General standards

Table 145 lists general standards for connector behavior.

Table 145. General standards
Category and Name Description Supported?
Business Object
Foreign key There is no standard defined. If you use this property, check Full and describe how you use it. If you do not use this property, check No.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Foreign key attribute property If this attribute property is set to true, the connector verifies that the value is a valid key. If the key is invalid, the connector returns FAIL. The connector assumes a foreign key is present in the application, and the connector should never try to create an object marked as a foreign key.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Key There is no standard defined. If you use this property, check Full and describe how you use it. If you do not use this property, check No.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Max Length There is no standard defined. If you use this property, check Full and describe how you use it. If you do not use this property, check No.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Required There is no standard defined. If you use this property, check Full and describe how you use it. If you do not use this property, check No.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
metadata driven design The connector can support new business objects without recompiling because business object processing is based on metadata in the business object definition. See Assessing support for metadata-driven design.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Loss of Connection to Application
Connection lost on request processing The connector detects the connection error when processing a business object request and shuts down. The connector logs a fatal error and sends a return code of APPRESPONSETIMEOUT so that email notification can be triggered. See Handling loss of connection to an application.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Connection lost on poll The connector detects the connection error at the time of a poll call and shuts down. The connector logs a fatal error and sends a return code of APPRESPONSETIMEOUT so that email notification can be triggered. See Handling loss of connection to an application.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Connection lost while idle Connector shuts down as soon as the connection to the application is lost. The connector logs a fatal error and sends a return code of APPRESPONSETIMEOUT so that email notification can be triggered.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Connector Properties
ApplicationPassword The connector should use this property value as the password to log in to the application.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
ApplicationUser Name The connector should use this property value as the user name to log in to the application.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
UseDefaults connector property If this connector property is set to true, when the connector processes a business object request with a Create verb, it calls the JCDK or CDK method initAndValidateAttributes().
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Message Tracing
General messaging Messages that identify the business object handlers used for each object. Messages that log each time a business object is posted to Interchange Server, either from gotApplEvent() or consumeSync(). Messages that indicate each time a business object request is received. Guidelines for the trace messages at each trace level 0-5 follow. Note that the connector should deliver all the trace messages applicable at the level of tracing set and lower. See Trace messages.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 0 0 - Message that identifies the connector version. No other tracing is done at this level.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 1 1 - Status messages and identifying (key) information for each business object processed. A message is sent each time the pollForEvents() method is executed.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 2 2 - Messages that identify the business object handlers used for each object the connector processes. Messages that log each time a business object is posted to InterChange Server, either from gotApplEvent()or consumeSync(). Messages that indicate each time a business object request is received.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 3 3 - Messages that identify the foreign keys being processed (if applicable). These messages appear when the connector has encountered a foreign key in a business object or when the connector sets a foreign key in a business object. Messages that relate to business object processing. Examples of this include finding a match between business objects, or finding a business object in an array of child business objects.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 4 4 - Messages that identify application-specific information. Examples of this text include the values returned by the functions that process the application-specific information fields in business objects. Messages that identify entry or exit functions. These messages help trace the process flow of the connector. Messages that trace any thread-specific processing. For example, if the connector spawns multiple threads, a message should log the creation of each new thread.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Trace Level 5 5 - Messages that indicate connector initialization. The messages include the value of each configuration property that has been retrieved from InterChange Server. Messages that detail the status of each thread the connector spawns while it is running.The connector log file contains all statements executed in the application and the value of any variables that are substituted (where applicable). Messages for business object dumps. The connector outputs a text representation of a business object before it begins processing (showing the object the connector receives from the integration broker) and after it has processed the object (showing the object the connector returns to the integration broker).
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Message tracing Do not use the CDK method generateMsg() for tracing; instead, hard-code the message strings for trace messages.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Miscellaneous Features
Java package names All Java-based connectors should follow these package naming standards: com.CompanyName.connectors.ConnectorAgentPrefix Example: com.crossworlds.connectors.XML
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Logging messages The connector logs errors and other information that the user needs regardless of the trace level set for the system. See Error and informational messages.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
CDK method logMsg() Always use the CDK method generateMsg() before calling logMsg().
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
NT service compliance To be NT service-compliant, do not use any method or function that points to STDOUT, for example, the printf() method in C++.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Transaction support An entire business object request must be wrapped in a single transaction. All Create, Update, and Delete transactions for a top-level business object and all of its children should be wrapped in a single transaction. If any failure is detected during the life of the transaction, the whole transaction should be rolled back.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
Special IBM CrossWorlds Values
CxBlank processing On a Create operation, the connector inserts an appropriate blank value for attributes with the value CxBlank. The blank value may be configurable or specific to the application. See Handling the Blank and Ignore values.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A
CxIgnore processing The connector does not set a value in the application for attributes that are passed in with the value CxIgnore when processing Create or Update verbs. See Handling the Blank and Ignore values.
  • _ Full
  • _ Partial
  • _ No
  • _ N/A

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