IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Release Notes

• Description
• Announcement
• Release highlights
• System requirements
• Multicultural Support
• Documentation
• Installation
• Known problems
• More information

Description

IBM® i2® Information Exchange for Analysis ("iXa") Search Services SDK provides software components, support tools and documentation to create iXa web services for both relational and XML data sources.

An iXa web service is a server application that is capable of exposing information from a relational or a non-relational data source to iXa clients in a well-defined, consistent, and reliable format. The target client is IBM i2 Information Exchange for Analysis Search for Analyst’s Notebook (“Search AN”), which is a plugin for IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook® that allows information from many data sources to be presented and analyzed as tabular data and chart visualizations.

Announcement

The IBM® i2® Intelligence Analysis product portfolio announcement is available. See the announcement for the following information:

• Detailed product description, including a description of new functionality
• Product-positioning statement
• Packaging and ordering details

Release highlights

iXa Search Services SDK 8.9 includes changes that support the integration of the product into the IBM technology stack. It provides guaranteed compatibility with other IBM i2 products that have the same version number.

At version 8.9, IBM i2 products no longer support or require authorization mechanisms such as dongles or software license management (SLM).

When you purchase or upgrade to version 8.9 of an IBM i2 product, you must upgrade your other i2 products to version 8.9 at the same time.

System requirements

These are the recommended system hardware requirements to run iXa Search Services SDK:

• 1.4 GHz processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 500 MB free disk space for installation (if not already installed, add 280 MB for .NET 2 Framework)
• SXGA-capable graphics card (1024 x 768 high color (16-bit)) and color monitor
• Mouse or trackball
• CD-ROM drive or network access (for installation)

These are the supported operating systems for iXa Search Services SDK:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional support will cease at the next release of IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK.

Prerequisites

iXa Search Services SDK requires that the following is present on the installation system:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or later

Later versions of Windows have a later version of .NET installed. A compatible version of .NET for other operating systems is available in the product distribution.

Developing an iXa deployment requires the use of:

• iXa Search Services Framework, which in turn requires a Java Development Kit. A supported version of JDK 5 is included in the product distribution.
• The Apache Ant command-line tool, version 1.7. You can download this tool from the project website at http://ant.apache.org.
• Schema Designer, which only runs on the Microsoft Windows operating system. Schema Designer requires that Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 SP1 or later is present on the installation system.
• Hibernate version 3.3.1, and Hibernate Annotations version 3.4, which are both available from https://sourceforge.net/projects/hibernate/.

   

  Note: iXa uses Hibernate to connect to a wide variety of different database types. The full list of database types that Hibernate supports can be found in the Hibernate documentation (which can be downloaded as part of the Hibernate 3.3.1.GA distribution at https://sourceforge.net/projects/hibernate/files/hibernate3/3.3.1.GA/).

   

The documentation provided with iXa Search Services SDK is available electronically in Adobe PDF format. In order to display this documentation, a PDF viewer must be present on the installation system.

Client requirements

The iXa Search AN 8.9 client software is available in the iXa Search AN 8.9 product distribution. For information on its system requirements and software dependencies, see the release notes for that product.

Server requirements

It is possible to develop and deploy an iXa web service for any server platform that supports web services.

An iXa web service developed using the supplied iXa Search Services Framework must be deployed to a server running a servlet container supporting the Java Servlet 2.4 specification. A supported version of GlassFish Metro is included in the product distribution.

Multicultural Support

Documentation

Manuals

All manuals are supplied in PDF format and are typically installed to:

C:\Program Files\IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK 8.9\Documentation

The following manuals exist for iXa Search Services SDK:

• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Protocol Reference Guide
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Planning & Key Concepts Guide
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Framework Developer Guide
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Data Modeling Guide
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Upgrade Guide
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK Quick Start Guide

Example material and readmes

The Java examples are provided in ixaservice-release-bin-8.9.1.zip. You can extract these to any suitable location.

The following Java examples are provided. Each example has an associated readme:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example	Description
accountsexample	This example for a relational data source uses many of the Framework components that IBM supplies. It also includes two extended commands.
basicwebservice	This example for a relational data source demonstrates a simple web service that is developed solely from the Framework components that IBM supplies.
customshow	This example for a relational data source demonstrates how to support custom show functionality by modifying the data that an iXa web service returns to an iXa client.
datasourcesetup	This folder contains files for setting up a relational data source and a web service data source for use by the example iXa web service projects that require them.
extendedcommands	This example for a relational data source contains three extended commands. It demonstrates some of the features in the supplied Framework components, and some limited customization.
fulltextsearch	This example for a relational data source demonstrates how to support full text search functionality. It also provides a search template for use with iXa Search AN 8.9.
inputlogger	This example for a relational data source demonstrates how to ask a web service user for information before they can invoke a search operation, and how to log the information they provide.
security	This example illustrates using WS-Security to implement a secure web service that responds differently to different users. It provides them with tailored iXa schemas, and associates them with particular database users. Users of the security web service see different subsets of data in the associated RDBMS database.
servicetemplate	A starting point for developing your own iXa web services.
xmlbasicwebservice	This example demonstrates a simple web service for XML data sources. It was developed using many of the supplied Framework components, and also features custom Search, Show, and Expand Strategy components, as well as an XML Support component.
xmlexample	This provides a more complex example of a web service for an XML data source. It features custom Search, Show, and Expand Strategy components, as well as an XML Support component.

Supplied example data

Many of the Java examples are designed for use with a MySQL database. The readmes in the Framework's examples\datasourcesetup folder explain how to set up this database.

Online help

API documentation for the iXa Search Services SDK is available in Javadoc format. In a typical installation, it is installed to the folder: C:\Program Files\IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK 8.9\Documentation\api

Note: The API documentation is also included in the ZIP file at IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK 8.9\Framework\ixaservice-release-bin-8.9.1.zip, which you can extract to any suitable location.

White papers

The following white papers are also available:

• IBM i2 iXa Technology and Architecture Technical Overview
• IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK 8 Technical Overview
• IBM i2 iXa Search AN Overview White Paper

Installation

Previous versions of the iXa Search Services SDK will be uninstalled when you install IBM i2 iXa Search Services SDK 8.9. Before installing iXa Search Services SDK, check that your system meets all the requirements described in System Requirements.

Installation steps

To install iXa Search Services:

1. Close all open applications.
2. Locate Setup.exe in the distribution, and run it. This will start the installation process.
3. Follow the prompts to complete the installation.
4. Extract ixaservice-release-bin-8.9.1.zip to a suitable folder.

 

Note: Administrator privileges are required in order to install iXa Search Services SDK.

 

Installing prerequisites

There are three prerequisites that you must download before you can begin development. The prerequisites folder contains a readme file that describes how to acquire and install this software.

To complete installation of the iXa Search Services SDK, follow the instructions in the file.

Known problems

The most up-to-date source for known problems in iXa is the online version of these release notes at http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27027040.

More information

For more information, see the following resources:

• Complete documentation in the IBM i2 Intelligence Analysis Portfolio Publications list at: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27024896