Connect IT integration scenario

[snigdhajadhav]

Hi,

I am currently working on using Connect-IT to transfer data from the Asset Center to Service Center. From what I have read about Connect-IT, we have to use the Asset Management Connector and Service Center Connector available in Connect-IT for the data transfer. But I am not aware exactly how does this data transfer occur. Can someone throw some light on this?

Regards,
Snigs

[outlance]

Hi,

assuming you have some base knowledge of connect-it....

Interfaces between 2 ODBC connectors is quite "drag'n drop".
ServiceCenter interfaces are quite advanced, because ServiceCenter
does not allow direct access to database. ServiceCenter exchanges
data over "eventin" (inbound) and "eventout" (outbound) table.

In ServiceCenter you need to define events (eventregister and eventmap)
If you have a sample scenario and you want to add more fields in ServiceCenter interface, then you need to add additional eventmap records for the appropriate fields in ServiceCenter.

Maybe you check some of the existing scenarios and play with the SC events ....

Hope it helps...

Lars

[danstenzel]

Lars has the technical aspects for the ServiceCenter side.

One of the things to be careful of on the AssetCenter side is the way that ConnectIt decides what needs to come over. It checks the first record on your source side. For example, let's say that you are extracting information from Asset and Portfolio, when you change / add an Asset the datetime stamp is updated and ConnectIt knows to grab it. If you change information on the Portfolio, then that datetime stamp is updated, but because it is below asset in your source mapping, it will not trigger a ConnectIt event. You would need a second mapping that has Portfolio as the first level, and Asset as the second level to trigger changes when Portfolio information changes.

How you process adds and changes in the AssetCenter will guide you on how to write your ConnectIt scripts. One of our scripts changes only modelname if the model changes, and it goes through all the assets in what ConnectIt calls a collection.

I highly recommend the rail hp/peregrine class on connectit - it will help answer alot of your questions.

[snigdhajadhav]

Thank you Lars and Danstenzel for your valuable suggestions..

I am aware that the data updation in Service Center happens through events.. One of my doubts is that what is going to be an input to the Asset Managament Connector? does this connector directly talk to the Asset Center database or it talks to the database through Asset Center application server.

I have read that the Asset management connector produces and consumes document types. Do we have document types for each of the tables in asset center database? now when a document type is produced by the Asset Management connector is this document type consumed by Service Center connector? I am not clear at this juncture.. What is fed as input to the Service Center connector? is it a document type or is it a xml file or anything else?

It would really help me if you provide me information on this and thanks for all the help provided by you till now..

looking forward to your replies...

Regards,
Snigs

[danstenzel]

Connect-It can be very confusing. This is not an “official” explanation of Connect-It, but the way that I (as a former application programmer) see Connect-It. First of all, let me address the XML question; I cannot say for sure, but I am almost certain that Connect-It uses XML as the underlying method to pass information.

>> Does this connector directly talk to the Asset Center database or does it talk to the database through Asset Center application server? NEITHER <<
The AssetCenter Connector talks to the database via the dll. You point to the dll when you setup the AssetCenter connector. I would presume that the dll communicates via the application server as the Asset Management application client has to be installed on the computer on which Connect-It is installed.

>> Do we have document types for each of the tables in asset center database? YES <<
When you select an AssetCenter table (e.g. amPortfolio), that becomes your “Consumed Document” for the Source. If you are accessing a table via a link (e.g. amPortfolio -> Asset), that is still considered to be only one document - and that is the amPortfolio document. You can have multiple documents out of AssetCenter and any table can be in multiple documents. We have a situation where we have Model in 3 different documents, and in one of them it is the first table.

• amPortfolio -> Asset -> Model
• amAsset -> Portfolio, Model
• amModel -> Asset

This allows us to collect changes if any data on any of the 3 tables changes.

>> When a document type is produced by the Asset Management connector is this document type consumed by Service Center connector? NO <<
See below.

>> What is fed as input to the Service Center connector? Is it a document type or is it an xml file or anything else? NONE OF THE ABOVE <<
The ServiceCenter Connector points to an existing structure in ServiceCenter, much the same way that the AssetCenter Connector points to existing tables in AssetCenter. This is a complex situation involving events, etc. in ServiceCenter. See Lars' response for more information about eventmaps, etc.

A simple scenario has 3 steps:

• extract information from a source
• manipulate the source data
• create the destination information

Each of these steps uses the same naming conventions



The “Source - Produced Document 1” is the same as the “Mapping - Consumed Document 1”; and the “Mapping - Produced Document 2” is the same as “Destination - Consumed Document 2”. So when discussing Documents, you need to specify where the document is being used (i.e. Source, Mapping, or Destination) and whether it is a Consumed or Produced Document.

There can be situations where there are multiple sources to one destination, feedback to the source, and other permutations. I, once again, very strongly urge you to take the Connect-It Essentials class.

Good luck - Dan