When you create and name a new connector configuration file, or when you open an existing connector configuration file, Connector Configurator displays a configuration screen with tabs for the categories of required configuration values.
Connector Configurator requires values for properties in these categories for connectors running on all brokers:
For connectors running on ICS, values for these properties are also required:
Standard properties differ from connector-specific properties as follows:
The fields for Standard Properties and Connector-Specific Properties are color-coded to show which are configurable:
To change the value of a standard property:
To get more information on a particular standard property, left-click the entry in the Description column for that property in the Standard Properties tabbed sheet. If you have Extended Help installed, an arrow button will appear on the right. When you click on the button, a Help window will open and display details of the standard property.
If installed, the Extended Help files are located in <ProductDir>\bin\Data\Std\Help\<RegionalSetting>\.
For connector-specific configuration properties, you can add or change property names, configure values, delete a property, and encrypt a property. The default property length is 255 characters.
If the Extended Help files are installed and the AdapterHelpName property is blank, Connector Configurator will point to the adapter-specific Extended Help files located in <ProductDir>\bin\Data\App\Help\<RegionalSetting>\. Otherwise, Connector Configurator will point to the adapter-specific Extended Help files located in <ProductDir>\bin\Data\App\Help\<AdapterHelpName>\<RegionalSetting>\. See the AdapterHelpName property described in the Standard Properties appendix.
The Update Method displayed for each property indicates whether a component or agent restart is necessary to activate changed values.
Connector-specific configuration properties provide information needed by the connector at runtime. They also provide a way of changing static information or logic within the connector without having to recode and rebuild the connector.
Table 6 lists the connector-specific configuration properties for the
connector. See the sections that follow for explanations of the
properties.
Table 5. Connector-specific configuration properties
Name | Possible values | Default value | Required? |
---|---|---|---|
ArchivingEnabled
| true or false |
true |
Yes |
EventLog
| Name and location of file |
event.log |
No |
EventRecovery
| abort or retry |
retry |
Yes |
FTPPollFrequency
| number of poll cycles |
No | |
GenerateTemplate
| BOName |
No | |
OutputLog
| File that registers the next sequence number for each incoming business object during request processing |
Output.Log |
No |
PollQuantity
| Number of events processed
at each poll |
25 |
No |
SortFilesOnTimestamp
| true or false | False | No |
NoPoll | true or false | False | No |
Turns on archiving. If this property is set to true, the event file is archived in the archive directory with the specified extension. If this property is set to false, the event file is not archived. In this case, the connector deletes the file after sending all events to the integration broker. For more information, see Specifying event archiving.
The default value is true.
Provides file storage location for events that are generated by the connector. This file is located in the JText subdirectory in the connectors directory where the product is installed.
The default value is event.log.
Specifies recovery behavior. If this property is set to retry, the connector uses the event.log file to recover failed events. If this property is set to abort, the connector terminates when it encounters a failed event. For more information, see Event log file.
The default value is retry.
Determines how frequently the connector polls an FTP server measured in the number of standard poll cycles. For example, if PollFrequency standard configuration property is set to 10000, and FTPPollFrequency is set to 6, the connector polls the local event directory every 10 seconds and polls the remote directory every 60 seconds. The connector performs FTP polling only if you specify a value for this property. If FTPPollFrequency evaluates to 0 or blank, the connector does not perform FTP polling. By default it does not.
There is no default value for this property.
Enables the connector to generate a template for each supported business object after connector startup. The syntax for this property is BOName;BOName where the name of a specific business object is substituted for BOName. For example, to generate two templates, one for a Customer business object and one for an Item business object, specify Customer;Item. For more information, see Generating sample business objects for testing.
There is no default value for this property.
Specifies the name of the file that stores the sequence number that the connector uses to create unique output files for each type of business object during request processing. The format of the file is:
BusinessObjectName = NextSequenceNumber
where BusinessObjectName is the name of the request business object, and NextSequenceNumber represents the sequence number of the most recently received business object, incremented by one. For example, if the connector is processing Customer and Item business objects, the output log file might contain the following:
Customer = 12 Item = 2
This file indicates that the connector has already processed 11 Customers and 1 Item. The next Customer and Item business objects will be written to the Customer_12.out and Item_2.out files, respectively. When it receives a request Order business object, the connector adds a new row to the output log file and writes the business object to the Order_1.out file.
