A Comprehensive Guide to IBM WebSphere Host Publisher Version 3.5

Chapter 11. Composite applications 325

11.3.1 Recommended procedure

As an example, if you have an input page called inputForm and three execution

pages called output1, output2 and output3, you can follow this procedure to

create this type of composite application using the Host Publisher Studio

wizards:

1. Create a new application.

2. Import the Integration Objects into the project.

3. For the first Integration Object, specify that it should be placed on execution

page output1. Satisfy the first Integration Object's inputs using an input form

on a page called inputForm. This inputForm page will submit results to the

output1 page.

4. Render the first Integration Object's output to a list box control. Because a list

box also serves as an input control (since you can select an item out of the

list), a form is defined for it on output1. Do not specify a page for this form's

destination.

5. For the second Integration Object, specify that it should be placed on

execution page output2. Satisfy the second Integration Object's inputs using

the input controls created on page output1. The input form on output1 is

modified to point to output2 as the destination for the data.

6. Specify that the second Integration Object's output should go into a list box,

creating a new form without a destination page.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the third Integration Object. Specify output3 as the

execution page and output2 as containing the form providing input.

The result is an interactive composite application that enables a user to interact

with data before it is passed to the next Integration Object. The application

consists of four pages: inputForm, output1, output2, and output3. Pages

inputForm, output1, and output2 each have input forms that provide data to the

Integration Object on the next page. Pages output1, output2, and output3 all

show the data resulting from executing the Integration Objects on that page.

11.4 Sequencing IOs between non-adjacent pages

You can create a composite application similar to the one described in 11.2,

“Sequencing Integration Objects on a single page” on page 321, but in this case

the Integration Objects reside on different pages. The output of one Integration

Object is stored within the Web session and retrieved by another Integration

Object.

326 IBM WebSphere Host Publisher Version 3.5

For example, you can use this type of composite application to send an output

value from an Integration Object as input on another page where an input form is

not involved.

Figure 11-4 Sequencing Integration Objects between non-adjacent pages

In our scenario, there is no form between execution page 1 that contains the first

Integration Object that returns an employee's department number, and execution

page 2 that takes the department number and returns all the employees in that

department. In other words, there is no way to send data from the first page to

the next.

Using Host Publisher Studio, you can cause the first Integration Object to save

the department number within the Web session to be retrieved by the second

Integration Object.

For this scenario, we can summarize the process as follows (see Figure 11-4):

1. The input page is invoked.

2. The user enters an employee name and submits the request to invoke

execution page 1.

3. Execution page 1 invokes the first Integration Object that takes the employee

name as input and returns the employee department number.