Author: Geetha S Pullipaty

Product: Infosphere Master Data Management.
Component: Data Stewardship and Governance.
Version: 11.5.0

Other prerequisite software: IBM Business Process Manager 8.5.6 , IBM Process Designer 8.5.6, IBM Stewardship Center 11.5.0 installed and all process applications imported on BPM and EPVs for MDM Connection details set for all of them.

This blog provides detailed steps of connecting two MDM instances to a single Process center environment for IBM Stewardship Center(ISC) component. It provides the manual steps and doesn't do run any scripts. It also doesn’t explain all the steps required for installing and configuring ISC but only those additional steps when two MDM instances are involved.

This document assumes that you haven’t done any configurations on MDM or BPM WAS consoles for configuring ISC. If you have already done please delete those additional configurations.

 

Lets say you have two MDM instances MDM1 , MDM2 and single Process Center instance BPM1.

 

Steps to be done on WebSphere Administrative Console of MDM1.

1.    Create an Alias Destination on MDM Server's SIBus as below:
        
        a) Navigate to Service Integration  -> Buses  -> <BUS Name>
        b) Click the <Bus name> link to open the configurations of the Bus.
        c) Click on the Destination link to open the list of destinations.
        d) Click on New and Select Alias and click Next
        
        Provide the Destination attribute values:
            Identifier: MDMBPMAlias
            Bus: Select the SIbus of MDM environment. Note: The Bus name in typical MDM installation will be MDM.SIB.server1
            Target identifier: Select Other, please specify from the drop down list.  Specify the identifier of the BPM environment target. Note: Target identifier name in a typical Process center installation will be  eventqueueDestination.SingleCluster
            Target bus: Select Other, please specify from the drop down list.  Specify the bus name of the BPM environment. Note: Target bus name In a typical Process center installation will be BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus
            After providing the detail click Next
            Click Finish.
            Save the configurations

           
            
            

        

 

2.    Create JMS Queue on MDM Environment as below:
        a) Navigate to Resources  -> JMS  -> Queues
        b) Select the scope.  If it is a Standalone MDM server set it to Node, Server (Example, Node=mdmNode, Server=server1).  If MDM installed in cluster, set the scope to Cluster
        c) Click New
        d) Select Default messaging provider and click OK
        e) Set the values of the attribute as below:
            Name: MDMBPMQueue
            JNDI name: notification/MDMBPMQueue
            Bus name: Select the SIbus of MDM environment. Note: The Bus name in typical MDM installation will be MDM.SIB.server1
            Queue name:   MDMBPMAlias  
        f) After setting the attribute values, Click OK and Save the configurations.

     

 

3.    Create JMS Queue Connection Factory on MDM Environment as below:
        a) Navigate to Resources  -> JMS  -> Queue connection factories
        b) Select the scope.  If it is a Standalone MDM server set it to Node, Server (Example, Node=mdmNode, Server=server1).  If MDM installed in cluster, set the scope to Cluster
        c) Click New
        d) Select Default messaging provider and click OK
        e) Set the values of the attribute as below:
            Name: MDMBPMQueueConnectionFactory
            JNDI name: notification/MDMBPMQueueConnectionFactory
            Bus name: Select the SIbus of MDM environment. Note: The Bus name in typical MDM installation will be MDM.SIB.server1
            Provider endpoints: It is generallyof the format “host:port:Inbound Transport Chain”. You can look at the existing Queue connection factories of MDM and get this value  
        f) After setting the attribute values, Click OK and Save the configurations.

 

4.    Creation of Foreign Bus Connection on MDM Environment as below:
        a) Navigate to Service Integration  -> Buses  -> <BUS Name>. Note: The Bus name in typical MDM installation will be MDM.SIB.server1
        b) Click the <Bus name> link to open the configurations of the Bus.
        c) Click on the Foreign Bus Connection link to open the list of destinations.
        d) Click New…
        e) Select Direct Connection and click Next
        f) Select Service integration bus and click Next
        g) Select the messaging engine on MDM environment from the list and click Next
        h) Set the values of the attribute as below:
            Name of service Integration bus to connect to (the foreign bus): Set the value to the name of the SIBus in BPM environment. Note: The Bus name in typical BPM Process center  installation will be BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus
            Gateway messaging engine in the foreign bus: Set the value to the name of the messaging engine of BPM environment. Note: The messaging name in typical BPM Process center  installation will be SingleCluster.000-BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus
            Service integration bus link name: MDM_BPM_LINK_ONE
            Bootstrap service integration bus provider endpoints: Set the value as <bpmNodeHostName>:<port>:<protocol>   (For example mdmdemowin:7278:BootstrapBasicMessaging)  Note: If the BPM cluster has multiple nodes provide the endpoints for all the nodes as comma separated list.
        i) After setting the values click Next
        j) Review the summary and click Finish and Save the configurations

 

Steps to be done on WebSphere Administrative Console of MDM2

 

1.Create a new Service Integration Bus on MDM2. The reason for this to be done is because both MDM environments are identical and have same SIBus names connecting back from BPM will be an issue if BPM has to connect to two SIBuses with same name.
        a) Navigate to Service Integration  -> Buses  -> <BUS Name>
        b) Click New..
        c) Give a name to the new SIBus to be created. For example MDM.SIB.NewBPMSer

 

2.    For the new SIBus created , add a Bus member. This is required to create a messaging engine for the new bus created.
        a) Navigate to Service Integration  -> Buses  -> <BUS Name>
        b) Click the <Bus name> link to open the configurations of the Bus. Here click the SIBus created during step 1.
        c) Click Bus members and Click on Add.
        d) Choose the server or cluster to add to the new bus that got created. If MDM is installed on a server then server option has to be selected and the corresponding server. If cluster then the cluster option to be selected. Click Next.
        e) If server option is selected , then you select option “Data store” in the type of message store. Click Next
        f) If server option is selected, then select the option “Create default data source with generated JNDI name”in properties of data store. Click Next
        g) Leave performance parameters as defaults and click Next.
        h) Review the details and finish the configuration.

3. Follow steps 1 to 4 in the previous section. Wherever the SIBus name is required or to be selected , select the new Bus that’s created in step 1 in this section. Please note that while creating foreign bus connection provide the link name as “MDM_BPM_LINK_TWO” instead of “MDM_BPM_LINK_ONE” mentioned in the previous section.

 

Steps to be done on Websphere Administrative console of BPM

1.    Creation of Foreign Bus Connection on BPM Environment as below:
        a) Navigate to Service Integration  -> Buses  -> <BUS Name>
        b) Click the <Bus name> link to open the configurations of the Bus.
        c) Click on the Foreign Bus Connection link to open the list of foreign bus connections.
        d) Click New…
        e) Select Direct Connection and click Next
        f) Select Service integration bus and click Next
        g) Select the messaging engine on BPM environment from the list. Provide Inbound user id as admin user id of BPM and click Next
        h) Set the values of the attribute as below:
            Name of service Integration bus to connect to (the foreign bus): Set the value to the name of the SIBus in MDM1 instance.
            Gateway messaging engine in the foreign bus: Set the value to the name of the messaging engine of MDM1 instance
            Service integration bus link name: MDM_BPM_LINK_ONE
            Bootstrap service integration bus provider endpoints: Set the value as <mdmInstance1HostName>:<port>:<protocol>   (For example mdmdemowin:7276:BootstrapBasicMessaging)
            Note: If the MDM cluster has multiple nodes provide the endpoints for all the nodes as comma separated list.
        i) After setting the values click Next
        j) Review the summary and click Finish and Save the configurations

 

Repeat the same steps but this time giving details of MDM2 instance. The values to be given in this case are

    Name of service Integration bus to connect to (the foreign bus): Set the value to the name of the new SIBus created during step 1 in previous section in MDM2 instance.
    Gateway messaging engine in the foreign bus: Set the value to the name of the messaging engine associated with the new SIBus created during step 1 in previous section in MDM2 instance.
    Service integration bus link name: MDM_BPM_LINK_TWO
    Bootstrap service integration bus provider endpoints: Set the value as <mdmInstance2HostName>:<port>:<protocol>.
        If the MDM cluster has multiple nodes provide the endpoints for all the nodes as comma separated list.

So by the end of these steps you would have two foreign bus connections created on BPM. MDM_BPM_LINK_ONE pointing to MDM1 instance and MDM_BPM_LINK_TWO pointing to the new SIBus created on MDM2 instance.

 

Steps to be done on BPM Process Center console

 

1.    Login to BPM Process Center Console with admin access
2.    All the process applications for ISC are available at the installed location “<ISC_INSTALLED_FOLDER>/mdmg/processes”.
3.    If not already imported you need to import all of them using Process Center console.
4.    Create two snapshots “TESTSNAPSHOTONE” and “TESTSNAPSHOTTWO” for both MDM Party Maintenance and Physical MDM Suspected Duplicates process applications. Our focus is mainly on testing only these two.
5.     Make all these 4 new snapshots Active.

 

Steps to be done on BPM Process Admin Console

 

1.    Login to BPM Process Admin Console with admin access.
2.    Go to Admin Tools > Manage EPVs
3.    Select MDM Party Maintenance(TESTSNAPSHOTONE) and select EPV MDM_Connection_Details. Set the details of MDM1 instance over here. Provide non secure port for example 9080 for simplicity purposes, usessl option to be not checked i.e., set to false.
4.    Select MDM Party Maintenance(TESTSNAPSHOTTWO) and select EPV MDM_Connection_Details. Set the details of MDM2 instance over here. Provide non secure port for example 9080 for simplicity purposes, usessl option to be not checked i.e., set to false.
5.    Select Physical MDM Suspected Duplicates(TESTSNAPSHOTONE) and select EPV MDM_Connection_Details. Set the details of MDM1 instance over here. Provide non secure port for example 9080 for simplicity purposes, usessl option to be not checked i.e., set to false.
6.    Select Physical MDM Suspected Duplicates(TESTSNAPSHOTTWO) and select EPV MDM_Connection_Details. Set the details of MDM2 instance over here. Provide non secure port for example 9080 for simplicity purposes, usessl option to be not checked i.e., set to false.

 

SQLs to be run on MDM databases

 

1. Run these SQLs on the database connected to MDM1 instance

UPDATE CONFIGELEMENT SET VALUE = 'true', LAST_UPDATE_DT = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE NAME = '/IBM/DWLCommonServices/Notifications/enabled';
 

UPDATE CDEVENTDEFTP SET ENABLE_NOTIFY='Y', LAST_UPDATE_DT=CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE (LANG_TP_CD=100 AND EVENTDEF_TP_CD=8);
update configelement set value='true', last_update_dt=current_timestamp where name='/IBM/Party/SuspectProcessing/enabled';

INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('ntem','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTONE', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt1','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTONE', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt2','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTONE', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt3','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTONE', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('ntpe','MDMHDQ', 'TESTSNAPSHOTONE', null, 'PERSIST_ENTITY', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);

 

2. Run these SQLs on the database connected to MDM2 instance.

UPDATE CONFIGELEMENT SET VALUE = 'true', LAST_UPDATE_DT = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE NAME = '/IBM/DWLCommonServices/Notifications/enabled';
 

UPDATE CDEVENTDEFTP SET ENABLE_NOTIFY='Y', LAST_UPDATE_DT=CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE (LANG_TP_CD=100 AND EVENTDEF_TP_CD=8);
 

update configelement set value='true', last_update_dt=current_timestamp where name='/IBM/Party/SuspectProcessing/enabled';

INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('ntem','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTTWO', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt1','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTTWO', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt2','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTTWO', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('nt3','MDMSDP', 'TESTSNAPSHOTTWO', null, 'MDM_EVT_SDP', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);
INSERT INTO BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE VALUES ('ntpe','MDMHDQ', 'TESTSNAPSHOTTWO', null, 'PERSIST_ENTITY', null, null, null, null, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, null);

 

 

If you give snapshot names in the Process Center Console different than these make sure to change these SQLs as well. Make sure all the SQLs are run successfully.
If any duplicate errors come up while inserting data to BPMNOTIFICATIONTYPE table delete the existing entries causing the issue and run the sqls again.

 

Restart all the instances MDM1, MDM2 and BPM. You need to restart the Application servers, nodeagents , deployment managers.

 

 

Problem(Abstract)

When using InfoSphere Master Data Management (MDM) customers will see coredumps being created when an application server is being started or stopped in an environment with multiple application servers.

Symptom

 

Cause

 

Diagnosing the problem

 

Resolving the problem

 

Author: Geetha S Pullipaty

Product: Infosphere Master Data Management.
Component: Data Stewardship and Governance.
Version: 11.5.0

Other prerequisite software: IBM Business Process Manager 8.5.6 , IBM Process Designer 8.5.6, IBM Stewardship Center 11.5.0 installed and configured.

 

IBM Stewardship Center provides the ability to perform proactive data stewardship activities around Physical MDM. When a suspect gets created on MDM , a notification is being sent to BPM and a Suspected Duplicate task gets created on BPM Process portal for a Data steward to act upon. This can be disabled if the Customer has huge number of suspects especially during intial load or the tasks creation rate is slowing down the process or Customer already has suspects and want to create tasks for them in BPM.

 

This document explains how to create SDP tasks on BPM Process Portal by fetching suspect data from MDM database.

 

Steps to be done on BPM Websphere Administrative Console.

