Setting deployment properties for runtime environment, WebSphere Adapter for IBM i

IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > IBM i > Configure the module for deployment > Configure the module for inbound processing > Access messages using simple or keyed IBM i data queue > Setting deployment environment and generating the service description
Setting deployment properties for runtime environment

The connection properties in this task are initialized to the values that the wizard uses to connect to an IBM i system. To configure the module to use other values than those used to connect to the IBM i system, change values such as host name, user name, and password, here.

This task is performed using the Specify the Service Generation and Deployment Properties window and Specify the Location Properties window of the external service wizard.

To generate artifacts for your module follow this procedure:

Procedure

In the Specify the Service Generation and Deployment Properties window, click Edit Operations to review the names of or add a description for the operations for the business objects you are creating.
Figure 1. Service Generation and Deployment Configuration window

In the Deployment Properties area, specify how you want the adapter to get the user name and password at run time.

To use a J2C authentication alias, select Using an existing JAAS alias (recommended) and type the name of the alias in J2C Authentication Data Entry. You can specify an existing authentication alias or create one at any time before deploying the module. The name is case-sensitive and includes the node name.
To use activation specification properties, select Using security properties from the activation specification and type the values in the User name and Password fields.
To administer the user name and password from other mechanism, click Other.

In the Deploy connector project field, specify whether to include the adapter files in the module. Select one of the following values:

With module for use by single application: With the adapter files embedded in the module, you can deploy the module to any application server. Use an embedded adapter when you have a single module using the adapter or if multiple modules need to run different versions of the adapter. Using an embedded adapter enables you to upgrade the adapter in a single module without the risk of destabilizing other modules by changing their adapter version.
On server for use by multiple applications: If you do not include the adapter files in a module, install them as a stand-alone adapter on each application server where you want to run the module. Use a stand-alone adapter when multiple modules can use the same version of the adapter and you want to administer the adapter in a central location. A stand-alone adapter can also reduce the resources required by running a single adapter instance for multiple modules.

If you selected On server for use by multiple adapters in the previous step, specify how you want to set the connection properties at run time.

If you manually created and configured a managed connection factory or activation specification on the server or if you have already deployed an application that connects to the same IBM i server using the same managed connection factory or activation specification properties, you can reuse the managed connection factory or activation specification by specifying the name of its Java™ Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI) data source:

In Connection settings, select Specify connection properties.
In JNDI Lookup Name, type the name of the JNDI data source for an existing managed connection factory or activation specification.
Click Next.

If this is the first application that connects to the database with a specific user name and password, or if you want to administer the user name and password separately from other applications, select Specify connection properties.

Optional: In the IBM i system Connection Properties area, review and if necessary, change the values of the required connection properties. The fields are initialized with the connection information you specified when you started the wizard. You can change the values to specify a different user name and password at run time.

Host name: Host name or IP address of the IBM i system system.
Poll queue path: Poll queue path field is disabled for simple data queue polling.
Payload staging queue path: The payload staging queue path must be different for each adapter and no two adapters can have the same keyed queue as PayloadStagingQueue.
Polling control language program path: The path to the control language program on the IBM i system that will be used to poll for events at runtime.
Failed events queue path: The failed events queue path must be different for each adapter and no two adapters can have the same keyed queue as FailedEventsQueue.
Failed event archiving control language program path: The path to the control language program on the IBM i system that will be used to move failed events at run time.

Optional: Specify advanced properties by clicking Advanced. Expand each of the advanced sections to review the properties

Event polling configuration

In the Interval between polling periods(milliseconds) field, type the number of milliseconds that the adapter waits between polling periods.
In the Maximum events in polling period field, type the number of events to deliver in each polling period.
In the Time between retries in case of system connection failure(in milliseconds) field, type the number of milliseconds to wait before trying to connect after a connection failure during polling.
In the Maximum number of retries in case of system connection failure field, type the number of times to try to connect to the server before reporting a polling error.
If you want the adapter to stop when polling errors occur, select Stop the adapter when an error is encountered while polling.
If you do not select this option, the adapter logs an exception but continues to run.
Optional: You can select Retry EIS connection on startup if you want the adapter to continue trying to connect to a system to which it could not connect when starting.

