and XSD
2) JAXp and JAXb
3) collections
4) web container and application server
please check these links::::::::::::
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http://forums.oracle.com/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=212
http://jobsearch.naukri.com/mynaukri/mn_newsmartsearch.php
http://landingpad.oracle.com/webapps/dialogue/dlgpage.jsp?
p_dlg_id=9367462&src=7054572&act=15&p_doc_id=9392043&p_pa
ge_id=9392046&p_email=null&p_resp_look_back=365.0&p_title=Pan
-
Regional_FY11_SOA_1&p_trust_cookie=N&p_debug=Y&p_srcskip_i
d=7054572&p_actskip_id=15&p_urlval=Null&p_omo_code=WWMK1
0058718MP&p_showprofile=N&p_dlg_response_id=-
1&p_response_id=-1&p_old_response_id=-1&p_dlg_title=Pan-
Regional_FY11_SOA_1&p_ext=Y&p_dlg_id=9367462

username;-- murali.malladi@hotmail.com
password:-- chowdary9

for the above link