1. Create a new Data Source to point to MDM DB.

 

 

Please make sure to give the data source name as “jdbc/MDMDB”. Something else can be given too but then you would need to change in the process application for that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please make sure to give correct database name, server name and port number related to MDM database.

 

Click finish and save the configuration

For the new Data source created now go to “JAAS - J2C authentication data” as shown below

 

Create a new entry with Alias as MDM_DB_Alias and User ID and password as credentials to the MDM database.

 

 

 

 

Click Apply and save the configuration.

Now apply this alias as Authentication alias for XA recovery and Component-managed authentication alias for the new data source created for MDMDB.

 

 

 

Click apply and save the configuration.

Do a Test connection for the newly created data source and if required synchronize the changes to all nodes. The test connection part for this new data source created should be successful.

 

Restart BPM Server after all these changes done and saved.

 

Steps to be done on IBM Process designer

 

1. Import the process application into BPM using IBM Process designer or Process Center Console.

SDP_Create_Tasks - V1.1.twx|View Details

 

2. Make sure the user has editable access for this process application.

3. Open the General system service “Get suspects list”.

4. Open the script node “Create tasks”.

5. Make sure the snapshot number of SDP given in the variable “PHYSICAL_SDP_PROCESS_APP_SNAPSHOT” is correct.

 

6. If any changes made save it.

7. Run this service directly from Process designer.

This service creates SDP tasks for all the suspects fetched from MDM. It first checks if a task is existing for a Party Id. If not present it creates a new Suspected Duplicate task.This needs to be customized if a Customer wants to get only some subset of supect list and so on. The SDP task thus created is available on BPM Process Portal for a Datasteward to act upon.

 

Author: Geetha S Pullipaty

Product: Infosphere Master Data Management.
Component: Data Stewardship and Governance.
Version: 11.5.0

Other prerequisite software: IBM Business Process Manager 8.5.6 , IBM Process Designer 8.5.6, IBM Stewardship Center 11.5.0 installed and configured.

 

Communication from MDM to BPM for IBM Stewardship Center is always via messaging.  In case of some specific events happening on MDM, the events are to be notified to BPM to create a new task. BPM can only listen to messages that are put in its event queue. To make this possible we create a link between MDM and BPM. MDM can be installed with MQ as messaging provider. BPM suggests to use only WAS default messaging provider. To be able to send messages a Customer needs to do these steps

1. Configuration steps on MQ associated with MDM installation.
2. Configuration steps on WAS Admin console associated with MDM installation.
3. Configuration steps on WAS Admin console associated with BPM installation.

Configuration steps on MQ using MQ explorer

1. Create a new Sender channel under the Queue manager that is default created for MDM. installation.

 

 2.Create a Receiver channel  under the Queue manager that is default created for MDM.

 

Channel name : Could be anything. In our setup we named it BPMReceiver.

Transmission protocol : TCP

3. Create a local queue with usage type as Transmission under the Queue manager that is default created for MDM.

 

 

Queue name : Service Integration Bus name of BPM. In our setup the SIBus name of BPM server is BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus hence the same given.

Scope : Queue manager

Usage : Transmission

4. Create a remote queue under the Queue manager that is default created for MDM.

 

 

 

Queue name : Could be anything. In our setup we named it EVENTRQ.

Remote queue manager : Service Integration Bus name of BPM. In our setup the SIBus name of BPM server is BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus hence the same given.

Transmission queue : Same name as given for the queue name in previous step. It is same as Service integration bus name of BPM. In our setup it is “BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus”.

Remote queue : Destination name for which messages are to be sent on BPM Service Integration bus. Check for destination name that starts with eventqueueDestination in the list of destinations under SIBus for BPM Server.

 

5.  Start channels created on step 1 and step 2.  Sender channel created in step 1 should be in running state.

This completes list of steps to be done on Websphere MQ Explorer. Now we will see the list of steps to be done on MDM and BPM installations.

Configuration steps on Administrative Console of WAS where MDM is installed.

1. Create a new Queue Connection Factory with following details.

 

1. Navigate to Resources -> JMS - >Queue Connection Factories. Select New to create a new one.
2. Create it at the same scope as existing Queue Connection Factories.
3. Select JMS resource provider : WebSphere MQ messaging provider
4. Name : MDMBPMQueueConnectionFactory
5. JNDI name : notification/MDMBPMQueueConnectionFactory
6. Select ‘Enter all the required information into this wizard’
7. Queue manager or queue sharing group name: Name of the Queue Manager that gets created from MDM installation. In our setup it is QM.E001
8. Hostname:  Hostname of the MQ machine where this MQ is running and Queue managers are created by MDM installation. In our setup it is localhost.
9. Port: Port number where this Queue manager created by MDM installation is listening. In our setup it is 1414.

2. Create a new Queue with following details

 

1. Navigate to Resources -> JMS - >Queues . Select New to create a new one.
2. Create it at the same scope as existing Queues.
3. Select JMS resource provider : WebSphere MQ messaging provider
4. Name : MDMBPMQueue
5. JNDI name : notification/MDMBPMQueue
6. Queue name : It should be same as the remote queue name created in previous section in step 4. In our setup it is EVENTRQ.
7. Queue manager or Queue sharing group name : Name of the Queue Manager that gets created from MDM installation. In our setup it is QM.E001.
8. Save all and restart WAS for these configurations to take effect.

Configuration steps on Administrative Console of WAS where BPM is installed

1.Create a new foreign bus connection to the existing Service Integration Bus of BPM.

 

 

1. Navigate to Service integration > Buses > BUS_NAME > Foreign bus connections -> New
2. Bus connection type : Direct connection
3. Foreign bus type : WebSphere MQ
4. Messaging engine to host the connection : Leave the default one listed.
5. Virtual queue manager name: Name of the SIBus of BPM. In our setup it is BPM.ProcessCenter.Bus
6. Foreign bus name: Name of the Queue Manager that gets created from MDM installation. In our setup it is QM.E001
7. MQ link name : Could be anything. In our setup we gave it as MDM_BPM_LINK
8. Enable Service integration bus to WebSphere MQ message flow : Select this checkbox if not already done.
9. WebSphere MQ receiver channel name : Name of the receiver channel created on step 2 of section 1 in this document. In our setup it is BPMRECEIVER
10. Hostname:  Hostname of the MQ machine where the MQ associated with MDM is running and Queue managers are created by MDM installation. In our setup it is localhost.
11. Port: Port number where the Queue Manager of MQ created by MDM installation is listening. In our setup it is 1414.
12. Enable WebSphere MQ to Service integration bus message flow : Select this checkbox if not already done.
13. WebSphere MQ sender channel name: Name of the sender channel created on step 1 of section 1 in this document. In our setup it is BPMSENDER
14. SIB inbound user ID : An admin user id who have the ability to put messages to BPM Queue. This could be a default admin user that gets created with BPM installation. In our setup it is “admin”.
15. Save all and restart WAS for these configurations to take effect.

 

Author: Geetha S Pullipaty

Product: Infosphere Master Data Management.
Component: Data Stewardship and Governance.
Version: 11.5.0

Other prerequisite software: IBM Business Process Manager 8.5.6 , IBM Process Designer 8.5.6, IBM Stewardship Center 11.5.0 installed and configured.

 

IBM Stewardship Center provides the ability to perform proactive data stewardship activities around Physical MDM. When a suspect gets created on MDM , a notification is being sent to BPM and a Suspected Duplicate task gets created on BPM Process portal for a Data steward to act upon. ISC default implementation creates all SDP tasks for a single group called DataStewardGroup.

 

This document explains how to create tasks to different data steward groups based on certain data on the notification message.

 

1. Open Physical MDM Suspected Duplicates process application in editable mode using IBM Process Designer.

 

2. Add one input variable called "partySourceId" in process "Resolve Suspected Duplicate process".

 

3. Create two groups called DSSourceOneGroup and DSSourceTwoGroup . Each of them have two users. DSSourceOneGroup has two users called DSSourceOneUser1 and DSSourceOneUser2. DSSourceTwoGroup has two users called DSSourceTwoUser1 and DSSourceTwoUser2. Basically users and groups creation is done using Process admin console

4. Create two teams with names "PSDP Source One DS Team" and "PSDP Source Two DS Team" and associate each team with one group created in previous step. PSDP Source One DS Team has group “DSSourceOneGroup” and "PSDP Source Two DS Team" has group “DSSourceTwoGroup” associated.

 

 

 

This step is done in Phsyical MDM Suspected Duplicates process application using IBM Process Designer.

5. Change the assignments part for the step called "Suspected Duplicate" in  process "Resolve Suspected Duplicate process".

 

 

So basically if partySourceId is 1 then we are assigning to the team called "PSDP Source One DS Team" which internally assigns to first group and two users associated with that. Similary if partySourceId is 2 then the task is assigned to second data steward team and group.

 

6. Add the following script to step called "Create Task" on the service "Process Suspected Duplicate Event Message"

 

 

 

So when we run with making partySourceId as 1 the task gets created for users of group with name “DSSourceOneGroup” and with 2 it gets assigned for users of group with name “DSSourceTwoGroup”. This can be checked by logging into Process portal with different users from two groups that we created.

 

 

This is just to show the concept of dynamically routing tasks. In any customer scenario we need to identify the attributes based on which the routing has to be done. This attribute information also need to be available from the message or notification sent from MDM to BPM. This would also need customizing notification classes on MDM to have the required information sent in the message.

Author: Geetha S Pullipaty

Product: Infosphere Master Data Management.
Component: Data Stewardship and Governance.
Version: 11.5.0

Other prerequisite software: IBM Business Process Manager 8.5.6 , IBM Process Designer 8.5.6, IBM Stewardship Center 11.5.0 installed and configured.
IBM Stewardship Center provides the ability to perform proactive data stewardship activities around Physical MDM with a dashboard called “SEARCH”. It allows you to Search for an Entity , select one among various search results and View/Update various details about that Entity like Addresses, Names and so on.
It also provides a graphical view of the relationships of the party with other parties in a tab namely “Explore” in Edit Party screen.
This document concentrates on getting the required labels on this graphical view for custom added relationships on MDM.

Problem: I added a new relationship type with type code “300000” in cdreltp of MDM and I have two parties with relationship created among them. The screenshot in Explore tab now is:

1. Login to IBM Process Designer with required credentials.

2. Provide edit access to this user to MDM Application Toolkit in the list of toolkits.

Make sure “Allow users to update toolkit” checkbox is checked.

3. Open MDM Application toolkit in designer.

4. Go to service “MDM Hierarchy Localization Service” under User Interface category.

5. Modify the script “Load Label Map”.

6. Add the following line of code at the end of the script.
    tw.local.labels.put("PARTYREL_300000",”CEO”);
Note : If you need to do localization for this label , you can add it in the Localization Resource “MDM_Hierarchy_Resource” and use it accordingly in the script as
tw.local.labels.put("PARTYREL_300000", tw.resource.MDM_Hierarchy_Resource.CEO_Relationship_Label);

7. Once done these changes, save all the modifications.

8. Take a new snapshot of MDM Application toolkit

9. Upgrade the dependency of MDM Application toolkit in MDM Stewardship Toolkit and create a new snapshot of MDM Stewardship Toolkit.

10. Upgrade the dependencies of MDM Stewardship Toolkit and MDM Application Toolkit in MDM Party Maintenance process application.

Please make sure not to miss step 9.

11. Reload Search dashboard from Process Portal and search for the same record and go to edit page. The explore tab now looks like

Tags:  mdm application-toolkit stewardship governance data-stewardship techtip

IBM InfoSphere MDM provides a set of out-of-the-box entity processing rules, like 'partyMatch' or 'collapseParties'. These rules are extendible and this blog entry will walk through the process of extending one of them – 'collapsePartiesWithRules'.

Assuming that a development project has already been created in the workspace, code for the project has been generated and setup SQL scripts have been ran – create a new package in the project's 'src' folder (For example: 'com.ibm.mdm.customRules'). Within that package create a new java class (For example: 'CustomCollapse.java'). As we are looking at extending 'collapsePartiesWithRules' the Java class should extend the 'CollapsePartiesWithRules' class and its 'execute' method should be overridden.

Within the new class the default 'collapse' can be used by calling the 'collapseObjectsSurvivingRules()' method on the TCRM component and supplying the parties that need collapsing inside a 'Vector' object. Additional behaviour can be defined as well.

The created package and Java class should then be added to the 'blueprint.xml' file present in the development project as follows:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<blueprint xmlns="http://www.osgi.org/xmlns/blueprint/v1.0.0" default-activation="eager">

<bean id="RuleLocatorBean" scope="singleton" class="com.dwl.base.externalrule.RuleLocatorImpl">

<property name="bpBundle" ref="blueprintBundle"/>

<argument>

<list>

<bean class="com.ibm.mdm.customRules.CustomCollapse"/>

</list>

</argument>

</bean>

<service id="ExternalRuleLocatorService" ref="RuleLocatorBean" interface="com.dwl.base.externalrule.RuleLocator" ranking="50">

<service-properties>

<entry key="rule.java.impl">

<list>

<value>com.ibm.mdm.customRules.CustomCollapse</value>

</list>

</entry>

</service-properties>

</service>

</blueprint>

 

The following packages also need to be added to the 'manifest.mf' file of the project to export the package that contains the external rule class:

 

Export-Package: com.ibm.mdm.customRules

Import-package: com.dwl.base.externalrule

 

The below packages also need to be added to the 'compositebundle.mf' file so that the rule framework can find the new class:

 

CompositeBundle-ExportService: com.dwl.base.externalrule.RuleLocator

Export-Package: com.ibm.mdm.customRules

Import-Package: com.dwl.tcrm.externalrule

 

Export the 'CBA' using the wizard and deploy it to the server (instructions for one of the approaches to deploying a CBA can be found here).

