Many integration components in an interface depend upon and reference one another, so the tasks of developing each of the components are intertwined and iterative.
It is recommended that you develop your integration components in the following order:
A developer with the required skillset should begin development of any required custom connectors as soon as the project begins.
For information on developing custom connectors, see the Connector Development Guide for C++ or Connector Development Guide for Java Server.
This topic provides a brief overview of developing application-specific business objects. For details about working with application-specific business object definitions, see the Business Object Development Guide.
When you create or modify an application-specific business object, do the following:
When you create the business object definition you should also create any source application triggers or other event detection mechanisms if necessary.
For details about designing and developing application-specific business object definitions, see the Business Object Development Guide.
When you configure a connector for the purpose of unit testing an application-specific business object you may not yet have developed all of the business object definitions and maps that the connector requires to perform its role in the implementation. You can, however, add support for the business object definition you need to test and be able to test it successfully without those other components. When you have finished developing the other components you must then re-configure the connector definition to add support for the business object definitions and associate the required maps.
See the guide for your adapter for information about its application-specific properties. See Configuring connectors for information about connector standard properties and information on how to use Connector Configurator.
Once you have developed the application-specific business object and added support for it to a connector definition you should unit-test the business object to make sure that the connector can use it to exchange data with the application successfully. You do not need the generic objects, maps, or collaboration template that the interface will eventually use in order to perform this test. Do the following to unit-test an application-specific business object:
For more information about creating collaboration templates, see the Collaboration Development Guide.
For more information about deploying components, see Exporting components to a package using System Manager.
For more information about starting a connector, see your adapter guide and the System Administration Guide.
For more information on Test Connector, see Using Test Connector.
For more information on creating collaboration objects, see Configuring collaboration objects.
For more information about deploying components, see Exporting components to a package using System Manager.
For more information about starting a connector, see your adapter guide and the System Administration Guide.
For more information on Test Connector, see Using Test Connector.
Determine if there is an existing generic object that is appropriate for the business process. Ensure that the licensing terms for the site permit the use of the object.
If no existing generic business object can be used, you will need to either extend an existing generic business object or create a new one. For information on creating new business objects, see the Business Object Development Guide.
Configure any relationships at this point so that you can use them when developing maps in a later stage.
See the Map Development Guide for information about configuring relationships.
Just as you configured any relationships required by the maps, you should do the same for any database connection pools. Configuring database connection pools beforehand allows you to code use of them into the maps as you develop them.
For information on configuring database connection pools, see Configuring database connection pools.
With all of the required generic business objects, application-specific business objects, relationships, and database connection pools created, you can develop the maps that transform objects across the interface.
As you develop the maps you should unit-test them by using the debugging facilities of Map Designer. Unit-test your maps at the following points:
When you test a map that uses relationships, you must make sure that you test the maps in the order in which they would execute within the context of the interface. If you do not then the cross-referencing logic will not execute properly.
For more information on developing and testing maps, see the Map Development Guide.
Collaboration templates define the business process logic of an interface. You should research the existing collaboration templates available to determine if there is one that models your business process. If there is no collaboration that directly models the process, you should determine if there is one that is similar; if so, you may be able to modify it if the licensing conditions of the site permit that, and thereby accelerate the development process.
If there is no template that is similar then you must develop a new collaboration template. For information about how to develop a new collaboration template or modify an existing one, see the Collaboration Development Guide.
You can unit-test the collaboration template without using the maps, application-specific business objects, or connectors that you are developing for the interface. Do the following to unit-test a collaboration template:
For more information on creating collaboration objects, see Configuring collaboration objects.
For more information about deploying components, see Exporting components to a package using System Manager.
For more information on Test Connector, see Using Test Connector.
The collaboration receives and processes the event and each service call sends the generic business object to Test Connector, where you can edit it to examine the data for modification.
Before you can test all of the developed components together, you must reconfigure the connector definitions to add support for the application-specific and generic objects they require to participate in the interface. The system associates any maps that it can automatically, but in situations where there are multiple maps that could transform objects you must explicitly associate a map. For more information, see Configuring connectors.
Once you have added support for the required business object definitions to the connectors you can create a collaboration object based on the template and bind its ports to the proper components.
For more information on working with collaboration objects, see Configuring collaboration objects.
After you have created all of the required components for the interface you must deploy it to your local InterChange Server instance to test the interface. For more information on deployment, see Deploying components to a server.
After you have deployed the interface to your local InterChange Server instance you should test the interface as a whole to ensure that the components satisfy the business requirements when working together. Do the following to test the interface: