BPM 10g-12c Migration: Handling Excel Files as Input by Mark Foster

Introduction

With the introduction of BPM 12c comes the long-awaited migration tool to migrate BPM 10g projects to BPM 12c.

The A-Team have been heavily involved with the effort to create collateral around this tool – patterns, approaches, samples, tutorials, labs etc.

One of the common patterns in BPM 10g is using an Excel spreadsheet as input to a process which led me to investigate how this could be replicated in 12c. What follows is a step-by-step guide to achieving an example of this. Note that this blog will not deliver an enterprise production solution but will at least provide a working example which can be built upon as required.

Approach

Handling files in SOA Suite 11g & 12c is standard functionality with the file and ftp adapters… so we’ll use the file adapter for this example.

Handling CSV files is also straightforward, they can be specified as input in the file adapter wizard… so we can use a CSV file as input to the process.

Apache POI is a standard open source approach to converting Excel to a.n.other file format…. so we can use this to convert the Excel to CSV.

The file adapter and FTP adapter in 12c (and 11g) provide a feature known as “pipelines and valves” for pre-processing (and post-processing) of files prior to delivery to the composite…. so we can use this as the point of conversion for our file.

Given we now know the approach we can begin to build the example….

The Example Project

Examine the Input Spreadsheet / CSV File

We’ll be using a simple excel spreadsheet of orders….

Read the complete article here.

SOA & BPM Partner Community

For regular information on Oracle SOA Suite become a member in the SOA & BPM Partner Community for registration please visit www.oracle.com/goto/emea/soa (OPN account required) If you need support with your account please contact the Oracle Partner Business Center.

Blog Twitter LinkedIn Facebook Wiki