Welcome to the new world of Oracle. You have picked the right book for gaining expertise in Oracle SOA Suite and certifying yourself as a highly qualified professional in the growing pool of the Oracle SOA Consultant/Developer community. This book will help you to understand the exam objectives for getting the Oracle Service Oriented Architecture Infrastructure Implementation Certified Expert status through the 1Z0-451 Oracle SOA Foundation Practitioner exam. This book will provide you with real-world scenarios for explaining the concepts involved in using Oracle SOA components. The focus of this exam is on the Oracle SOA Suite 11g release.
Service Oriented Architecture is growing in importance day-by-day in the information technology space, and the number of customers implementing SOA solutions is growing as well. Oracle SOA Suite has emerged as a strong player in this field and it is the number 1 ranked middleware product today in the market that supports Open standards, hot pluggable, easy to develop and deploy integration components in agile and nimble fashion. Having expertise in this product will give a bigger edge to your career and provide ample opportunities in an ever changing Oracle World.
Before getting deep into the concepts, this chapter will provide you with an overview of Oracle — its products, its technologies, certification, its benefits, and importance.
In this chapter, we shall attempt to understand the following:
Oracle and products
Oracle SOA Suite 11g
Oracle SOA certification objectives
Why get certified?
Exam details
Exam registration procedure
Most of us should be knowing Oracle as a leading database vendor for many years. However, it has also emerged as a company focused on hardware, software, middleware, solutions, and services by acquiring a large number of companies. Their product catalog now ranges from packaged implementations to solutions and services, middleware, and database products among many industry solutions.
The following figure illustrates it in detail:
Most of us should be knowing Oracle as a leading database vendor for many years. However, it has also emerged as a company focused on hardware, software, middleware, solutions, and services by acquiring a large number of companies. Their product catalog now ranges from packaged implementations to solutions and services, middleware, and database products among many industry solutions.
The following figure illustrates it in detail:
Right after acquisition of PeopleSoft in 2005, Oracle never looked back from the acquisition stream, which can be depicted from the following details:
|
Product Group |
Product Name/Company (Month and Year of Acquisition) |
|---|---|
|
Database |
* DataScaler (October 2010) * e-Test (acquired from Empirix) (March 2008) * Innobase (October 2005) * Moniforce (December 2007) * mValent (February 2009) * Secerno (May 2010) * Sleepycat (February 2006) * TimesTen (June 2005) * TripleHop (June 2005) |
|
Middleware |
* AmberPoint (February 2010) * BEA (January 2008) * Bharosa (July 2007) * Bridgestream (September 2007) * Captovation (January 2008) * ClearApp (September 2008) * Context Media (July 2005) * HyperRoll (September 2009) * GoldenGate (July 2009) * Java (April 2009) * Oblix (March 2005) * OctetString (November 2005) * Passlogix (October 2010) * Sigma Dynamics (August 2006) * Stellent (November 2006) * Sunopsis (October 2006) * Tacit Software (November 2008) * Tangosol (March 2007) * Thor Technologies (November 2005) |
|
Applications |
* AppForge (April 2007) * Haley (October 2008) * Interlace Systems (October 2007) * LogicalApps (October 2007) * Market2Lead (May 2010) * Silver Creek Systems (January 2010) * TempoSoft * Agile (May 2007) * ATG (November 2010) (pending) * Hyperion (March 2007) * PeopleSoft (January 2005) * Primavera (October 2008) * Siebel (January 2006) * Telephony@Work (June 2006) |
|
Server and Storage |
* Sun (April 2009) * Virtual Iron (May 2009) |
|
Industry Solutions |
Communications and Media * Convergin (February 2010) * eServGlobal's Universal Service Platform (USP) (May 2010) * HotSip (February 2006) * MetaSolv Software (October 2006) * Net4Call (April 2006) * Netsure Telecom Limited (September 2007) * Portal Software (April 2006) * Sophoi (October 2009) Engineering and Construction * Primavera (October 2008) Financial Services * i-flex (August 2005) Health Sciences * Phase Forward (April 2010) * Relsys (March 2009) Industrial Manufacturing * Agile (May 2007) * Conformia Software (June 2009) * Demantra (June 2006) * G-Log (September 2005) Insurance * AdminServer (May 2008) * Skywire Software (June 2008) Retail Retail * 360Commerce (January 2006) * Advanced Visual Technology (AVT) (October 2008) * ProfitLogic (July 2005) * Retek (April 2005) Utilities Utilities * LODESTAR (April 2007) * SPL WorldGroup (November 2006) |
With all of this acquisition, Oracle SOA Suite is gaining the importance for integrating the applications for completing business process-oriented fusion applications. Oracle SOA Suite will continue to evolve as the products are acquired by Oracle and as customers tend to use them in a standalone middleware context.
