IBM Business Process Manager

integration with
Enterprise Content
Management systems
1. Introduction
IBM Business Process Manager (BPM) provides support for integration with
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) products. IBM BPM 8.0 introduced ECM
operations that can be used in BPM services for interacting with documents and
folders in an ECM system. IBM BPM 8.0.1 introduced the capability for BPM services
and processes to consume events that occurred for documents and folders in an
ECM system.

Detailed information about IBM BPM integration with ECM products is found in the
IBM BPM Information Center ([1]).

2. Integration with specific Enterprise Content

Management products
The IBM BPM integration with ECM products is based on Web services defined by the
Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) 1.0 OASIS standard ([2]).
IBM BPM integration can work with ECM products that provide support for the Web
service interface defined in the CMIS standard. IBM considers an ECM product to be
officially supported after the successful completion of integration tests.

For the invocation of operations provided by the CMIS Web service interface, two
WS-Security configurations have been used:

Technical User A user ID and password that are statically defined for a
particular Enterprise Content Management server in the IBM BPM Process App
settings. The user ID and the password are propagated as part of the request
message in a WS-Security username token SOAP header. Note that the
header is marked as mustUnderstand="false", which enables it to be ignored
by a CMIS provider if it does not support the username token SOAP header. In
addition, IBM BPM always sends an HTTP basic authentication header in the
request message.

Single Sign-On The user ID and credentials of a business user working on

a human service. IBM BPM provides two Coach Views -- Document List and
Document Viewer -- which can be used to define elements of a user interface
that interacts with an ECM product. The user ID and the Lightweight Third-
Party Authentication (LTPA) token are propagated as part of the request
message in a WS-Security binary token SOAP header.

Other authentication mechanisms may be configured in a WS-Security policy for the

IBM BPM Web service interaction with ECM products. However, they have not been
explicitly tested with IBM BPM.

For products implementing the CMIS standard, it is important to note that the CMIS
standard allows some degree of flexibility by defining optional CMIS capabilities.
Differences in the use of these options may influence the way in which applications
must be designed. As an example, some ECM products require a document to be
checked out for updating while others allow a document to be updated directly. The
table below summarizes the support of CMIS capabilities for selected ECM products.
(The CMIS capabilities marked with an asterisk in the table are not relevant for IBM
BPM integration.)

CMIS Capability IBM FileNet IBM Alfresco Microsoft

Content Content Community SharePoint
Manager Manager 4.2 2010
5.1 8.4.3
ACL* none none manage Manage
AllVersionsSearchab true true false False
le
Changes* none none none Objectidsonl
y
ContentStreamUpda pwconly pwconly anytime Anytime
tability
GetDescendants true true true False
GetFolderTree true true true True
Join innerandout none none None
er
Multifiling true true true False
PWCSearchable true false false True
PWCUpdatable true false true true
Query metadataonl metadataonl bothcombine bothseparate
y y d
Renditions* none none read none
Unfiling true true false false
VersionSpecificFilin false false false false
g

IBM BPM integration with ECM products has been tested with IBM BPM 8.0.1.1 and
8.5.0.0. The following sections provide details about the specific ECM products used
in the tests.

2.1. IBM FileNet Content Manager

IBM BPM supports ECM integration with IBM FileNet Content Manager. The
integration has been tested with IBM FileNet 5.1 Content Manager using both the
Technical User and the Single Sign-On security configurations.

For more information about the CMIS support of IBM FileNet Content Manager, see
the IBM FileNet Information Center ([3], [4].

2.2. IBM Content Manager

IBM BPM supports ECM integration with IBM Content Manager. The integration has
been tested with IBM Content Manager 8.4.3 using both the Technical User and the
Single Sign-On security configurations.

For more information about the CMIS support of IBM Content Manager, see the IBM
Content Management Information Center ([5], ([6]).

2.3. Alfresco Community Edition

IBM BPM supports ECM integration with Alfresco Community Edition. The integration
has been tested with Alfresco Community Edition 4.2 using the Technical User
security configuration.

Some known differences should be noted for Alfresco with respect to its CMIS
behavior:

When removing a document from a folder, the Alfresco CMIS operation

removeObjectFromFolder requires the specification of the Parent Folder Id
 (CMIS folderId) parameter even though the CMIS standard defines it as
optional.

