Human Interaction XForms Service

Requirements

How the Human Interaction XForms Service Works

Use the Human Interaction XForms service in conjunction with the B2B HTTP Server adapter to display business process data in a Web browser. The following sections describe a business scenario and a sample solution using the Human Interaction XForms service.

Because of our continuing efforts to improve services and adapters to align with new technology and capabilities, the B2B HTTP Server adapter has entered the retirement process in Sterling B2B Integrator and will be replaced with the HTTP Server adapter. See Retiring and Removed Services and Adapters.

Business Scenario

Your company receives purchase orders in XML format from a trading partner. All purchase orders exceeding $1,000.00 need to be approved. You want to view a list of all purchase orders requiring approval in the Web browser.

This business solution example focuses only on the Human Interaction XForms service functionality.

GPM Example

The following example shows a solution to the business scenario using the GPM.

The Human Interaction Event service (not shown) generated an email notification to the approver after the purchase orders were added to the database. The approver uses this URL to list the purchase orders requiring approval in the Web browser. For example, http://siHostName:siport/webx/bp/businessProcessName, where businessProcessName is the name of the business process to invoke.

The business process that runs uses the Human Interaction Query service to retrieve the list of purchase orders from the database and uses the Human Interaction XForms service in conjunction with the B2B HTTP Server adapter to display the list.

After the Human Interaction Query service completes, a list of purchase orders that are waiting for approval are returned to the business process in a document named MinedDataQueryResults. The returned document for this example looks like the following, returning reference data for the two purchase orders:

The MinedDataQueryResults document is then sent to the Human Interaction XForms service, which identifies the Web template used for displaying the list of purchase orders and returns the HTML to the business process. The Human Interaction XForms service forwards the HTML to the B2B HTTP Server adapter for display in the Web browser.

For example, you might have a Web template that displays the reference data in the following HTML format:

The approver can select the purchase order number from the list to display the purchase order in the Web template and then approve or reject the order. See Human Interaction Document Loader service for information about retrieving a specific document from the database for display purposes.

The approver could alternatively log in to the Sterling B2B Integrator Web Suite application to view (in their inbox) a list of documents requiring approval.

Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) Example

The following example shows the corresponding business process solution by using BPML:

<process name="ExamplePurchaseOrderHIQueryAndHIXform"> 
<sequence name="Start HI Query and HI Xform Services"> 
<operation name="SampleHIQueryService"> 
<participant name="HumanInteractionQuery"/> 
<output message="HumanInteractionQueryTypeInputMessage"> 
	<assign to="DocumentType">Purchase Order</assign> 
	<assign to="State">Awaiting Approval</assign> 
	<assign to="SystemAccount" from="system-account-user-id/text()"/> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</output> 
<input message="inmsg"> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</input> 
</operation> 
<operation name="SampleHIXFormsService"> 
<participant name="HumanInteractionXForms"/> 
<output message="HumanInteractionXFormsTypeInputMessage"> 
	<assign to="TemplateName" from="DocToDOM(MinedDataQueryResults)/listItem/templateName/text()"/> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</output> 
<input message="inmsg"> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</input> 
</operation> 
<operation name="HTTP Respond Service">
      <participant name="HttpRespond"/>
      <output message="HttpRespondServiceInputMessage">
        <assign to="." from="*"></assign>
      </output>
      <input message="inmsg">
        <assign to="." from="*"></assign>
      </input>
    </operation> 
</sequence> 
</process>

See Usage Examples for an additional example of using the Human Interaction XForms service.

Implementing the Human Interaction XForms Service

Human Interaction XForms Service Business Process Usage

The following screen shows a graphical view of the GPM parameters for the Human Interaction XForms service. There are no fields to be configured on the Message From Service tab.

The following example shows the corresponding BPML parameters for the Human Interaction XForms service GPM parameters.

