Create Custom Xpath function in BPEL - SOA 11g

Sometimes the functions available in BPEL/XSL will not be sufficient enough to handle our requirements. I came across one such scenario to find out the offset value based on date. So i created a function in java and used it as a custom xpath function in XSL.

You can use the below steps to create a function and bring it to SOA server,

1. Create a Java code.

While creating java code we need to take care of few things,

• A public static method with the same name as the function name. This method is used by the XSL function for invocation. In this example getTimeZone(String dt)
• A public Class - which will be used in custom xpath xml in next step
• A public static inner class which implements:
• oracle.fabric.common.xml.xpath.IXPathFunction
• In this example, GetTimeZoneFunction - it can be anything relevant
• We have to import  oracle.soa.fabric jar into our library, mostly it will be in below installed location. jdeveloper\soa\modules\oracle.soa.fabric_11.1.1\oracle.soa.fabric.jar

Below is the screen shot of my implemented function. I have used "joda-time-2.8.1.jar" as external library.



2. After that, we need to add this method to our custom Xpath function list. Go to below location 
Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_SOA1/soa/modules/oracle.soa.ext_11.1.1/classes/META-INF/

And edit the ext-soa-xpath-functions-config.xml

Please add the content at the bottom,

<function name="tim:getTimeZone">

    <className>sample.CustomXpathFunction</className>

    <return type="string"/>

    <params>

      <param name="date" type="string"/>

    </params>

  </function> 

also add the namespace on 1st line of the file,
<!--usually the namespace will be the combination of xmlns:tim="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/Package.ClassName-->
Example:

<soa-xpath-functions xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/soa/config/xpath"              xmlns:aia="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/oracle.apps.aia.core.xpath.AIAFunctions"

 xmlns:tim="http://www.oracle.com/XSL/Transform/java/sample.CustomXpathFunction">

Now you have two options.

1a. Once the Java code is ready, generate the class files and copy(as the same folder structure) it to below location in the server,
Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_SOA1/soa/modules/oracle.soa.ext_11.1.1/classes/

or 

2a. Once the Java code is done, Create a jar file out of it and copy it to below location in your server,
Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_SOA1/soa/modules/oracle.soa.ext_11.1.1/classes/

2b. Now Run the Build.xml using ant script(How to Run ant script) in below location /omr/soa/Oracle/Middleware/Oracle_SOA1/soa/modules/oracle.soa.ext_11.1.1/






2c. Restart the SOA server 


Now you can use the function in any XSL or BPEL by defining the namespace(which we used it in ***-config.xml) in it.



Reference:
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/doc.1111/e17364/customxpath.htm#FPDEV2188

Publish action with Error Handling in OSB 11g

There are several ways that we can invoke target service in OSB.
1. Service callout
2. Routing
3. Publish

We use Publish action when you don't need to wait for the response from target service like JMS queue, producing files or invoking one way services.(kind of fire and forget)
If we use the publish action, even though there is some error in the target service it will not stop the flow. Our flow will just move on to the next activity in the pipeline.

But in some cases we do need to handle the exception in publish, like if the webservice is down.

To catch the error, we need to add Routing Options under publish and make the quality of service to "Exactly once".

Publish with "exactly once" is architecturally equivalent to synchronous service invocation and it will be no longer a "fire and forget" invocation.

Publish action will become Synchronous call in one another case as well, if we are invoking another OSB proxy service (on Local, or on HTTP) the thread will be blocked until we get the response.

How to Invoke Async BPEL from Sync BPEL | Is it possible to add wait activity in Sync BPEL.?

Is it possible to invoke a Asynchronous BPEL from Synchronous BPEL.?
Yes. Its possible. 

Is it possible to add "Wait" activity in Sync BPEL.?
Yes. Its possible.

While you are trying to invoke a Async BPEL from Sync BPEL, you might notice that the invoke activity is success. But the receive activity will be in Pending state as show below.

Same for wait activity as well.

And also you might notice an error message in dashboard as below.

