This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
6.6 Recipient List
By Saurabh Sahai
Often, it is required that a message be selectively sent to more than one recipient. The recipients that are to receive each message are determined either dynamically, based on the message content, or statically, based on external business rules. For example, an expense approval request message, pertaining to expenses below a certain amount, may get sent to the immediate manager for approval, whereas a message above the defined limit must also be sent to the business unit head for special approval.
A recipient list processor is similar to a Content-based Router; however, unlike a Content-based Router that routes the message to a specific destination based on message content, a recipient list processor sends the message to one or more designated recipients. The list of recipients can be static, hardcoded within the implementation, or dynamic, provided to the implementation from an externally maintained source. The latter approach provides greater flexibility as it allows the recipient list to be dynamically configured.
In Java CAPS, a recipient list can be implemented using either a JCD or a Business Process. In either case, once the message is received, the list of intended recipients is computed from the available recipients, and the message is forwarded as required.
The Java Collaboration shown in Figure 6-10 receives an expense report message for an amount greater than $300. Based on business rules, the collaboration looks up additional approvers that are required to approve this expense report and sends a copy of the message to these approvers in addition to the default approver. This is an example of a dynamic recipient list, where the collaboration uses information stored in an external store such as the organization's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to create the required recipient list. Exception processing has been omitted in Figure 6-10 to focus on the essentials of the example.
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Figure 6-10 Recipient list example
In the example in Figure 6-10, the additional approval threshold has been hardcoded within the Java Collaboration. In a more realistic example, externally configurable delegation of authority rules would be loaded into the collaboration using one of the techniques for dealing with dynamic runtime reconfiguration of components, discussed elsewhere in the book.
The example uses a hypothetical sendMail() method to send the expense report to a recipient for approval. The collaboration could have equally validly used multiple JMS Destinations, a single JMS Destination with target recipient indicated using JMS user properties, a Batch eWay, WebSphere MQ eWay, or any number of other endpoints, as dictated by the environment or business requirements.