To make the system use the modified rule an update to the database needs to be run. Search the 'JAVAIMPL' table for an entry with the 'JAVA_CLASSNAME' of 'com.dwl.tcrm.externalrule.CollapsePartiesWithRules' and note the rule id ('1038' in this case). Run the following sql to update the class name to the updated rule:

 

UPDATE SCHEMA.JAVAIMPL SET JAVA_CLASSNAME = 'com.ibm.mdm.customRules.CustomCollapse', LAST_UPDATE_DT = CURRENT_TIMESTAMP WHERE EXT_RULE_IMPL_ID = 1038;

 

Restart the server.

The next step would be to re-configure the Optimized Transparent SQL (OTS) queries. OTS queries allow the 'SELECT' statements used to retrieve data from the database to be customized and optimized for a given deployment.

The 'INQLVL' table defines the set of OTS capable entities and their associated inquiry levels. Depending on the types of the objects that will be collapsed – the appropriate 'GROUP_NAME' should be looked up. In this example we will be working with Organizations.

 

 

The values to note are 'INQLVL_ID' and 'INQLVL'. It's worth noting that the 'SELECT' statements themselves are not stored in this table, but rather are contained within 'INQLVLQUERY' table.

 

 

Each combination of Entity-Inquiry Level contains one or more 'SELECT' statements within the table. These statements are also associated with a 'BUSINESS_TX_TP_CD' value (32) which is derived from the 'CDBUSINESSTXTP' table and defines the associated query transaction.

The 'CDINQLVLQUERYTP' table defines the possible type code values for entries in the 'INQLVLQUERY' table.

 

 

'CDBUSINESSTXTP' table contains a list of available transactions and associated 'BUSINESS_TX_TP_CD' values.

 

 

The OTS queries need to be re-generated and updated to include the extended fields after the customized CBA has been deployed, otherwise those fields will be omitted from the response. The 'add' and 'update' transactions are not affected as they are not query transactions. There exists an 'updateInqLevel' transaction to re-build these queries.

For each Inquiry Level Id resolved above a single 'updateInqLevel' transaction needs to be ran against the server. The following fields need to be filled out: InquiryLevelId (from the 'INQLVL' table), InquiryLevelLastUpdateDate (from the 'INQLVL' table), GenerateQuery (set to 'Y' to rebuild the queries) and BusinessTxType (from the 'INQLVLQUERY' table). So for Organization (inquiry level 3) the following transaction will be used:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DWLAdminService xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="DWLAdminService.xsd">

<RequestControl>

<requestID>1000</requestID>

<DWLControl>

<requesterName>cusadmin</requesterName>

<requesterLanguage>100</requesterLanguage>

</DWLControl>

</RequestControl>

<DWLTx>

<DWLTxType>updateInqLevel</DWLTxType>

<DWLTxObject>DWLInqLevelBObj</DWLTxObject>

<DWLObject>

<DWLInqLevelBObj>

<InquiryLevelId>1012</InquiryLevelId>

<InquiryLevelLastUpdateDate>2005-04-13 11:11:28.205001</InquiryLevelLastUpdateDate>

<GenerateQuery>Y</GenerateQuery>

<BusinessTxType>32</BusinessTxType>

</DWLInqLevelBObj>

</DWLObject>

</DWLTx>

</DWLAdminService>

 

The response produced will contain two unusual characteristics. Here is what it will look like:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DWLAdminService xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="DWLAdminResponse.xsd">

<ResponseControl>

<ResultCode>SUCCESS</ResultCode>

<ServiceTime>1108</ServiceTime>

<DWLControl>

<requesterLanguage>100</requesterLanguage>

<requesterLocale>en</requesterLocale>

<requesterName>mdmadmin</requesterName>

<requestID>1000</requestID>

<userRole>mdm_admin</userRole>

<requesterTimeZone>America/New_York</requesterTimeZone>

</DWLControl>

</ResponseControl>

<TxResponse>

<RequestType>updateInqLevel</RequestType>

<TxResult>

<ResultCode>SUCCESS</ResultCode>

</TxResult>

<ResponseObject>

<DWLInqLevelBObj>

<InquiryLevelId>1013</InquiryLevelId>

<Application>TCRM</Application>

<GroupName>Organization</GroupName>

<InquiryLevel>4</InquiryLevel>

<CumulativeIndicator>Y</CumulativeIndicator>

<Description>Level 4 Organization Objects</Description>

<InquiryLevelLastUpdateDate>2005-04-13 11:11:28.205003</InquiryLevelLastUpdateDate>

<DWLStatus>

<Status>5</Status>

<DWLError>

<ComponentType>99</ComponentType>

<ErrorMessage>The data submitted already exists on the database; no update applied.</ErrorMessage>

<ErrorType>DRECERR</ErrorType>

<LanguageCode>100</LanguageCode>

<ReasonCode>603</ReasonCode>

<Severity>5</Severity>

<SeverityValue>Warning</SeverityValue>

</DWLError>

</DWLStatus>

</DWLInqLevelBObj>

</ResponseObject>

</TxResponse>

</DWLAdminService>

 

Because the transaction does not make any changes to the 'INQLVL' table itself – the last update date does not get changed and the transaction reports an error stating that the data has not been updated. However, the contents of the 'INQLVLQUERY' table shows that the changes have been applied and both the queries and the last update date have changed.

Custom rules should now work and transactions implementing these rules should return the contents of the default and extended fields.

 

MDM AE pMDM with RESTful web services

---

New in MDM v11.4 is the ability to submit REST requests to the service controller.
No more complex SOAP client code, or worst EJB remote calls!

Previously, interactions with MDM Operational server were possible with EJB/RMI, JMS, JAX-WS and JAX-RPC(deprecated).  We have now added JAX-RS to the mix.

Possible payloads that are accepted are application/xml and application/json.  JSON support was added in v11.4 FP1.

It is important to note that all REST interaction are using one RESTful service “MDMWSRESTful”, PUT method type only and accessed via URI http://server:port/com.ibm.mdm.server.ws.restful/resources/MDMWSRESTful. 

The same xml request/response payload used for EJB/RMI is used for REST interactions.
ASI (Adaptive Service Interface) can be used in conjunction with the RESTful service.  This is particularly useful if a simplified XML/JSON structure is required for interactions or if the MDM solution must adapt to a certain XML industry standard such as IFW, ACCORD, and NIEM.

For the full list of capabilities and supported request headers consult the following documentation link:

https://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSWSR9_11.4.0/com.ibm.mdmhs.dev.platform.doc/concepts/c_rest_web_services.html

 

 

Interacting with MDMRESTful service

---

Using Apache Wink (or any other REST client api of choice), you can with minimal code submit a request to the MDM Hub Operational Server

Here’s a sample client leveraging Apache Wink demonstrating an MDM RESTful call:

ClientConfig config = new ClientConfig();
// setup basic authentication
BasicAuthSecurityHandler basicAuthHandler = new BasicAuthSecurityHandler();
basicAuthHandler.setUserName("mdmadmin");
basicAuthHandler.setPassword("mdmadmin");
basicAuthHandler.setSSLRequired(false);
config.handlers(basicAuthHandler);

RestClient rc = new RestClient(config);

Resource r =  rc.resource("http://myserver.com:9080/com.ibm.mdm.server.ws.restful/resources/MDMWSRESTful");

// optional MDM headers
r.header("TargetApplication", "");
r.header("RequestType", "");
r.header("Parser", "");
r.header("ResponseType", "");
r.header("Constructor", "");
r.header("OperationType", "");
r.header("ASI_Request", "");
r.header("ASI_Response", "");        
// submit put request of the xml payload.
String response = r.contentType("application/xml")
                   .accept("application/xml")
                   .put(String.class, requestPayload);

The above code will submitting an MDM xml payload and expecting back an xml response.

This is determined by the ‘Content-type’ and ‘Accept’ http header properties.

Here’s a look at a getParty xml payload and response:

Request XML:

<TCRMService xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
             xmlns="http://www.ibm.com/mdm/schema" 
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.ibm.com/mdm/schema MDMDomains.xsd">
    <RequestControl>
        <requestID>100187</requestID>
        <DWLControl>
            <requesterName>cusadmin</requesterName>
            <requesterLocale>en</requesterLocale>           
        </DWLControl>
    </RequestControl>
    <TCRMInquiry>
        <InquiryType>getParty</InquiryType>
        <InquiryParam>
            <tcrmParam name="PartyId">1</tcrmParam>
            <tcrmParam name="PartyType">P</tcrmParam>
            <tcrmParam name="InquiryLevel">1</tcrmParam>
        </InquiryParam>
    </TCRMInquiry>
</TCRMService>

Response XML (portion of the response has been trimmed):

<TCRMService
    xmlns="http://www.ibm.com/mdm/schema"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.ibm.com/mdm/schema MDMDomains.xsd">
    <ResponseControl>
        <ResultCode>SUCCESS</ResultCode>
        <ServiceTime>123</ServiceTime>
        <DWLControl>
            <requesterName>mdmadmin</requesterName>
            <requesterLanguage>100</requesterLanguage>
            <requesterLocale>en</requesterLocale>
            <userRole>mdm_admin</userRole>
            <requestID>100187</requestID>
        </DWLControl>
    </ResponseControl>
    <TxResponse>
        <RequestType>getParty</RequestType>
        <TxResult>
            <ResultCode>SUCCESS</ResultCode>
        </TxResult>
        <ResponseObject>
            <TCRMPersonBObj>
                <PartyId>1</PartyId>
                <DisplayName>Jane Doh</DisplayName>
                …
                <DWLStatus>
                    <Status>0</Status>
                </DWLStatus>
            </TCRMPersonBObj>
        </ResponseObject>
    </TxResponse>
</TCRMService>

The same request/response as JSON, using application/json, as both content-type and accept:

Request JSON:

{
             "TCRMService": {
                          "@schemaLocation": "http:\/\/www.ibm.com\/mdm\/schema MDMDomains.xsd",
                          "RequestControl": {
                                      "requestID": 604157,
                                      "DWLControl": {
                                                   "requesterName": "cusadmin",
                                                   "requesterLocale": "en"
                                      }
                          },
                          "TCRMInquiry": {
                                      "InquiryType": "getParty",
                                      "InquiryParam": {
                                                   "tcrmParam": [{
                                                                "@name": "PartyId",
                                                                "$": "1"
                                                   },
                                                   {
                                                                "@name": "PartyType",
                                                                "$": "P"
                                                   },
                                                   {
                                                                "@name": "InquiryLevel",
                                                                "$": "1"
                                                   }]
                                      }
                          }
             }
}

Response JSON (full response is shown):