"Waiting for response has timed out. The conversation id is null. Please check the process instance for detail. "

To resolve this, you need to change the transaction property(in composite.xml) in Sync BPEL as,

<component name="BPELProcessXX" version="1.1">
<implementation.bpel src="BPELProcessXX.bpel"/>
<property name="bpel.config.transaction">requiresNew</property>
<property name="bpel.config.oneWayDeliveryPolicy" type="xs:string"
              many="false">async.persist</property>
</component>

How to deploy MDS artifacts (WSDL and Schemas) through Jdeveloper

1. Create a new application (Generic Application)
   
   2. Name the application as MDSApp (it can be anything) doesnt matter
   
   
    3. Create a Project (name it anything)
   
   
    4. Right Click on the project, Select "Project Properties".
   
   
   5. Navigate to deployment and Click on New
   
   
    6. Select the Archive type as "JAR File".
   
   
   7. Click on contributors and  select the folder (where your mds artifacts are located). The Folder structure in your local should be same as MDS location. Select the folder "apps". And click on Filters, to select the files you want to deploy.
   
   
   
   
   
   
    8. Click on application(not project), deploy-> New Deployment profile.
   
   
    9.Select SOA Bundle.
   
   
   10. Name the deployment profile(leave it as default)
   
   
    11. Click on dependencies and select the "archive1" (the jar file you have created in step 6) and Click on "Ok".
   
   
    12. Now deploy the application (Not the project) into the server.
   
   

Cannot find composite composite.xml in sar file

Problem: 

While deploying the Composite from Jdeveloper, you get the below error.

HTTP error code returned [500]
Error message from server:
There was an error deploying the composite on soa_server1: Error occured in processing sar file sca_testProject_rev1.4.jar before transfering into MDS store. Please make sure the sar file is a valid jar file.: Cannot find composite composite.xml in sar file : sca_testProject_rev1.4.jar. Abort deployment..

Check server log for more details.
Error deploying archive sca_testProject_rev1.4.jar to partition "default" on server soa_server1
####  Deployment incomplete.  ####

Reason:

If you open up the .jar file in deploy folder of the composite, you could find nothing in it or just scac.log and scac_out.xml files will be there. Ideally, your .jar file should contain all the files and folders of the composite.

Note: there is no problem with your composite.xml or any of your other files except ".jpr"

Root cause:

The problem is because of .jpr file in your composite, ".jpr" file help us create the jar file while deploying it to server. Normally if you open the .jpr file you could see below tag

 <hash n="oracle.jdeveloper.deploy.dt.DeploymentProfiles"> (Specifically "<hash n="profileDefinitions">" under that) which will describe what files will be part of .jar file.

Somehow your ".jpr" file is corrupted for your composite.

Solution:

To solve this issue-  Create a new composite (just the project skeleton) with exact same name and just copy the ".jpr" to your old composite which was not getting deploying. That should work.

Note: While creating the new project, create the project with same composite name, BPEL name, namespace as well.

How to Pass BPEL Variable(String Variable) into XSLT in SOA

In BPEL:

<from expression="ora:doXSLTransformForDoc('xsl/Xform_ResourceEBM_to_ResourceRequestABM.xsl', $ResourceReqMsg.ResourceEBM,'counter',$PCounter)"/>

In XSLT:

   <xsl:param name="counter"/>
   <xsl:template match="/">---> Add the parameter just above the template 

How to execute SQL Query in Xquery / Assign Activities in OSB

You can execute SQL Statements without creating the JCA adapter/Business service in OSB. For a simple queries, you can use use

<details>{fn-bea:execute-sql('jdbc/XYZDataSource',xs:QName('FileDetails'),'select Filename,Filelocation from TABLENAME where Columnname=?')} </details>


Output will be something like,

<details>
<FileDetails>
<Filename>ABC</Filename>
<Filelocation>XYZ</Filelocation>
</FileDetails>
</details>

Error while invoking OSM Webservice from BPEL - javax.xml.soap.SOAPException: Bad response: 401 Unauthorized

While Invoking OSM webservice from BPEL, we might get below error if we are not sending the username and password.

successfully due to: javax.xml.soap.SOAPException: javax.xml.soap.SOAPException: Bad response: 401 Unauthorized

we can resolve this error by adding the username,password and security policy to the reference adapter. While we are creating the reference adapter with OSM webservice, by default there will be 2 bindings(OrderManagementWebServiceJMSPort and OrderManagementWebServicePort). But we can ignore the OrderManagementWebServiceJMSPort  and add the policy reference only to OrderManagementWebServicePort as shown below in composite.xml.