<process name="ExampleHIXFormsGPMParms"> 
<sequence name="Start"> 
<operation name="SampleHIXFormsService"> 
<participant name="HumanInteractionXForms"/> 
<output message="HumanInteractionXFormsTypeInputMessage"> 
	<assign to="ArchiveFlag">1</assign> 
	<assign to="ArchiveHours">24</assign> 
	<assign to="MergeDataOnResume">NO</assign> 
	<assign to="ServletResponseMode">NO</assign> 
	<assign to="TemplateName">WebTemplateName</assign> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</output> 
<input message="inmsg"> 
	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
</input> 
</operation> 
</sequence> 
</process>

The following table describes the fields used to configure the Human Interaction XForms service in the GPM. The values specified for these parameters are the input to the Human Interaction XForms service from the business process.

Usage Examples

The example in this section illustrates a business process that uses the Human Interaction XForms service in conjunction with the B2B HTTP Server adapter to display the results returned from a Lightweight JDBC adapter. The Lightweight JDBC adapter is used to query the Sterling B2B Integrator database for customer records and return the results as a primary document to the business process. The primary document is passed to the Human Interaction XForms service, which identifies the Web template and generates the HTML for displaying the customer information. The Human Interaction XForms service then posts the document to the B2B HTTP Server adapter for display in the Web browser.

This business process started by specifying a URL in the Web browser (for example, http://siHostName:siPort/webx/bp/ExampleCustomerList), which is accomplished with the Lightweight JDBC adapter.

The following example illustrates this scenario using the GPM.

The Lightweight JDBC adapter returns to the business process the following customer list as the primary document. This document is input to the Human Interaction XForms service.

<?xml version='1.0'
encoding='UTF-8'?>
<CustomerList>
<RowsReturnedFromDatabase>
<customer_id>1234</customer_id>
<customer_name>John Doe</customer_name>
<customer_address>address1</customer_address>
<customer_phone>xxxx-xxx-xxxx</customer_phone>
</RowsReturnedFromDatabase>
<RowsReturnedFromDatabase>
<customer_id>5678</customer_id>
<customer_name>Jane Doe</customer_name>
<customer_address>address1</customer_address>
<customer_phone> xxxx-xxx-xxxx</customer_phone>
</RowsReturnedFromDatabase>
</CustomerList>

The user specifies the URL in the Web browser for example, http://siHostName:siPort/webx/bp/ExampleCustomerList), which invokes the ExampleHISelectCustomers business process and displays the list of customers in the Web browser. For example, you might have a Web template that displays the list of customers in the following HTML format:

The following example illustrates the business process by using BPML:

<process name="ExampleHISelectCustomers"> 
<sequence> 
<operation name="Lightweight JDBC Adapter"> 
     <participant name="ExampleLWJDBCBusinessProcess"/> 
     <output message="LightweightJDBCAdapterTypeInputMessage"> 
        <assign to="pool">mysqlTrainingPool</assign> 
        <assign to="query_type">SELECT</assign> 
        <assign to="result_name">CustomerList</assign> 
        <assign to="row_name">RowsReturnedFromDatabase</assign> 
        <assign to="sql">SELECT * FROM Customer</assign> 
        <assign to="." from="*"/> 
     </output> 
     <input message="inmsg"> 
        <assign to="Document" from="PrimaryDocument/@SCIObjectID"/> 
     </input> 
</operation> 
<operation name="SampleHIXFormsService"> 
     <participant name="HumanInteractionXForms"/> 
     <output message="HumanInteractionXFormsTypeInputMessage"> 
        	<assign to="TemplateName">ExampleCustomerList</assign> 
        <assign to="." from="*"/> 
     </output> 
     <input message="inmsg"> 
        	<assign to="." from="*"/> 
     </input> 
</operation> 
<operation name="HTTP Respond Service">
      <participant name="HttpRespond"/>
      <output message="HttpRespondServiceInputMessage">
        <assign to="." from="*"></assign>
      </output>
      <input message="inmsg">
        <assign to="." from="*"></assign>
      </input>
    </operation> 
</sequence> 
</process>