Service and Event Interfaces for Seven Adapter Classes

Service and event interfaces are the foundation of a service-oriented architecture. iWay adapters abstract the complexity that exists in proprietary systems and rapidly deliver interfaces that shield developers from their low-level complexities.

At design time, interface creators use a GUI tool to surf through an EIS and generate common integration metadata. Changes to an EIS are easily captured for interface modification because the EIS surfing occurs in real time. All application metadata is generated as XML schema, which governs adapter interactions. At run time the adapter translates information between an XML message (that adheres to the schema) and the proprietary system interface. This ensures a common layer of integration metadata and one required skill set for integrating with any EIS.

For service interfaces, a request schema and a response schema is generated. The request schema tells the workflow designer or application developer how to pass a message or request to the adapter. The response schema tells the developer or designer how to interpret the adapter's response.

For event interfaces, an event schema and optional acknowledgement schema are generated. An event schema tells a designer how to interpret a message from an EIS. iWay adapters create event interfaces by associating the transaction with a channel that is loosely coupled with specific listener and emitter protocols.

The iWay Universal Adapter Suite supports the following system classes:

• Application systems adapters have nonintrusive, bidirectional, business object-level support for packaged application systems such as SAP, Siebel, PeopleSoft, Ariba, Oracle, and others. They contain iWay-provided logic and allow you to generate and manage metadata that masks the proprietary API's complexity as XML schema-based interfaces. The application system adapters maintain the application's data integrity by working with the application systems common APIs and interfaces.
• Data adapters provide a relational view of more than 80 relational and nonrelational databases on 35 platforms. They contain iWay-provided logic and metadata to perform simple or complex SQL-based data manipulation against target systems that include VSAM, Adabas, IMS, IDMS, MUMPS, Model 204, and others. iWay data adapters enable cross-data source joins and two-phase commit capabilities across XA- and non-XA-compliant databases
• Transaction processing adapters support automatic transaction invocation, message transformation, and error recovery for transaction systems such as IMS/TM, Tuxedo, and CICS. iWay transaction adapters provide a straightforward way for new Web and wireless front-end applications to work hand-in-hand with no intrusion to your transaction processing systems.
• Emulation adapters integrate with applications at the presentation layer, simulating a user who delivers a series of keystrokes. As a result, these adapters automatically and consistently validate information sent and received from IBM 3270, 5250, and similar applications without requiring changes to any programs.
• e-Business adapters facilitate the automatic transformation of e-business exchange formats such as AS1/AS2, UCCnet, EDI, SWIFT, FIX, HIPAA, HL7, and dialect-specific XML documents into formats compatible with XML and non-XML-based information resources. Working with iWay application, data, and technology adapters, you can integrate your technical investments and infrastructure with industry standards and protocols.

			iWay Application Explorer surfs SWIFT transaction sets and creates SWIFT metadata.

Technology adapters support many of the technologies that exist in your environment, including application platforms, component/object models, programming languages, message queues, networking protocols, and more.

Touchpoint adapters are system independent prepackaged processes. The touchpoint adapter puts technical integration issues into a black box, presenting a standard callable business interface for the business activity. The touchpoint makes your enterprise more agile when facing changing business requirements. Touchpoint adapters provide a business interface that matches the semantic requirements of the calling application and insulates the business applications from change in the underlying systems.