Phil Wilkins

Come hear us talk at Oracle Open World 2017

On July 28, 2017

The authors of this book will be speaking at Oracle Open World 2017. Come here, and if you have a copy of the book, we’ll be happy to sign it for you.

Oracle Integration Cloud Service Best Practices from the Field [CON1681]

This session explores best practices developed by AMIS and Capgemini for Oracle Integration Cloud Service in real-world scenarios. The best practices cover areas including configuration management, continuous integration, and use of the new REPL tool. Learn the various options for exposing databases to Oracle Integration Cloud Service that will work for the execution agent, and practical techniques for working with very large WSDLs such as the Salesforce interface. This session is presented by the authors of the recently published book “Implementing Oracle Integration Cloud Service,” Robert van Mölken and Phil Wilkins.

Platform and Development: Integration

SPEAKERS

Robert van Mölken, Senior Integration Specialist, AMIS Services BV

Phil Wilkins, Senior Consultant, Capgemini UK Plc

Open World 2017 – ICS Sessions

By Phil Wilkins

On July 5, 2017

In News

As we like all things ICS here. We have teased out of the OOW17 Session Catalogue the ICS sessions for you to consider.

Oracle Integration Cloud Best Practices – Customer Panel [CON7014]
Move from OnPremise Integration Suite to Oracle Integration Cloud [SUN7033]
Digital Transformation: Implementing Oracle IntegrationCloud Service [CON4638]
Integrate Salesforce.com & Workday with Oracle Integration Cloud Service (ICS) [CON7227]
Simplifying Integration in the Cloud – New & Easier ways to Connect Applications [CON7016]
Oracle Integration, API & Process Strategy [CON7118]
ERP & HCM/HRMS Integration made simple with Oracle Integration [CON7020]
Gain Insight into SOA Suite, ICS, PCS applications through Integration Analytics [CON7015] (includes on of the authors of the ICS Book)
Integration Options for On-Premises and Cloud with Oracle E-Business Suite [CON6358]
Reduce the Cost of Integrations While Modernizing Your JD Edwards Architecture [CON6608]
Oracle Cloud Platform Strategy and Roadmap [GEN7119]
Soaring Through the Clouds: Live Demo of 17 Oracle PaaS Services Working Together [CON2920]
Integrating and Securing University Applications with Oracle Cloud Services [CON5983]
The Top 5 PaaS Use Cases Driving Real-World Value for Enterprises [CON7019]

2 Minute Tech Tip

By Phil Wilkins

On June 22, 2017

In News

We have released a 2 minute tech tip through the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) which talks through the creation of a simple end to end integration using Oracle’s Integration Cloud Service (ICS).

ICS Pricing – ICS Definitive Tip #9

By Phil Wilkins

On June 12, 2017

In Definitive Tips

Cloud Costs

ICS pricing is based on two aspects – the number of connections and the number of messages processed. But what constitutes a connection? What happens if I exceed the number of messages or connections?

Interfacing with HCM (or other file source) via FTP – ICS Definitive Tip #8

By Phil Wilkins

On June 5, 2017

In Definitive Tips

The techniques for integrating Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) and several other Oracle SaaS solutions can require the use of Oracle Transactional Business Analysis (OTBI). The need for OTBI comes down to the fact that to access to the relevant data an API is not available. OTBI can be configured to generate a report and then transfer the report using FTP. When the report needs to be consumed by ICS then an obvious FTP location is needed. One such option to hold a file for ICS to retrieve is the FTP server provided with the SaaS services (details here).

However, it has come to light that the original intent for this FTP service was for holding bulk data intended to be used for ‘priming’ your HCM instance. As a place for staging data for ICS is in the mid to long term it isn’t recommended. The roadmap for the SaaS product team may result in removing the FTP server.

FTP Data Staging

So the question begs, where should we put the data coming out of OTBI to be consumed elsewhere? Well the next option would be to use Oracle’s Managed File Transfer (MFT). Although historically listed with SOA Cloud Service (SOA CS), it is independently priced and has become a 1st class citizen of the PaaS family more recently. For MFT to be an option it needs to include an FTP server which it does. But MFT also has the abilities for doing a number of orchestration processes, such as calling web services when files are ready. Meaning no need for downstream processes to have to pole for available files.

Connecting directly to DBaaS – ICS Definitive Tip #7

By Phil Wilkins

On May 16, 2017

In Definitive Tips

DBaaS Enriching an integration from data in a database or DBaaS (Database as a Service) is not an unusual requirement. Many integration use cases today need to access a database that is on-premises. The means to connect to the database is fairly obvious – the connection agent. Our book goes into a lot more detail as to why that is, and the implications of using database connections.

