Sterling File Gateway Routing Channel Template Part 2 - Routing Channel Templates, Provisional Facts, Channels and Multicast

Creating a Routing Channel Template

For this template creation it will be considered a complex execution with a dynamic template using system facts for file name transformation and delivery group Identification and provisional facts for mailbox definition. Check the steps bellow to gain a better understanding on the process. Note that the RTC is independent of the user’s definition but it is dependent on the groups.

1. Navigate to Templates and press Create.

2. Select Dynamic. It will open two option select Facts, it shows the Facts that can be used with this option to produce a RTC, in this example it is being used the ConsumerBroadcastGroup. The mouse over open a page that display additional info.

3. Navigate to the next tab selecting the Special Characters to be removed. This screen is self-explanatory on the option info, it is a feature of the RTCs to remove or replace characters.

4. Specify the groups that are involved in the RTC this cannot be edit once a routing channel has been establish using this template. Make sure the groups in the set can be expanded to had more users to the template in the future. For this example the broadcast will be enabled for 2 groups  test_group and broadcast group and any Partner in the system will be able to produce as All Partners group comprises them.

5. In Provisional Facts the entries specify both the System Facts and the Provisional Facts. For each fact three inputs are shown. Notice that the facts are case sensitive so respect your naming convention to avoid system errors. The text box only accept alphanumeric inputs so don’t use any other character.
1. Fact Name:  Name of the fact in the system, the name that is used on the ${Fact Name] vars
2. Display Label: The label for the input on the channel creation time.
3. Description: Support info (tips) displayed on channel creation time when a muse over is done over the Display Label.

6. Non System Facts are obligated to have the prefix my. ConsumerBroadcastGroup is a system fact but as it has to be provided on the channel creation doesn’t is also considered a Provisional Fact. For this example two extra facts are considered to dynamic creation of producer and consumer mailboxes. It can be can defined as much as 10 Provisional Facts.

7. Set up the Producer. Three elements are taken into account here.
1. Mailbox Path: if it is set to ${ProducerName}/${myProducerMailbox} it means it is connected to the root mailbox of the partner the path that external users will see when logging to myFileGateway is “/Outbound/replacementValueFormyConsumerMailbox”, the same happens if an FTP Client is used, a folder structure will appear with the same and this where to place files in order to being routed through the channel using this template. Note that the System Fact ProducerName is already being placed automatically.
2. Producer File Type: this will enable File Gateway to handle different file types in a different manner, choose unknow if you don’t know the type of file to be routed. If a zip file type is chosen then it will be uncompressed and if it contains multiple files they will be delivered one by one.
3. File Name Pattern: regular expression that filters filenames that do not match it, it can be used in conjunction with Provisional Facts to establish dynamic filtering per channel. The Provisional Facts are matched using (). An example would be to set file pattern to .+.(.) and create a fact like MyExtension the result will be a filter as .+.(MyExtension). Remember that the fact value will be provided at the time of routing instatiation, and the facts have to be inserted in the box File name pattern group fact names, comma delimited

8. For the consumer a new set of values has to be defined. The checkboxes can be left checked to force the system to create mailboxes, alternatively they can be created manually in the B2B Admin Dashboard.
1. Mailbox Path: same effect as in producer Mailbox Path. In this case a it is set with an Inbound prefix this enables a better understanding for the end user as MyFileGateway doesn’t distinguish delivery from producing mailbox.
2. File Name Format: string content of the file to name being delivered. It can be set recurring to combinations of facts and strng prefixes or suffixes, if the file is to keep the same name as in producer the System Fact ${ProducerName} can be used for the effect. In this implementation the file pattern will use a second Sytem Fact resulting in a file naming that has a timestamp as a prefix ${ProducerFileName}_${tYmdHMSL:RoutingTimestamp}
3. Consumer File Type: same effect as in producer Producer File Type.

9. Finally give the template a name that specifies the use of the RTC. It is a good practice to specify the direction of the route as well has the business units/groups involved but be aware the title is limited to 45 characters.

10. Review the created RTC.

Create a Channel

As long as the RTC has been well created the deployment of the channels is a simple task. For the RTC created on the previous section this will be the procedure.

The routing channels are implementations of the RTC each must contain at least a producer (dynamic channels don’t require consumers as they are determinate at the time the actual routing occurs).

1. Navigate to the Channels panel.

2. To create a new channel use the Create button.

3. If there are no provisional facts the users will get to be selected from a drop down menu the system populates this options with the users that belong to the groups inserted in producer and consumer previously on the RTC creation. Just hit save to complete the channel creation.

4. If there are Provisional Facts they have to be specified for the RTC created in the previous section this will be the interface displayed on channel creation. In a dynamic channel the consumers are never specified as they are calculated at routing time. Have this point in concern when specifying the route.

•   For Producer the value is displayed from a drop down and it will comprise all the partners on the producers groups inserted in the RTC.
•   For consumer mailbox in this example it is set the name of the producer for the consumer partner can easily identify the source of the file. The BroadcastGroup must contain an exact group naming that exist in the system. It won’t give an error immediately if the group doesn’t exists only when an actual routing is occurring.
•  For the producer mailbox it was set with name of the group to broadcast but it could be any other name, again it should make clear for the user the porpoise off the mailbox.

5. The channel will be ready for use. Note that the consumer is identified as **dynamic**