Introduction
When programming in any language you often use properties to set particular variables. You use this to reduce "hard-coded" settings and to be independent of different environments. For Oracle BPEL thare are many solutions to use a property mechanism.
Variables
Within a BPEL process you can define variables and assign expressions to it. These variables you can use this in your BPEL process. While these variables are used along the BPEL proces, you define tprhese as global variables.
In the BPEL process an assign must be cartied out to set the variable:
<assign name="Assign_1">
<copy>
<from expression="'marc_soa@vijfhuizen.com'"></from>
<to variable="globalEmailAdress"></to>
</copy>
</assign>
BPEL properties
It is possible to define propertie settings within the BPEL process. The properties are set globally and outside the BPEL process. The properties can be accessed via a internal function.
In the bpel.xml file add the following lines, just before the end-of :
<preferences>
<property name="propertyEmailAddress">marc_soa@vijfhuizen.com</property>
</preferences>
The properties are accessed in the BPEL process (.BPEL file) via the ora:getPreference() function:
ora:getPreference('propertyEmailAdress')
In a next article, we discuss how to use properties from the database an call this via a single BPEL process.
