Event-driven integration

So far you've been running your AssemblyLines as batch processes, manually starting them each time you want data to flow. You can also run AssemblyLines from the command line by invoking the IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Server, like this¹:

   ibmdisrv -c examples/Tutorial/Tutorial1.xml -r CSVtoXML

In this way it's a simple task to use scheduling tools (for example, crontab) to schedule their operation, or to easily launch them from external applications.

IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator provides a number of features for making your AssemblyLines event-aware, allowing your solutions to handle and respond to a wide variety of real-time triggers.

Examples of these triggers are:

• protocol requests coming over an IP port, like REST calls, SNMP and web services;
• new messages appearing on a queue;
• emails arriving in an Inbox;
• changes to data, for example in files, databases, directories, and Notes® databases;
• schedule or timer-based AssemblyLine operations.

This is not a complete list, and you will find both inspiration and guidance in other IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator literature, in the community websites and the newsgroups.

Handling these events in your solution can be done in a number of ways:

Connectors in Iterator Mode Some Connectors allow you to configure timeout parameters for Iterator Mode. One example is the FileSystem Connector, which can be set up to read through a file to the end and then wait for new information to appear - so-called 'tail read'.

Other Connectors, like those for RDBMS Change detection and LDAP Changelog, work in a similar way. These Connectors allow you to build AssemblyLines that run continuously, waiting for new changes to appear in the connected system.

There is also a Timer Connector that runs in Iterator Mode and can be configured to drive your AssemblyLine at timed intervals according to a scheduling parameter. You will be testing this one shortly.

Connectors in Server Mode A few specialized Connectors, like the HTTP Server Connector and the LDAP Server Connector, allow you to build solutions that process incoming requests from external clients, perform requested actions and reply with appropriate responses. You will be using the HTTP Server Connector in the next exercise.

Notifications and properties IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator has components that can subscribe to IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator notification events, just as there are components (and script calls) for sending these events – even between distinct IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Servers running on different platforms.

This documentation will take you on a closer look at AL scheduling and at Connector Server mode.

• Scheduling AssemblyLines
• Service request AssemblyLines In this last exercise you will be building a web server AssemblyLine to provide a very simple user interface for launching your 'CSV2XML_LookupMode' AL; In other words, an HTTP service for initiating data transfers.

¹ The IBM® Security Verify Directory Integrator Server provides a usage message when invoked with no commandline arguments: ibmdisrv