This glossary defines terms that are used in the documentation for BEA WebLogic Platform. Terms displayed in blue, other than URLs, are defined in this glossary.
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— A —
To terminate a transaction in such a way that the values assigned to all protected resources, such as database records, are unchanged from the beginning of the transaction.
Set of restrictions on the ability of principals (human or software entities) to use software resources. These restrictions are enforced in order to prevent unauthorized use of such resources.
access control information (ACI)
Information about the initiator of a resource access request. The ACI is used to make a decision about enforcing access control.
Data structure used to authorize or prohibit the use of resources, such as network services, by principals. Each entry in an ACL contains a set of permissions associated with a particular principal.
The WebLogic Server implementation of ACLs is based on the java.security.acl package.
In a WebLogic Integration environment, the use of different types of resources is granted to different types of principals:
See also authentication, realm, permission, and principal.
Essential characteristics of transaction processing systems:
See access control list (ACL).
Basic unit of work performed during business process management functions (which are supported by WebLogic Integration). Actions define workflow and task behavior, and can be defined as parts of tasks, decisions, and events. WebLogic Integration provides numerous actions.
Components that use Component Object Model (COM) technologies to provide interoperability with other COM services and components.
See also Component Object Model (COM).
Promotional message presented in any of various formats: a piece of HTML text, an image (GIF, JPG, PNG), or a Shockwave movie.
Ads work with ad placeholders, mechanisms that query the content management system for ads and display the results in a JSP. A Business Analyst uses the BEA E-Business Control Center to define queries for an ad placeholder and a Business Engineer (BE) creates a placeholder tag in the location in which the Business Analyst wants to display ads. A Business Analyst can also create a campaign scenario that places additional queries in an ad placeholder.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM, Business Analyst (BA), and Business Engineer (BE).
Unique name for an ad, which includes a relative path. The specific content of an ad identifier can vary from one content management system to another.
See also ad and content management system.
Software component that provides an interface between an enterprise information system and an integration server.
Method for resolving inconsistent authorization decisions.
HTML interface used by an administrator to configure and monitor an application built with BEA software.
See also WebLogic Integration B2B Console and WebLogic Server Administration Console.
Advanced Program to Program Communications (APPC)
Software protocol that makes possible high-speed communications, over SNA, among programs on different computers, including portables, workstations, and midrange and host computers. This protocol is open and published. Also known as LU 6.2.
See also Systems Network Architecture (SNA).
Feature of the Personalization Server that ties together the services and components in the Personalization Server to deliver personalized content to a Web site visitor. It does this by matching content to information contained in the user profile. Specifically, it gathers information from the user profile with the User Management component, submits that information to the Rules service, and queries the document management system that the Content Management component uses. Developers determine whether the Advisor displays the results of the query with a JSP or a Java servlet.
The Advisor includes a JSP tag library and an API that EJB developers can use to access the underlying EJB stateless session bean.
See also developer, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), application programming interface (API), user profile, and Web application (Webapp).
Type of principal that accesses a resource in a WebLogic Server environment without being authenticated.
Third-party parser, provided by the Apache Software Foundation, that implements the W3C XML, DOM, and SAX standards.
See application programming interface (API).
See Advanced Program to Program Communications (APPC).
Client-side Java program, usually embedded in an HTML page and viewed with a Java-enabled Web browser.
One or more software programs, used collectively by an end user to perform computing tasks.
Software component that provides an interface between an enterprise information system and an integration server. An application adapter represents a system-level interface to the functionality in the application.
J2EE Connector Architecture standards-based integration broker developed by BEA Systems, Inc., as part of WebLogic Integration, for interenterprise and intraenterprise integration.
application programming interface (API)
See also enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Business-level interface to the functionality in an application. An application view is configured for a single business purpose, and contains only services related to that business purpose. Additionally, an application view represents both events and services that support a business purpose, allowing the business user to interact with the application view for all communication with an application.
Characteristic of events that occur at different times such that the relationship between the times when those events occur is unpredictable.
In distributed application architectures such as Web services, clients invoke methods (or send messages to) servers and servers respond. If a client is blocked from performing other work while waiting for a server to respond, the interaction is described as synchronous because the client is synchronized with the server.
If an interaction is designed such that a client can continue performing other work while the server prepares its response, and the server can notify the client when the response is ready, the interaction is described as asynchronous.
An asynchronous architecture is useful in event-driven scenarios, in which an event can arrive at any time and the receiver can handle it whenever it arrives.
Information that is sent with a business message.
See also access control list (ACL) and secure sockets layer (SSL).
Process of determining which services may be accessed by a particular entity (a user or a process) and then giving permission to that entity to access those services.
In a WebLogic Integration environment, trading partner authorization is a role-based security feature whereby a trading partner is allowed to send and receive certain types of messages, as defined by the trading partner's subscription in a specific conversation. Trading partners are authorized to access the transport servlet and the JDBC pool.
In addition, the WebLogic Integration software is authorized to access the transport servlet in order to send messages to trading partners.
Human users can be authorized to access JSPs and, indirectly, the JDBC pool. A WebLogic Server access control list (ACL) can be configured selectively to allow or deny a user access to a resource.
