FRONT ARENA event notification support

If the FRONT ARENA application is set up accordingly, it publishes a message by way of its AMB middleware each time a new object is created or when an existing object is modified or deleted. The bridge component of the adapter is subscribed to all these messages. Each event message received is forwarded to a WebSphere MQ queue.

In order to enable the adapter to handle these events, it must be configured to use this queue as its InputQueue (in its connector specific properties).

Note:
To make sure that no events are lost, this queue should be set up as a persistent queue.

Depending on the settings of the adapter's standard properties, PollStartTime, PollEndTime, and PollFrequency and the value of the connector-specific property PollQuantity, entries in this queue are retrieved by the adapter. Having converted the event messages to business objects, they are forwarded to all collaborations that are capable of processing these types of business objects.

Table 52. Connector configuration: Standard properties

Property name Description Valid values
PollFrequency The amount of time between event polling actions.
  • Integer value (in milliseconds).
  • No, to disable polling.
  • Key, to poll only when the letter p is entered in the connector's command prompt window.

PollStartTime The time to start polling the event queues. HH:MM
(HH is 0 - 23, MM is 0 - 59)
The parameter is disabled if no valid time is specified.
PollEndTime The time to stop polling the event queues. HH:MM
(HH is 0 - 23, MM is 0 - 59)
The parameter is disabled if no valid time is specified.

Table 53. Connector configuration: Connector-specific properties

Property name Description Default
InputQueue One or more event input queues. N/A
PollQuantity The number of messages to retrieve from each queue specified in the InputQueue property during a pollForEvents scan. 1

Components

A WebSphere MQ queue is used for notifying the adapter about any events reported by the bridge component of the adapter.

The attribute, InputQueue, in the connector specific properties of the adapter, must refer to this queue.

Triggering

Each entry in the adapter's InputQueue is considered to be an event. Depending on the value of the adapter's standard property PollFrequency, this queue is either polled regularly (property value HH:MM) or polled when explicitly requested by the user (property value KEY). If the queue is polled regularly, a start and end polling time can be configured by means of the standard properties PollStartTime and PollEndTime.

Create notification

When an event indicating the creation of a new FRONT ARENA object is detected, the adapter tries to create the corresponding business object. The business object name is composed of the value of attribute BOPrefix of the data handler meta-object and the object name extracted by the name handler, as described previously.

If an attribute, <business object name>_<verb>, exists in the static configuration meta-object,

then, the business object is created.

The newly created business object verb is the <verb> part of the meta-object attribute. The business object is sent to all interested collaborations or put in the UnsubscribedQueue if there are no active subscribers. Otherwise, the event message is rejected and moved to the ErrorQueue without being processed.

Table 54. Static configuration meta-object: MO_FrontArena_DefaultConfig

Property name Application-specific information
FA_trade_Create InputFormat=INSERT;

Update notification

When an event indicating the update of a new FRONT ARENA object is detected, the adapter tries to create the corresponding business object. The business object name is composed of the value of attribute BOPrefix of the data handler meta-object and the object name extracted by the name handler, as described previously.

If an attribute <business object name>_<verb> exists in the static configuration meta-object,

then, the business object is created.

Its verb is the <verb> part of the meta-object attribute. The business object is sent to all interested collaborations or put in the UnsubscribedQueue if there are no active subscribers.

Otherwise, the event message is rejected and moved to the ErrorQueue without being processed.

Table 55. Static configuration meta-object: MO_FrontArena_DefaultConfig

Property name Application-specific information
FA_trade_Update InputFormat=UPDATE;

Delete notification

When an event indicating the deletion of a new FRONT ARENA object is detected, the adapter tries to create the corresponding business object. The business object name is composed of the value of attribute BOPrefix of the data handler meta-object and the object name extracted by the name handler, as described previously.

If an attribute <business object name>_<verb> exists in the static configuration meta-object,

then, the business object is created.

Its verb is the <verb> part of the meta-object attribute. The business object is sent to all interested collaborations or put in the UnsubscribedQueue if there are no active subscribers.

Table 56. Static configuration meta-object: MO_FrontArena_DefaultConfig

Property name Application-specific information
FA_trade_Delete InputFormat=DELETE;

Archiving

If a valid WebSphere MQ queue is specified in the adapter's application configuration property, ArchiveQueue, any successfully processed events are archived in the queue. Otherwise, no archiving is performed by the adapter.

Note:
It is recommended that you clean up the archive queue regularly.

Recovery

The adapter has the standard recovery behavior of the WebSphere MQ adapter. If an event message cannot be processed due to an invalid or unsupported format, it is stored in the ErrorQueue, if this queue is defined in the adapter configuration. Otherwise, it is simply discarded.

Any other type of error encountered by the adapter is recorded in the adapter's log file. Depending on the type and gravity of the error, the adapter either retries to perform the operation or terminates.

Unsubscribed events

Events that no collaboration has subscribed to are stored in the UnsubscribedQueue, if this queue is defined in the adapter configuration. Otherwise, they are discarded.

If a subscriber becomes active at some later point in time, such events may be re-processed by moving them to the InputQueue.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2004