Setting the configuration file properties

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:

Note:
For connectors that use JMS messaging, an additional category may display, for configuration of data handlers that convert the data to business objects.

For connectors running on ICS, values for these properties are also required:

Important:
Connector Configurator accepts property values in either English or non-English character sets. However, the names of both standard and connector-specific properties, and the names of supported business objects, must use the English character set only.

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:

Setting standard connector properties

To change the value of a standard property:

  1. Click in the field whose value you want to set.
  2. Either enter a value, or select from the drop-down menu if one appears.
  3. After entering all values for the standard properties, you can do one of the following:

Setting application-specific configuration properties

For application-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.

  1. Right click in the top-left portion of the grid. A pop-up menu bar will appear. Select Add to add a property or Add Child to add a child property for a property.
  2. Enter a value for the property or child property.
  3. To encrypt a property, select the Encrypt box.
  4. Choose to save or discard changes, as described for Setting Standard Connector Properties.

The Update Method displayed for each property indicates whether a component or agent restart is necessary to activate changed values.

Important:
Changing a preset application-specific connector property name may cause a connector to fail. Certain property names may be needed by the connector to connect to an application or to run properly.

Encryption for connector properties

Application-specific properties can be encrypted by selecting the Encrypt check box in the Edit Property 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 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 the Encrypt check box, all values of the property will encrypted. To decrypt multiple values of a property, click to clear the Encrypt check box of the first value of the property, and then enter the correct value of the first value in the Verification dialog box. If the input value is a match, all multiple values will decrypt.

Update method

Connector properties are almost all static and the Update Method is Component Restart. For changes to take effect, you must restart the connector after saving the revised connector configuration file.

Specifying supported business object definitions

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.

For you to specify a supported business object, the business objects and their maps must exist in the system.

Note:
Some connectors require that certain business objects be specified as supported in order to perform event notification or additional configuration (using meta-objects) with their applications. For more information, see the Connector Development Guide for C++ or the Connector Development Guide for Java.

If ICS is your broker

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.

Business object name

To designate that a business object definition is supported by the connector, with System Manager running:

  1. Click an empty field in the Business Object Name list. A drop-down list displays, showing all the business object definitions that exist in the System Manager project.
  2. Click on a business object to add it.
  3. Set the Agent Support (described below) for the business object.
  4. In the File menu of the Connector Configurator window, click Save to Project. The revised connector definition, including designated support for the added business object definition, is saved to the project in System Manager.

To delete a business object from the supported list:

  1. To select a business object field, click the number to the left of the business object
  2. From the Edit menu of the Connector Configurator window, click Delete Row. The business object is removed from the list display.
  3. From the File menu, click Save to Project.

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.

Agent support

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.

Maximum transaction level

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, because most application APIs do not support the Stringent level.

You must restart the server for changes in transaction level to take effect.

If WMQI is your broker

The MQ message set files (*.set files) contain message set IDs that Connector Configurator requires for designating the connector's supported business objects. See Implementing Adapters with WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker for information about creating the MQ message set files.

Each time that you add business object definitions to the system, you must use Connector Configurator to designate those business objects as supported by the connector.

Important:
If the connector requires meta-objects, you must create message set files for each of them and load them into Connector Configurator, in the same manner as for business objects.

To specify supported business objects:

  1. Select the Supported Business Objects tab and click Load. The Open Message Set ID File(s) dialog displays.
  2. Navigate to the directory where you have placed the message set file for the connector and select the appropriate message set file (*.set) or files.
  3. Click Open. The Business Object Name field displays the business object names contained in the *.set file; the numeric message set ID for each business object is listed in its corresponding Message Set ID field. Do not change the message set IDs. These names and numeric IDs are saved when you save the configuration file.
  4. When you add business objects to the configuration, you must load their message set files. If you attempt to load a message set that contains a business object name that already exists in the configuration, or if you attempt to load a message set file that contains a duplicate business object name, Connector Configurator detects the duplicate and displays the Load Results dialog.
    The dialog shows the business object name or names for which there are duplicates. For each duplicate name shown, click in the Message Set ID field, and select the Message Set ID that you wish to use.

If WAS is your broker

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 BOName column only for supported business objects.

If you are working in standalone 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 BO 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.

Associated maps (ICS only)

Each connector supports a list of business object definitions and their associated maps that are currently active in InterChange Server. This list displays 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:

Resources (ICS)

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, and use of this feature is not usually advised for connector agents that were designed in Java to be multi-threaded, since it is usually more efficient to use multiple threads than multiple processes.

Configuring messaging (ICS)

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.

Setting trace/log file values

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:

  1. Click the Trace/Log Files tab.
  2. For either logging or tracing, you can choose to write messages to one or both of the following:

Data handlers

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. 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.

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