{
    "TCRMService": {
        "@schemaLocation": "http://www.ibm.com/mdm/schema MDMDomains.xsd",
        "ResponseControl": {
            "ResultCode": "SUCCESS",
            "ServiceTime": "86",
            "DWLControl": {
                "requesterName": "mdmadmin",
                "requesterLanguage": "100",
                "requesterLocale": "en",
                "userRole": "mdm_admin",
                "requestID": "604157"
            }
        },
        "TxResponse": {
            "RequestType": "getParty",
            "TxResult": {
                "ResultCode": "SUCCESS"
            },
            "ResponseObject": {
                "TCRMPersonBObj": {
                    "PartyId": "1",
                    "DisplayName": "Jane Doh",
                    "PreferredLanguageType": "100",
                    "PreferredLanguageValue": "English",
                    "ComputerAccessType": "1",
                    "ComputerAccessValue": "14.4K Baud",
                    "PartyType": "P",
                    "CreatedDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:47.583",
                    "SinceDate": "2015-09-10 00:00:00.0",
                    "StatementFrequencyType": "1",
                    "StatementFrequencyValue": "Annually",
                    "ClientStatusType": "1",
                    "ClientStatusValue": "Active",
                    "AlertIndicator": "N",
                    "SolicitationIndicator": "N",
                    "ConfidentialIndicator": "N",
                    "ClientPotentialType": "1",
                    "ClientPotentialValue": "Client",
                    "ClientImportanceType": "4",
                    "ClientImportanceValue": "Medium",
                    "DoNotDeleteIndicator": "1",
                    "PartyLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:50.138",
                    "PartyLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                    "PartyLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                    "PersonPartyId": "1",
                    "BirthDate": "1966-08-25 00:00:00.0",
                    "BirthPlaceType": "1",
                    "BirthPlaceValue": "Afghanistan",
                    "GenderType": "M",
                    "UserIndicator": "N",
                    "AgeVerifiedWithType": "2",
                    "AgeVerifiedWithValue": "Passport",
                    "HighestEducationType": "5",
                    "HighestEducationValue": "Master Degree",
                    "CitizenshipType": "1",
                    "CitizenshipValue": "Afghanistan",
                    "NumberOfChildren": "3",
                    "MaritalStatusType": "2",
                    "MaritalStatusValue": "Single",
                    "PartyActiveIndicator": "Y",
                    "PersonLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:50.31",
                    "PersonLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                    "PersonLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                    "TCRMPartyAddressBObj": [
                        {
                            "PartyAddressIdPK": "826144191261145264",
                            "PartyId": "1",
                            "AddressId": "828144191261121794",
                            "AddressUsageType": "1",
                            "AddressUsageValue": "Primary Residence",
                            "StartDate": "2001-06-11 00:00:00.0",
                            "AddressGroupLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:51.591",
                            "AddressGroupLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                            "AddressGroupLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                            "LocationGroupLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:51.451",
                            "LocationGroupLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                            "LocationGroupLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                            "TCRMAddressBObj": {
                                "AddressIdPK": "828144191261121794",
                                "ResidenceType": "2",
                                "ResidenceValue": "Detached House",
                                "AddressLineOne": "120 Richmond St",
                                "City": "Toronto",
                                "ZipPostalCode": "M5A 1P4",
                                "ResidenceNumber": "789",
                                "ProvinceStateType": "108",
                                "ProvinceStateValue": "ON",
                                "CountyCode": "1",
                                "CountryType": "31",
                                "CountryValue": "Canada",
                                "LatitudeDegrees": "180",
                                "LongitudeDegrees": "90",
                                "AddressLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:51.216",
                                "AddressLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                                "AddressLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                                "DWLStatus": {
                                    "Status": "0"
                                }
                            },
                            "DWLStatus": {
                                "Status": "0"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "TCRMPartyIdentificationBObj": [
                        {
                            "IdentificationIdPK": "826744191261084265",
                            "PartyId": "1",
                            "IdentificationType": "1",
                            "IdentificationValue": "Social Security Number",
                            "IdentificationNumber": "1245",
                            "IdentificationStatusType": "2",
                            "IdentificationStatusValue": "Active",
                            "IdentificationExpiryDate": "2005-08-11 23:59:59.0",
                            "StartDate": "2002-02-02 00:00:00.0",
                            "PartyIdentificationLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:50.841",
                            "PartyIdentificationLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                            "PartyIdentificationLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                            "DWLStatus": {
                                "Status": "0"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "TCRMPersonNameBObj": [
                        {
                            "PersonNameIdPK": "822844191261056191",
                            "NameUsageType": "1",
                            "NameUsageValue": "Legal",
                            "PrefixType": "12",
                            "PrefixValue": "Miss",
                            "GivenNameOne": "Jane",
                            "StdGivenNameOne": "JANE",
                            "LastName": "Doh",
                            "StdLastName": "DOH",
                            "PersonPartyId": "1",
                            "StartDate": "2002-02-02 00:00:00.0",
                            "PersonNameLastUpdateDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:50.56",
                            "PersonNameLastUpdateUser": "mdmadmin",
                            "PersonNameLastUpdateTxId": "616244191260573356",
                            "LastUpdatedBy": "mdmadmin",
                            "LastUpdatedDate": "2015-09-10 15:16:50.56",
                            "DWLStatus": {
                                "Status": "0"
                            }
                        }
                    ],
                    "DWLStatus": {
                        "Status": "0"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

How does MDM handle the JSON requests/responses?

---

 

The default MDM JSON model is actually based on the core XML schema model (MDMCommon.xsd and MDMDomains.xsd).  Internally, MDM will validate the JSON using these schemas. 

We use a “Mapped notation” api to build the JSON.  A couple things to note about this implementation: 

• XML elements that contain nested elements will be mapped to JSON objects (ie. <TCRMPersonBObj> will be "TCRMPersonBObj": { … })
• XML element values will be mapped to a JSON name/value pair (ie. <GivenNameOne>Jane</GivenNameOne> will be "GivenNameOne": "Jane")
• XML element attributes become JSON name/value pairs within the JSON object. (ie. <tcrmParam name="PartyId">1</tcrmParam> will be "tcrmParam": { "@name": "PartyId", "$": "1" })  Note the attribute is prefix with “@”.  The xml element value will be mapped to the name/value pair using the name “$”.  The “@” and “$” characters are used to distinguish the attribute value from the element’s value.
• XML array elements, an XML document which contains multiple nested elements of the same name will automatically be mapped to a JSON array.  (ie.
  <TCRMPersonNameBObj>
     <PersonNameIdPK>822844191261056191</PersonNameIdPK>
     <NameUsageType>1</NameUsageType>
  ...
  </TCRMPersonNameBObj>
  <TCRMPersonNameBObj>
     <PersonNameIdPK>821544198626606646</PersonNameIdPK>
     <NameUsageType>2</NameUsageType>
  ...
  </TCRMPersonNameBObj> will be

"TCRMPersonNameBObj": [ {
    "PersonNameIdPK": "822844191261056191",
    "NameUsageType": "1",
  ...
},
{
    "PersonNameIdPK": "821544198626606646",
    "NameUsageType": "2",
  ...
}] )

There are instances where we need to force the return of a JSON array.  This is the case for list type elements in MDM or results which include multiple elements.  To control this behavior, you can set the elements which need to be forced as JSON array using the Configuration Management element “/IBM/DWLCommonServices/Restful/JsonResponse/ArrayObjects” (comma separated value list).

 

Don’t want to write any code to test your MDM services?

---

Using Firefox/Chrome POSTMAN REST client extension, you can submit your requests directly to the backend server securely.

Enter REST URL as http://localhost:9080/com.ibm.mdm.server.ws.restful/resources/MDMWSRESTful

Choose “PUT” as the HTTP method
Set headers: Content-Type and Accept to either application/xml or application/json
Set authorization by supplying credentials using Basic Auth tab.

Another great tool is SOAPUI. This tool can be used to fully automate your functional and regression testing by submitting REST requests.  For more info on this tool visit http://www.soapui.org/.

Another option is using cURL (http://curl.haxx.se/)
cURL is a cmd line tool for transferring data using a URL syntax.

curl --user "mdmadmin:mdmadmin" -X PUT
            -H "Content-Type: application/xml"
            -H "Accept: application/xml"
            -d @getParty.xml "http://localhost:9080/com.ibm.mdm.server.ws.restful/resources/MDMWSRESTful"

 

 

Tags:  jax-rs pmdm restful webservices mdm rest

From version 11.4 FixPack 3 the MDM Application Toolkit has a new hierarchy widget, which replaces the now deprecated MDM Tree coach view.

This new widget, the MDM Hierarchy coach view uses the latest in web visualisation technology to render hierarchies in BPM coaches. As well as using this new technology the MDM Hierarchy coach view also has a new method of interacting with the MDM operational server.

 

To highlight some of the new features, this post presents a step-by-step guide of how to get up and running with the new MDM Hierarchy coach view. I will assume a degree of familiarity with IBM BPM, in particular Process Designer.

 

Set-up:

• Before opening BPM ensure the MDM operational server has a hierarchy, containing at least one hierarchy node.
• Create a new Process App, I have called mine Hierarchy Demo.
• Open the new Process App in IBM Process Designer
• Import the MDM Application Toolkit
• Log in to Process Admin in a browser, expand Admin Tools, click on Manage EPV’s. In the snapshot drop down select the Process App you have just created. In the name drop down select MDM_Connection_Details. Configure the EPV values in the variable list with your MDM servers’ details.
• Create a Client-Side Human Service, I’ve called mine Demo Hierarchy
• Open up the default coach, created in the Client-Side Human Service

 

Step 1: Drag and drop the MDM Hierarchy coach view from the palette onto the canvas, it is listed under the MDMAT grouping.

Switch to the configuration tab. You will notice that most of the fields have default values. In the rootNodeId field enter the values for the hierarchy and a node in the hierarchy in the format <hierarchyID/hierarchyNodeID> 

Step 2: Press the “Run” button in BPM. This will launch a browser, showing the coach you have just created. The hierarchy will be visible, and should render data if it has been set up correctly.

 

 

That is all that is required to get the MDM Hierarchy coach view up and running.

The coach view has a set of other configuration options; please see the documentation for more details on the configuration options.

 

The MDM Hierarchy coach view can be augmented by connecting it to a set of other coach views, which provide pop-up dialogs with additional behaviour that complements the hierarchy. These are the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Add, the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Details, the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Error and MDM Hierarchy Dialog MultiParent.

 

While each of these coach views can be added independently, the instructions below will guide you through adding them all.

 

Step 1: Adding the other coach views.

Drag and drop the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Add, the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Details, the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Error and MDM Hierarchy Dialog MultiParent on to the canvas that contains the MDM Hierarchy coach view.

 

Step 2: Create a new MDM_Hierarchy_Event_Framework for all of the widgets to use.

Switch to the variables tab. Create a new Private variable, call it “events”. Change the Variable Type to MDM_Hierarchy_Event_Framework. This variable is used by the MDM Hierarchy coach view to communicate with the other coach views, it provides a hot swappable mechanism so that the out of the box dialogs can be replaced with custom dialogs making use of the event framework.

 

Step 3: Configure all of the widgets to use the same, shared event framework. Switch back to the Coaches view. For each coach, select it on the canvas, then select the Configuration tab at the bottom.

Locate the EventFramework configuration option; click the purple button next to the label. Then click the Select button to the right hand side. Find the variable you created in Step 2 (events) and select it. Do this for each of the widgets.

 

Step 4: Configure the visibility for each of the dialog coach views; this step should not be performed on the MDM Hierarchy coach view.

Select the coach view, then click the Visibility tab at the bottom. Leave source as “Value” then press the purple button next to the Visibility label. Press the Select button, then expand the events variable, expand the appropriate event, then select the visibility entry. Each of the different dialogs should be configured against its specific event. The MDM Hierarchy Dialog Add should be configured to use the addNode event; the MDM Hierarchy Dialog Details should be configured to use the nodeDetails event; the MDM Hierarchy Dialog MuliParent should be configured to use the multiParent event; the MDM Hierarchy Error Details should be configured to use the error event.

 

Step 5: Click the “Run” button in BPM.

 

The tree now has additional behaviour, if you right click on a node a pop-up dialog should now appear that will display additional data about the node. The add button on this dialog will launch the add dialog that can be used to add nodes into the hierarchy. If a node in the hierarchy has multiple parents in the hierarchy an icon indicating this is displayed to the right of the node, the MultiParent dialog will be launched if that icon is clicked and allows users to re-focus the hierarchy on the different parent nodes.

 

This brief post has demonstrated how to use the new MDM Hierarchy and associated coach views. In future posts more advanced topics, such as replacing the ajax service which supply the data to the hierarchy, and how to create custom widgets that use the event framework will be explored.

 

Tags:  techtip mdm bpm application-toolkit hierarchy

Failed to connect to the JMX port on server

When you first connect from MDM Workbench to WebSphere Application Server (AppServer) where MDM Server is installed, for example to deploy a configuration project or to run a virtual job, you might see this error:

Job Manager Error - Failed to connect to the JMX port on server

There can be several reasons why the connection might fail, for background, here is the stack you are relying on when you connect to the JMX port.

In order for the JMX port connection to be successful, you need every component in this diagram to be in a fully functioning healthy state. And yes, that means there are a lot of places you can check! As a result, it's not practical here to explain every possible area to review, but this should give you some idea of where to start investigating.

To begin, cut the problem in half: there is a message associated with blueprint virtual bridge. Look for this, and it will help you decide whether the problem is more likely to be a runtime issue (below and to the right of the blueprint virtual bridge component) or a configuration issue

1. Look for virtual bridge messages

On the Application Server where MDM is hosted, open SystemOut.log or HPEL logs: if possible restart the AppServer first to make sure you have startup messages:

Success scenario

When the MBean starts successfully, you will see messages like these:

• RMIConnectorC A ADMC0026I: The RMI Connector is available at port <xxxx>

• JMXConnectors I ADMC0058I: The JMX JSR160RMI connector is available at port <xxxx>

• BlueprintCont I org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintContainerImpl doRun Bundle com.ibm.mdm.server.virtualbridge is waiting for dependencies [(objectClass=com.ibm.mdm.server.config.api.ConfigManager), (objectClass=com.initiatesystems.hub.mpinet.MPINetProtocolLogic)]

Note that these messages will only appear on startup, so they may not be visible if the logs have wrapped

If you have these success messages the Blueprint virtual bridge is available for JMX requests, and everything to the right of the diagram (MPIJNI, JMS, databases, filesystems) is healthy.

In this case the likely cause of the problems is to the left of the diagram, and probably relates to a configuration issue. More information is available in section 3. When the virtual bridge has started successfully

Failure scenario

When the MBean has not started, you see messages like this:

• BlueprintCont E org.apache.aries.blueprint.container.BlueprintContainerImpl$1 run Unable to start blueprint container for bundle com.ibm.mdm.server.virtualbridge due to unresolved dependencies [(objectClass=com.ibm.mdm.server.config.api.ConfigManager), (objectClass=com.initiatesystems.hub.mpinet.MPINetProtocolLogic)]

• This message identifies a problem with the JMX MBean listener, but does not in itself identify the root cause: to find the source, look for other messages in the logs with earlier timestamps.

If you have these failure messages the Blueprint virtual bridge is not available. More information is available in the next section, 2. When the virtual bridge has not started

No messages found

If you don't find any messages relating to com.ibm.mdm.server.virtualbridge, the most likely reason is that there were messages when the server started, but the logs have wrapped the virtual bridge messages are no longer current. The recommended action is to restart the server and collect the new logs.

2. When the virtual bridge has not started

When the blueprint virtual bridge has not started, the next step is to investigate potential runtime issues in one or more of the components on the right side of the diagram.

