In this article by Robert van Mölken and Phil Wilkins, the author of the book Implementing Oracle Integration Cloud Service, where we will see creating connections which is one of the core components of an integration we can easily navigate to the Designer Portal and start creating connections.

(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

On the home page, click the Create link of the Connection tile as given in the following screenshot:

Because we click on this link the Connections page is loaded, which lists of all created connections, a modal dialogue automatically opens on top of the list. This pop-up shows all the adapter types we can create. For our first integration we define two technology adapter connections, an inbound SOAP connection and an outbound REST connection.

Inbound SOAP connection

In the pop-up we can scroll down the list and find the SOAP adapter, but the modal dialogue also includes a search field. Just search on SOAP and the list will show the adapters matching the search criteria:

Find your adapter by searching on the name or change the appearance from card to list view to show more adapters at ones.

Click Select to open the New Connection page. Before we can setup any adapter specific configurations every creation starts with choosing a name and an optional description:

Create the connection with the following details:

Click the Create button to accept the details. This will bring us to the specific adapter configuration page where we can add and modify the necessary properties. The one thing all the adapters have in common is the optional Email Address under Connection Administration. This email address is used to send notification to when problems or changes occur in the connection.

A SOAP connection consists of three sections; Connection Properties, Security, and an optional Agent Group. On the right side of each section we can find a button to configure its properties.Let’s configure each section using the following steps:

1. Click the Configure Connectivity button.
2. Instead of entering in an URL we are uploading the WSDL file.
3. Check the box in the Upload File column.
4. Click the newly shown Upload button.
5. Upload the file ICSBook-Ch2-FlightAirlines-Source WSDL.
6. Click OK to save the properties.
7. Click the Configure Credentials button.

   In the pop-up that is shown we can configure the security credentials. We have the choice for Basic authentication, Username Password Token, or No Security Policy. Because we use it for our inbound connection we don’t have to configure this.

8. Select No Security Policy from the dropdown list.
9. This removes the username and password fields.

10. Click OK to save the properties.

    We leave the Agent Group section untouched. We can attach an Agent Group if we want to use it as an outbound connection to an on-premises web service.

11. Click Test to check if the connection is working (otherwise it can’t be used).

    For SOAP and REST it simply pings the given domain to check the connectivity, but others for example the Oracle SaaS adapters also authenticate and collect metadata.

12. Click the Save button at the top of the page to persist our changes.
13. Click Exit Connection to return to the list from where we started.

Outbound REST connection

Now that the inbound connection is created we can create our REST adapter. Click the Create New Connection button to show the Create Connection pop-up again and select the REST adapter.

Create the connection with the following details:

Let’s configure the connection properties using the following steps:

1. Click the Configure Connectivity button.
2. Select REST API Base URL for the Connection Type.
3. Enter the URL were your Apiary mock is running on: http://private-xxxx-yourapidomain.apiary-mock.com.
4. Click OK to save the values.

Next configure the security credentials using the following steps:

1. Click the Configure Credentials button.
2. Select No Security Policy for the Security Policy.
3. This removes the username and password fields.
4. Click the OK button to save out choice.
5. Click Test at the top to check if the connection is working.
6. Click the Save button at the top of the page to persist our changes.
7. Click Exit Connection to return to the list from where we started.

Troubleshooting

If the test fails for one of these connections check if the correct WSDL is used or that the connection URL for the REST adapter exists or is reachable.

Summary

In this article we looked at the processes of creating and testing the necessary connections and the creation of the integration itself. We have seen an inbound SOAP connection and an outbound REST connection. In demonstrating the integration we have also seen how to use Apiary to document and mock our backend REST service.

Resources for Article:

Further resources on this subject:

• Getting Started with Cloud-Only Scenario [article]
• Extending Oracle VM Management [article]
• Docker Hosts [article]