How the adapter works

The adapter for eMatrix is bi-directional. It can process events originating from the eMatrix system, and requests sent by the integration broker to the eMatrix system.

Event notification

The adapter detects and processes events through a polling mechanism. This allows you, as the user, to set event priorities and control the frequency of event detections and the number of events that the adapter can process. With this level of control, you can balance the adapter load within the larger system and smooth the path of any critical events. These values are set in the adapter's configurable properties (see "Configuring the connector").

The adapter makes use of Java Program Objects (JPOs) and eMatrix business object definitions to store and transmit information about events. IBM provides two default JPOs, which you may use if you choose. They are:

The text assumes that you are using the default WBIEventLogger JPO. For details on the structure of eMatrix objects, refer to "Understanding business objects".

The WBIEventLogger JPO is the crux of event notification. You can define triggers to invoke this JPO whenever any action is associated with a specific business object or relationship. The JPO uses the object ID and the specified options to create a new event business object or relationship in eMatrix.

For example, if you want to track events involving an object type called "Part Assembly", you can configure eMatrix to invoke the JPO when such actions occur. When the trigger fires, the JPO records the PartAssembly ID and the type of action taken during the event.

For details on defining triggers, refer to "Configuring the JPOs"..

Note:
Event notification is an asynchronous process. The adapter does not support synchronous event notification.

Event retrieval

When the adapter polls the application, it queries eMatrix for unprocessed events. It checks for all events that have a value of READY_FOR_POLL for the configuration property EventStatus. The adapter retrieves the event records that the WBIEventLogger JPO has created.

All events exist in the same vault. The adapter reads the EventVault property value in at startup.

The adapter then retrieves the associated eMatrix object and sends it to the integration broker. The adapter may also archive the event in eMatrix once it has been published to the integration broker.

Information about events is held in the eMatrix objects called "<prefix>_Event" for unprocessed events, and "<prefix>_Archived_Event" for processed events. The adapter uses status codes to track the state of events.

If the adapter terminates unexpectedly, it may report "in-doubt" events when it is restarted. An event is labeled in-doubt when the adapter is unable to determine whether it was successfully published to the integration broker or not. The adapter must process these events before it attends to any normal events. For details on what actions it takes, refer to "Processing errors".

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