SCA 1.0 Specifications Released

As Adrian points out the SCA (Service Component Architecture) programming model (essentially the programming model for Service Oriented Architecture) v1.0 specifications have just been published by the Open SOA group.

This is of interest because the WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere ESB products make extensive use of the SCA programming model (although much of the complexity of this is hidden from a user point of view by the WebSphere Integration Developer tooling).

It is important to note the version of the SCA programming model supported by the current versions of the products is not the standardised v1.0 specifications published since the products were released before the finalised standards. However, expect to see future versions of the products adhering to the standardised versions.

WebSphere Process Server/Enterprise Service Bus v6.0.1.5 and v6.0.2.1

WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere ESB v6.0.1.5 and v6.0.2.1 have recently been made generally available. Customers using the v6.0.1.x stream will be interested to note they can upgrade directly from v6.0.1.x to v6.0.2.1 if they wish rather than having to go to v6.0.2.0 and then to v6.0.2.1.

The v6.0.1.5 fix pack is for customers who are currently on 6.0.1.x and need to stay at the 6.0.1.x level.

The v6.0.2.1 fix pack comes in 2 flavours:

• One to upgrade from v6.0.2.0 to v6.0.2.1
• One to upgrade from v6.0.1.x directly to v6.0.2.1 (without the need to upgrade to v6.0.2.0 first)

To find out more, check out the respective pages:

WebSphere ESB v6.0.1.5 and v6.0.2.1
WebSphere Process Server v6.0.1.5 and v6.0.2.1

WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus and WebSphere Process Server v6.0.2 for HP-UX on IA-64

Using the HP-UX platform on IA-64? Then you’ll probably be interested to learn that WebSphere ESB and WebSphere Process Server v6.0.2 has just been made generally available for this platform (read more).

Inline schemas cannot be used in a new interface

If you import a WSDL file which has an inline schema (i.e. the definitions of your business objects occurs in a schema element inside the WSDL rather than in a separate, imported schema document file) you will not be able to use these business object definitions in a new interface. This problem is described more fully in the Technote here.

An alternative solution to this is to extract the inline elements when you import your WSDL document as I posted here a few days ago.

Redpaper: Best Practices in SOA Management

There’s a new SOA Redpaper in town: Best Practices in SOA Management, with one of my teammates, Moji Trasti, as co-author.

SOA management provides best practices and software for managing and monitoring SOA composite applications and supporting infrastructure.

This IBM Redpaper focuses on the following aspects of SOA management:
– Introduction to the key concepts of SOA management.
– Best practices for defining non-functional requirements and SLAs.
– Guidance on how to identify what resources should be managed at the time of the solution analysis and design, and by discovery in the runtime.
– How to build an integrated Tivoli Monitoring Server – Enterprise Portal (TEP) console to manage and monitor resources for SOA composite applications using ITCAM products.
– How to verify the monitoring functionality by performing an application walkthrough and triggering the monitoring conditions.
– How to create an SLA and report in Tivoli Service Level Advisor.

Happy reading! :-)

IBM Support Assistant

Do you have one or more IBM products installed in your company and have difficultly remembering how to:

• Get to the product homepage
• Get to the product support page
• Find the latest fixes available
• Find online education for the product
• Create and submit a product problem report
• Collect all the data necessary when raising a problem report
• View and update a problem report

If the answer to any of these questions is Yes then you need the IBM Support Assistant – a web based tool which you install locally on your machine to help you easily perform these tasks. It works by you choosing which products you are interested in across the whole of the IBM portfolio (not just the WebSphere brand) and allows you to install plugins for each of them. You can then use the tool to find the information and perform the tasks above and also search various online sources of documentation for more information on a particular area. Definitely worth a look!

New! IBM SOA newsletter

From Sandy Carter:

The IBM SOA Newsletter, delivered monthly to your desktop, brings you the latest information, best practices, technical tips, resources and more, on service oriented architecture (SOA).

Please check out the latest issue.

Whether you are just getting started with SOA or you’re expanding your solutions portfolio, this complimentary newsletter will give you concise how-to’s, plus upcoming events that will help you to put the promise and the power of SOA to work for your business.

Don’t miss out on any issues – subscribe today!

Patterns: SOA Design using WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere ESB

Interested in finding out more about when and where to use WebSphere ESB, WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere DataPower SOA Applicances in a service oriented architecture? Then you should check out the redbook Patterns: SOA Design using WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere ESB (still in draft at the moment) written by Kim Clark and others that I recommended after he pitched this at the recent WebSphere UK Usergroup meeting at Bedfont.

WebSphere Integration Developer v6.0.2 iFix 004 released

This is now available for both Windows and Linux. You can either download it via the links provided or just apply it directly using the Rational Product Updater.

The New Language of Business: SOA and Web 2.0

Sandy Carter – IBM Vice President of SOA & WebSphere Strategy has just released a book which sounds really interesting. If your organisation is trying to understand why Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web 2.0 are important and also get some insight into how other companies are adopting these technologies then this sounds like a really good read – go here to read a sample chapter (and get 35% off!).