Starting up a new ODA

To launch the ODA, you execute an ODA startup script. This startup script launches the ODA runtime. This startup script is a batch file that starts execution of the ODA runtime. By convention, a startup script's name takes the following form:

start_ODAName.bat

where ODAname is the unique name of the ODA (its source-data name) with the string "ODA" appended. For example, if an ODA has its source data in HTML format, its ODA name could be HTMLODA. Therefore, you could name its startup script as follows:

start_HTMLODA.bat

Before you can start up an ODA that you have developed, you need to ensure that a startup script exists to support your new ODA. To enable a startup script to start your own ODA, you must take the following steps:

  1. Prepare an ODA runtime directory for your ODA.
  2. Create the startup script for your ODA. For Windows systems, also create a shortcut for your ODA startup.
  3. Set up the startup script as a Windows service (optional).

The following sections describe each of these steps.

Preparing the ODA runtime directory

The ODA runtime directory contains the runtime files for your ODA. To prepare the ODA runtime directory, take the following steps:

  1. Create an ODA runtime directory for your new ODA under the ODA subdirectory of the product directory:
    ProductDir\ODA\srcDataName
    

    By convention, the directory name matches the ODA's source-data name (srcDataName). The source-data name is a string that uniquely identifies the source data (or adapter) with which the ODA works. For more information, see Naming the ODA.

  2. Move your ODA's library file to this ODA runtime directory.

    The ODA's library file is a Java archive (jar) file. You created this jar file when you compiled the ODA. For more information, see Compiling the ODA.

Creating startup scripts

As System startup files describes, an ODA requires an ODA startup script for it to be able to launch. An ODA requires a startup script for the system administrator to start execution of the ODA-runtime process. When the WebSphere Business Integration Adapters Installer installs adapters on a Windows system, it takes the following steps for ODAs:

To provide the ability to start up your own ODA, you must generate its startup script and provide the shortcuts that invoke this startup script.

Creating the startup script

In this start_ODAname.bat file, make sure you take the following steps:

Creating the shortcut

A shortcut enables an ODA to be started from a menu item within Programs > IBM WebSphere Business Integration Adapters > Adapters > Object Discovery Agents. An easy way to create a shortcut to start an ODA running on Windows is to copy an existing ODA's shortcut and edit the shortcut properties to change the connector name or add any other startup parameters.

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