1. Look for Database errors, search the Application Server logs for
   • SQL
   • DSRA
2. Look for JMS errors, the JMX MBean for virtual relies on the SIBus messaging engine, search the Application Server logs for
   • CWSIS

Note that you can choose whether you use a datastore or filestore for the messaging engine data store: the default is datastore (database).

There may be file system errors, these will usually be reported by the component that depends on the file system, for example the database or the JMS filestore.

In many cases you will be able to find technotes or other links on the internet with information about how to resolve the errors, or if not, contact IBM support and provide the logs that show the errors.

These related links have information about resolving blueprint errors:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/W2c3ebf603f05_4460_8e8b_a26780b35b45/page/Troubleshooting%20guidance%20for%20InfoSphere%20MDM%20installations

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21509668

3. When the virtual bridge has started successfully

Once you have found the success message, the next step is to investigate the configuration in both WebSphere Application Server and MDM Workbench.

• com.ibm.mdm.server.virtualbridge is waiting for dependencies

Review the server logs for authorization errors

On the Application Server where MDM is hosted, open SystemOut.log or HPEL logs. Look for errors that reference one or more of:

• LDAP
• LTPA
• SECJ

Errors with any of these codes suggest that you need to re-visit the security configuration in the WebSphere Application Server administrative console, and check userid and password settings in the workbench client. Review the error messages, in many cases you will be able to find technotes or other links on the internet with information about how to resolve them, or if not, contact IBM support and provide the logs that show them.

Review the firewall settings

Verify that you can ping from the Workbench machine to the machine that hosts WebSphere Application Server and MDM Server, using your preferred ping tool.

Optionally you can use "Test Connection" from MDM Workbench, although note that in an ND configuration this tool only checks the dmgr, so it may not be the correct status for the actual server where MDM is hosted.

If you can not connect to the target MDM server, the JMX connection will not work and you need to contact your networking support team to make sure the network is available and if necessary, that appropriate firewall ports are opened.

Review the port and host configuration

1. In the WebSphere application console
   1. Go to Servers -> Server Types -> WebSphere application servers
   2. Select the server where the MDM runtime is installed
   3. Scroll down to the ports section and open it (see the screenshot below)
   4. Make a note of the ports for
      • BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS
      • SOAP_CONNECTOR_ADDRESS
      • ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS (if not 0)
2. In the Workbench
   1. Go to the Servers tab (you may need to add it from Window -> Show View)
   2. In the Overview panel, under Server select Manually provide connection settings
   3. Set the RMI port to BOOTSTRAP_ADDRESS
   4. Set SOAP port to SOAP_CONNECTOR_ADDRESS
   5. Test these settings initially without any IPC port configuration
   6. If you are still not able to connect, also configure the IPC port with the ORB_LISTENER_ADDRESS and retest

 

 

 

 

Tags:  jmx virtual-mdm techtip virtual

Have you ever tried to start a BPM server on linux only to be greeted by the following incomprehensible error?

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org.eclipse.emf.ecore.EFactory          
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassImpl(Native Method)         
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:275)      
        at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass                  
(SecureClassLoader.jav4)                                                
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:540)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:451)
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$300(URLClassLoader.java:79)   
        at java.net.URLClassLoader$ClassFinder.run(URLClassLoader.java:
1038)                                                                   
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(AccessController.
java2)                                                                  
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:429)   
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader.findClass(ExtClassLoader.
java4)                                                                  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassHelper(ClassLoader.java:703)  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:682)        
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader.loadClass(ExtClassLoader.
java0)                                                                  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:665)        
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verifyImpl(Native Method)            
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:94)        
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.verify(J9VMInternals.java:92)        
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:171)   
        at org.eclipse.hyades.logging.events.cbe.impl.                  
EventFactoryContext.<i>(EventFactoryContext.java:82)                    
        at org.eclipse.hyades.logging.events.cbe.impl.                  
EventFactoryContext.gestance(EventFactoryContext.java:122)              
        at com.ibm.ejs.ras.Tr.<clinit>(Tr.java:316)                     
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initializeImpl(Native Method)        
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:237)   
        at com.ibm.ws.management.tools.AdminTool.<clinit>(AdminTool.    
java:66)                                                                
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initializeImpl(Native Method)        
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:237)   
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:204)   
        at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:204)   
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)  
        at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke                  
(NativeMethodAccessorI.java:60)                                         
        at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke              
(DelegatingMethodAssorImpl.java:37)                                     
        at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:611)             
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.WSLauncher.main(WSLauncher.java:280)    
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.eclipse.emf.ecore.     
EFactory                                                                
        at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:434)   
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader.findClass(ExtClassLoader.
java4)                                                                  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassHelper(ClassLoader.java:703)  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:682)        
        at com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader.loadClass(ExtClassLoader.
java0)                                                                  
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:665)        
        ... 33 more 

 

Well the good news is, it's a really trivial fix. Your ulimit is set too low!

DOH!

Try ulimit -n 8196

And then re-run startServer, startNode, startManager, BPMConfig or however your normally start BPM.

To stop this happening again you could consider changing the default setting, this will depend on which particular distribution of linux or flavour of unix your using.

Tags:  linux ulimit techtip bpm

You may have seen the recent tech talks that the team here have been producing for our clients. In these tech talks an IBM expert will talk through a specific MDM topic in great detail sharing the deep expertise of the architects and developers that are living and breathing the technology. These tech talks are provided for free and just require a simple registration process to allow you to attend. All sessions are recorded and replays will be available shortly afterwards.

 

One area of keen interest to our clients has been concerning the Stewardship and Governance  capabilities provided by MDM, specifically the IBM Stewardship Center, that was released in MDM 11.3. So it falls to me to host the next MDM tech talk on June 23rd. In this session I will be discussing the new capabilities offered by the IBM Stewardship Center, how we are changing the game for stewardship teams looking to evolve their organization to be more reactive to data quality events, engaging line of business users to provide input to data quality issues and adding advanced business rules and intelligence to automate events from across the entire data quality landscape.

 

A one hour tech talk is no where near enough time to do such a broad and important area justice however, we will spend some time up front explaining IBM's perspective on Information Governance and how IBM's InfoSphere portfolio provides the market leading integrated suite of comprehensive governance capabilities that can flex to suit your specific industry requirements. We will dive into the IBM Stewardship Center and its comprehensive workflow engine, providing collaboration and orchestration across the enterprise and touch on the MDM Application Toolkit, a suite of accelerators designed and built by some of our development ninja's to make creating custom governance workflows and quick and easy experience....and if we have time we may even have a live demo of the latest version of the Stewardship Center. During the session the live chat will be open allowing you to ask questions and I will have a team of experts ready to respond in real time.

 

If your organization is trying to address the growing focus on Information Governance, if you are trying to figure out how to make your Stewardship organization more efficient, or you just wanted to take a look at one of the coolest new features from the MDM team then don't miss the Master Data Stewardship & Governance tech talk on June 23rd at 10am Eastern......Register here

 

For a list of all upcoming events see the Tech Talks Wiki... http://bit.ly/MDMTechTalks

 

Tags:  stewardship web-conference governance mdm webinar tech-talk webconf

The team here are pleased to announce that after many nights researching, writing and editing, a new IBM Redbook is due to be published entitled 'Designing and Operating a Data Reservoir'.

The book takes you through the steps an organization should go through when designing and building a data reservoir solution, In this book we base the scenario around a pharmaceutical company, however the discussions, principals and patterns included in the book are relevant for any industry.

A data reservoir provides a platform to share trusted, governed data across an organization. It empowers users to engage in the sharing and reuse of data to ensure that an organization can fully leverage their most important asset. - Data. A data reservoir allows for collection of vast sets of data that can be curated, shaped and monitored to allow advanced analytics to be constructed offering new insights to an organization about their data.

See this blog post for more background on the need for a data reservoir:

5 Things to Know About a Data Reservoir

The new IBM Redbook, as been authored by thought leaders in the data management space and will be available as a full IBM Redbook publication shortly. In the mean time the draft is available directly from the IBM Redbooks website:

Designing and Operating a Data Reservoir

We'd love to hear your feedback on the book and would be keen to hear your stories around data reservoir solutions.

Make Data Work

Jay

Tags:  redbooks redbook data-reservoir

We have one thing on our mind - making you happy!

 

 

Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and let us know how we're doing.  Your satisfaction is our number one priority.  If there is something we can do to make your work life easier, let us know!

 

IBM InfoSphere Master Data Management Survey

 

Photo © Alexander Henning Drachmann (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Tags:  survey

The MDM Developers community now has a new Events section. The first event will be a live webinar on Upgrading to MDM v11 presented by Lena Woolf:

"In this presentation we will perform a comprehensive overview of the MDM v11 upgrade process. We will begin the session by reviewing how MDM v11 differs from our previous releases of MDM Advanced Edition and MDM Standard Edition from a technical perspective. Next we will outline the upgrade process and considerations on a high level. Finally we will discuss case based nuances to consider when planning your upgrade effort."

For more information, including how to register, have a look at the full event details.

Photo © Håkan Dahlström (CC BY 2.0) 

Tags:  upgrade mdm-11 webconf webinar web-conference mdm

This document outlines how Physical MDM customisations can be built from source artefacts in an automated build and test system. This document does not aim to be a complete guide on this topic, but rather to point the way to how some detailed steps can be implemented using examples.

 

1. Overview

The MDM Advanced or Standard editions both include the MDM Workbench. In version 11.0 and beyond the MDM Workbench is used by solution developers to create artefacts which customise the MDM solution for the physical, virtual and hybrid implementation styles. These source code artefacts are typically built into a Composite Bundle Archive (CBA) and deployed to WebSphere where they augment the functionality already available in the MDM Server Enterprise Business Application (EBA).

A good practice amongst MDM solution developers is to create an automated build process such that customisation source code is checked-in to a code control repository, and an automated build process takes those source files and builds the CBA ready for deploying onto post-build test systems, placing built artefacts into a second repository or shared file system.

Some automated systems take this “build” concept further, by automating the deployment of such built artefacts to test systems, which in turn report back on the “health” of the build, how many tests passed and failed, and generally quickly provide valuable feedback to developers whether recent changes broke the solution or not. Project managers overseeing such projects are able to reduce project risk by adopting this continuous delivery processes, and changes to MDM solutions become more reliable and safer as a result.

To add MDM solutions to such a continuous build environment it is necessary to: 

1. Identify the pieces of the solution which represent the “source code” for the solution.
2. Create a source code repository which identified “source code” can be checked into. GIT is a popular choice here, though there are many alternatives such as Rational Team Concert from IBM, CVS, SVN, etc.
3. Recognize when a consistent set of code has been checked-in, at which point a “build” is started.
4. Create a build environment.
5. The build environment often “boot-straps” itself via a simple initial script which checks-out the rest of the build scripts which in turn build the artefacts from solution developers.
6. The build scripts check out the artefacts from code control to the local file system.
7. The source artefacts are processed, transforming them into built artefacts
8. The build process often executes “unit tests” to further validate that the solution artefacts are healthy and do what they are expected to do.
9. Built artefacts are published to a repository which versions every build and against which build metadata can be gathered and reported. Such build logs, unit tests results, and results of other tests indicate the “health” of the build.
10. If the build is considered “good” then further automation can be added to deploy the built solution to a test environment, with higher-level tests (functional and end-to-end system tests) exercising the solution further. Such tests can also report back to the build repository on the health of each build.

 

This article is mostly concerned with step #7 – building source artefacts.

 

2. Materials and prerequisites

This article is accompanied by a collection of example scripts. We do not intend that these are used directly, but as an example of how you may wish to implement your own automated build process.

The current solution consists of four main files: 

• mdm_wb_build.xml

• mdm_wb_build.properties

• mdm_wb_build_report.xsl

• mdm_wb_build_inside_eclipse.xml

 

In order for the scripts to work, the machine running the scripts needs to have the following products installed:

• Rational Application Developer (RAD) or Rational Software Architect (RSA)

• WebSphere Application Server (WAS) with a profile set up

• MDM Workbench (the scripts accommodate version 11.0 and above)

 

mdm_wb_build.properties contains a list of properties that need to be defined before running the scripts:

• “InputFolder” defines the folder containing the code to be imported/built.

• “OutputFolderPrefix” property defines the folder to which the projects will be copied and CBAs exported. Currently the script generates a time-stamp that gets added to the defined output folder prefix.

• “AntContribHome” should be set to the folder containing “ant-contrib.jar” which provides some of the functionality used within the scripts.

• “EclipseHome” should be set to the installation folder of RAD or RSA.

• “WASHome” should be set to the installation folder of WAS and both “WASRuntimeTypeId” and ““WASRuntimeId”should be specified as well.

 

To run the Ant scripts the user needs to run mdm_wb_build.xml as a build file.

The script contains only the “runBuild” target.

The target checks that necessary properties, such as Eclipse Home, date and time stamps and output folder prefix are set. Provided these properties do exist, it creates a folder based on OutputFolderPrefix and date and time, within which “logs”, “CBAExport” and “workspace” folders are created.

The logs folder contains “MDM_WB_BUILD_log.html” and “MDM_WB_BUILD_log.xml”. The XML file stores debug information. The HTML file contains general information on whether the main steps were successful, for example: 

checkPropertiesExist: BUILD SUCCESSFUL

createServerRuntimeAndTargetPlatform: BUILD SUCCESSFUL

generateDevProject: BUILD SUCCESSFUL

workspaceBuild: BUILD SUCCESSFUL

exportCBA: BUILD SUCCESSFUL

End of report.

