Starting the App Connect Enterprise Toolkit

Use the development environment on Linux® or Windows to develop your message flows.

Before you begin

Install the IBM® App Connect Enterprise Toolkit; for more information, see Installing IBM App Connect Enterprise software.

Procedure

To start using your development environment, complete the following steps.

  1. Start the App Connect Enterprise Toolkit in the following way:
    • Linux platformFrom the installation directory, for example $HOME/ace-13.0.0.0, type the following text:

      ./ace toolkit

    • Windows platformSearch for IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit 13.0.n and start it.

    Your IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit session opens, and displays the Welcome page. You can tailor various settings in the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit to suit your requirements and your working environment; for example, the colors and fonts. These options are described in Configuring the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit.

  2. Close the Welcome page.
    You can return to the Welcome page later by clicking Help > Welcome. If more than one option is listed, select IBM App Connect Enterprise.
  3. In the Integration Development perspective, select the Integration Explorer view.

    Your configuration might be affected by the operation mode in which IBM App Connect Enterprise is running. The default operation mode is Production-Advanced mode, in which your integration servers run with no restrictions. Check with your integration administrator which operation mode applies to your organization; you might have to change the mode of your integration node or servers after you have created them. For more information about operation modes, see Operation modes.

  4. If you are planning to run your integration in a container, you must configure at least one integration server.
    For more information, see Configuring an integration server by modifying the server.conf.yaml file.
  5. If you are planning to run your integration on premises (on a physical or virtual machine), you must have at least one integration node with at least one associated integration server.
    For information about how to create an integration node, see Creating an integration node. To add integration servers to your integration node, right-click the integration node, and click New > Integration Server. Enter a name for your integration server, and click OK.

    The integration server is the runtime environment in which your message flows run. You can create many integration servers on a single integration node, and you can deploy your message flows to one or more integration servers on one or more integration nodes.

    For more detailed instructions about this task, see Creating an integration server.

Results

Your configuration is now ready to use.

What to do next

You can start to develop resources to deploy to your integration server. You can create your own message flows, or you can use the patterns and samples that are provided to get you started. For details of these options, see Developing integration solutions.

This task has covered the minimum set of steps that you must complete to create an integration server and (optionally) an integration node, and to configure your development environment. Typically, as an application developer, you are working in a single platform environment to create, deploy, and test your message flows before they are ready for use in a test of production environment.

More options are available for enhanced configurations, including policies. When the requirements of your message flows extend beyond this basic configuration, and you need additional configuration to support those requirements, you can find details of these more advanced options in Configuring App Connect Enterprise to run on premises (on a physical or virtual machine) and Configuring App Connect Enterprise to run in a container.