<reference name="OrderManagementWS"
               ui:wsdlLocation="oramds:/{MDSURL}/OrderManagementWS.wsdl">
<interface.wsdl interface="http://xmlns.oracle.com/communications/ordermanagement#wsdl.interface(OrderManagementWSPort)"/>
<binding.ws port="http://xmlns.oracle.com/communications/ordermanagement#wsdl.endpoint(OrderManagementService/OrderManagementWebServicePort)"
                    location="{OSMURL}"
                    soapVersion="1.1">
<wsp:PolicyReference URI="oracle/wss_username_token_client_policy"
                                 orawsp:category="security"
                                 orawsp:status="enabled">
</wsp:PolicyReference>

<property name="javax.xml.ws.security.auth.password"
                      type="xs:string" many="false" override="may">osmpassword123</property>
<property name="javax.xml.ws.security.auth.username"
                      type="xs:string" many="false" override="may">osm-username</property>
<property name="weblogic.wsee.wsat.transaction.flowOption"
                      type="xs:string" many="false">WSDLDriven</property>
<property name="weblogic.wsee.wsat.transaction.version"
                      type="xs:string" many="false">DEFAULT</property>
</binding.ws>

</reference>

Retry in fault policy is not working - BPEL

Recently faced a issue where the retry in fault policy was not working for few composites. I verified the fault polices in both composites and all look same.
<Action id="ora-retry">
<retry>
<retryCount>3</retryCount>
<retryInterval>10</retryInterval>
<retryFailureAction ref="ora-rethrow-fault"/>
<exponentialBackoff/>
</retry>
</Action>

Then i realized something to do with Composite.xml. Adding the below property in component is making it work.

 <component name="ABC">
        <implementation.bpel src="ABC.bpel"/>
        <property name="bpel.config.transaction">requiresNew</property>
        <property name="bpel.config.oneWayDeliveryPolicy">sync</property>
    </component>

Note: While creating the Synchronous bpel composite's by default it will be"Required". 

How to release the Sequence lock in Mediator SOA 11g (Oracle Mediator Resequencer)

Message Sequencing is often a requirement in Enterprise application where you need to provide updates to the target application in some certain sequence. For example, courier status for an customer. It has to reach the customer in certain sequence like (Received, Shipped, Dispatched, Delivered, Confirmed, etc..). Even though the source application is providing the status in sequential manner, there is a possibility in integration layer that 3rd update may fail and the fourth one will be received by the customer. Once you reprocess the error instances the 3rd update will be received by the customer which will be of no sense (Received, Shipped, Delivered, Dispatched, Confirmed, etc..).
So we have to maintain the same sequence like it came from the source system.

So in SOA 11g, Oracle Mediator Resequencer which guarantees to maintain the desired message sequence in a reliable and robust manner.

You can implement the resequencer in Mediator by just selecting from the drop down box like below.

In the Picture, the sequence is applied on the account id. So for that account, whatever the update it came first will be delivered first. If some error happens in between, all the other updates to that account will be on hold.

Now, coming to the topic. How to release the lock if there is any, 

1. Normally these mediator would have been implemented with fault policies such as Manual Recovery. In that case go to EM console, navigate to Faults and Rejected Messages and enable "Show only recoverable faults". Click on "Recovery" icon and retry the instance.

2. If you don't want to retry, you have an option of abort as well.

3. If nothing works, directly login to the Database with SOAINFRA schema. And use the below queries to  unlock the sequence.

select *  from mediator_group_status where status!=0;

update mediator_group_status set status=0 where status!=0;