TIBCO Developers Library - What is a File Adapter?

Different application vendors have their own format and way on how to expose data. Thus, integrating their applications into your own enterprise can be a great challenge. This is why TIBCO developed adapters to provide a bridge and gateways between an application and the TIBCO environment. The TIBCO File Adapter is one of the adapters that TIBCO has developed and this lets you integrate file system into the TIBCO integration environment.
What is TIBCO File Adapter?
TIBCO File Adapter is a gateway between the file system and the TIBCO Messaging. Data coming from a text file is being processed by a file adapter in order to be published in real-time to the TIBCO Environment. The file adapter can also subscribe to the messages published it to the TIBCO environment, process these messages and write the output to a file.
Because it uses a no coding approach, the File Adapter does not require developers to have a programming skill. Developers just have to make use of the design-time components because once you install TIBCO File Adapter, design-time components are automatically integrated into the TIBCO Designer or TIBCO Business Studio. It provides an easy-to-use interface that allows you to quickly configure adapter-specific features and validate some of the adapter's configurations.
The advantage of using the file adapter is that it can handle large files. It provides configuration options for performance tuning. Even though you are using one or more adapter services or you want to cater large files, still File Adapter can perform optimally.
What are the services supported by the TIBCO Adapter for Files?
The TIBCO Adapter for Files supports only two services: the publication and subscription services. The Publication Service parses the contents of the text file and then processes and publishes them in real-time to the TIBCO Environment. The Subscription service, on the other hand, subscribes and receives messages from the TIBCO Environment and then processes those messages and writes them to a text file.
What are the two types of the File Adapter Operation Mode?
File Adapter has two Operation Modes: the Record Transfer Mode and the Simple File Transfer Mode. In Record Transfer Mode, the adapter defines and uses schemas and integrates the file system into the TIBCO ActiveEnterprise. However, if you just want to transfer the files across the machines, then the adapter can be configured to operate in Simple File Transfer mode.
Both the publication and the subscription services use these operation modes. The operation that you choose dictates the steps in configuring the publication and the subscription services.
In Publication and Subscription formats, what is the difference between the MInstances and MBusinessDocuments?
There are two types of formats that are supported by file adapters while exchanging data between TIBCO applications and these are MInstances and MBusinessDocuments.
MInstances is an entity that TIBCO applications exchange with each other. MInstances is created after the file adapter parses the input file and identifies the schema associated with the publication service. After creating the MInstances, it will be published to the TIBCO Environment.
The MBusinessDocuments, on the other hand, is a facility for grouping MInstances and it serves as a container for MInstances. The attributes of MBusinessDocument can be used if you want a higher throughput from the publication service.
In configuring the publication, the publication service has an option to choose between two formats while the subscription service automatically uses the format of the received message.
What are the schemas supported by the Record Transfer Mode?
The Record Transfer Mode uses schemas such as Read, Wire and Write Schemas. The Read Schema refers to the schema used by the publication service. It is used in interpreting the contents of the file using the rules and relations being described by this schema. After interpreting the contents, it also generates and turns the content into a canonical format known as the Wire Schema, which is used to publish the data.
The Write Schema, on the other hand, is the schema used by the subscription service in receiving messages in canonical format. This schema is generated by a TIBCO ActiveEnterprise-compliant application from the existing wire schema. It is also used for interpreting and processing received data using rules and relations implemented by this schema before the subscription service writes the messages into a file.
How file records are classified?
File Records are classified into two categories: the Delimited file record and the Positional file record. To interpret lines in the record, the Delimited file record uses delimiters. These delimiters can be a single or multiple characters. Examples of delimiters are commas, pound signs or any other character.
The Positional file records use well-defined field lengths to interpret lines in the record. You can use line or record length or a constant field value; for example, the constant line length.
In configuring a Publication service, what are the types of life cycle used?
In configuring a Publication service, you can select whether it will operate repeatedly (Repeating) or it will execute only once (Once-only) after processing the files. If you configure more than one service in the adapter instance, the first service cannot use Once-only as a publication service life cycle. However, when you select Repeating as the Publication Service life cycle, you must specify a polling method. The publication service uses polling method as a triggering mechanism to start processing files.
What are the triggering methods used in the publication service?
To trigger a publication service, the File Adapter can use either a timer or a message. The Timer method of triggering can be used for both the transport types: the JMS and RV. The timer method uses parameters such as Polling Interval to set the amount of time until the next scanning of file is repeated.
Using a message as a triggering method depends on the transport type. A TIBCO Rendezvous message can be used to trigger the publication service if you select TIBCO Rendezvous as a transport type but if you select JMS as a transport type, then a JMS message sent to a topic can be used to trigger the publication service.
What are the File Recognition Methods used for Publication Service?
The adapter provides options to selectively recognize input files that need to be processed for publication. The File Recognition Methods are used to search input file in the input directory. It uses three methods: By file name, By prefix + extension and By trigger. In By file name, the adapter only looks for the file that exactly matches the value given in the File Name Field. By prefix-extension uses the File Prefix and File Extension fields to search for a certain input file. The By trigger, on the other hand, uses the fields such as the File Prefix, File Extension, and Trigger File Extension fields to search and process files.
How do you deploy a File Adapter?
After configuring and testing the File Adapter Services in the TIBCO Designer, create an Enterprise Archive (EAR) file. Use the Enterprise Archive resource in your designer, configure it so that it will contain all information about the adapter instances and use it to build an EAR file. Using TIBCO Administrator, upload the EAR file, and then deploy it to the machine that you want. Start the file adapter and then you can monitor it now by using the built-in monitoring tools provided by TIBCO Administrator.
After enumerating some points that can help you start learning TIBCO File Adapter, it is now up to you to further explore its capabilities in order to appreciate more of its benefits. File Adapter is such a powerful and efficient tool to integrate your file system into the TIBCO environment because of its no-coding approach and easy-to-use design-time components.







Ellen D.
TIBCO Consultant
Xmarter, Inc.
Xmarter Inc. is a highly-experienced TIBCO consulting firm providing expert solutions for integrating and optimizing business processes using TIBCO-based systems.
To know more about Ellen D. and the company, check out the following contact details.
Email: info@xmarter.com
Website: http://www.xmarter.com