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Sending a Simple Message to a Datasource

Let’s try a simple scenario where a patient makes an inquiry specifying the doctor's specialization (category) to retrieve a list of doctors that match the specialization. The required information is stored in an H2 database that is shipped with this product. We will create a data service in the ESB profile of WSO2 Enterprise Integrator (WSO2 EI), which will expose the information in the database, thereby decoupling the client and the database layer in the back end. The client will then communicate with the data service hosted in WSO2 EI to get the required information instead of communicating directly with the back end.


In this tutorial, we will define a data service in the ESB profile of WSO2 EI to expose the back-end database. A client can then invoke the data service to send messages to the database. If you want to use a back-end service instead of a database, see the tutorial on sending a simple message to a service.

Let's get started!

This tutorial includes the following sections:

Downloading and set up WSO2 EI

  1. Install Oracle Java SE Development Kit (JDK) version 1.8.* and set the JAVA_HOME environment variable.
  2. Download the WSO2 EI ZIP file from here, and then extract the ZIP file. 
    The path to this folder will be referred to as <EI_HOME> throughout this tutorial.

Let's set up a back-end database for the healthcare service. We will create a database named DATA_SERV_QSG in the <EI_HOME>/samples/data-services/database directory for this purpose.

  1. Download the dataServiceSample.zip file and extract it to a location on your computer. Let's call this location <Dataservice_Home>. This contains a DB script for updating the back-end database with the channelling information of the healthcare service.
  2. Open a terminal, navigate to the <Dataservice_Home> directory and execute the following command:

    When executing the below command, replace the <PATH_TO_EI_HOME> with the folder path of your WSO2 EI distribution. For example, if your WSO2 EI distribution (i.e., <EI_HOME>) is located in the /Users/Documents/ directory, execute the following command: ant -Ddshome=/Users/Documents/wso2ei-6.x.x

    Also, you need to install Apache Ant to execute this command.

    ant -Ddshome=<PATH_TO_EI_HOME>

The database is now updated with information on all available doctors in the healthcare service.

Starting WSO2 EI

Follow the steps given below to start the ESB runtime of WSO2 EI and create the data service"

  1. Open a terminal and navigate to the <EI_HOME>/bin directory.
  2. Execute one of the following scripts to start the ESB profile of WSO2 EI.
    • On Windows: integrator.bat --run
    • On Linux/Mac OS: sh integrator.sh
  1. In your Web browser, navigate to the ESB profile's management console using the following URL:  https://localhost:9443/carbon/.
  2. Log into the management console using the following credentials:
    • Username: admin
    • Password: admin

Exposing a datasource through a data service

Now, let's start creating the data service using the management console.

  1. Click Save.
  2. Now, let's create another query that can get the doctor information based on specialization.
    1. Click Add New Query to open the Add New Query screen.
    2. Enter the following values:

      FieldValue
      Query IDselect_DOCTORS_from_SPECIALITY_query
      Datasourcedefault 
      SQL
      SELECT NAME, HOSPITAL, SPECIALITY, AVAILABILITY, CHARGE FROM PUBLIC.DOCTORS WHERE SPECIALITY=?
    3. Click Generate Input Mappings and a new input mapping record will be created. 

    4. Edit the record and change the Mapping Name to SPECIALITY, and click Save. You will now have the following input mapping:

      Input mappings allow you to add parameters to a query so that you can set the parameter value when executing the query. According to the above definition, you need to provide the SPECIALITY as an input in order to retrieve the data corresponding to the SPECIALITY.

    5. Click Main Configuration, to go back to the main configuration after adding the input mapping.

    6. Click Generate Response to automatically create mappings for the fields. 

    7. Under the Result (Output Mapping) section, change the values of the following fields

      Grouped by elementDOCTORList
      Row nameDOCTOR

      The output mapping will be as shown below.

      Output mapping specifies how the data that is fetched from your query is shown in the response. Note that, by default, the output type is XML.

  3. Click Save and then click Next to open the Operations screen.
    Since we are exposing the data as a REST resource, we do not need an operation. An operation is needed only if you are exposing the data as a SOAP operation.
  4. Click Next to open the Resources screen.
    1. Click Add New Resources to open the Add Resources screen. 
      Let's first create a resource to invoke the select_all_DOCTORS_query:

      FieldValue
      Resource Path/getAllDoctors
      Resource MethodGET
      Query IDselect_all_DOCTORS_query
    2. Click Save to save the resource.
  5. Now, let's create another resource to invoke the select_DOCTORS_from_SPECIALITY_query.
    1. Click Add New Resources to open the Add Resources screen and enter the following details:

      FieldValue
      Resource Path/getDoctors
      Resource MethodGET
      Query IDselect_DOCTORS_from_SPECIALITY_query
    2. Click Save to save the resource.
  6. Click Finish after you have defined the resources to complete the data service creation process. You are now taken to the Deployed Services screen, which shows all the data services deployed on the server including the one you created. 
    created new data service group

Sending requests to the ESB

Let's send a request to the data service, which is now deployed in the ESB profile of WSO2 EI. You will need a REST client like curl for this.

  1. Open a command line terminal and enter the following request to get the information of all the doctors specializing under surgery.

    curl -v http://localhost:8280/services/DOCTORS_DataService/getDoctors?SPECIALITY=surgery

    You can use the specialties listed below in your request too:

    • cardiology

    • gynaecology

    • ent

    • paediatric

  2. You see the following response message from data service with a list of all available doctors and relevant details.

    <DOCTORSLIST xmlns="http://ws.wso2.org/dataservice">
    <DOCTOR>
        <NAME>thomas collins</NAME>
        <HOSPITAL>grand oak community hospital</HOSPITAL>
        <SPECIALITY>surgery</SPECIALITY>
        <AVAILABILITY>9.00 a.m - 11.00 a.m</AVAILABILITY>
        <CHARGE>7000</CHARGE>
    </DOCTOR>
    <DOCTOR>
        <NAME>anne clement</NAME>
        <HOSPITAL>clemency medical center</HOSPITAL>
        <SPECIALITY>surgery</SPECIALITY>
        <AVAILABILITY>8.00 a.m - 10.00 a.m</AVAILABILITY>
        <CHARGE>12000</CHARGE>
    </DOCTOR>
    <DOCTOR>
        <NAME>seth mears</NAME>
        <HOSPITAL>pine valley community hospital</HOSPITAL>
        <SPECIALITY>surgery</SPECIALITY>
        <AVAILABILITY>3.00 p.m - 5.00 p.m</AVAILABILITY>
        <CHARGE>8000</CHARGE>
    </DOCTOR>
    </DOCTORSLIST>