To start a business process from an external system, ELMA uses the SOA Connector.
The SOA Connector is a program tool, through which external applications can communicate with ELMA. The SOA Connector is an integral part of ELMA. Any application that uses the SOA architecture (service-oriented architecture) can communicate with ELMA via the SOA Connector.
SOA (service-oriented architecture) is an architectural pattern in computer software design. It is based on using services with standard interfaces. SOA allows different applications (written in different languages, for different platforms and even for different operating systems) to communicate between each other through one standardized interface. With SOA it is possible to create complex cross-premises software systems regardless of the used platforms and development tools.
In case of ELMA, this means that any external application, which supports SOA can handle business processes in ELMA. Handling processes implies starting and completing a process, and loading and receiving context data. The messaging feature allows an external system to manage the execution of a business process.
External programs communicate with ELMA via tokens. Tokens are unique keys for business processes. With tokens it is possible to address a business process directly. In ELMA, to enable SOA Connector, you only have to generate the tokens for business processes. The rest of configuration is for the external application, where the messaging feature has to be set up in order to send messages and process the received ones.