 

The CBAExport folder contains all of the exported CBAs.

The workspace folder contains a local copy of build artefacts.

After the directories have been created, the script checks which operating system it is running on and sets the isLinux or isWindows property to “true” as appropriate and calls either runAnt.sh or runAnt.bat to run a headless Eclipse process. The relevant file (either the batch or the shell script) should be available by default in the bin directory in the Eclipse installation directory.

The runAnt script then sets up the log files, environment variables and runs a second script “mdm_wb_build_inside_eclipse.xml” inside a headless RAD/RSA environment.

 

3. Step breakdown of the automated build and test system

Given that automated building and testing of MDM solutions is a worthwhile goal, the following sections provide some guidance in some of these areas where actions specific to the MDM tools and development/build environment are necessary, and some points of discussion are presented where choices exist.

 

3.1 Identify the pieces of the solution which represent the “source code” for the solution.

The source code for an MDM solution will be made up of a collection of Eclipse projects and their contents. MDM development, MDM configuration, MDM hybrid mapping, MDM service tailoring, MDM custom interface, MDM metadata and other MDM-specific projects types. CBA projects will add to the list.

MDM Development projects contain a “module.mdmxmi” file, which contains a model of the customizations which the project aims to create. This file should always be considered to be source code.

At some point the mdmxmi file will be used to generate Java, XML, SQL and other file artefacts, and there are a few different approaches you can take for these files:

The current solution is to only consider files which have been manually changed as “source code”, and “generate artefacts” from the mdmxmi model as part of the automated build process itself. This approach demands that the MDM workbench tools are installed as part of the build environment, because the “generate artefacts” process that turns .mdmxmi files into other artefacts will be a necessary part of the build process.

A project “MDMSharedResources” in the workspace can be considered “source code”, and it is recommended that this project is checked-into the code control system, together with its .project file and .mdmxmi file. The other contents of this project can generally be ignored from check-in, as the artefacts in this project often will be re-created by the automated build system.

 

3.2 Create a source code repository.

There are many choices regarding which product to use as a source code repository and covering them is not the aim of this document.

 

3.3 Recognize when a consistent set of code has been checked-in, at which point a “build” is started.

This event may be triggered manually, automated overnight, or whenever a change-set is delivered to the code stream. The capturing of this event is often specific to the code control system being used, though some solution teams augment this by adding a web page that enables build requests to be manually requested.

 

3.4 Create a build environment.

A build environment should include RAD (or RSA) which can be called in a “headless” manner such that functionality within RAD can be used without a user-interface being present.

MDM Workbench will be required in addition to RAD to perform a complete build of “module.mdmxmi” files.

For the list of platforms that MDM Workbench v11.0 and onwards support – refer to the product release documentation.

 

3.5. The build environment “boot-straps” itself.

A small script is responsible for “boot-strapping” the process by it checking-out the other build scripts which in turn build the artefacts from solution developers.

 

3.6 The build scripts check out the artefacts from code control to the local file system.

These actions are specific to the code control system so will not be discussed further here.

 

3.7. The source artefacts are processed, transforming them into built artefacts.

This phase of the automated system typically consists of a hierarchy of Ant files which decomposes the overall build process into many smaller steps and “Ant targets”. The Maven framework is a common choice of technology to oversee this phase.

These Ant files can be categorized into two types:

1. Run outside of the RAD environment;
2. Run inside a “headless” RAD instance.

 

For a detailed walkthrough of specific implementations of the build process refer to the Ant scripts provided with this blog entry.

 

3.8. The build process often executes “unit tests” to further validate that the solution artefacts are healthy and do what they are expected to do.

The tools and approaches used to execute unit tests vary widely dependent on technology choice. Simple Java JUnit tests offer one simple solution, which can be invoked with scripts once the tests and tested code are built.

 

3.9 Built artefacts are published to a repository.

Every build against which build metadata can be gathered and reported is versioned by the publish process. Build logs, unit test results and results of other tests indicating the “health” of the build are gathered and published to the repository as well.

Products such as Rational Asset Manager can be used here, or for a really basic solution a simple shared folder on a network drive may suffice.

 

3.10 Automated deploy and test health of overall build.

If the build is considered “good” then further automation can be added to deploy the built solution to a test environment, with higher-level tests (functional and end-to-end system tests) exercising the solution further. Such tests can also report back to the build repository on the health of each build.

The automated deployment of entire systems for testing is often one of the most complex areas of the whole continuous development process. Products such as Rational Urban Code Deploy (UCD) can be used for this stage of the process, though for some environments a set of (reasonably complex) scripts might be sufficient.

For the MDM pieces, we are mostly concerned with deploying and un-deploying SQL scripts, deploying/un-deploying CBA files, and starting and stopping the MDM solution and WebSphere server(s).

Prior to deploying extensions to the server, it is often necessary to modify the database. This is possible using the SQL scripts found in the MDMSharedResources project in the built workspace. Rollback scripts in the same location should be applied once testing is complete to reset the database back to a known good state.

For CBA deployment, Jython scripts can be used to manipulate the WebSphere server. Detailed documentation of these steps can be found in the WebSphere documentation.

Additional documentation on adding the CBAs to the WebSphere local bundle repository, extending the MDM server EBAs, starting and stopping the WAS server is available on the MDM Developer Site.

 

Sample scripts and projects are available for download.

Tags:  cba osgi build mdm-workbench ant mdm rad techtip

2014 was a great year for the MDM Developers community, with a growing knowledge base on our wiki, new videos on our YouTube channel, and nine more blog posts. A huge thank you to everyone who has contributed to the MDM Developers community over the last year. We're already well in to the new year so, rather than looking back, I'd like to share a quick look ahead at what's in store for 2015.

The biggest news is that there are now seven more people committed to supporting the community, so look forward to seeing an even more active community this year! For example, there should be more MDM Collaborative Edition resources coming soon. It's my great pleasure to introduce Bob Maddison, Chitra Iyer, Dmitry Drinfeld, Doug Cowie, Mohana Kera, Nic Townsend and Shweta Shandilya...

 

Bob Maddison

Bob Maddison is our most experienced MDM Workbench developer. He is a senior software engineer based at the IBM Hursley Laboratory. Over the past twenty years he has been involved with a number of major IBM products including CICS, Java Virtual Machines and more recently with development of tooling for Master Data Management.
 

Chitra Iyer

"I am Chitra Ananthanarayanan.  After completing Masters in Computer Applications in 2004, I joined IBM.  I am working for Master Data Management since 2007.  I enjoy solving interesting puzzles that come up during product development through code, and learning new programming languages and databases.  Recently IBM Bluemix keeps me busy, and is helping me to learn services - Cloudant, Secure Connectors and Watson Cognitive applications.  I have started blogging on Big Data and on Bluemix.

I am fascinated to note that over the past ten years, the advent of applications for almost all services, has helped almost everyone save a lot of time,  Of these, the mobile applications deserve a special mention.  The direction in which the industry is moving now, to gather information through these applications and leverage it, will provide varied benefits.

I prefer to see the small businesses make a presence in the Internet and am sure this will happen quite soon.  

Big Data and Analytics interests me and I read posts on it, some of these posts are from links in Twitter.  I am available in Twitter @chitraaiyer"
 

Dmitry Drinfeld

"I've started my MDM journey as an intern back in 2010 and liked it so much that I could not bear to be away from it for too long, so I returned to the team as a full time developer in 2012. Since then I've been fortunate to work on major features of the product and provide continuous support to multiple high profile clients as a lab advocate. The topics of MDM, secure engineering and big data are near and dear to my heart and I am always ready to share my expertise and learn new things! Beyond that I've been interested in all things tech ever since I can remember. Everything from wearable tech to mainframes fascinates me. And the true magic unveils when you start to understand the inner workings and complexities behind it all. One thing I've always found to be extremely important in which ever task I am undertaking is the presence of a challenge. Luckily, with our ever evolving technology those are abundant :) ."
 

Doug Cowie

Doug Cowie is a software engineer on the MDM Application Toolkit team at IBM's Hursley labs. He joined IBM after finishing his Master's degree at the University of Bristol, and has previously worked on the User Interface Generator and other projects.
 

Mohana Kera

Mohana Kera has more than 15 years of in-depth experience in architecture, design, development and implementation of software solutions. He has been working at IBM for the last 10 years, primarily on InfoSphere MDM Collaborative Edition(MDM CE). Prior to that, he has worked on developing Business Process Management solutions. He has in-depth experience with all aspects of MDM CE and was the development lead for Java API interfaces of the system. He has published several technotes, developerWorks articles, provided customer training on Java APIs, and has actively worked in developing the content for IBM Knowledge Center around MDM CE Java APIs. He is passionate about latest technology trends, blogging, social media and an active user of the social media.
Twitter handle: @mohkera
LinkedIn: Mohana Kera
 

Nic Townsend

Q. How long have you been working with MDM?
A: 3.5 years

Q: What did you do before that?
A: Studying CompSci at University of Warwick

Q: What inspires you in your work?
A: Being able to architect solutions as a team rather than receiving a strict specification.

Q: What are you passionate about?
A: Mobile, IoT and wearables

Q: If you were stuck on a technology deprived island, what single technology could you not live without?
A: Smartphone (assuming signal reaches the island, and it has electricity)

Q: What book are you currently reading?
A: Games People Play by Eric Berne

Q: What has been your biggest surprise you have witnessed in the technology industry?
A: Smartphones becoming cloud based for applications

Q: Is there any technology that you think should get more respect and adoption but does not?
A: VR (oculus rift) etc with haptic feedback for more than just gaming

Q: What is your favorite technology that fizzled or failed to live up to the hype?
A: Kinect/PS Eye for gaming

Q: Any new technologies that you think are about to break into the big time?
A: Embedded/tattoo tech

Q: What future technology would make your life easier?
A: Driverless cars

Q: How do you prefer to find answers to your questions?
A: Google - typically then linking to stack overflow/wikipedia etc.

Q: What are some of your favorite websites/feeds/twitter accounts to follow?
A: Gizmodo, Wired, Engadget

Q: Where can we find you on Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, and other social spaces?
A: @nict0wnsend
 

Shweta Shandilya

Shweta Shandilya is a development manager working in IBM's India Software Lab having joined IBM through the Trigo acquisition in 2004. Shweta leads a team of install developers and blogs about technology, MDM, and big data.

 

Something to look out for later in the year is a live video tech talk. The exact details, including the topic, are still to be confirmed but it should be a great opportunity for more interaction with the community.

As usual, there will be more articles and blog posts over the year but if there is anything else you would like to see, please let us know. Or, better yet, please join in and get involved- it's your community!

 

 

Tags:  tech-talk 2015 profiles

Occasionally when creating Business Process with the MDM Application Toolkit you may be returned errors from the server which at first glance seem a bit cryptic. When running against Virtual MDM you may sometimes come across errors which look like the following: IxnMemPut did not succeed. Reason: member XXX, unable to insert/update/delete member data.

In some cases this can be caused by the way BPM initialises variables as it serialises between Java objects and Javascript objects, for use on Coaches. So for example if I have an un-initialised, or null object before I display this object on a coach (i.e. have it bound to a CoachView) then when I check it after the coach, it will have been initialised. The problem is in fact a bit more convoluted than this, with nested complex objects, as the level they are initialised to is increased with every coach the object is used in. So for example, if I have a heavily nested data type, and an instance of this is used in 3 coaches, after the first coach the top level is initialised, after the second coach the top level, and the children of the top level are initialised, and after the third coach the top level, it's children and their children will be initialised. In Json this would look like:

Person : { Name : { First : String, Last : String}, Address : {Line1 : String}}
If we perform a search and get back person = {Name : {John, Rogers}}. We select this entry and move to the next coach.
In the next coach we will have person = {Name : {John, Rogers}, Address : {}}. If leave this coach and send data up to the server
we will in fact be sending person = {Name  : {John, Rogers}, Address : {Line1 : "" }} with this, we may get an error (if field is mandatory), or we may overwrite data in the server with blank fields.
 

This can be a problem in the Application Toolkit, for example when creating a simple search and update process. If I retrieve a sparsely populated object from the server, and pass it into a coach, any unused or empty fields will now be inititalised, if I pass this object to several more coaches before sending it back to the server as an update, then several levels of initialisation may have occured in any nested complex objects. In Virtual MDM this may give you an error if one of those initialised fields is required, as the engine will check to make sure you are not trying to set it to as blank, or an empty value. If you don't get an error that does not mean everything is okay, it could be that data on the server that was not originally retrieved has now been overwritten by empty values.

To make sure this doesn't happen it is important to follow BPM Coach design best practice and make sure you always use a display object when displaying an object in a coach. What this means is creating a data type (the display object) that contains only the fields you wish to display on screen, and copying the values into an instance of this new data type from the object retrieved from the server. This will also offer a performance enhancement as the whole object from the server is not passed back and forth from BPM to the web browser.

