Adapter services allow you to connect to the adapter's resource (that is, an application server) and initiate an operation on the resource from Integration Server.

You call adapter services from a flow or Java service to interact with EJB instances on an application server. For information about using the services in a flow, see Creating Flows for Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans Services. To see how to use the services in different operations, see Scenarios.

At design time, the adapter obtains information about each EJB deployed on the application server. For each EJB, this information includes its home interface (for 2.1 adapter services only), the home methods it exposes and their signatures, and its corresponding remote interface methods. The adapter gets this information directly from JNDI or from the local cache. From this information, you configure adapter services. Integration Server then uses adapter connections that you defined earlier to execute the adapter services.

You configure adapter services using the templates provided with Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans. Each template represents a specific technique for doing work on a resource, such as creating an EJB on an application server. An adapter service template contains all the code necessary for interacting with the resource but without the data specifications. You provide these specifications when you configure a new adapter service. The adapter provides different versions of templates for creating adapter services for use with the EJB 3.0 or EJB 2.1 standards.

You use Designer to configure the adapter service. Some familiarity with using Designer is required. For more information, see the webMethods Service Development Help for your release.

Configuring a new service from an adapter service template is straightforward. Using Designer, you assign the service an adapter connection. After you select the connection for the adapter service, you select the adapter service template to use. At this point, depending on which template you have chosen, the adapter automatically populates EJB-specific fields and menus in the adapter service editor tabs. You then use the editor to manipulate these fields to configure the adapter service.

The input signature for an adapter service template is predefined and depends on the specific signature(s) of the EJB method(s) selected. You can re-name the method parameters, but you cannot re-define the types of any method parameters.

The output signature is predefined and is always the same for a given template class. You cannot change any of the parameter names or re-define the types.

Each adapter service you configure can be used as a standalone, executable entity. However, you can also incorporate your adapter services in flow services or Java services to implement some business workflow. Using the Flow Service Editor in Designer, you can create intelligent business applications wrapped around Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans services. For more information about creating flows with adapter services you configure using Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans, see Creating Flows for Adapter for Enterprise Javabeans Services.