Project Title: IBM Websphere II Connectors

The Challenge

WebSphere(R) Information Integrator (II) Content Edition allows access to many different content repositories and workflow systems through a single, Java-based, bi-directional interface. This interface makes it easy for application developers to integrate those sources into new or existing enterprise applications.

At the heart of the product is a single, bidirectional interface that enables multiple disparate content sources to look and act as one system. It provides the ability to

• deliver access to underlying content and workflow systems
  
• expose their full two-way function and unique capabilities
  
• enable users to organize and work with content assets and workflow items as if managed in one system
  
• adhere to the security of those systems, and
  
• add federation services such as metadata mapping, federated search, and single sign-on.

The product also features a uniform superset API which remove the need to code to multiple APIs from different vendors, and real-time content views of content and workflow accessed in place remove the need to access each repository individually. Out of the box connectors to leading content repositories quickly unify a broad range of content sources and workflow systems without the cost, complexity and risk of custom programming efforts.

Because of the particular demands for this project, IBM needed a vendor who could provide a team of engineers with deep analytical ability along with top-notch research skills and a thorough understanding of the specifics of EAI development. The Exigen Services team involved in the project provides just such capabilities. The team is managed in an efficient and flexible manner, accommodating new tasks coming from IBM.

Exigen Services provides IBM with the development/maintenance team that consists of a project manager, 4 developers and 1 test engineer. The central challenge lies in the fact that for a new connector to be developed, numerous research tasks have to be successfully solved by Exigen Services. For every new connector, the structure and organization of the corresponding repository has to be thoroughly understood first, its function and API studied in detail. Only then can implementation begin to take place.

The Solution

Exigen's assignment includes development of new connectors for WebSphere II Content Edition (8.3 - 8.4), as well as testing and support for previously developed connectors. This product must translate the requests made to access services (such as searching or capturing content) to the vendor-specific APIs of content repositories and workflow engines. This translation is done by connectors, which also normalize the results of those operations and return the data to Access Services. Connectors are normally hosted within a container stateful session EJB. As with Access Services, the J2EE application server provides services to the connector for clustering to support load balancing, high availability, and distributed network communications to support various network topologies and geographic scenarios. In the course of the collaboration, Exigen Services has covered the following:

• Development and upgrade of Hummingbird connector
  
• Development of Doorways connector (for Livelink server)
  
• Development of RDBMS connector
  
• Internalization testing for Russian and Japanese languages
  
• Upgrade of Lotus Domino Document Manager
  
• Upgrade of OpenText Livelink connector
  
• Upgrade for Lotus Notes connector
  
• Upgrade for Lotus 6 connector
  
• Upgrade for IBM Websphere MQ Workflow connector
  
• Upgrade for IBM Websphere Portal Document Manager

Tools and Technologies

Platforms: MS Windows Family
Language: Java 1.4
Technologies: J2EE, EJB, RMI, BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere

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