Exploring iWay Enable Facilities

Applications

Applications are built using the elements provided by iWay Enable, such as gauges and charts, that report statistics for events that are related to key business objectives. The Application is an efficient visual grouping of these elements onto a composite page or dashboard, which allows you to easily focus and interpret your real-time business data around key events.

The Applications pane, shown in the following image, provides a list of the Enable applications that are hosted on iWay Service Manager. From this pane, you can select and view any of the listed iWay Enable dashboards or applications.

Top of page

Demo Applications

iWay Enable ships with several demo applications.

Century Cellular Corporation (CCC) - monitors mobile phone sales transactions.
Addrest (address / rest) - illustrates the entire implementation of a REST (Representational State Transfer) style service.
Rssforeal - illustrates how to read, analyze, and visualize data collected from an arbitrary RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed.

Each demo application is packaged as an Eclipse-based project archive. You can download a project archive from the iWay Service Manager Administration Console. Each demo application is also delivered in the following iWay Enable directory: iwayhome\etc\enable\demos.

You can load a demo application into iWay Integration Tools (Eclipse) by importing the project.

A server-based configuration file named enable.xml controls the definition and deployment of the demo applications. The file resides in the iwayhome\config\base directory. As a security measure, the file is read only when the server is started. For iWay Service Manager to recognize any configuration changes, you must restart the server.

Each demo application includes a readme.html file, which explains deployment in more detail. You can access a deployed demo application from the Applications pane in the iWay Service Manager Administration Console.

For more information on using the demo applications, see:

Resources

Resources are items used to define the visual aspect of an iWay Enable application. A collection of gauges and charts, which can be configured and hosted as portlets, is available to be incorporated into dashboards and composite applications. The following image shows the iWay Enable Resources pane, which includes tabs for Gauges, Charts, Grids, and Portlets.

Gauges, charts, grids, and portlets can be incorporated into an iWay Enable application to represent specific real-time data.

Top of page

Gauges

Gauges provide a visual interpretation of the current value of a particular item, rather than providing historic information. For example, an automobile fuel gauge focuses on the amount of fuel that is currently available, as opposed to the fuel that was previously available.

The main gauge types are Angular, Bulb, Cylinder, Linear, Horizontal LED, and Vertical LED. Each main type offers additional selections that allow you to match your data to the most appropriate gauge. For example, linear gauges are used to indicate the progression of a single value, while bulbs can be used along with color and text to indicate a specific state, such as a warning.

When you select the gauge you want to use, the properties pane opens, as shown in the following image. Through the series of property tabs, you define such items as the data source that the gauge will reflect, upper and lower limits of the data, and physical attributes of the gauge, such as color and background.

Sources tab

The Sources tab is used to configure how the selected gauge obtains real-time data. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Feed (Optional) - Identifies the real-time feed from which the gauge will update its data. If left blank, iWay Enable will automatically generate a feed corresponding to the value that is entered in the Value field, which is located in the Data tab. Leaving this field blank is preferred. The drop-down lists shows any existing feeds to which the gauge can subscribe, ensuring that the feed is in the correct format required by the gauge.
Click (Optional) - Accepts a URL that is used by the gauge to change the location of the window if it is clicked.
Interval (Required) - Accepts a number which represents the polling interval in seconds. The gauge will use this value to update itself with real-time data from the associated feed. If this value is zero or null, the gauge will never update itself with real-time data.

Data tab

The Data tab is used to determine the real-time data that the gauge will consume. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Lower Limit (Required) - A number value that is used to set the lower limit of the gauge.
Upper Limit (Required) - A number value that is used to set the upper limit of the gauge.
Value (Required) - An iFL (iWay Functional Language), which aggregates real-time event data. iWay Enable uses this expression to automatically generate a feed if the Feed field (located in the Sources tab) is left blank and the Interval field (located in the Sources tab) value is greater than zero.

Visuals tab

The Visuals tab is used to customize the visual aspects of the gauge. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Theme (Optional) - The hexadecimal color value.
Background (Optional) - The hexadecimal color value.
Style (Optional) - The name of the style to use for this gauge. Style names can be found in the iwayhome/etc/enable/style directory. The name of a file in this directory (excluding the file extension) can be used as a value in this field. These files can also be modified using an external editor to further customize the appearance of the gauge.

Sizing tab

The Sizing tab is used to adjust the size and border settings for the gauge.

Action Buttons

Update - Renders the gauge using the specified parameter values.
Reset - Restores the parameters to their original values.
Save - Saves the configuration as a portlet to be referred by a real-time dashboard via an inline frame (IFRAME). The source for the portlet will be saved in the iwayhome/etc/enable/portlets directory as a file called portletname.isp, where portletname refers to the name of the portlet.

