Partner Role Details

ActiveVOS Server User’s Guide

Partner Role Details

A Process Deployment Descriptor file contains an endpoint type for each partner role defined in a partner link. An endpoint type is a binding property that indicates how to communicate with the Web service the process interacts with. The different types give control over specifying services to work with now and in the future. For example, you can “hard-code” a service binding by making it static, or you can select more versatile options for changing and adding new service partners dynamically without redeploying the process.

The endpoint types are defined in the following table.

Endpoint Type	Description
Dynamic	Indicates that the service location (that is, the endpoint reference) is provided dynamically within the BPEL process. The location must be assigned dynamically within a Copy Operation of an Assign activity.
Principal	Indicates the endpoint reference is determined based on the value of the authenticated principal that sent the request to the BPEL process. In this configuration, it is assumed that service endpoints for the BPEL process are secured. When a message arrives on one of these endpoints, the authenticated user’s principal (typically their username) is used as a lookup in ActiveVOS server. The server determines the proper endpoint to use based on the principal and the partner link type being invoked. You can deploy a Partner Definition (.pdef) file to the server for partner lookups. The principal endpoint type provides the security of knowing whom you are dealing with and the flexibility of being able to configure the endpoints independently from the process and its deployment. As in the invoker type, the use of principal implies an asynchronous conversation since it is used to populate the partner role used for a callback. See What is a Partner Definition File? for details.
Static	Indicates the endpoint information is defined in the deployment descriptor file and is used for all invocations of the partner link.

Endpoint Type

Description

Dynamic

Indicates that the service location (that is, the endpoint reference) is provided dynamically within the BPEL process. The location must be assigned dynamically within a Copy Operation of an Assign activity.

Principal

Indicates the endpoint reference is determined based on the value of the authenticated principal that sent the request to the BPEL process. In this configuration, it is assumed that service endpoints for the BPEL process are secured. When a message arrives on one of these endpoints, the authenticated user’s principal (typically their username) is used as a lookup in ActiveVOS server. The server determines the proper endpoint to use based on the principal and the partner link type being invoked. You can deploy a Partner Definition (.pdef) file to the server for partner lookups.

The principal endpoint type provides the security of knowing whom you are dealing with and the flexibility of being able to configure the endpoints independently from the process and its deployment.

As in the invoker type, the use of principal implies an asynchronous conversation since it is used to populate the partner role used for a callback.

See What is a Partner Definition File? for details.

Static

Indicates the endpoint information is defined in the deployment descriptor file and is used for all invocations of the partner link.

An example showing the syntax for specifying the endpoint type in the .pdd file is:

<partnerRole endpointReference="static">