Glossary
A glossary of terms
- Activity
- A complete, functional unit of processing within an orchestration. Activities include flow-control (logic) activities; data activities to facilitate consumption and transmission of data; and activities that enable integration with database systems, enterprise systems, Web servers, e-mail servers, and other systems. An orchestration contains a series of activities.
- Assets
- Supplemental configuration files, scripts, or other materials associated with a specific activity. For example, the buffer table scripts created for a database insert activity are assets. Assets are controlled by the Web Management Console. Access privileges to assets can be given to users beyond the users of the WMC. For example, DBAs can be given privileges to the assets associated with a database activity so that they can create the required tables or triggers.
- Buffer table
- An auxiliary table used in conjunction with various Database Module Activities, such as the single-table insert, update, or delete database activities. When you configure one of the database DML (data manipulation language) activities, Studio generates a SQL script that can be used to create the appropriate trigger on the database table; the buffer table gets populated when the triggering event (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) occurs. The buffer table provides the means to capture database changes and initiate processing by the orchestration.
- Command-line interface
- A text-based alternative to the Web Management Console for configuring, managing, and querying an Integration Appliance.
- Control table
- A database table that facilitates using database endpoints in integrations. As it does with buffer tables, Studio generates scripts to create control tables that can be used to ensure that inserts, updates, and deletes to specific tables occur once and only once.
- Deploy
- Create an instance of a project configuration on an Integration Appliance.
- Document
- Any of the XML Schema files, DTDs, and other configuration files that comprise integration projects.
- Dynamic delimiters
- A delimiter that is obtained from within the fields of the message itself, such as an HL7 PID (patient ID) message header that denotes the beginning of a new record in a file containing a batch of electronic health records.
- Empty placeholder
- Appears in activities that have multiple branches as an initial placeholder for the activities in that branch. Dropping other activities on this icon removes it.
- Endpoint
- Is an external system, such as a database server, FTP server, e-mail system, or enterprise application that the Integration Appliance connects to either get data or return data during run time.
- Flat file
- A file containing non-XML data. Flat files are typically of two types: delimited, in which a comma, tab, white space, or other delimiter is used to separate variable-length fields and records; or positional, in which fields and records have a fixed width.
- For each
- A activity that iterates over a message structure where the data repeats.
- Flat File Schema
- Defines how to interpret a specific set of Flat Files. Studio creates flat-file schema (XML Schema) based on the configuration you define in the Message Definition pane. A flat-file schema is used in conjunction with Read Flat File activity to convert a source flat-file into XML.
- Function
- String, mathematical, and miscellaneous functions provided by Studio that you can use in defining processing in your orchestrations. In addition to the pre-built functions, Studio lets you build your own custom functions and add lookup tables.
- Integration project
- The various inputs, outputs (endpoints), mapping and schema definitions (transformations, message formats), orchestrations, and configuration information that comprise an integration solution as designed in Studio and deployed to the Integration Appliance.
- Job
- A specific runtime instance of an orchestration.
- Map
- A component that lets you bind input parameters to variables, and variables to the orchestration. Many Studio activities contain embedded maps that you must configure at design time, in the context of an orchestration, to define how actual parameters should map to variables, and how the variables should be processed in the orchestration. In addition to the embedded activity maps, Studio has a stand-alone Map activity that can be used to bind any type of input and output to the orchestration.
- Node
- All data input to or output from the Integration Appliance is materialized in Studio as a series of nodes, as in a tree-like, hierarchical structure. In many cases, the nodes represent the structure and content of an XML document, but in many cases they don't (e.g., rows in a database table display as nodes). Nodes in Studio convey information about structure; the type of content that can be supported; or additional characteristics of the data.
- Orchestration
- The specific sequence of processing activities (such as data mapping, transformation, and control logic activities), endpoints, and data types defined and configured using Studio and deployed to run on the Integration Appliance.
- Parameter
- A value passed to an activity or to an orchestration. For example, filename and data are two of the parameters that can be passed from an FTP endpoint to an orchestration.
- Pick
- An activity that determines what starter activity to launch based on the action that has occurred. For example, a Pick activity could contain three branches, one that contains a Get Inserted Rows activity, one that contains a Get Deleted Rows activity, and the other contains a Get Updated Rows activity. If an UPDATE event occurs on the database, an instance of the orchestration is created and branch that contains the Get Updated Rows activity is invoked.
- Project
- A project defined and created using Cast Iron® Studio. Each project has a properties file (filename.sp3) and several additional metadata files and folders that comprise all integration elements - orchestrations, endpoints, XML schemas, Flat Files - and their specific configuration (variables, parameters).
- Publish
- Copy all project files from Studio to an Integration Appliance or to an intermediate staging area, such as a shared directory on a file server, for subsequent runtime configuration and deployment to a specific environment. The Publish process encompasses validating the project; creating a .par file of project configuration documents; and sending the package to the Integration Appliance specified.
- Record identifier
- A special field that delimits records in certain types of Flat Files, such as EDI (electronic data interchange) or HL7 (Health Level 7) files. For example, an HL7 PID (patient ID) number is a record identifier.
- Repetition delimiters
- A delimiter in a Flat File that is used when the data lacks a unique value, such as record ID, to distinguish one record from another.
- Replace
- Appears in Pick and other activity branches as an initial placeholder for the endpoint activity to receive a message for that branch. Dropping a Receive endpoint Activity on this icon removes it.
- Stored procedure
- A functional code unit that resides in a database and is ran explicitly by invoking its name. Stored procedures can be used to populate buffer tables when specific insert, update, or delete activities occur on a particular database table.
- Studio
- An integrated development environment (IDE) for creating, configuring, and publishing integration projects and the orchestrations they comprise. Studio projects run on the Cast Iron Integration Appliance.
- Terminate
- Stops orchestration processing.
- Transformation
- Converting data from one format to another. For example converting Flat File data in a CSV (Comma Separated Values) format to XML data. Transformations can also suppress data, add data, alter datatypes, and perform calculations.
- Trigger
- A type of database stored procedure that is called implicitly when a triggering event occurs. In the Database Module, a “triggering event” as an INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE on a table.
- Variable
- Used to pass data values processed by an orchestration. Variables are used by maps to identify the source and target. Some Activities create variables automatically.
- While loop
- Initiates and continually processes any children activities for as long as a specified condition is true.