Links

XML - Displays the XML source for the gauge, which contains all the parameter values that were specified. This XML is used to render the gauge. Advanced users can save this XML document to a different location and refer to it using the iWay Enable Web API (enable.js), without having it transformed and served by iWay Enable services.
JSON - Displays the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) for the gauge, which contains all the parameter values that were specified. Advanced users can request the JSON object using JavaScript and override or extend the values and pass it to the iWay Enable Web API (enable.js).
back to - Returns to the main gauge style selection gallery.

Top of page

Charts

Charts provide a way to visualize data over a period of time, therefore, it presents current and historic information. Presenting information in a chart allows you to identify trends and patterns in your data. Data streaming charts are automatically updated with real-time data.

The main chart types are Real-Time Line, Real-Time Line - Dual Y, Real-Time Column, Real-Time Stacked Column, Real-Time Area, and Real-Time Stacked Area. When you select the chart type you want to use, the properties pane opens, as shown in the following image. Through the series of property tabs, you define such items as the data source for the chart, events and aggregation, and the physical attributes of the chart, such as the X and Y axis labels.

Sources tab

The Sources tab is used to configure how the selected chart obtains real-time data. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Feed (Optional) - Identifies the real-time feed from which the chart will update its data. If left blank, iWay Enable will automatically generate a feed corresponding to the value that is entered in the Value field, which is located in the Data tab. Leaving this field blank is preferred. The drop-down lists shows any existing feeds to which the chart can subscribe, ensuring that the feed is in the correct format required by the chart.
Note: For the chart types listed on page 2 and page 3 of the resources page, a feed is a required parameter and must be generated prior to the resource configuration. The feed can be generated using the Infoset feature or manually using a register set. For more information on generating feeds using an Infoset, see How to Create a JSON Feed From an Infoset.
Click (Optional) - Accepts a URL that is used by the chart to change the location of the window if it is clicked.
Interval (Required) - Accepts a number which represents the polling interval in seconds. The chart will use this value to update itself with real-time data from the associated feed. If this value is zero or null, the chart will never update itself with real-time data.

Data tab

The Data tab is used to determine the real-time data that the chart will consume. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Note: The Data tab is available only for chart types listed on page 1 of the resources page. Since charts listed on pages 2 and 3 require a preexisting JSON feed, the Data tab is not applicable to their configuration.

Type (Required) - The specified type for the chart. Specified, requires the use of an existing JSON feed from the Sources tab. Only JSON feeds will be made available for the selection. Historical (default), creates a feed automatically based on the configured parameters.
Events (Required) - A piped delimited list of events. Each event will appear on the chart as a separate line. Events can be separated by a | character. The drop-down list provides a list of events that is sorted alphabetically. To search for a specific event, type in part of the event name and the list of events will be filtered automatically.
Aggregation (Required) - Select an aggregation function from the drop-down list (COUNT, AVG, SUM, MAX, or MIN) to perform against the events.
History (Required) - A numeric value in milliseconds, which determines the amount of data to return.
Data Range (Required) - A numeric value indicating the number of labels to show on the x-axis.

Note: There are two extra fields for the RealTimeLineDY chart:

Lower Limit (Required) - The lower bound for the right y-axis.
Upper Limit (Required) - The upper bound for the right y-axis.

Labels tab

The Labels tab is used to set the label values for the title, subtitle (caption), x-axis, and y-axis.

Visuals tab

The Visuals tab is used to customize the visual aspects of the chart. This section lists and describes the various fields that are available in this tab.

Theme (Optional) - The hexadecimal color value.
Background (Optional) - The hexadecimal color value.
Style (Optional) - The name of the style to use for this chart. Style names can be found in the iwayhome/etc/enable/style directory. The name of a file in this directory (excluding the file extension) can be used as a value in this field. These files can also be modified using an external editor to further customize the appearance of the chart.

Extras tab

The Extras tab is used to adjust the border and legend settings for the chart.

Action Buttons

Update - Renders the chart using the specified parameter values.
Reset - Restores the parameters to their original values.
Save - Saves the configuration as a portlet to be referred by a real-time dashboard via an inline frame (IFRAME). The source for the portlet will be saved in the iwayhome/etc/enable/portlets directory as a file called portletname.isp, where portletname refers to the name of the portlet.

Links

XML - Displays the XML source for the chart, which contains all the parameter values that were specified. This XML is used to render the chart. Advanced users can save this XML document to a different location and refer to it using the iWay Enable Web API (enable.js), without having it transformed and served by iWay Enable services.
JSON - Displays the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) for the chart, which contains all the parameter values that were specified. Advanced users can request the JSON object using JavaScript and override or extend the values and pass it to the iWay Enable Web API (enable.js).
back to - Returns to the main chart style selection gallery.