— B —
Practice whereby companies buy and sell to each other directly, that is, business-to-business (B2B), through electronic transactions.
WebLogic Integration feature that supports integration of applications among enterprises, including supply-chain integration.
WebLogic Integration Studio component that extends business process management (BPM) for use with B2B integration.
Process of exposing information within an enterprise to people or entities, known and unknown, that exist outside the enterprise.
BEA E-Business Control CenterTM
See E-Business Control CenterTM.
BEA WebLogic Personalization Server
See WebLogic Personalization Server.
Transaction in which an Enterprise JavaBean (EJB) controls the transaction boundaries. In a bean-managed transaction, controls can be specified using JTA. The EJB code manages the transaction, which can begin in one method and end in another.
See also container-managed transaction, Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Java Transaction API (JTA), and transaction.
Binary format in which the most significant byte has the lowest address. This format is used on IBM 370 systems and most RISC designs.
Industry initiative to define the BizTalk Framework, a set of guidelines for publishing XML schemas and using XML messages. Started by Microsoft, it is supported by a wide range of organizations, including technology vendors (such as SAP, CommerceOne, and Ariba) and technology users (such as BASDA). BizTalk is not a standards body, but a community of standards users.
See also http://www.biztalk.org.
See business process management (BPM).
Mechanism that enables you to cause Webflow to direct to different destination nodes, based on the value of the object returned from successful execution of the input processor or pipeline.
See also input processor, node, pipeline, and Webflow.
Trading partner that uses a Web browser to communicate with other trading partners.
See business transaction protocol (BTP).
Practice of adding a buffer to a method of your service to ensure that the service returns to the client immediately. This mechanism eliminates the need for the client to wait for the server to process other requests. Incoming calls to a buffered method are queued so that the server is not overwhelmed with requests.
Nontechnical staff member who is responsible for conceiving an effective model for an e-business. Usually collaborates with a Business Engineer (BE), who provides technical expertise. A Business Analyst develops strategy and goals for individual campaigns, and uses the BEA E-Business Control Center to run and evaluate campaigns.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM and Business Engineer (BE).
XML part of the payload of a business message.
Staff member who combines the skills of a Business Analyst and Developer. A BE may:
See also Business Analyst (BA) and developer.
Basic unit of communication between trading partners in a conversation. A multipart MIME message, it consists of business documents, attachments, and message headers.
Method of adding user-defined operations in WebLogic Integration by invoking EJBs or calling Java classes.
business process management (BPM)
WebLogic Integration automation tool that enables you to define and monitor workflows.
Set of rules that governs the electronic exchange of business information between enterprises across a network. A business protocol specifies the structure of business messages, the method for processing the messages, and the method for routing them to the appropriate recipients. WebLogic Integration trading partners can use the RosettaNet business protocol to send and receive business messages.
Set of logic plug-ins that implements a business protocol.
Interface to a conversation definition. A trading partner offers a business service to other trading partners who may want to interact with it.
business transaction protocol (BTP)
Standard that provides an open and well-defined method for managing long-running, complex transactions common in B2B e-commerce. BTP is an XML-based vocabulary protocol for representing and seamlessly managing complex, multistep B2B transactions over the Internet. BTP enables trading partners to manage complex XML message exchanges as long-running, loosely coupled conversations.
business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce
business-to-business (B2B) integration
business-to-consumer integration
Compiled format for Java programs that can be run (interpreted) on any computer with a Java virtual machine (JVM).
See also Java virtual machine (JVM).
— C —
Compressed file used to load classes and other files required to run an applet in a single hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request. Can be used only with applets running under Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4.0 or later.
See also JAR file, applet, and hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).
Method defined on the client that can be called by your service. Callbacks make it possible to support an asynchronous two-way exchange between a client and a service. For example, if a service performs a time-consuming operation, the service can immediately acknowledge the client's request with a simple return value, then later use the callback to return the full result of the operation. A callback must participate in a conversation.
Method run by your service when it receives a corresponding callback. It is defined by the control that includes the callback. For example, the timer control provides the onTimeout method as a callback handler. You have the option of adding code that will run when the timer fires.
Principal that is associated with an application component instance during a method invocation. For example, an EJB instance can call the getCallerPrincipal method to get the principal associated with the current security context.
See also Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and principal.
Named group of scenarios that work together to achieve strategic business goals. A campaign coordinates multiple Personalization, Commerce, and Campaign services to create and track marketing goals on an e-commerce Web site.
Reduction in the price charged for a product item, an order, or the shipping cost associated with an order conditionally targeted to a subset of the entire user population. The BEA E-Business Control Center allows you to define the discounts that you might later decide to offer to your online customers.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Goal for a campaign. When the goal is satisfied, the campaign can end, even if the goal is fulfilled before the scheduled end date. This goal is specified in the BEA E-Business Control Center.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Set of services provided by WebLogic Portal that enable Business Analysts and Business Engineers to create and track marketing goals on an e-commerce Web site. Campaigns are set up and managed using the E-Business Control Center.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM, Business Analyst (BA), and Business Engineer (BE).
Organization that commissions a campaign. Is often the organization that owns and operates the e-business Web site (or a subset of that organization).
In the BEA E-Business Control Center, the sponsor can be used as a criterion for campaign searches, as well as for reporting and analysis.
