Introduction

Business Integration Components (BICs) are an extension of EPX. BICs are used to integrate data, files, and messages from external file systems and third-party applications, and to automate activities in a process.

BICs are independent programs that present a specific interface to EPX’s Application Server, through which they return details about themselves and accept requests to handle work items. Like human participants, BICs can create work items, receive and modify work items; return work items to the process; and interface with external systems. Once a BIC has been registered with an instance of EPX’s Application Server, that BIC can be used for a number of times in any number of flows running in that server instance.

The Command Line BIC permits you to execute a script at the operating system command line or shell, and provides the ability to execute commands on the system where the BIC’s associated BIC Manager resides. When implementing the Command Line BIC to modify a work item’s hash table, you must specify the script file (which must already exist) and the hash table keys of work item to be used. The hash table is not updated directly when the Command Line BIC executes a script, but rather the script must produce a file that can then be loaded with the Work Item Import/Export BIC, at which point the work item’s hash table is modified. (See the Work Item Import/Export BIC guide for more information.).

Note: You can use the Command Line BIC in any process flow or subflow. This BIC, however, cannot be a starting point.