If FileSeqEnabled meta object is set to true, the connector uses this sequence number to uniquely name the output files that it creates for each business object. The connector names each output file by appending an underscore (_) and the sequence number to the business object's name or to a file whose name is specified in the OutputFileName meta-object attribute. Because the output log is stored in user-readable format, you can use a standard text editor to read the file or to reset its value.
For more information on the OutputFileName attribute, see Specifying the name of the output file. For more information about the output log, see Specifying request processing. For information on returning the generated file's name, see Returning a file's name.
The default is Output.Log.
Specifies the number of events to process for each poll. The connector poll method retrieves the specified number of event records and processes them in a single poll. Processing multiple events per poll can improve performance when the application generates large numbers of events. However, because integration-broker requests are blocked while the poll method is processing events, do not set the number of events too high. If each poll call takes a long time, it delays integration-broker request operations. For more information, see Tuning the performance of the JText connector.
The default value is 25.
Allows the adapter to pick up event files based on the timestamp. This property is ideally set to true when there are only a few huge event files picked up by the adapter during polling. When there are a lot of small event files, this value should be set to false in order to avoid the excess time taken to sort the files at each poll.
The default value is False.
Also, the JText adapter can poll remote files based on the timestamp from FTP
site only if the FTP server supports the mdtm (modification date
and time) command.
If this property is set to true, then the adapter will not perform event processing and the adapter can only be used for request processing.
The default value is False.
Application-specific properties can be encrypted by selecting the Encrypt check box in the Connector-specific Properties window. To decrypt a value, click to clear the Encrypt check box, enter the correct value in the Verification dialog box, and click OK. If the entered value is correct, the value is decrypted and displays.
The adapter user guide for each connector contains a list and description of each property and its default value.
If a property has multiple values, the Encrypt check box will appear for the first value of the property. When you select Encrypt, all values of the property will be encrypted. To decrypt multiple values of a property, click to clear the Encrypt check box for the first value of the property, and then enter the new value in the Verification dialog box. If the input value is a match, all multiple values will decrypt.
Refer to the descriptions of update methods found in the Standard Properties appendix.
Use the Supported Business Objects tab in Connector Configurator to specify the business objects that the connector will use. You must specify both generic business objects and application-specific business objects, and you must specify associations for the maps between the business objects.
To specify that a business object definition is supported by the connector, or to change the support settings for an existing business object definition, click the Supported Business Objects tab and use the following fields.
To designate that a business object definition is supported by the connector, with System Manager running:
To delete a business object from the supported list:
Deleting a business object from the supported list changes the connector definition and makes the deleted business object unavailable for use in this implementation of this connector. It does not affect the connector code, nor does it remove the business object definition itself from System Manager.
If a business object has Agent Support, the system will attempt to use that business object for delivering data to an application via the connector agent.
Typically, application-specific business objects for a connector are supported by that connector's agent, but generic business objects are not.
To indicate that the business object is supported by the connector agent, check the Agent Support box. The Connector Configurator window does not validate your Agent Support selections.
The maximum transaction level for a connector is the highest transaction level that the connector supports.
For most connectors, Best Effort is the only possible choice.
You must restart the server for changes in transaction level to take effect.
If you are working in stand-alone mode (not connected to System Manager), you must enter the business object name manually.
If you have System Manager running, you can select the empty box under the Business Object Name column in the Supported Business Objects tab. A combo box appears with a list of the business object available from the Integration Component Library project to which the connector belongs. Select the business object you want from the list.
The Message Set ID is an optional field for WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker 5.0, and need not be unique if supplied. However, for WebSphere MQ Integrator and Integrator Broker 2.1, you must supply a unique ID.
When WebSphere Application Server is selected as your broker type, Connector Configurator does not require message set IDs. The Supported Business Objects tab shows a Business Object Name column only for supported business objects.
If you are working in stand-alone mode (not connected to System Manager), you must enter the business object name manually.