You can specify a campaign sponsor by using the BEA E-Business Control Center.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
State of a campaign: active or deactive.
When a campaign is saved, it is in an active state. In other words, the campaign is ready to run between the specified start and stop times, and when the appropriate conditions are met.
When you disqualify an active campaign from running, or when you stop a running campaign before it reaches either the specified stop date or its goals, the
campaign is in a deactive state. In the campaign list of the E-Business Control Center (shown in the Control Center's Explorer window) deactivated campaigns are displayed in a lighter color than other items in the list.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Single point of access to several product catalog services: Category Manager service, Product Item Manager service, Custom Data Manager service, and Catalog Query Manager service.
See also product catalog and service.
Service that queries the Commerce services product catalog. It defines two types of catalog searches: keyword searches and attribute-based searches. A keyword search is a simple search on a number of keywords, whereas an attribute-based search allows a complex Boolean expression on any of the item attributes to be evaluated.
See also product catalog and service.
Service that manages the hierarchical structure of the Commerce services product catalog. It defines a complex interface for creating and modifying the hierarchy and for mapping items into categories.
See also product catalog and service.
See compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM).
Digital statement that associates a particular public key with a name or other attributes. It is digitally signed by a certificate authority (CA). By trusting that authority to sign only true statements, you can trust that the public key belongs to the person named in the certificate.
See also certificate authority (CA) and certificate authentication (CA).
certificate authentication (CA)
Method of providing a confident identification of a client by a server through the use of digital certificates. Certificate authentication is generally preferred over password authentication because it is based on what the user has (a private key), as well as what the user knows (a password that protects the private key).
See also authentication, certificate authority (CA), and certificate.
Standard interface defined in WebLogic Server to map digital certificates to WebLogic Server users. After verifying an incoming certificate, the certificate authenticator maps the incoming trading partner associated with the certificate to the corresponding WebLogic Server user, based on the certificate.
Well-known and trusted entity that issues public key certificates. A certificate authority attests to a user's real-world identity, much as a notary public does.
See also certificate and certificate authentication (CA).
Well-known and trusted organization, such as VeriSign, that issues digital certificates for the purpose of authenticating a certificate holder's identity to another party.
Process that causes a Webflow to move from one processor node (that is, an input processor or pipeline) to another processor node. This mechanism relieves you of the need to use processor nodes between presentation nodes. In a chaining
arrangement, the result state of one successfully executed processor node is another processor node.
See also input processor, node, pipeline, and Webflow.
Interactive process whereby a customer confirms items to be purchased, and provides payment and shipping information. The Commerce services then validate the customer information, post the credit card transaction, and log shipping and tax payment requirements. The checkout process invokes the Registering Users and Managing Customer services and the Managing Purchases and Processing Orders services.
See also Managing Purchases and Processing Orders services and Registering Customers and Managing Customer services.
See Customer Information Control System (CICS).
In cryptography, a coding system used to create encrypted messages.
See also cipher, cipher suite, cipher text, and secure sockets layer (SSL).
Secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption method. Includes three types of algorithms that can be used to protect the integrity of a communication: the key exchange algorithm, the symmetric encryption algorithm, and the secure hash algorithm.
See also cipher and secure sockets layer (SSL).
In cryptography, text that is encrypted.
Category of objects used in object-oriented programming. A class defines the implementation of a particular kind of object. A class definition defines instances and class variables and methods, and specifies the interfaces and class implementations and the immediate superclass of the class. If the superclass is not explicitly specified, it is implicitly assumed to be Object.
See also object-oriented programming (OOP) and class library.
A set of client programming tools called classes. These tools can be used in a Java or C++ program, or in a Java applet that can be embedded in a Web page.
List of paths for the file system directories or Java archive files to be searched by a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) at run time, in order to locate the executable class files required at that time. The list may be supplied through an operating system environment variable (CLASSPATH) or a command-line switch (-classpath) sent to the virtual machine. Application server containers, such as servlet engines and EJB containers, may contain additional levels of classpath information.
See also class and class library.
Act of clicking an ad. The number of clickthroughs can be used as one criterion to determine whether the goal of a campaign has been met.
If a client is located on a machine that belongs to the domain to which the target servers also belong, then the client is called a native client. If the client is located on a machine outside that domain, then the client is called a remote client or a Workstation client.
Entity that makes a request to a Web service to return data. Can be written in any language and run on any platform, as long as it communicates in the manner expected by the Web service. Most Web services expect to receive requests over an Internet protocol, such as HTTP, and they expect those requests to be XML messages formatted according to the SOAP specification.
client connector interface (CCI)
Interface that allows a J2EE-based application to connect to back-end systems and access them. The CCI manages the flow of data between a client application and its back-end system. It does not have any visibility into the activities, with the adapter, of the container or the application server.
Network in which heterogeneous clients make requests over various protocols for many different services on the network and the requests are fulfilled transparently by a high-performance, intelligent intermediate server or cluster of servers, such as the pure-Java WebLogic Server.
See also client/server and Web service.
Network architecture in which computer processing is distributed among clients (desktop PCs) and a server or servers (central computer).