Oracle SOA Suite 11g is a very critical release of the Oracle middleware product set where there is a significant change from the previous release. Oracle SOA Suite 11g has significant changes to its architecture used in the product; it follows SCA (Service Component Architecture) for building Oracle SOA Components, where the components can be integrated using specifications provided by the Service Component Assembly. In Oracle SOA Suite 10g, the components are developed individually and they are integrated using the service calls or native API calls if the service engines are accessible in the same runtime. But Oracle SOA Suite 11g follows a unique style of developing, deploying, and runtime components. The following table shows the major differences between Oracle SOA Suite 10g and 11g:
|
Topic |
10g |
11g |
|---|---|---|
|
Application Server |
Oracle Application Server |
Web logic |
|
Service Bus |
ESB |
Mediator (Note: This will only mediate the request between the Oracle SOA Components in Composite) |
|
Orchestration Engine |
BPEL |
BPEL — new activities such as create, bind, remove entity and signals |
|
SDO Support |
Not available |
Available in BPEL |
|
Component Architecture |
Not available |
SCA |
|
Large File Handling |
Not available |
Available |
|
Scalable DOM Support |
Not available |
Available |
|
Logging Support |
Custom code |
Through policy |
|
DVM |
Available in ESB Console |
Can be created from JDeveloper |
|
Cross Reference |
Available through command-line tool |
Can be created from JDeveloper |
|
Security |
OWSM is used |
Security policies can be used |
|
Business Rules |
Business Rule Console is used to update and edit it |
Rules can be created and updated using JDeveloper |
|
Events |
Only Pick Pattern Supported Events in BPEL |
EDN Framework available for Publishing and Subscribing to events |
|
End-End Tracking of Application |
Not available |
ECID helps to track the instances end-to-end |
|
Fault-Policies |
Only BPEL Faults are supported |
Mediator and BPEL Faults can be handled |
|
Streaming Support in Adapter |
Not available |
Available |
|
Runtime |
Diversified |
Unified |
|
Transformation — Multiple Sources |
Not available |
Available |
|
BAM |
Sensor Framework is used to integrate with BPEL |
Sensor Framework + BAM adapter are provided |
The new features included in Oracle SOA Suite 11g are as follows:
|
Topics |
New Features |
|---|---|
|
Mediator |
Sequential and Parallel Routing Schematron-based Validation Support for All MEP Patterns Assigning values to JCA Properties Ability to publish events using EDN Ability to subscribe to events using EDN |
|
BPEL |
Ability to bind, create, and remove entity objects in ADF-BC partner links |
|
EDN |
Business Events are defined using the event definition language |
|
Enterprise Manager |
End-to-end instance tracking can be done using ECID |
This section will provide you with a list of objectives that are to be covered in the Oracle Service Oriented Architecture Infrastructure Implementation Certified Expert Examination. This book has been arranged in a fashion such that the topics are in-line with the exam objectives.
