Petals ESB is a JBI container, on which can be deployed JBI components.
These components can host native services (with static end-points) or emulated services.
An emulated service is defined through a archive configuration, also called *Service-Unit*.

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A service-unit contains a JBI descriptor (*META-INF/jbi.xml*) and resources (e.g. Java classes or XML files) whose list depends on the target component.
This configuration file and the resources are used by the component to emulate a service.
A given service-unit is intended to be deployed on one specific component. Some service-units may be deployed on several versions of this component.
It all depends on the way the component was implemented and how it reads the service-unit contents.

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A service-unit +can only be+ deployed through a *Service Assembly*.
A service assembly is a ZIP archive which contains one or several service-units (i.e. a ZIP which contains one or several ZIPs).
A service assembly also contains a JBI descriptor (*META-INF/jbi.xml*). This descriptor indicates the target component for each contained service-unit.

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Using a Petals component consists in creating a Service-Unit for this component and deploying it through a Service Assembly.
Each Petals component covers use cases related to integration of applications and/or migration and definition of a Service Oriented Architecture.
Petals Studio, among other features, brings tools to ease the use of these components.

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The different tutorials in this section explain how you can:
* Create service-units for various Petals components.
* Package them in a service assembly for deployment.
* Work in collaboration with other Petals tools.
* Develop for Petals (e.g. components).


h1. Use Guide's Categories

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