Group of servers that work together to provide an application platform that is more powerful and reliable than a single server. A cluster appears to its clients as a single server but it is, in fact, a group of servers acting as one. If properly designed and configured, a cluster can provide both availability and scalability. New processes and machines can be added to a cluster, dynamically, to handle increased load without shutting down the cluster. Individual servers can be removed from the cluster periodically so that maintenance can be done without affecting cluster performance.
Clusterable stub is a wrapper that delegates its calls to a service instance. It has intelligence about how to deal with load balancing and failover situations, in which a service might be handled transparently by another server. You generate clusterable stubs by setting the -clusterable flags for RMIC or similar EJB deployment descriptor properties.
See also failover, load balancing, and stub.
Entity that reads a COBOL Copybook and generates a message format reflecting the data structure of the COBOL Copybook.
In this documentation, the character encoding of the field data.
See also applet and package name.
Base URL for locating an applet's classes on the server host. To get the complete URL for an applet, combine the CODEBASE with the applet's CODE name.
See also applet, CODE tag, and uniform resource locator (URL).
Definition of the interactions that trading partners agree to carry out, along with a specification for the methods through which these interactions are conducted. This specification includes details about transport, messaging, security constraints, and bindings to a process specification.
Workflow used by trading partners to implement a role while conducting business with the B2B integration component of WebLogic Integration.
MBean interface that represents trading partners in a run-time environment. WebLogic Integration management applications can use CollaboratorMBean objects to monitor trading partners.
See Component Object Model (COM).
Representation of an object that conforms to the Component Object Model (COM) standards, including implementations of all necessary interfaces.
See also Component Object Model (COM)
Development kit for a Web application that displays product descriptions and manages customer orders. It includes a set of JSP templates, database schemas, Java components, and configuration files.
See also JSP template and Web application (Webapp).
Defines a standard client API for application components and enables application components and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) frameworks to drive EIS) using a common client API. The J2EE Connector Architecture defines a CCI for EIS access.
See also application programming interface (API), Enterprise Information System (EIS), and J2EE Connector Architecture.
common object request broker architecture (CORBA)
Standard from the Object Management Group (OMG) for communicating between distributed objects. CORBA uses IDLs (interface definition language) and ORBs (object request brokers), and communicates with IIOP (Internet InterOperability Protocol).
See also interface definition language (IDL), Internet Interoperability Protocol (IIOP), and object request broker (ORB).
compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM)
Disk from which data is read optically by laser and on which data cannot be modified except under special conditions.
Collection of services that enables software components to interoperate in a networked environment.
Criterion for determining the conditions under which an ad will be displayed, when a discount will be offered, or when an e-mail will be sent. In the BEA E-Business Control Center, text describing the selected conditions appears in the Action portion of the respective New Action window.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Set of hardware, hardware options, software, and software setup on a computer or on a network.
See also configuration set and configure.
Name or number used to reference a particular configuration in a configuration partition. Each configuration set describes the services to be used when the configuration is active.
See also configuration and configure.
To customize hardware and software for a computer or for a network.
See also configuration and configuration set.
Confirmed_Delivery_to_Destination
Quality of Service (QoS) option that verifies receipt of a message by all recipient trading partners. Delivery can be made more reliable by use of options such as Retry Attempts and Durability (Persistent option).
Confirmed_Delivery_to_Destination can also provide additional information to the sender and administrators, including delivery status from recipients, complete message tracking for administrators, and confirmation from the B2B integration component of WebLogic Integration upon completion of delivery. Availability depends on the business protocol that is used.
Default Quality of Service (QoS) option that verifies receipt of a message by the B2B integration component of WebLogic Integration. This option is often used when system performance is an issue. It does not provide delivery status from recipients, nor does it provide message tracking. Because the selection process for trading partners is performed after confirmation reaches the sender, no information about potential recipients is available. Availability depends on the business protocol that is used.
Provides connectivity to a resource manager and enables an application client to connect to a resource manager, perform transactions, and access services provided by that resource manager. A connection can be either transactional or nontransactional. Examples include a database connection and an SAP R/3 connection.
In Webflow, a small graphical device on the edge of a node that marks the point at which an event or exception is connected to that node. In some cases, it may be helpful to move the node's connection port.
See also node and Webflow.
In a WebLogic Server environment—Pseudomethod used to create an object. In Java, constructors are instance methods with the same names as their classes. Java constructors are invoked using the new keyword.
See also class, instance, Java, metadata interface, and object.
Part of an application server, such as WebLogic Server, that provides deployment and run-time support for application components. A container allows you to monitor and manage supported components as well as the service(s) that monitor and manage the components. A container can be any of the following:
See also Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Java Server Pages (JSP), and servlet.
Transaction in which an Enterprise JavaBean container controls the transaction boundaries. In a container-managed transaction, controls are specified in the deployment descriptor. When a bean method is invoked, the container manages the transaction, which begins and ends in the same method. An entity bean must use container-managed transactions.
See also bean-managed transaction and transaction.
System that manages a collection of content objects (articles, documents, images, and so forth), including metadata about the content. Content management systems, such those marketed by Interwoven and Documentum, usually provide services such as retrieval of content and content authoring services. Content authoring services may include services for creating, editing, and versioning content objects, and workflow services
Key WebLogic Personalization Server component that provides access to content via both JSP tags and EJBs. The JSP tags provide a developer with an enumeration of content objects by querying the content database directly using a search expression syntax. The content management tools are designed to be used with the rules manager and rules services, user profiles, and property set manager to create personalized content delivery on an e-commerce site. The primary interface to the functionality of the content management component is the ContentManager session bean.
