Timestamp Utility Service

The Timestamp Utility service creates, formats, and performs arithmetic operations on timestamp values in a business process.

The following table provides an overview of the Timestamp Utility service:

Category	Description
System name	TimestampUtilService
Graphical Process Modeler (GPM) category	All Services
Description	Enables you to create, format, and perform arithmetic operations on timestamp values in a business process. The following options are available with the Timestamp Utility service: Create a timestamp for the current time. Add the numeric values of two timestamps. Subtract one timestamp value from another. Format timestamp values.
Preconfigured?	Yes
Requires third-party files?	No
Platform availability	All supported Sterling B2B Integrator platforms
Related services	No
Application requirements	No
Initiates business processes?	No
Invocation	Runs as part of a business process.
Restrictions	No

How the Timestamp Utility Service Works

The Timestamp Utility service enables you to use and manipulate timestamps as part of a business process. One example of how this service could be used would be to calculate the expiration time for incoming documents. If a document had to be acted upon within a two-hour time frame, you could use the service to get the timestamp for when the document arrives, and then calculate the time (two hours later), when an error should be generated if no action has been taken on that document. You could also use the service to generate a timestamp when errors occur in a business process, and use the timestamp as part of the information delivered in an e-mail message about the error, or send the information to a report.

The Timestamp Utility service calculates the time difference using the UNIX time stamp. The time difference is the number of seconds between the particular date and time and the UNIX epoch time.

Note: Although the Timestamp Utility service converts the UNIX time stamp to a calendar or clock time stamp, it does not convert a calendar or clock time stamp to a UNIX time stamp.

Business Process Examples

The following figure shows process data that uses the Timestamp Utility service to format a timestamp:

<process name="default">
  <sequence name="Main">
    <sequence name="SetTimeAdd">
    <operation name="Timestamp Utility">
      <participant name="TimestampUtilService"/>
      <output message="TimestampUtilServiceTypeInputMessage">
        <assign to="action">add</assign>
        <assign to="baseTime">2016-06-16 16:30:00</assign>
        <assign to="baseTimeFormat">yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss</assign>
        <assign to="format">yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss</assign>
        <assign to="offsetTime">1800</assign>
        <assign to="scale">sec</assign>
        <assign to="." from="*"/>
      </output>
      <input message="inmsg">
        <assign to="/ProcessData/calculated" from="*" append="true"/>
      </input>
    </operation>
  </sequence>
    <sequence name="NowTimeAdd">
    <operation name="Timestamp Utility">
      <participant name="TimestampUtilService"/>
      <output message="TimestampUtilServiceTypeInputMessage">
        <assign to="action">add</assign>
        <assign to="baseTime">now</assign>
        <assign to="format">yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss</assign>
        <assign to="offsetTime">1800</assign>
        <assign to="scale">sec</assign>
        <assign to="." from="*"/>
      </output>
      <input message="inmsg">
        <assign to="/ProcessData/calculated" from="*" append="true"/>
      </input>
    </operation>
  </sequence>
  </sequence>
</process>

For examples of timestamp format patterns and results, see http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html and see the information about the SimpleDateFormat class.

Implementing the Timestamp Utility Service

To implement the Timestamp Utility service, complete the following process:

Create a Timestamp Utility service configuration. See Creating a Service Configuration.
Configure the Timestamp Utility service. See Configuring the Timestamp Utility Service.
Use the Timestamp Utility in a business process.

Configuring the Timestamp Utility Service

The following table describes the fields used to configure the Timestamp Utility service in the GPM:

Field	Description
Config	Name of the service configuration.
action	Action the service should perform. Optional. Valid values are: Add Current Time Format Subtract
baseTime	String to use as the base time. Optional. Default time expression is milliseconds; used if no scale is supplied (see scale parameter, below). `'"now"'` is a valid value for the base time. Restriction: When the `<assign to="." from="*"/>` form is not used, an incorrect result might be seen. If the wildcard assign is used, an error might occur.
baseTimeFormat	String to use as the base time format. Optional. For example, yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Note: If the baseTimeFormat is not used, a UNIX `ctime` can be use as the baseTime.
format	String that describes how to format the parameter. Optional. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html for information about using SimpleDateFormat values.
offsetTime	Amount to add or subtract from the baseTime. Used with action parameters add and diff only. Optional. Default time expression is milliseconds; used if no scale is supplied (see scale parameter, below).
scale	How the parameter value is expressed in time scales. Optional. Valid values are: Day Hour Millisecond Minute Second If not set, the baseTime and offsetTime parameters are expressed in milliseconds.

Parameters Passed from Business Process to Service

The parameters passed from the business process to the Timestamp Utility service is shown in the following table:

Parameters	Description
Config	Name of the service configuration.
action	Action the service should perform. Optional. Valid values are: Add Current Time Format Subtract
baseTime	String to use as the base time. Optional. Default time expression is milliseconds; used if no scale is supplied (see scale parameter, below).
baseTimeFormat	String to use as the base time format. Optional. For example, yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
format	String that describes how to format the parameter. Optional. See http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index.html for information about using SimpleDateFormat values.
offsetTime	Amount to add or subtract from the baseTime. Used with action parameters add and diff only. Optional. Default time expression is milliseconds; used if no scale is supplied (see scale parameter, below).
scale	How the parameter value is expressed in time scales. Optional. Valid values are: Day Hour Millisecond Minute Second If not set, the baseTime and offsetTime parameters are expressed in milliseconds.