In addition to creating services with Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans that enable you to invoke methods on EJBs deployed on an application server, you can also invoke services on webMethods Integration Server (IS) from an EJB. The IS services invoked can be any service available on Integration Server. This model does not interact with Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans, although an EJB developer could use this functionality to invoke an adapter service created by Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans.

To demonstrate this functionality, you should work with the following components:

Through the APIs, an EJB may establish an HTTP connection to Integration Server and instruct it to execute a particular service. Upon completion, the service results are returned to the EJB. Upon receiving the results, you can have the EJB, process this information, to suit its needs. Inputs to and outputs from the service are passed using webMethods proprietary IData objects. Included in the API used by the EJB are tools for creating and manipulating IData instances. This interaction is logically depicted in the following diagram.

The following sections describe each of these components and explain how an EJB developer might implement code that invokes services on Integration Server.