IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Advanced development topics > Assuring Quality of Service > Quality of service qualifier reference

Activity session qualifier

The activity session qualifier determines if the component's processing will be run under an activity session, which provides an alternative unit-of-work scope to the one provided by a transaction context.

An activity session can be longer-lived than a global transaction and can encapsulate global transactions. Activity sessions are used to scope or coordinate local transactions. They are used for microflows when it is not possible to use a global transaction – for example, when the microflow uses more than one resource that only supports one-phase-commit. Activity sessions provide a solution by coordinating the one-phase commit process. If an activity session rolls back, changes are undone. An activity session context can be longer lived than a global transaction context and can encapsulate global transactions.

Microflows run on one physical thread from start to end without interruptions. As the name suggests, microflows are small in footprint and fast in execution. A microflow requires a transaction, but that can be a global transaction or a local one inside an activity session.

Location: The activity session qualifier can be set on an implementation.

Settings: The activity session Value qualifier can have these settings:

• 
  True - There must be an established activity session in order to run this component. The runtime environment may use the provided activity session for the execution of this implementation, or if none is provided, the runtime environment will create a new activity session.

• 
  False - The component does not run under an activity session, even if one is propagated to the hosting runtime environment.

• 
  Any (default) - If an activity session has been propagated from the client, the runtime environment will dispatch methods from the component in the activity session; otherwise, the component will not run under any activity session.

Application: Activity sessions were implemented for use with BPEL and compensation.

Programming notes

Global transaction qualifiers and activity session qualifiers are mutually exclusive.

Quality of service qualifier reference

Related reference:
Join activity session qualifier
Suspend activity session qualifier