Monitoring Messages

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In Sterling B2B Integrator, business processes use messages to communicate with each other. Certain business processes create Produce and Consume messages.

While the Produce business processes produce messages that are to be consumed, the Consume business processes wait for messages from the Produce business processes.

Sometimes the handoff from the Produce business processes to the Consume business processes does not occur. Either the produced message has no waiting Consume process, or the waiting Consume process waits without success for the Produce message. Use the Message Monitor to track unsuccessful message handoffs within Sterling B2B Integrator.

It is recommended that you keep the following considerations in mind when monitoring messages within Sterling B2B Integrator:
  • The Message Monitor pages of the Sterling B2B Integrator interface display only those messages associated with a failed Produce or Consume activity. Messages that are successfully produced or consumed are not monitored.
  • Messages are tied closely to business processes. You can search for messages by business process name, type of business process (Produce or Consume), and date and time on which the associated business process step invokes the Produce or Consume activity. However, messages also have identities that are separate from business processes. Messages have names, and their names can be used as search input.
  • Sometimes Produce and Consume business processes have to choose between messages having the same name. Let us for example consider that two Produce processes run at different times; both produce a message named OutMsg1. Thus, there are two messages named OutMsg1 in Sterling B2B Integrator, but with different start date/times. When a Consume process detects the two messages, it consumes the OutMsg1 with the later start date/time. The situation also works in reverse. Two Consume processes request an identically named message (InMsg1). When a Produce process produces InMsg1, it produces InMsg1 for the Consume process with the earlier start date/time.
  • Unsuccessful messages remain in Sterling B2B Integrator until an appropriate Produce or Consume business process step completes the message handoff and uses the message.
    Note: Unsuccessful messages never expire or time out.

Searching for a Message

To search for a message in Sterling B2B Integrator:
  1. From the Administration menu, select Operations > Message Monitor.
  2. In the Message Monitor screen that is displayed, select one of the following search criteria and click Go!
    • Message Name – Displays messages whose names contain the specified character or string.
    • Start Date: and End Date: – Displays messages for which the related business process step invokes either the Produce or Consume activity at the specified start date and time. The start date and time that are displayed by default depends on whether Sterling B2B Integrator has outstanding unsuccessful messages.
      • If there are no unsuccessful messages in Sterling B2B Integrator, the Start Date: field displays the current system date and time minus one minute, and the End Date: field displays the current system date and time plus one minute.
      • If there are unsuccessful messages in Sterling B2B Integrator, the Start Date: field displays the date and time of the unsuccessful message with the earliest start date and time, minus one minute, and the End Date: field displays the date and time of the unsuccessful message with the latest start date and time, plus one minute.
    • Alphabetically or by message type (ALL, Producer, or Consumer) – Displays those messages initiated by business processes that:
      • Have names starting with a particular letter or number selected from the Alphabetically list. Default is ALL (all business processes).
      • Are either Produce or Consume processes, or both (ALL).
  3. Review the information pertaining to the listed messages. This information is displayed in the following columns:
    • Type – Type of business process associated with the message, either Produce or Consume.
    • ID – ID of the business process associated with the message. Click an ID in this column to display the Business Process Details page of the business process.
    • Process Name – Name of the associated Produce business process or Consume business process. Click a process name in this column to display the BPML of the business process.
    • Message Name – Name of the unconsumed message.
    • Start Time – Start date and time of the associated step within the business process.