To start, we will use the BPEL_and_Java_1_1 process. We change the schema definition of the response message. Open the BPEL_and_Java_1_1.xsd file and change the response part of the element:

<element name="processResponse">
  <complexType>
    <sequence>
      <element name="resultFmtBPEL" type="string"/>
     <element name="resultFmtJava" type="string"/>
    </sequence>
  </complexType>
</element>

Open the BPEL_and_Java_1_1 process and place a new assign activity (FormatBPEL) into it. The code for the assign activity is as follows:

<assign name="FormatBPEL">
 <copy>
  <from expression="ora:format('At {0} on {1} the BPEL was initiated with the following input parameter: {2}.',xp20:current-time(),xp20:current-date(),bpws:getVariableData('inputVariable','payload','/client:process/client:input') )"/>
  <to variable="outputVariable" part="payload"
    query="/client:processResponse/client:resultFmtBPEL"/>
 </copy>
</assign>

With the code, we formatted a message that contains the date and input message information. We assign the result to the output part of the variable (resultFmtBPEL).

We will now format the same message with the help of the Java Embedding activity. Start by adding the Java Embedding activity (FormatJava) into the BPEL_and_Java_1_1 process. The code snippet for the FormatJava activity is as follows:

Both the methods described in this recipe use the same principle of formatting the messages. Actually, the BPEL method ora:format uses the same Java class that we used in this recipe (java.text.MessageFormat).

Oracle defines a set of utility functions to be utilized, summarized by the section in which we can find them in JDeveloper Expression Builder.