Setting the configuration file properties (ICS)

The topics in this section apply if you are using InterChange Server as the integration broker. If you are using WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker as the integration broker, see Setting the configuration file properties (WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker). 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 all of these categories:

  1. Standard Properties
  2. Connector-Specific Properties
  3. Supported Business Objects
  4. Associated Maps
  5. Resources
  6. Trace/Log File values
  7. Messaging (where applicable)
  8. Data handlers (applicable for connectors that use JMS messaging with guaranteed event delivery)
Note:
For connectors that use JMS messaging, an additional category may display, for configuration of data handlers that convert the data to business objects.
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 (ICS)

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 choose 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-configuration properties (ICS)

For application-specific configuration properties, you can add or change property names, configure values, delete a property, and encrypt a property:

  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, click 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 (ICS)

Application-specific properties can be encrypted by clicking 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 choose 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 click 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 (ICS)

When WebSphere MQ Integrator Broker is the integration broker, connector properties are static. The Update Method is always Connector Restart. In other words, for changes to take effect, you must restart the connector after saving the revised connector configuration file.

Specifying supported business object definitions (ICS)

This topic assumes that you have already created or acquired the intended business objects, created or acquired maps for them, and have saved both the business object definitions and map definitions into System Manager projects.

Before you can make use of a connector (and before you can bind the connector with a collaboration's ports), you must make selections under the Supported Business Objects tab to specify the business objects that the connector will use. You must specify both generic business objects and corresponding application-specific business objects, and you must specify associations for the maps between the business objects.

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.

To specify that a business object definition is supported by the connector, or to change the support settings for an existing business object definition, choose the Supported Business Objects tab and use the following fields:

Business object name

These instructions assume that you started Business Object Designer with System Manager running.

To designate that a business object definition is supported by the connector:

  1. Click in an empty field of 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, choose 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, choose Delete Row. The business object is removed from the list display.
  3. From the File menu, choose Save to Project.

Note that deleting a business object from the supported list does not affect the code of the connector, nor does it remove the business object definition itself from System Manager. It does, however, change the connector definition and make the deleted business object unavailable for use in this implementation of this connector.

Agent support

Indicating Agent Support for a business object means that 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, put a check in the Agent Support box. Note that 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.

Note:
For this release, maximum transaction level of a connector is always Best Effort.

Associated maps (ICS)

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.

Setting trace/log file values (ICS)

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

Configuring messaging

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.

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.

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2003