Select the calendar based scheduling option to create calendar based polling for inbound activities.
You can schedule your business activities, when you create a new calendar in IBM Integration Designer. The option of working with the calendar based scheduling feature is only possible with IBM Integration Designer as the tooling environment. The following figure helps you to schedule a calendar polling option.
Figure 2. Polling based on business calendar

You can either select a blank calendar or create a new calendar for a module or library.
When you select a blank calendar, you will not be able to set predefined time intervals. You have to define your time intervals. When you create a calendar using a predefined template, you can define time intervals for each template.

To select an existing calendar for a module or library, click Browse. In the Select a Business Calendar window, you can search for existing calendar files ( *cal) in the IBM Integration Designer workspace.

In the Filter by name field, type the calendar name or name pattern. The calenders matching the pattern are displayed in the Matching business calendars area.
Select a calendar and click OK to return to the external service wizard.

To create a new calendar entry for a module or library, click New. The Create a business calendar window is displayed.

In the Module or library field, click Browse to select an existing calendar module or click New to create a module for the new calendar.
In the Folder field, click Browse to select an existing folder or create a new folder for the calendar.
In the Name field, enter a name for the new calendar.

To create a non template calendar, click Finish. Or
To generate the calendar based on a predefined template, click Next. In the Use a template window, select the Create a calendar using one of the templates check box and click Finish.

The new business calendar is created and available in the Business Integration view. Once you complete the wizard, you can view or modify the calendar schedules in the Business Integration view using the Business Calendar Editor. You can modify the intervals and exceptions, or add new entries for these elements. For more details about working with business calendars, see Business calendars.

You must deploy the Business Calendar module to the same IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus instance, along with the inbound application. If you do not map these two connections to the same server instance, the inbound application using the business calendar will by default, poll as there is no calendar configured.

Event delivery configuration

In the Type of delivery field, select the delivery method.
If you want to ensure that events are delivered only once and to only one export, select Ensure once-only delivery. Although this option might reduce performance, it prevents duplicate or missing events.
By default, the adapter processes all events that it finds when it polls. If you do not want it to process events that have timestamps later than the current time, select Do not process events that have a timestamp in the future.
The Event types to process field is not applicable for WebSphere Adapter for IBM i.
In the Retry limit for failed events field, type the number of times the adapter attempts to redeliver an event before marking the event as failed.
In the Number of connections for event delivery field, specify the minimum and maximum number of connections to use to deliver events. Any value less than 1 is treated as 1 by the adapter.

Processing methods for illegal XML characters
Figure 3. Illegal character processing window

From the Illegal XML character processing drop-down list, select one of the options that correspond to your requirement

Do not validate illegal XML characters, if you want to work with the default adapter behavior.
Throw exception if contents in the BO contains illegal XML characters, if you want to proceed after you get an exception message, and log the illegal XML characters in the trace file, at run time.
Discard all illegal XML characters and related logs, if you want the adapter to discard the illegal XML characters, and log the characters in the trace file, at run time.

Additional properties

In the Data encoding field, select a data encoding value. This value indicates the type of character encoding the adapter will use during data transformation. For more information about the encoding property, see the reference topic on IBM i business object properties in this documentation.
Event persistence properties

Select the Auto create event table check box, to create the event persistence table automatically.
In the Event recovery table name field, enter the name of the table used by the adapter for event persistence processing.
In the Event recovery data source (JNDI) name field, enter the JNDI name of the data source used by event persistence processing to obtain the JDBC database connection. The data source must be created in IBM BPM.
In the User name field, enter your database user name.
In the Password field, enter your password.
In the Database schema name field, enter the name of the database used by event persistence processing.

Logging and tracing

If you have multiple instances of the adapter, set Adapter ID to a value that is unique for this instance.
If you want to mask certain information so that the information is not displayed in the logs or traces, select Disguise user data as "XXX" in log and trace files.

Click Next. The Specify the Location Properties window is displayed.

Results
The Specify the Location Properties window is displayed.

Setting deployment environment and generating the service description