See also Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), JSP tag, property set management, and user profile.
Mechanism that queries, under a set of conditions, the content management system for documents. In the BEA E-Business Control Center, a Business Analyst specifies the conditions that trigger a content selector to run a query. A Business Analyst also uses the BEA E-Business Control Center to construct the query that the content selector runs. A Business Engineer creates a content-selector JSP tag where the Business Analyst wants to display documents.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM, Business Analyst (BA), and Business Engineer (BE).
Component used in a Web service so that a service can communicate with other kinds of applications and components. For example, a database control enables a Web service to request data from a database. A service control makes it easy for one Web service to call another.
Service that manages conversation life cycles, according to the rules of the corresponding business protocols, and supports long-living, durable conversations that span multiple organizational boundaries. The conversation coordinator generates conversation IDs; registers trading partners in a conversation; delivers business and system messages to clients; maintains status information about conversations; and provides the conversational context for execution of the business protocol.
Collection of values that specifies the parameters of a conversation.
Trading partner that initiates and terminates a conversation.
Period during which messages are exchanged between trading partners.
Trading partner that receives and processes business messages.
Intelligent and controlled cessation of message exchanges performed as part of a B2B integration or business process management (BPM) function, both of which are supported by WebLogic Integration:
Interface that enables a trading partner to send and receive business messages in conversations. A conversation handler must be registered for one or more conversation types in order for the associated trading partner to participate in conversations.
MBean interface that represents a conversation. WebLogic Integration management applications use ConversationMBean objects to monitor conversations in a run-time environment.
Common piece of source code designed to be copied into many source programs; used mainly in IBM DOS mainframe programming. In mainframe DOS (for example, DOS/VS and DOS/VSE), the copybook was stored as a book in a source library. A library comprising books, the name of each of which began with a letter prefix designating a programming language (for example, A.name for Assembler, C.name for COBOL) because DOS did not support multiple or private libraries. This term is used mainly by COBOL programmers, but it is supported by most mainframe languages. The IBM OS series did not use the term copybook; instead, it referred to such files as libraries implemented as partitioned data sets or PDSs. A copybook is functionally equivalent to a C or C++ include file.
See common object request broker architecture (CORBA).
Capability provided automatically, by WebLogic Workshop, to Web services. If a Web service has many simultaneous clients, it must keep track of which responses go to which clients in response to requests. This includes callbacks: when events occur in the Web service that must be passed on to clients via callbacks, WebLogic Workshop's correlation capability routes the callback messages automatically.
Quality of Service (QoS) option that contains the message identification string. It can be used to correlate different business messages within an application. Availability depends on the business protocol that is used.
Data entity that contains or references security information that can authenticate a principal to additional services. A principal acquires a credential upon authentication or from another principal that allows its credential to be used: the latter is termed principal delegation. A credential may be a password, an X509 digital certificate or a certificate chain, or any other token that validates a user.
See also realm and user.
Service that defines an interface for giving persistence to custom attributes of product items. (Custom attributes are attributes not defined in the ProductItem interface.)
Security components written by security vendors and application developers. Custom security providers are implementations of the Security Service Provider Interfaces (SSPIs).
See also Security Service Provider Interfaces (SSPIs) and WebLogic Server security providers.
Customer Information Control System (CICS)
IBM-licensed program that enables transactions entered at remote terminals to be processed concurrently by user-written application programs.
Collection of information that is gathered, saved, and updated as customers visit your Web site, or from other offline sources. Customer profiles are unique to each customer and can contain a variety of information, from product preferences to the demographic data customers provide on a form page. Each piece of information stored in a customer profile (or any combination of that information) can be used to create a customer segment.
Implementation of business logic and presentation logic through which customers modify their user profiles.
See also business logic, service, user profile.
Grouping of customers based on common characteristics gathered from their customer profiles, such as product preferences or age.
— D —
Program that runs automatically and continuously in the background.
See Direct Access Storage Device (DASD).
WebLogic Integration component that translates XML files to nonXML format, and vice versa.
WebLogic Integration Studio component that extends business process management (BPM) functionality for use with data integration functionality.
SSL-based security feature in WebLogic Integration that provides link-level encryption of messages in communications between trading partners. Human users do not have data privacy (SSL) when their names and passwords are used for identification. A digital certificate is required to provide data privacy.
In a WebLogic Integration environment—Mapping of data provided in one XML format to another XML format. For example, data transformation is performed when a RosettaNet document is mapped to an ebXML document.
In a WebLogic Integration environment—Process of converting binary data to or from XML.
data universal numbering system (DUNS)
Standard for assigning nine-digit strings, as internationally-recognized identifiers, to companies that engage in global electronic commerce transactions. Business identifiers are assigned to trading partners for external use by some business protocols; they differ from internal WebLogic Integration trading partner names. Implementations of the RosettaNet business protocol must use DUNS numbers.