If you have System Manager running, you can select the empty box under the Business Object Name column in the Supported Business Objects tab. A combo box appears with a list of the business objects available from the Integration Component Library project to which the connector belongs. Select the business object you want from this list.
Each connector supports a list of business object definitions and their associated maps that are currently active in WebSphere InterChange Server. This list appears when you select the Associated Maps tab.
The list of business objects contains the application-specific business object which the agent supports and the corresponding generic object that the controller sends to the subscribing collaboration. The association of a map determines which map will be used to transform the application-specific business object to the generic business object or the generic business object to the application-specific business object.
If you are using maps that are uniquely defined for specific source and destination business objects, the maps will already be associated with their appropriate business objects when you open the display, and you will not need (or be able) to change them.
If more than one map is available for use by a supported business object, you will need to explicitly bind the business object with the map that it should use.
The Associated Maps tab displays the following fields:
These are the business objects supported by this connector, as designated in the Supported Business Objects tab. If you designate additional business objects under the Supported Business Objects tab, they will be reflected in this list after you save the changes by choosing Save to Project from the File menu of the Connector Configurator window.
The display shows all the maps that have been installed to the system for use with the supported business objects of the connector. The source business object for each map is shown to the left of the map name, in the Business Object Name display.
In some cases, you may need to explicitly bind an associated map.
Explicit binding is required only when more than one map exists for a particular supported business object. When ICS boots, it tries to automatically bind a map to each supported business object for each connector. If more than one map takes as its input the same business object, the server attempts to locate and bind one map that is the superset of the others.
If there is no map that is the superset of the others, the server will not be able to bind the business object to a single map, and you will need to set the binding explicitly.
To explicitly bind a map:
The Resource tab allows you to set a value that determines whether and to what extent the connector agent will handle multiple processes concurrently, using connector agent parallelism.
Not all connectors support this feature. If you are running a connector agent that was designed in Java to be multi-threaded, you are advised not to use this feature, since it is usually more efficient to use multiple threads than multiple processes.
The Messaging tab enables you to configure messaging properties. The messaging properties are available only if you have set MQ as the value of the DeliveryTransport standard property and ICS as the broker type. These properties affect how your connector will use queues.
Before you can validate a messaging queue, you must:
To validate the queue, use the Validate button to the right of the Messaging Type and Host Name fields on the Messaging tab.
You can use the Security tab in Connector Configurator to set various privacy levels for a message. You can only use this feature when the DeliveryTransport property is set to JMS.
By default, Privacy is turned off. Check the Privacy box to enable it.
The Keystore Target System Absolute Pathname is:
<ProductDir>\connectors\security\<connectorname>.jks
opt/IBM/WebSphereAdapters/connectors/security/<connectorname>.jks
This path and file should be on the system where you plan to start the connector, that is, the target system.
You can use the Browse button at the right only if the target system is the one currently running. It is greyed out unless Privacy is enabled and the Target System in the menu bar is set to Windows.
The Message Privacy Level may be set as follows for the three messages categories (All Messages, All Administrative Messages, and All Business Object Messages):
The Key Maintenance feature lets you generate, import and export public keys for the server and adapter.
Before you can import a certificate into the adapter keystore, you must export it from the server keystore. When you select Export Adapter Public Key, the Export Adapter Public Key dialog box appears.
When you select Import Server Public Key, the Import Server Public Key dialog box appears.
The Adapter Access Control feature is enabled only when the value of DeliveryTransport is IDL. By default, the adapter logs in with the guest identity. If the Use guest identity box is not checked, the Adapter Identity and Adapter Password fields are enabled.
When you open a connector configuration file or a connector definition file, Connector Configurator uses the logging and tracing values of that file as default values. You can change those values in Connector Configurator.
To change the logging and tracing values:
The data handlers section is available for configuration only if you have designated a value of JMS for DeliveryTransport and a value of JMS for ContainerManagedEvents. Not all adapters make use of data handlers.
See the descriptions under ContainerManagedEvents in Appendix A, Standard Properties, for values to use for these properties. For additional details, see the Connector Development Guide for C++ or the Connector Development Guide for Java.