Helper Product Layer
In certain situations, you cannot specify certain sequences in the standard TIBCO Fulfillment Order Management program, and you need to use multiple back-end calls to perform a single action. To simplify the process TIBCO provides a layer of helper products to use as a workaround in this situation.
Pattern Rationale
The standard TIBCO Fulfillment Orchestration Suite behavior specifies that an action ordered on a parent product results in an execution plan containing the process components for the same action for the child products.
In some cases, you may need to use a CEASE action to implement an UPDATE action followed by a PROVIDE action. However, you cannot specify this sequence in standard TIBCO Fulfillment Order Management.
This example requires multiple back-end calls to perform a single action on a product.
Pattern Realization
The workaround for this situation is to provide a layer of helper products below the technical product layer, one for each of the back-end calls.
In this case, TIBCO Fulfillment Orchestration Suite handles the orchestration enabling you to keep the process components simple and directly reuse process components. For example, if you need to update a technical product using a CEASE action followed by a PROVIDE action, those process components can be directly reused by the helper products defined for those actions.