Collection of interrelated or independent data items stored together without redundancy to serve one or more applications.
database management system (DBMS)
Program or set of programs that enables users to structure and manipulate the data in the tables of a database. Use of a DMBS ensures data privacy and integrity, and the ability to recover data in a multiuser environment.
Programming classification indicating the type of data in a variable. Some commonly used datatypes are various forms of integers, character, and Boolean. Most programming languages require that the datatype must be declared for data objects or fields. Datatypes are dependent upon the programming language used.
In a WebLogic Server environment—Set of high-level Java objects that may be used with any JDBC driver for database access.
See database management system (DBMS).
The business process management (BPM) term for a workflow component that contains a condition to be evaluated when a transition occurs. The result of the evaluation (true or false) determines the appropriate dependent node to which flow control then passes.
Component that processes the protocol-specific message headers, identifies the sending trading partner, enlists the sending trading partner in a conversation, prepares a reply for the sender, and forwards the message to the scheduling service.
Process of taking cipher text (encrypted data) and a cryptographic key and producing plain text (the original unencrypted data).
Value of a variable used by a program if a value is not supplied by the user.
deferred synchronous message delivery
Message delivery method whereby control is returned to the application once a message is sent. A message token is returned to the application, which the application can access later to check the status of message delivery. After the token is accessed, the application waits for a specified time or until one of the following events occur: acknowledgments are received from all potential destinations; the message times out; or the conversation in which the message was sent terminates.
Authorization, by principal A, for principal B to use principal A's identity or privilege, sometimes with restrictions.
Sequence of bytes that denotes the end of a field or group of data.
Specification for delivering business messages to one trading partner. Each trading partner has a delivery channel for each business protocol supported by the trading partner.
Denial of Service (DoS) attack
Security attack in which an user or organization is deprived of the services of a resource they would normally expect to have. For example, an enterprise Web site may be forced to cease operation, thus forcing the enterprise to spend a lot of time and money.
XML file that supplies an EJB server with the information it requires to configure run-time properties for EJBs. It also enables a system administrator to define permissions on an EJB and to configure resources used by an EJB. Deployment
descriptors conform to a Document Type Definition (DTD) provided by Sun Microsystems, Inc. JavaSoft.
See also Document Type Definition (DTD), Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), and XML.
XML file that specifies the deployment requirements of a Campaign services Web application. A descriptor consists of property phrases and value phrases.
To add a new MIME type for ad placeholders, you must modify the deployment descriptor for your WebLogic Personalization Server Web application. You can use a text editor to modify the deployment descriptor.
Generic name for the role played by any technical expert in an organization who creates and/or maintains Web applications by writing code. In the Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition (J2EE) Specification, developers are referred to as Application Component Providers.
Developers have special access privileges that may not be shared by individuals in other organizational roles.
Numerous areas of expertise divide developers into various categories: Java/EJB developers, HTML/JSP developers, application assembler/deployers, and system administrators.
Digital equivalent of an ID card that is used by WebLogic Integration, with a public key encryption system, to authenticate trading partners. A digital certificate contains the owner's public key, which has been digitally signed by a certification authority.
String of bits used to protect the security of data being exchanged by two entities by verifying the identities of those entities. Specifically, this string is used to verify that the data came from the sending entity of record and was not modified in transit.
A digital signature is computed from an entity's signed data and private key. It can be trusted only to the extent that the public key used to verify it can be trusted.
Direct Access Storage Device (DASD)
Set of one or more disks or disk drives on a mainframe machine.
Model used for lookup process designed to produce a replica-aware stub that may be handled by different service providers each time it is executed upon. The direct model is appropriate for use with stateless objects.
See also indirect programming model, stateless object, replica-aware stub, and targeted programming model.
Relative importance of a discount, specified by a value in the range of 1-20 (with 1 being the highest). In the event that two similar discounts apply to a given item, the priority associated with each discount helps resolve the conflict.
The BEA E-Business Control Center does not detect situations in which multiple discounts are assigned the same priority. If two discounts have the same priority, one of the discounts is selected at random.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Percentage or dollar amount of a discount. All discount values can be specified in one of three formats: as a percentage off the price, an amount off the price, or a fixed price.
Relative likelihood that a group of ads will be displayed, relative to ads in other groups that have the potential to be displayed in the same placeholder at the same time. Default ad groups automatically have a lower priority than campaign ad groups.
The BEA E-Business Control Center does not detect situations in which multiple ads are assigned the same priority. If two ad queries have the same priority, both have the same chance of being run in a placeholder.
See also E-Business Control CenterTM.
Application that is divided into two or more parts (such as a client and a server), residing on different computers that communicate through a network. Web applications are, by nature, distributed applications.
See also Web application (Webapp).
Application design and implementation strategy that divides an application into units that are executed on different computers and communicate through a network. For example, an application can be divided into three distributed units: a user interface unit, a processing unit, and a storage unit.
Object that can be located anywhere on a network. Distributed objects are packaged as independent pieces of code that can be accessed by remote clients via method invocations. The language and compiler used to create distributed objects are totally transparent to the clients. Clients do not need to know the location in which the distributed object resides or the operating system on which it runs.
distributed object model (DOM)
Abstraction that describes the way applications are partitioned, that is, how the logic is divided between the tiers (multitier or two-tier) that support it.
