webMethods Overview

Software AG webMethods is one of the most popular and growing Enterprise Application Integration tool in the market today. webMethods is based on Hub and Spoke Architechture, Hub and spoke is some thing where you have a centralized server, and all the data lines extending from it like spokes.

This blog mainly refer to the overview of webMethods and its main components:

Designer: webMethods Designer is an eclispse based IDE which is used for multiple(Almost all) purpose from version 8.x onwards. For every specific work you do on designer you need to select the appropriate prospective in designer itself. For example if you want to do BPM development then you need to select Process Development prospective.
The various purpose of Designer are listed below-
1) CAF Portlets Development.
2) BPM Development including designing, buiding KPIs and deploying.
3) Service Development including Flow, java, adaptor, webservice etc..
4) Deploying to my webMethods server.
5) DSP Page development.

Developer: webMethods Developer is an IDE used for purely service development, you can connect to varoius instances of Integration servers. However SAG have deprecated this IDE from webMethods Version 8.2 onwards, and all the features were made available only in Designer.

Integration Server: webMethods Integration server is the server where services resides, it supports mapping of data between different formats, communication between systems etc. It can also be reffered as backbone/core of webMethods Enterprise Service Bus (ESB).

Broker: webMethods Broker is the main messaging component of webMethods, it supports synchronous and asynchronous message based integrations using publish-subscribe model, generally called as Pub-Sub Model. Broker can be connected to multiple Integration servers whereas vice versa is not true.

MywebMethods Server: This component of webMethods is majorily used for Portal development and monitoring purpose. It is basically a portal based server hosted over jetty. It is used for monitoring business process models, integration server, broker, trading networks and for administration purpose as well.

Trading Network: This component of webMethods is used for B2B transactions. It helps to communicate with external entities know as Partener. It supports many of the standards like EDI, RosettaNet, SWIFT, ebXML etc.