When a new version of a document is being created, Alfresco requires a new

unique document name to be specified. This affects all IBM BPM operations
that cause a new version of a document to be created.

For more information about the CMIS support of Alfresco Community Edition, see the
Alfresco CMIS documentation ([7]).

2.4. Microsoft SharePoint

IBM BPM supports ECM integration with Microsoft SharePoint. The integration has
been tested with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 using the Technical User security
configuration.

Note that SharePoint installations may expose the CMIS Web services through a Web
service URL that is not expected by IBM BPM. For example:

http://host_name:port_number/_vti_bin/cmis/soap/RepositoryService.svc/basic

The format of the Web service URL that is expected by IBM BPM is:

http://host_name:port_number/_vti_bin/cmis/soap/RepositoryService

To provide the Web service URL in the format that is expected by IBM BPM, you can
use the Microsoft URL Rewrite approach ([8]). Information about using this approach
is found in the IBM BPM help topic Accessing the SharePoint CMIS provider from IBM
BPM ([9]).

Some known differences should be noted for SharePoint with respect to its CMIS
behavior:

When creating a document, the content (if specified) must not be empty.

When retrieving the list of all document versions, the version-related suffix
must be stripped off the specified document ID.

For WHERE clauses in queries, the IN and LIKE operators are not supported.

For more information about Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Content

Management, see the Microsoft SharePoint TechCenter ([10]).

2.5. Other ECM products

IBM has no current plans to test the integration of IBM Business Process Manager
with other ECM products.

For other ECM products that provide support for the Web service interface defined in
the CMIS 1.0 standard (such as EMC Documentum or OpenText ECM Suite), IBM BPM
integration with these products may still be possible although the products are not
officially supported by IBM BPM.

Some ECM products do not yet provide support for the Web service interface
defined in the CMIS 1.0 standard (such as Oracle Universal Content Management or
Hyland Software OnBase). These products cannot be integrated using the ECM
operations introduced in IBM BPM.

References
[1] IBM Business Process Manager Information Center Integrating with Enterprise
Content Management (ECM) systems:

8.0.1.1 -

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r0m1/topic/com.ibm.wbpm.wle.editor
.doc/modeling/topic/c_ecmworkwithecmsys.html

8.5.0.0 -
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r5m0/topic/com.ibm.wbpm.wle.editor
.doc/modeling/topic/c_ecmworkwithecmsys.html

[2] OASIS Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) 1.0 standard:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/cmis/CMIS/v1.0/os/cmis-spec-v1.0.html

[3] IBM FileNet 5.1 Information Center IBM CMIS for FileNet Content Manager
implementation of the OASIS CMIS specification:

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/p8docs/v5r1m0/topic/com.ibm.installingp8
cmis.doc/cmidv004.htm

[4] IBM FileNet 5.1 Information Center Best practices for developing client
applications for IBM CMIS for FileNet Content Manager:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/p8docs/v5r1m0/topic/com.ibm.installingp8cmis.do
c/cmidv024.htm

[5] IBM Content Management Information Center - Programming IBM CMIS for
Content Manager applications:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cmgmt/v8r4m0/topic/com.ibm.installingcmcmis.d
oc/cmsdv000.htm

[6] IBM Content Management Information Center IBM CMIS for Content Manager
limitations:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cmgmt/v8r4m0/topic/com.ibm.installingcm
cmis.doc/cmspl012.htm

[7] Alfresco Web site Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS):

http://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/CMIS

[8] Microsoft URL Rewrite Module 2.0 for IIS 7:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7435

[9] IBM Business Process Manager Information Center Accessing the SharePoint
CMIS provider from IBM BPM:

8.0.1.1 -

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r0m1/topic/com.ibm.wbpm.wle.editor
.doc/modeling/topic/sharepointaccess.html

8.5.0.0 -
http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r5m0/topic/com.ibm.wbpm.wle.editor
.doc/modeling/topic/sharepointaccess.html

[10] Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Content Content Management Interoperability

Services (CMIS) connector overview (SharePoint Server 2010):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff934619(v=office.14).aspx