Use the Right Type of Module:

• Think about mediation logic vs. process logic.
• Use Mediation Modules (Oracle ESB) for integration / mediation logic:
  • Short-running, minimal choreography.
  • Supports header manipulation.
• Use (Integration) Modules (Oracle 11g Suite) for business / process logic:
  • Can be long-running, powerful choreography and business logic

Design your System Topology

• Check if need more than one server.
• Use clustering for scalability, For failover etc
• Database selection.
• Need to use a load balancer / HTTP server for failover and scalability.

Spend Time on Interfaces and Business Objects

• Refactoring support is limited inside mediation flows, so good to get this right first time round.
• Adopt a naming convention.
• Add constraints?
  • Add modelled faults?
• Think about namespaces.
• Configure default namespace policy before you start.

Consider How you Split up Mediation Modules

• How many mediation flows inside each mediation flow component?
  • Large number of modules impacts performance / deployment.
  • Small number impacts ease of development.
• Remove unused library content.

Select your Binding Types Carefully

• Often binding type dictated by circumstance.
• But if you have the scope to decide:
  • Prefer SCA default/native for inter communications
  • Prefer Web Services for synchronous service exposure
  • Prefer JMS for asynchronous service exposure
• Sometimes you have alternatives. For example:
  • Web Services binding : allows easy access to SOAP headers
  • Or
  • HTTP with SOAP data binding : allows access to HTTP headers but not SOAP headers

Consider your Custom Coding Strategy

• Custom mediation:
  • Most useful for one-off coding.
  • Cannot be re-used between modules.
  • ‘Visual’ mode available which may be useful to those less comfortable with Java/SDO API.
  • Custom primitive (also called roll-your-own primitive):
  • A first-class new primitive: same abilities as any other primitive type (XSLT, Endpoint Lookup…).
  • Can have customisable properties.
  • Appears in palette in WID.
  • More re-usable, but more work to create.

Consider your Logging Strategy

• You will want one; consider it before you start developing.
• Options include:
  • Message Logger – limited functionality – logs only to a fixed schema database table.
  • JDBC or Flat File Adapter (in separate mediation module?)
  • Custom mediations logging.
  • Custom primitives.

Use Source Control & Do Automated Builds

• Use source control and integrate with IDs
• Only one developer per mediation module at once.
• Automated build direct from source control.

Do Unit Testing
Do the unit testing before check –in