What WSO2 technologies can I use to implement something like this? Is Enterprise Integration the right choice?

Question

I am absolutly new in the WSO2 world and I have the following problem.

I have to developer a toolkit application and the customer says to me that, if possible, they want introduce WSO2 technologies in this project. I will try to explain what exactly this toolkit project have to do to try to understand if and what WSO2 technologies eventually can match with the requirement.

The toolkint project have to do:

1) When executed have to connect to a local database and perform some queries.

2) Use the data obtained from the previous query to create an XML document.

3) Send this XML document into a request to a web service (I think that the content of this XML will be put into the request body of the sended request).

4) Use the web service response to update some data in the local database.

So I am trying to understand if there are some WSO2 technologies that match these requirements or if it is better to create this toolkit as a simple standard Java program.

Searching online I have identified WSO2 Enterprise Integration and WSO2 Data Services Server (that I think it is included into WSO2 Enterprise Integration).

At the beginning I had thought to use Data Services Server to access to the DB, perform the queries and so retrieve data from the DB tables.

But reading the official documentation (https://docs.wso2.com/display/DSS351/About+Data+Services+Server) it seems to me that it is more a technology thinked to expose a DB using web service, infact in this documentation I can read:

Data services provide a convenient mechanism to configure a Web service interface for data in various datasources such as relational databases, CSV files, Microsoft Excel sheets, Google spreadsheets etc...

Infact reading this official tutorial: https://docs.wso2.com/display/DSS351/Quick+Start+Guide

it seems to me that if does the opposite of what I have to do.

IT DOES:

• SET THE DB CONNECTION.
• PERFORM THE QUERY.
• EXPOSE THE DATA RETURNED BY THIS QUERY AS A WEB SERVICE.

I HAVE TO DO:

• SET THE DB CONNECTION.
• PERFORM THE QUERY.
• SEND THE OBTAINED DATA TO A WEB SERVICE (in XML format).

So it seems to me that Data Services Server is not the right choice because it seems to me that more than help me to do data access, data manipulation and send these data to an endpoing it is useful to do data access and to expose these data as a web service (but maybe I am missing something).

So I am trying to understand if WSO2 Enterprise Integration contains some modules that better fulfills my requirements.

Reading the official documentation (https://docs.wso2.com/display/EI600/Enterprise+Integration+Patterns) it seems to me that I can use:

1) BPEL/BPMN process to define the operations flow.

2) It seems to me that I can do DB queries but I always have the same doubt (that it is used to expose the retrieved data as service and not to use internally, it seems to me that this is WSO2 Data Services Server putted into WSO2 Enterprise Integration).

3) I think that this module provides me a way to aggragate data from some queries into an XML document: https://docs.wso2.com/display/EI600/Transforming+Message+Content

4) I can send a request with the previous generated XML usingsomething like this: https://docs.wso2.com/display/EI600/Sending+a+Simple+Message

So can you help me to identify what WSO2 techonlogies I can use to implement something like this or if it is better to implement it manually in pure Java?

Answer 1

1) When executed have to connect to a local database and perform some queries.

R:/For this point you can create a data service using DSS or EI.

2) Use the data obtained from the previous query to create an XML document.

R:/You can create a proxy service using the ESB or EI, inside the proxy service you call the data service created in the previous point(using call mediator) and get the response message in a property mediator to create a new payload message(using payload, enrich or/and a xslt mediator).

3) Send this XML document into a request to a web service (I think that the content of this XML will be put into the request body of the sended request).

R:/Inside the proxy service created in the previous point and after the creation of the new payload message you can send that payload to another webservice using call mediator.

4) Use the web service response to update some data in the local database.

R:/ You can get the response message, create a new payload message and call another data service, or another operation of the same data service created in the first point.

UPDATE 1:

you can use the IDE or the web UI, as you like. for the implementation check this out: Combine two queries using WSO2 ESB as a start.

Inside the IDE you can go to Developer Studio menu, clic in OpenDashboard and create a "ESB Solution Project" or a "ESB Config Project" for the ESB stuff, and a Data Service Project for the data service.