See also multitier and two-tier.
Distributed Program Link (DPL)
CICS concept roughly equivalent to the concept of a Java remote method invocation.
See also Customer Information Control System (CICS).
Transaction involving multiple transaction managers. In a distributed transaction environment, a client application may send requests to several servers resulting in resource updates at multiple resource managers. To complete a transaction, the transaction manager for each participant (client, servers, and resource managers) must be polled to coordinate the commit process for each participant within its domain.
See also transaction, transaction manager, and resource manager.
distributed transaction processing (DTP)
Form of processing in which multiple application programs update multiple resources (such as databases) in a coordinated manner. Programs and resources can reside on one or more computers across a network.
See dynamic link library (DLL).
See document management system (DMS).
File that is stored in a content management system and displayed on a Web site. Examples include HTML files, image files, and files that must be viewed with a browser plug-in.
See also content management system.
Schema, such as a Document Type Definition (DTD), that specifies the prerequisites for a valid document. WebLogic Integration document definitions are provided in XML DTDs. Each document definition includes two attributes: System ID (a DTD system identifier); and URL, which specifies the location of the document definition.
Definition of the method through which a document is exchanged. A document exchange defines a business protocol and some run-time parameters.
document management system (DMS)
System that manages a collection of documents. It usually provides services such as document retrieval and document authoring services, including creation, editing, versioning, and workflow.
document reference implementation
Default, out-of-the-box document management solution of the WebLogic Personalization Server. This implementation uses the BulkLoader utility to load content metadata into the database and the content schema into an XML file. It is one of many possible implementations of the WebLogic Personalization Server Document Management Service Provider Interface (SPI) that you can use to integrate third-party document management systems into WebLogic Personalization Server.
Document Type Definition (DTD)
File that defines the format (grammar and syntax) to be used for associated messages or files written in either XML or SGML. Specifically, a DTD file defines how the markup tags in an XML or SGML document should be interpreted by the application that is presenting that document, so that the document is displayed or printed as intended. The definition conforms to the rules of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). DTDs are part of the W3C XML specification.
See distributed object model (DOM).
Collection of servers, services, interfaces, machines, and associated resource managers defined by a single configuration file.
The business process management (BPM) term for a workflow component that marks an entire workflow as complete. No further processing for any task occurs after this term is issued.
See Distributed Program Link (DPL).
See Document Type Definition (DTD).
See data universal numbering system (DUNS).
Quality of Service (QoS) option that specifies whether a durable message store is used to guarantee message delivery in case of node failures. The options are namespace (default) and Persistent. Availability depends on the business protocol that is used.
Form of communication available on Microsoft Windows platforms that allows applications to exchange information through a series of messages. Two applications sending and responding to DDE messages are said to have a DDE conversation.
Datatype for which the memory size is not known when the code is compiled; a the memory size of a dynamic datatype is known only when the code is executed.
Library of executable functions or data that can be used by a Windows application. Use of a DLL in a Java program implies that the Java program contains native code. The DLLs used in WebLogic Server are published by database vendors for two-tier native drivers.
Ability to provide late bindings of roles to principals based on the context and target of the business request.
— E —
Tool that facilitates the creation and maintenance of a personalized Web site. The BEA E-Business Control Center includes an intuitive graphical user interface that guides users through a variety of tasks.
See electronic business XML (ebXML).
Standardized language that combines JavaScript and JScript. JavaScript was developed by Netscape Communications; JScript, by Microsoft Corporation. ECMAScript was created by a standards body called the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA).
See Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
See Electronic Data Interchange Value-Added Network (EDI VAN).
See Enterprise Information System (EIS).
See Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).
electronic business XML (ebXML)
Set of specifications for a modular framework supporting the electronic exchange of business data. Developed for global usage through a joint initiative of the United Nations (UN/CEFACT) and OASIS.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
Industry standard for the format of business messages used in e-commerce, and for the legal terms governing the use of such messages.
Electronic Data Interchange Value-Added Network (EDI VAN)
Third-party intermediary that routes EDI messages between trading partners.
Component that transforms a message, as necessary, to support the required business protocol, and then forwards the message to the transport service.
Conversion of architecture-specific data into a format that can be transmitted between different architectures, such as External Data Representation (XDR) encoding.
Process of algorithmically scrambling data to prevent (or hinder) unauthorized disclosure, while still preserving access to the original data by authorized users. To read an encrypted file, a recipient must have access to a secret key or password that enables the recipient to decrypt it. Unencrypted data is called plaintext; encrypted data is referred to as ciphertext.
Encryption key pair consists of the public key used to encrypt information and a private key used to decipher the information.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
Unrestricted sharing of information by two or more enterprise applications. A set of technologies that allow the movement and exchange of information between processes within and between organizations. (Linthicum 2000, p. 354)
Enterprise Information System (EIS)
Software system that provides the information infrastructure for an enterprise. An EIS offers a set of services to its clients. These services are made available to clients via local and/or remote interfaces. Examples of an EIS include:
Enterprise Information System (EIS) resource
Provides EIS-specific functionality to its clients. Examples of an EIS resource include:
Java API that defines a component architecture for multitier client/server systems. Specifically, the EJB specifies an architecture for the development and deployment of object-oriented, distributed, enterprise-level applications. Applications written using the EJB architecture are scalable, transactional, and secure.