|
Topic ID |
Topic Name |
Objective ID |
Objective Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Service-Oriented Architecture Concepts |
1.1 |
Describes Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts |
|
1.2 |
Identifies standards that enable SOA | ||
|
1.3 |
Reviews Service Component Architecture (SCA) | ||
|
1.4 |
Describes Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) | ||
|
2 |
SOA Composite Applications |
2.1 |
Describes Oracle SOA Suite 11g components |
|
2.2 |
Describes the service components | ||
|
2.3 |
Defines a composite application | ||
|
2.4 |
Describes the SOA composite editor | ||
|
3 |
Adapters |
3.1 |
Describes adapter concepts and framework |
|
3.2 |
Describes technology adapters: File, Database, JMS, and so on | ||
|
3.3 |
Describes Applications Adapters EBiz suite, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and so on | ||
|
3.4 |
Explains adapter runtime configuration | ||
|
3.5 |
Explains adapter design-time configuration | ||
|
4 |
Orchestrating Services with BPEL |
4.1 |
Explains BPEL components activities and partner links |
|
4.2 |
Describes synchronous and asynchronous BPEL processes | ||
|
4.3 |
Describes message transformations and XSLT | ||
|
4.4 |
Explains parallel flow and conditional branching | ||
|
4.5 |
Explains BPEL integration with Java | ||
|
5 |
Advanced BPEL Concepts |
5.1 |
Describes exception handling in composite applications |
|
5.2 |
Describes the Fault Management Framework | ||
|
5.3 |
Describes compensation handling within a BPEL process | ||
|
5.4 |
Describes correlation concepts | ||
|
6 |
Working with Mediator Components |
6.1 |
Explains the Mediator component and its features |
|
6.2 |
Creates and configures a Mediator service component | ||
|
6.3 |
Creates Mediator routing rules | ||
|
7 |
Human Workflow |
7.1 |
Describes Human Workflow concepts, features, and architecture |
|
7.2 |
Designs Human Tasks and Services | ||
|
7.3 |
Invokes a Human Task from a BPEL process | ||
|
8 |
Oracle Business Rules Concepts |
8.1 |
Explains business rules and concepts |
|
8.2 |
Describes the Oracle Business Rules architecture | ||
|
8.3 |
Describes Oracle Rules Engine | ||
|
8.4 |
Creates a rule with the JDeveloper Rules Designer | ||
|
8.5 |
Integrates a simple rule with a BPEL process | ||
|
9 |
Secure services and Composite Applications |
9.1 |
Explains Web Services and Composite Security |
|
9.2 |
Describes the Fusion Middleware security architecture | ||
|
9.3 |
Understands Security Policy Management, Identity Propagation | ||
|
9.4 |
Describes OWSM Agents | ||
|
10 |
SOA 11g Integration Points |
10.1 |
Describes Oracle Service Bus Concepts and Architecture |
|
10.2 |
Describes Oracle Business Activity Monitoring | ||
|
10.3 |
Describes Oracle B2B | ||
|
11 |
Monitoring and managing SOA 11g Deployment |
11.1 |
Describes deploy and undeploy of an SOA Composite application |
|
11.2 |
Describes management of an SOA Composite application using the Enterprise Manager | ||
|
11.3 |
Describes Enterprise Manager Grid Control SOA Management Packs |
Getting certified in the IT profession provides a greater advantage in many ways. Most of the organizations in recent times have started to insist on the importance of learning as one of the key goals in professional growth. In certain organizations today, award points are provided and considered for promotions from the current level.
Certification will provide an opportunity to gain complete knowledge about the product beyond the simple real world practical implementation techniques that are being followed.
Oracle Justification for getting certified can be obtained from the following link: http://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.getpage?page_id=73
Exam Name: Oracle SOA Foundation Practitioner Duration: 90 minutes
Number of Questions: 60
Exam Price: US$ 195
Pricing may vary slightly by country or by localized currency. Check Pearson VUE's website for the exact pricing in your country.
Passing: 63% (Base %) Passing Score is subjected to change.
Note
Please visit the following links to know more details about the exam http://www.oracle.com/partners/en/knowledge-zone/middleware/oracle-service-oriented-architecture-soa/soa-exam-page-170307.html
http://www.oracle.com/us/education/certification/score-info-079154.html
In this chapter, we have provided you with an overview of the Oracle SOA Certification Exam with the required information to understand the importance of the product and need for you to get certified with this next generation middleware technology.
We are confident that you are convinced to take the certification and make this enjoyable journey with us through next set of chapters.