Tags:  application-toolkit bpm techtip coaches mdm

Scripts to setup WAS Profile for MDM v10.1. This is done by the DEST tool, but is useful to have the scripts for autromation purposes.

a)
Commands to delete/create the Profile if not there/want to test from fresh:

manageprofiles.bat -delete -profileName AppSrv01
rmdir C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01
manageprofiles.bat -create -profileName AppSrv01 -profilePath C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01 -templatePath C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\profileTemplates\default

b)
command to setup the WAS Profile with MDM artifacts ie SIB, JDBC, Qs etc
 
C:\IBM\WEBSPH~1\APPSER~1\java\jre\bin\java.exe -classpath C:\IBM\SDP\plugins\MDMDevEnvTooling\autotooling.jar com.ibm.mdm.setup.tooling.utils.ConfigWASStarter C:\IBM\SDP\plugins db2admin db2admin MDM101 C:\IBM\SQLLIB\java C:\WORKSP~1 DB2 AppSrv01 IBM-b65cd2b4faaNode01Cell IBM-b65cd2b4faaNode01 C:\IBM\WEBSPH~1\APPSER~1 ibm-b65cd2b4faa true null C:\workspaceMDM101\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation null null C:\WORKSP~1\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation\config_WAS_2014-04-30-15-08-59.log custSetupAppServer.py custSetupClasspath.py MDMServer 1010 1 50000 server1  

Not tested, but this is Oracle equivalent

C:\<WAS home>\java\jre\bin\java.exe -classpath C:\IBM\SDP\plugins\MDMDevEnvTooling\autotooling.jar com.ibm.mdm.setup.tooling.utils.ConfigWASStarter C:\IBM\SDP\plugins <ora user> <ora password> MDM101 <ORA PATH TO JDBC> C:\WORKSP~1 ORACLE AppSrv01 <localhost name>Node01Cell <localhost name>Node01 C:\IBM\WEBSPH~1\APPSER~1 <localhost name> true null C:\<workspace home>\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation null null C:\WORKSP~1\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation\config_WAS_2014-04-30-15-08-59.log custSetupAppServer.py custSetupClasspath.py MDMServer 1010 1 <ORA port #> server1  

c)
command to deploy MDM.ear file to WAS Profile
 
C:\IBM\SDP\plugins\MDMDevEnvTooling\controller\deploy.bat AppSrv01 IBM-b65cd2b4faaNode01Cell IBM-b65cd2b4faaNode01 C:\IBM\WEBSPH~1\APPSER~1 true C:\IBM\SDP\plugins C:\Users\IBM_AD~1\AppData\Local\Temp\DEST\ear\MDM.ear MDMServer C:\workspaceMDM101\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation\scripts\custDeployApp.py C:\workspaceMDM101\.metadata\.plugins\com.ibm.mdm.config.external.automation\scripts\uninstallApplication.py DB2UDBNT_V82_1 server1

 

d)
To set WAS Variable for Oracle path:

cd C:\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\bin
wsadmin -f setWASVariable.py


File setWASVariable.py:


import sys
global AdminConfig
global AdminTask
 
#AdminTask.setVariable('[ -scope Server=server1 -variableName DB2_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH -variableValue c:\\ibm\\sqllib1]')
AdminTask.setVariable('[ -scope Server=server1 -variableName ORACLE_JDBC_DRIVER_PATH -variableValue c:\\oracle\\appl1]')
AdminConfig.save()
 
print ""
print "  Done setting up environment."
print ""
 

Tags:  mdm-server websphere dest mdm

MDM v11.3 leverages IBM BPM technology to provide a data stewardship framework under a single UI. However, it may be desirable to modify this UI to match the look and feel of your existing solutions. While BPM Process Designer allows you to restructure page layout with the Coach designer, the best way to modify the look and feel of a Coach is with CSS.

BPM provides three ways to alter CSS out of the box from within Process Designer:

1. Supplying a CSS file as an attached script, or editing the inline CSS section of a Coach View
2. Adding a <style> HTML attribute on a Coach View inside a Coach
3. Supplying CSS as a Custom HTML fragment inside a Coach

However, there are occasions where these approaches are not suitable:

1. You may not own the Coach View so cannot directly update the attached scripts or inline CSS
2. You want to use the CSS across multiple Coach Views rather than scoping it to the single instance of the Coach View. Or you want to customise multiple Coach Views without manually adding <style> attributes to each Coach View.
3. You do not want to have to maintain multiple copies of the same CSS file inside each of the Custom HTML fragments.

The ideal way to insert CSS into a Coach would be to load the CSS as a managed file in BPM - that way you only need to edit the managed file and all Coaches that reference the CSS would use the latest version (pending updated snapshots). Unfortunately, BPM does not offer the mechanism out of the box.

Update 05/11 - If you upload a HTML file to BPM that consists of <style> tags wrapping the CSS, you can use the "Managed File" option of the Custom HTML component to load the "HTML" CSS into the Coach. However, this does not work if the HTML file is inside a .zip archive, or if the CSS needs to reference local resources.

A documented Javascript function in BPM holds the key: com_ibm_bpm_coach.getManagedAssetUrl. This function allows you to get a URL for a managed file. The function call is: com_ibm_bpm_coach.getManagedAssetUrl(filePath, assetType, projectAcronym);

 

filePath	This is the name of the file you want a URL for. This can take two forms: Simplest case, the name of the managed file directly - "styling.css" If the managed file is an archive, you can supply the archive name with the internal path appended - "styling.zip/css/styling.css"
assetType	Either web, server, or design - this is the asset type for the managed file. BPM has utility statics for this:  com_ibm_bpm_coach.assetType_WEB com_ibm_bpm_coach.assetType_SERVER com_ibm_bpm_coach.assetType_DESIGN
projectAcronym	The short name for the process app/toolkit where the managed file is stored.

 

By using this method call, you can get a relative URL to the managed file in BPM - eg /teamworks/webasset/2064.146ca826-2525-45e7-bcf5-b68b4c46eadc/J/styling.zip/css/coachstyling.css.

Using the above technique, I created a HTML file containing a <script> that would create a link to the URL for a CSS file in the document's <head> element. I then used the "Managed File" option on a Custom HTML component to load the script into a Coach. This meant that my CSS file was referenced inside the <head> element.

You can use this principle to load your own custom CSS files into a Coach. Custom CSS files can be used to override BPM Coach Views or Coaches, or alternatively CSS files can be used to override the MDM Coach Views supplied with MDM V11 onwards.

As an example, I present an updated solution to: creating a custom coach view to load CSS tree icons. Rather than producing a custom Coach View to wrapper the MDM Tree and load tree icons, the HTML script can be used to the same effect. You simply write a HTML script to link to the url for the CSS file that references the MDM Tree icons, and insert the HTML as a Custom HTML component on the same Coach as the MDM Tree. The advantage of this solution is that you do not have to create a new Coach View for every set of icons; you just use a new HTML script to link to each CSS file required for the page.

Developing behavior extensions for InfoSphere MDM v11

Special thanks to Stephanie Hazlewood for providing guidance as well as content for some of the sections of this article!

Executive Summary

Many established organizations end up having unmanaged master data. It may be the result of mergers and acquisitions or due to the independent maintenance of information repositories siloed by line of business (LOB) information. In either situation, the result is the same – useful information that could be shared and consistently maintained is not. Unmanaged master data leads to data inconsistency and inaccuracy.  IBM Master Data Management (MDM), specifically the physical MDM set of capabilities, allows the enterprise to create a single, trusted record for a party.  Similar capabilities exist for mastering product and account information.  It can be integrated with content management systems and can also support a co-existence style of master data management sometimes referred to as hybrid MDM capabilities, were a linkages between matched records mastered and maintained in various source systems are created in virtual MDM and then persisted in physical MDM.

One of the most fundamental extension mechanisms of InfoSphere MDM allows for the modification of service behavior. These extensions are commonly referred to as behavior extensions and the incredible flexibility they provide allows for an organization to implement their own “secret sauce” to the over 700 business services provided out of the box with InfoSphere MDM.  The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce you to behavior extensions and guide you through the implementation, testing, packaging and deployment of these extensions.  You will be introduced to the Open Service Gateway initiative (OSGi)-based extension approach introduced in the InfoSphere MDM Workbench as of version 11.

 

Introduction

With the release of InfoSphere MDM v11, we adopt the OSGi specification which allows, amongst many other things, extensions to be deployed in a more flexible and modular way. This document will describe a real client behavior extension scenario and step you through all of the following, required steps:

-        Extension scenario outline.

-        Creation of the extension project.

-        Development of the extension code.

-        Deployment of the extension onto the MDM server.

-        Testing deployed code using remote debugging.

We will then conclude this document with the summary of what you have learned.

 

Extension scenario

It is often necessary to customize an MDM implementation in order to meet your solution requirements. One of the extension capabilities InfoSphere MDM provides it the ability to implement additional business rules or logic to a particular out-of-the-box service.  These types of extensions are referred to as behavior extensions, as they ultimately change the behavior of a service. In this tutorial we will create a behavior extension to the searchPerson transaction.

The searchPerson transaction is used to retrieve information about a person when provided with a set of search criteria. You can filter out the result set by active, inactive or all records that get retrieved by these criteria. Important to note is that this particular search transaction uses exact match and wildcard characters to retrieve the result set.  There are separate APIs available for probabilistic searching – this service is not one of them.

Sometimes, the searchPerson transaction response may contain duplicate parties. For example, if a party contains both legal and business names which are identical, and searchPerson transaction uses last name as criteria, - the parent object will be returned twice in the response, as it will be matched by both of the names. While this behavior is acceptable in some circumstances, some cases might more filtering before it is returned. In order to do so, we will create a behavior extension, which will be responsible for processing transaction output and removing any duplicate records in the result set. The InfoSphere MDM Workbench provides us with exactly the right tools to quickly create and deploy such an extension.

 

Creating extension project

First, create the extension project structure using the wizards provided by MDM Workbench. Go to File -> New -> Other… and search for Development Project wizard:

If you cannot find Development Project wizard within the list, chances are the Workbench has not been installed, please verify using IBM Installation Manager.

When creating your project, make sure to specify a unique project and package names in order to avoid conflict with the existing ones:

Make sure to choose the correct server runtime for your projects, as well as unique name for the CBA project:

Note: You are allowed to choose from the existing CBAs. A single CBA can contain multiple development project bundles.

Click Finish and wait for the wizard to generate the required assets.

At this point, what we have is a skeletal InfoSphere MDM Development project that contains all of the basic facilities to help us create the desired extension. The next step is to create the extension assets and there are two ways of doing so: either by using the behavior extension wizard, or by using the model editor.

Creating a behavior extension using the extension wizard

You can create an extension using a wizard in the MDM Workbench, much like the one used to create a development project:

1.   Open Behavior Extension wizard by going to File -> New -> Other… -> Behavior Extension, located under Master Data Management -> Extension folders

2.   Once in the wizard, select the development project to place the extension under:    

Note: A development projects can contain multiple extensions of various types underneath it. You might choose to use development projects to logically group extensions  having a similar purpose, type or to facilitate parallel development activities.

3.   Within the next window, choose a name and a description for your behavior extension. Choose a Java class name for your extension. This is the class that we will be populating with custom logic in order to achieve desired behavior. Alternatively, if you require to use an IBM Operational Decision Manager (ODM, and previously known as ILOG) rule – specify this associated parameter. ILOG/ODM rule creation is not covered as a part of this tutorial as we will implement the extension in as a Java extension.

4.     Within the “Specify details of the trigger” pane, you need to specify the following parameters:

a. Trigger type:

                                    i.  ‘Action‘ will cause the behavior extension to trigger whenever chosen transaction is ran by itself or as a part of another transaction.  ‘Actions’ are executed at the component level. .

                                    ii.  On the other hand, if you are looking to trigger extension only on a specific standalone transaction event (otherwise known as controller level transaction) select ‘Transaction’ trigger type.

                                    iii. ‘Action Category’ trigger type executes behavior extension on various data actions such as add, update, view or all for extensions to be executed at the component level.

                                    iv. ‘Transaction Category’ trigger type will kick off behavior extension when a transaction of specified type is executed, namely inquiry, persistence or all.

          b. When to trigger:

                                    i. ‘Trigger before’ will cause the behavior extension to fire of before the work of the transaction is carried out. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as  a preExecute extension. It is a typically used when some sort of preparation procedure has to be executed before the rest of the transaction is carried out. An example of such scenario would be preparing data within the business object that is being persisted.

                                    ii. ‘Trigger after’ will cause the behavior extension to run after the transaction work has carried out. Sometimes you will hear this referred to as a postExecute extension. It is typically used in the scenarios where logic implemented in the behavior extension depends on the result of the transaction. Normally any sort of asynchronous notification would be placed in a post behavior extension, as there would be no way to roll it back in case of transaction failure, if it is sent before the transaction is executed.

          c.  ‘Priority’ parameter indicates the order in which this behavior extension will be triggered. The lower the priority number, the higher the priority.  That is,             a behavior extension with priority 1 would execute first followed by behavior extension with priority 2, 3 or 4 in that order.  

In our scenario we are looking to filter the response of a specific transaction,, namely searchPerson. Therefore we set the trigger type to be ‘Transaction’ with value of searchPerson. Since we are filtering the response of the transaction – we have to trigger our behavior extension after the transaction has gone through, and response became available. Lastly, in our particular example priority does not play a special role, so we will leave it at default of ‘1’.

5.   After the above configuration is done, click Next and review the chosen parameters. Note that there is a checkbox at the top of the dialog, allowing you to generate the code based on the specified parameters immediately. For the purposes of this tutorial leave it checked and click Finish.  The workbench will generate all of the required assets for you.