However when it comes to Oracle’s DBaaS a service it would be very easy to assume that given that you’re using two different parts of Oracle’s PaaS that it would be straight forward to connect the two together without an agent. However, at least today whether its on-premises or DBaaS you need to use a connection agent. This does mean that you’ll need an IaaS node to host the connection agent.

This quirk is driven by the fact that there are some scenarios that this does actually make sense. For example – the Oracle domains need to have a high level of isolation, so when the DBaaS is in another domain then the decoupling via the agent makes sense. When your database is in a different zone of the cloud – then you’re running DB calls across what is effectively a wide are network – not good.

Conditional Mapping – ICS Definitive Tip #6

By Phil Wilkins

On April 18, 2017

In Definitive Tips

The question of conditional mapping comes up regularly on the ICS part of community.oracle.com which prompted us to write this blog. So if you want the output of an integration in element X to contain value from element A or B depending upon element C there are a number of answers, each having pros and cons. So let’s look at them before we offer an example of how we would solve the simpler more common problem.. Your choices are ….

Use the power of XSLT within the mapping,
Use the conditional option Within a Basic Map Data or an Orchestration pattern,
Use a custom piece of JavaScript

XLST	Condition in the flow	Custom Javascript
Single path through the integration	Simpler to read and see visually	Can be used either in the condition oer the mapping. Easier to apply than XSLT directly.
ICS doesnt make it the easiest to write this, but reading is fairly easy	Easy to visually understand, but means more maintenance effort	Easy to incorporate, but makes the development process multistep

We have talked about the condition/filtering in the book, and we will tackle the use of JavaScript in its own Definitive Guide, so let’s look at the XSL mapping option, and probably the route that will cover most cases. In many respects this is nothing to do with ICS, and is all about the use of XSLT so you may find it helpful to have an XSLT reference to hand. To this end the following maybe useful:

W3C – perhaps not the easiest to read, but definitely definitive,
XMLSchool far more readable but keeps things simple, and focuses on XSLT to create (X)HTML content

Differentiating the ICS Agent Types – Definitive Tip #5

By Phil Wilkins

On April 10, 2017

In Definitive Tips

In our book we talked about the difference between the agents offered by ICS, namely the Connection and Execution agents. Whilst we differentiated the two, we did focus on the connection agent as this is the type we expect to see used in most cases. However the execution agent still suffers from a level of confusion, and it has been helped by being called ‘ICS on-premises’.

As part of a number of recent conversations the questions and confusion of what the execution agent is and how it works has come up. There is the well known saying ‘a picture is as good as a 1000 words’ which prompted us to develop the diagram below as a power point slide – in its power point form much of the detail is used as an animated build up.

Selecting which iPaaS Product(s) to use – ICS Definitive Tip #4

By Phil Wilkins

On April 4, 2017

In Definitive Tips

In the last few years Oracle’s iPaaS offerings have progressed significantly from one or two solutions such as Mobile Cloud Service to in excess of 35 offerings. This makes it challenging to decide which product(s) to use. The means for selection depends upon a range of factors including:

Most suitable licensing model (ICS provides a lower cost of entry than SOA CS as you’re paying by message volumes)
Development skills and desire to resilience or invest in people (SOA on-premises to SOA CS is easier than a technology change such as ICS)
The amount of control you have in an environment – JCS offers more control than ACCS for example

Short Best Practices Presentation for Oracle Partner Event

By Phil Wilkins

On March 30, 2017

In Supporting Information

The book’s authors presented a brief session on the best practices at a packed Oracle Partner event. The following presentation – shows the material that was presented.

Some of these points are expressed in the book already, others are our Definitive Tips and Guides posts.

Implementing Oracle Integration Cloud Service

Understanding Oracle's Integration Cloud Service and how to get the most out of your implementation

Author: Phil Wilkins (Page 1 of 3)

Come hear us talk at Oracle Open World 2017

Open World 2017 – ICS Sessions

2 Minute Tech Tip

ICS Pricing – ICS Definitive Tip #9

Interfacing with HCM (or other file source) via FTP – ICS Definitive Tip #8

FTP Data Staging

Connecting directly to DBaaS – ICS Definitive Tip #7

Conditional Mapping – ICS Definitive Tip #6

Differentiating the ICS Agent Types – Definitive Tip #5

Short Best Practices Presentation for Oracle Partner Event

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