See also Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE).
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, manufacturing, sales, and marketing.
Enterprise JavaBean that represents a database record and includes methods that can be invoked on data in that record.
Stateless session bean that handles the persistence of properties.
Application-defined string, representing a parameter of the application, to which a user can assign a custom value and subsequently change that value, if necessary, without rewriting code that depends on the parameter in question. Environment variables become available when the host application is started.
See enterprise resource planning (ERP).
See also E-Business Control CenterTM and scenario action.
A business process management (BPM) term for a workflow. To execute an event node, the workflow waits for an XML message to trigger the event. When that trigger occurs, various sub-actions defined within the event node can be executed or workflow variables can be set.
One-way asynchronous notification of an event within a system (generally an EIS). An event notification is achieved by delivering an event object representing the event to a subscriber for that type of event.
Data object that represents an event within a system (generally an EIS). Event objects generally contain data sufficient to describe the event and the context in which it occurred. Event objects are often referred to simply as events. This is because event objects are the only representation of an event possible after the event has passed, and therefore are the lasting outcome of an event. An event object has a type that is a name used to refer to all events with the same cause. An event object contains an XML document that contains the data for the event.
Condition, often an error, that causes a program or microprocessor to branch to a different routine to handle the error. Java method for handling run-time errors.
Process whereby Webflow searches for an alternate flow of execution in order to resolve missing transitions.
Properties stored in separate tables or separate databases, and are accessed through custom Entity PropertyManager implementations.
See also Entity Property Manager and implicit properties.
User-defined element, attribute, or text that can be associated with entities in the repository. For this release, extended properties can be associated with trading partners only, through the WebLogic Integration B2B Console, or the Bulk Loader utility. These properties provide application extensions to the standard predefined attributes of trading partners.
extensible markup language (XML)
Metalanguage (a language for describing languages) that you can use to define customized markup languages. It is composed of a subset of standardized general markup language (SGML).
XML facilitates the development of user-defined document types and the creation of programs that can use data from documents of such types. It is rapidly becoming a universal standard for defining, validating, and sharing data formats and documents.
Because XML is text-based (that is, it is not written in binary format), and it uses syntax rather than binary markers to organize data, it can be deployed across heterogeneous and potentially incompatible systems and platforms.
XML is a crucial component of the WebLogic Integration solution.
eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSL)
Language for specifying the format of an XML document.
eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)
XML language designed for transforming one XML document into another. An XSLT document, or stylesheet, describes data transformations that are to be performed on nodes of an XML document. Using XSLT, an XML document can be transformed into a variety of text formats, such as XML, HTML, and PDF.
— F —
See also common object request broker architecture (CORBA).
Capability of a system to respond to the failure of a service invocation by redirecting the request for the service to an alternate provider, without requiring user intervention. In other words, the ability of a system to transfer control to a backup component when a fault occurs.
The types of services that can be invoked, through the failover capability, in spite of an initial invocation failure, include the service that performs lookups of service providers, the ability to recover in the event of a server failure, and the ability to find another instance of a service on a reachable server.
In a WebLogic Server environment:
In a WebLogic Integration environment: Sequence of bytes that is interpreted by an application as an atomic unit of data.
Trading partner that uses FTP to communicate with other trading partners.
Software that monitors traffic between an internal network and the Internet, and that regulates the type of network traffic that can enter and leave the internal network.
Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol: a messaging standard developed specifically for real-time electronic securities transactions.
— G —
Function that reclaims memory from unused objects and variables while a Java program is being run. This function is usually executed automatically in the background, but it can also be requested at specified times by the programmer.
general protection fault (GPF)
Error condition in Windows programs that results from a program attempting to access an area of memory in use by another program.
Transaction in which multiple servers or multiple resource manager interfaces are used to coordinate the transaction as an atomic unit of work. A global transaction may be composed of several local transactions that each access a single resource manager.
See also distributed transaction and ACID properties.
MBean interface that represents a conversation definition. B2B integration management applications use GlobalConversationMBean objects to monitor conversations in a run-time environment.
See general protection fault (GPF).
graphical user interface (GUI)
High-level interface that provides windows with menus and graphical symbols, in which a user can perform tasks by making selections and providing information when prompted, instead of by typing a series of system commands. Examples include the BEA WebLogic Server Administration Console and the WebLogic Integration B2B Console, both of which enable an administrator to configure and control BEA applications through a Web browser.
See also administration console.
See also access control list (ACL), realm, and permission.
Group of fields or other groups, one of which is required. All the fields (or other groups) must be mutually exclusive in the terms of actual binary data they contain.
Particular view of a portal defined for a specific group of users. You can create multiple group portals within a single portal Web application. Group portals can share portal resources, such as layouts and portlets, but they can also be configured differently, if necessary, to satisfy the needs of each group.
Collection of users or other groups. A group profile also contains a set of attributes, and each user or subgroup within the profile can inherit these attributes.
See also User Management component and user profile.
See graphical user interface (GUI).
— H —
Heuristic completion such that all updates related to the transaction are committed.
See also heuristic completion.
Unilateral decision by a resource, during the completion stag