IBM Sterling B2B Integrator Architecture

Sterling B2B Integrator executes customer-specific business processes. An XML-based business process model directs the order of all processing activities in Sterling B2B Integrator.

Business Process Definitions

Business process definitions are based on the draft Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) specification from the Business Process Management Initiative (www.bpmi.org). Business process definitions are stored in XML and can be created in any editor that can export the XML format recognized by Sterling B2B Integrator.

Services

Sterling B2B Integrator views every activity in a business process as a service. A service can initiate:

• Legacy programs
• ERP systems
• Perl scripts
• Java code
• Decision engines
• Most computer programs

Sterling B2B Integrator supports the reuse of business processes, which allows activities to be implemented as a service, a business process, or sub process.

Reuse also enables business processes to be written with multiple reusable components or as a single large service. For example, Rosetta Net support can be implemented as multiple activities strung together to form a business process or as a single service.

There are several basic types of services, as described in the following table:

Type	Description
Internal	Services that are completely inside Sterling B2B Integrator. Although internal services accept parameters and produce results, they do not directly interact with external systems (systems outside Sterling B2B Integrator).
Input	Services that receive data from external systems.
Output	Services that send data to external systems.
Transport Adapter	Services that use communications protocols like FTP and HTTP to move data into or out of Sterling B2B Integrator.
Application Adapter	Services that interact with external application systems.

Adapters

Adapters are generally defined as services that interact with external systems. They are special cases of services that interact with external systems, or that store or manage state data outside of the workflow context.