Issue - 63 - Support of Array

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Issue - 63 - Support of Array

Status: open
Date added: 15 Sep 2003
Submitter: Ricky Ho
Date submitted: 15 September 2003
Description: Can BPEL declare a variable as a "collection" for a particular message type 
?  For example, if there is a <while> which will receive multiple incoming 
messages into an array variable.  How does the BPEL look like ?

I'm not proposing to define a new data type system for BPEL. We should leverage what is already in XML schema. Although in the XML schema there is a construct to declare repetitive occurrence of element structure, it is designed for describing the XML document being exchanged ? There is a difference between "there are some repetitive elements within a document" and "there are multiple documents".

Therefore, I propose that we need to support "Array"

For example, if a seller is receiving multiple POMessage from multiple buyers, (assuming the complex type of POMessage is already defined), the BPEL will look like this ..

<process>
   <variables>
     <array name="poArray" type="POMessage"/>
   </variables>


   <sequence>
     <iterate array="poArray" count="10">
       <receive partner="buyer" ... array="poArray"/>
     </iterate>
....
   </sequence>
</process>

Links: Ricky Ho, 13 Sep 2003     
Ricky Ho, 13 Sep 2003     
Mark Little, 15 Sep 2003     
Ron Ten-Hove, 15 Sep 2003
Changes: 15 Sep 2003 - new issue

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