Sun Microsystems 3 manual What Is an iIS Process Engine?

What Is an iIS Process Engine?

Once a process definition has been registered with the engine, an iIS process client application (or an application proxy—see Figure 1-1 on page 30) can open a session with the engine and create an instance of the process. The client application or proxy provides any data required to start the process instance, and then the engine takes over. It assigns activities directly to engine sessions or to queues where they can be accessed. Client applications—or applications interacting with the engine through proxies—perform the work required of each activity using whatever application services, enterprise data, or desktop applications necessary, and then notify the engine that the activity has been completed. For information on client applications, see the iIS Process Client Programming Guide. For information about proxies, see the iIS Backbone System Guide.

The relationship of the engine to iIS process client applications, on the one hand, and to the process development workshops, on the other, is illustrated in Figure 1-1 on page 30. Client applications maintain sessions with an iIS process engine to initiate a business process or perform its activities in it. The engine can service a very large number of sessions and manage many instances of many different process definitions. As process definitions (as well as assignment rule dictionaries, user profiles, and a validation) are created or modified in the iIS development environment, they can be registered with the engine, and become the basis for further process execution.

The engine is thus central to an iIS system, implementing business processes that require the performance of many activities by many resources.

28 iPlanet Integration Server • Process System Guide • August 2001