 

Creating a behavior extension using the model editor

If you have used the wizard approach above to create the behavior extension already, please feel free to skip ahead to the section titled, “review generated assets” that follows.

This section describes how to generate a behavior extension using the model editor.  To do so, the following steps will guide you through this process:

1.   Go to the development project you created earlier and open the module.mdmxmi file under the root folder of the project. Select the model tab within the opened view.

2.   Right click PartySearchBehaviorExtension folder, then select New -> Behavior Extension:

 

3.   Name the behavior extension that has been created as a result ‘PartySearchDuplicateFilter’, and provide appropriate documentation:

4.   Now we will create a transaction event definition under behavior extension. Right-click the behavior extension, then select New - > Transaction Event.

 

5.   Once the transaction even has been created, specify the appropriate properties:

 

a.   Because this event is triggered on the personSearch transaction, PersonSearchEvent is appropriate. Recall that sometimes the “trigger before” behavior is referred to as “preExecute” extension.

b.   Because ‘Pre’ checkbox stands for preExecute, (more specifically the behavior extension gets executed before the rest of the transaction) leave it unchecked. Similar to the wizard configuration, leave priority as ‘1’, since priority of execution does not affect this behavior extension.

c.   Finally, select searchPerson as the transaction of choice by clicking Edit… -> Party -> CoreParty -> searchPerson.

After all of the above configurations are done and reviewed, go ahead and click Generate Code under the Model Actions section of the view, telling workbench to generate configured assets.

 

Review your generated extension code

Once either of the above methods is used, let us review the generated assets:

• Under bestpractices.demo.behavior, we find the PersonSearchDuplicateFilter which is the actual behavior extension Java class that, once configured, will be executed at runtime. We will be providing the implementation that will filter out duplicate person objects from the response of the searchPerson transaction here shortly.
•       In the OSGI-INF/blueprint/blueprint-generated.xml we can see the OSGi service definition, listing the  bestpractices.demo.behaviour.PersonSearchDuplicateFilter class as the extension service.
•       Finally, under the resources/sql/<db_type>/PartySearchBehaviorExtesion_MetaData_DB2.sql file, we find the configurations we’ve specified regarding behavior extension execution:

o    EXTENSIONSET table record defines the behavior extension, its associated class bestpractices.demo.behaviour.PersonSearchDuplicateFilter and its priority of ‘1’:

 

o    CDCONDITIONVALTP defines a new condition of transaction name being equal to searchPerson.

o    EXTSETCONDVAL connects the above CDCONDITIONVALTP record to the behavior extension record from EXTENSIONSET. Additionally another EXTSETCONDVAL record connects CDCONDITIONVALTP with id of ‘9’, which stands for execution of behavior transaction after transaction.

 

Let us now move on to developing the extension code required to filter out duplicate person records from the result set returned by the searchPerson transaction.

 

Develop the extension code

The behavior extension skeleton and supporting configuration assets have now been generated.  You add your custom logic, or behavior change, in the execute method of PersonSearchDuplicateFilter class. The objective is simple. We need to go through all of the partySearchResult objects returned by the service, and if a same person object repeats multiple times throughout the result vector – we want to remove it. The following code will achieve just that:

 

    public void execute(ExtensionParameters params)

    {

        // Only work with vectors in the response

        if(params.getWorkingObjectHierarchy() instanceof Vector)

        {

            // Get the response object hierarchy

            Vector partySearchResultList =

               (Vector)params.getWorkingObjectHierarchy();

           

            // Iterate through the party search result

            // objects to find duplicates

            Iterator listIterator =

               partySearchResultList.iterator();

               

            // We will keep the party ids of objects we've already

            // processed to identify the duplicates

            Vector partyIdList = new Vector();

            while(listIterator.hasNext())

            {

                Object o = listIterator.next();

                if(o instanceof TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj)

                {

                    TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj personSearchResultBObj =

                          (TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj)o;                                    

                    String partyId = personSearchResultBObj.getPartyId();

                   

                    // If the party id has not been seen yet, this person

                    // object is not a duplicate, otherwise - remove it from

                    // the response

                    if(partyIdList.contains(partyId))

                        listIterator.remove();

                    else

                        partyIdList.add(partyId);

                }

            }

        }

System.out.println("PartySearchBehaviorExtension has finished executing.");

    }

 

Note: The above implementation is not pagination friendly and pagination will not be covered as a part of this tutorial.

 

Once you have compiled the code above, you will notice that some of the classes are not found and have to be imported. You cannot simply import TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj because the package containing this business object is not imported for the bundle that we’re working with. To fix that go to BundleContent -> META-INF -> MANIFEST.MF and go to the dependencies tab:

Add com.dwl.tcrm.coreParty.component to the list of imported packages. Now you should be able to import TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj in our behavior extension class to resolve the dependency error.

After recompiling the projects again, you will notice that the PartySearchBehaviorExtensionCBA now contains an error:

This error is occurring because the composite bundle that contains PartySearchBehaviorExtension bundle does not import com.dwl.tcrm.coreParty.component. In order to resolve the error,  go to the manifest file of the CBA, which should be located under root folder of the project, and add com.dwl.tcrm.coreParty.component to the list of imported packages. As you recompile – it should resolve the error.

Now that all compilation problems have been resolved, we are ready to deploy our extension onto the server.

 

Deploying your new behavior extension to MDM

Once the implementation of the behavior extension has been developed, we are ready to deploy it onto the server. There are two steps involved into the deployment:

-        Deploying code to the server.

-        Executing generated SQLs to insert required metadata.

 

Deploying code to the server

Our customized behavior extension can be deployed to the server as a Composite Bundle Archive (CBA) as follows:

1.   Make sure that the customized code has been built and then export the CBA containing the behavior extension by right clicking the CBA project and selecting ‘Export… -> OSGi Composite Bundle (CBA)’.

2.   In the opened view, select PartySearchBehaviorExtension as the bundle to include. Click ‘Browse…’ and navigate to a selected export location and click ‘Save’. If you do not explicitly provide the file name, the wizard will generate the appropriate name automatically.

3.   Click ‘Finish’. The CBA containing the behavior extension has now been exported to selected location.

4.   At this point, we will assume that the MDM instance is up and running. Let’s open the WebSphere Administrative Console. We are looking to import our new CBA into the internal bundle repository. To do so go to Environment -> OSGi bundle repositories -> Internal bundle repository. In the opened view, click New…, choose Local file system and specify the location of the CBA we’ve exported above. Save your progress.

5.   Once the CBA has been imported, attach this new bundle to the MDM application. Go to Applications -> Applications Types -> Business-level applications. Choose MDM application from the opened view. In the next open view, open the MDM .eba file.

6.   We are now looking at the properties of the MDM Enterprise Bundle Archive (EBA). In order to attach our CBA, go to Additional Properties section and select Extensions for this composition unit. 

7.   If this is the first extension that you’ve deployed on your instance, the list of attached extensions will be empty. Let’s now click Add…, and check the CBA we’ve imported above, then click Add. Wait for the addition to complete. Save your changes.

8.   You may think that we are done here, but not quite. We’ve only updated the definition of the EBA deployment by adding our extension. The MDM OSGi application itself has not been updated and even if you restart the server, your new behavior extension will not be picked up. So you must update the MDM application to the latest deployment by returning to the EBA properties view.

Before we attached our extension, the button shown above was grayed out; the comment stated that the application is up to date. But since we’ve update our application with a new extension bundle, we need to update it to the latest deployment. Go ahead and click the Update to latest deployment … button.

9.   In the next view, you can see that the PartySearchBehaviorExtensionCBA that we’ve attached to the MDM EBA, will now be deployed:

At this point, scroll down and click Ok to proceed. It may take several minutes depending on your system hardware.

10.  At this point, WebSphere will take you through three views, offering multiple information summaries of the deployments and several customization options. There is no need to customize anything, go ahead and click Next three times, followed by  Finish. At this point the application will update. It may take some time; please allow 5 – 10 minutes to complete depending on underlying hardware. Once it is complete – save your changes. At this point, the MDM application has been updated to the latest deployment which includes our extension.

Now we need to deploy our custom metadata to the database.  This metadata will govern the behavior of our extension in ways discussed above.

 

Deploy metadata onto the MDM database

As mentioned earlier in this tutorial, the Workbench generates database scripts that insert the required configuration into the metadata tables of the MDM repository. This metadata is generated based on the parameters we provided for our behavior extension as part of the Creating extension project section. In order to deploy this metadata to the database, run the database scripts listed under the resources -> sql folder that are appropriate for your database type. Conversely, if you need to remove extension from the server, you would need to run the rollback scripts provided in the same folder.

Note: In the case where some portion of the script fails, please investigate the error, because it may render the extension useless. Potential reasons for an error may include residual data from previous extension (rollback was not run when extension was removed), incorrect database schema, etc.

Once the scripts have been successfully run, you’re your behavior extension has now been successfully deployed. Restart your WebSphere server so that your new metadata gets picked up when the application runs next.

 

Testing deployed code using remote debugging

Now that all of the aspects of the behavior extensions have been deployed, we are ready to test it out! To do that, run a searchPerson transaction. It is required to have at least one person in the database so that you can actually search and yield a successful search result to trigger your new extension. This test will show us that the extension is successfully deployed. Once the transaction returns as successful, go to the SystemOut.log of the WebSphere server which is located under the log folder of the WebSphere profile where MDM application is deployed. If the extension has deployed correctly, due to the following line in our custom code:

System.out.println("PartySearchBehaviorExtension has finished executing.");

You should be able to see this message in the logs:

[6/17/14 13:24:59:816 EDT] 000001b3 SystemOut     O PartySearchBehaviorExtension has finished executing.

Note: The log message is there for testing purposes only, and depending on the usage of the behavior extension can significantly impede performance. For that reason please make sure to remove such debugging messages or put them into fine logging level before going into production. Such as:

logger.finest("PartySearchBehaviorExtension has finished executing.");

 

Configuring WebSphere Application Server debug mode

To observe the behavior of our extension more closely, put WebSphere server into the debug mode, and connect MDM Workbench to the said server in order to debug our code step by step. To put your server in debug mode:

1.   Go to WebSphere Application Server administrative console, and navigate to Servers -> Server Types -> WebSphere application server -> <Name of your instance>.

2.   Once in the server configuration view, take a look at Server Infrastructure section and navigate to Java and Process Management -> Process definition.

3.   In the Additional Properties section, select Java Virtual Machine.

4.   Once we are in the Java Virtual Machine view, navigate down to the Debug Mode checkbox, check it and provide the following settings in the Debug arguments textbox:

-Dcom.ibm.ws.classloader.j9enabled=true -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=7777

Note that ‘7777’ is the debug port to which the MDM Workbench will connect. Make sure this port does not conflict with any other assigned ports on the server, and set it accordingly.

5.   Save configuration and restart your server. It is now running in debug mode. Note: If later you observe unexpected performance degradation and do not require debug mode any longer, make sure to take the server out of the debug mode using the same steps.

 

Configuring MDM Workbench to for remote debugging

Once the server is running in debug mode, we can go back to the MDM Workbench and configure it for debugging:

1.   In MDM Workbench, go to Run -> Debug Configurations.

2.   Within the Debug Configurations window, double click Remote Java Application. This will create a new Remote Java Application profile.

3.   When configuring the Remote Java Application, lets name our configuration ‘MDM Local Instance Debug’. The Project setting does not play a role, you may leave it empty, or whatever the default populated value is. Connection Type should remain as ‘Standard (Socket Attach)’. Lastly Connection Properties should reflect the location of the MDM instance and debug port we’ve chosen above.

          We will not cover other tabs because the configuration we’ve done so far is sufficient.

4.   Once configuration is complete, hit Apply followed by Debug in order to attach to the MDM instance. The attach process may take a little bit of time depending on the environment. Once it is complete, go to the Debug perspective of your environment. In the debug view, you should observe the connected MDM instance if the attach was successful:

You can see above that the instance is available along with all of the threads.

5.   Finally set a break point at the beginning of the behavior extension execute method and observe this breakpoint getting engaged once we run a searchPerson transaction:

 

6.   If you have multiple TCRMPersonSearchResultBObj coming back in the response, step through and observe the duplicates being removed.

As a last point, note that we can debug both local and remote instances as described above, using Eclipse’s Remote Java Application debug capabilities. 

 

Conclusion

In this tutorial we’ve gone through the steps of creating, configuring, deploying and testing a basic yet realistic behavior extension scenario for InfoSphere MDM.

We’ve covered two ways in which an extension template can be created: while the wizard option is straightforward and is preferable for a novice or a simple extension scenario, the model editor allows for more flexibility.

We’ve taken a look at the various configurations that apply to a behavior extension and outlined their effects on its execution. Additionally, we’ve covered the assets that get generated as a result of the configuration.

For the development step, we’ve created and analyzed the implementation of our behavior extension.

And finally, we’ve deployed, tested and debugged our behavior extension to make sure it performs as expected.

All of the above steps constitute a complete development process of an MDM Server behavior extension.

Related materials

InfoSphere Master Data Management operational server v11.x OSGi best practices and troubleshooting guide

How to deploy Composite Business Archives (CBA) to WebSphere

Tags:  mdm-server mdm preview mdm-workbench osgi article behavior-extension mdm11