Top of page

Grids

Grids are useful for displaying a large amount of information at once, which is driven by an iWay Enable data set feed. Grids can automatically be updated in real-time, and evaluate the entire set at once.

Sources tab

The Sources tab is used to configure how the selected grid obtains real-time data.

Feed (Required) - Identifies the real-time feed from which the grid will update its data. The available feeds can be selected from the associated drop down. Only feeds of the proper type will be displayed in the drop down. This is a JSON feed generated prior to the grid configuration.
Interval (Required) - Accepts a number which represents the pooling interval in seconds. The drop-down list is available for common intervals such as minute, hour, and so on. The grid will use this value to update itself with real-time data from the associated feed. If the value is zero or null, the grid will never update itself with real-time data.
Click (Optional) - This parameter is available for the Cloud resource. It takes a URL that is used by the widget to change the location of the window if it is clicked.

Visuals tab

The Visuals tab is used to customize the visual aspects of the grid. Note that not all configurations are applicable to all grids. Since the grids are a different type and are capable of processing various visual options, settings will vary for each grid type. This section lists and describes all of the available settings.

Background (Optional) - The hexadecimal color value.
Font (Optional) - The type of font to be used.
Size (Optional) - Size for the font. The default value is 10pt.
Theme (Optional) - For Active Report, this is the overall theme hexadecimal color value.
Text Color (Optional) - For Data Table, this is the text hexadecimal color value.
Color (Optional) - For Cloud, this is the overall hexadecimal color value.
Hover Color (Optional)- For Cloud, the hexadecimal value.
Hover Background (Optional) - For Cloud, the hexadecimal value.
Highlight Color (Optional) - For Cloud, the hexadecimal value.
Highlight Background (Optional) - For Cloud, the hexadecimal value.

Top of page

Portlets

Portlets are specifically designed to be referenced through an inline frame (IFRAME) inside a CEP/BAM dashboard. They are the output of the gauges and charts defined for your application.

iWay Enable is not packaged with any predefined portlets. For more information on how to create a portlet, see Enabling Real-time Data Capture and Reporting. Once the portlet is created, it can be viewed by right-clicking the portlet name and selecting View from the context menu. As a shortcut, you can also double-click the portlet name.

Selecting Edit from the context menu returns you to the configuration page for the portlet where it can be edited and saved. You can overwrite an existing portlet or save a new version. There is no option available to delete a portlet using the console, since a portlet can be used by an external application. You can only delete a portlet manually.

To delete a portlet, navigate to the iwayhome\etc\enable\portlets directory where the created portlets are stored. Open the index.html file in an editor and remove the entry corresponding to the portlet you want to delete. Each entry is contained within the <a> element.

This method will not permanently remove a portlet, since portlets are stored on the file system in portletname.isp files, where portletname refers to a specific portlet. The portlet is only removed from the Portlets tab in the console. To remove a portlet permanently, you must delete the corresponding .isp file from the iwayhome\etc\enable\portlets directory.

Services

Services refer to process flows that are currently deployed through iWay Enable, but are not yet bound to a transport (listener). This late binding model allows iWay integrators to develop the process flow and its business logic without having to decide on a specific transport.

The Services pane, shown in the following image, assists you with binding a service to a Representational State Transfer (REST) style transport. REST refers to a collection of network architecture principles that outline how resources are defined and addressed.

Enable gauges and charts require an initial XML document to configure the Flash object that will render the gauge or chart in the composite application or dashboard. Enable comes with pre-configured and pre-installed process flows that serve these XML documents to a Web application. If you are overriding any of these process flows to further customize them or if you have changed the pre-installed process flows, you can test them in the Services pane.

Top of page

Running a REST Style Service

iWay Enable allows you to run a REST style service from the iWay Service Manager Administration Console. To run a service, in the iWay Enable Services pane, right-click the service name you want to run and select Run from the menu.

The Service Parameters window opens with either no parameters or showing a set of parameters that have been associated with the service through a Register Set. For information on Register Sets, see Configuring Register Sets. The following image shows a Service Parameters window with several parameters.

In the Service Parameters window, you can enter a parameter value in the override column to override the default parameter value before running the service. This window also displays a preview of the URL string, which includes the parameters and their values, where the parameters are separated by either an ampersand (&) or a vertical bar (|). You can also add or edit parameters directly in the URL string. The following image shows the addition of a parameter, NewParam=NEW.

To run the service (actually, the underlying process flow) with the provided parameters, click Run Service.

In our example, the full URL for the service call is:

http://localhost:9999/ism/enable-run/sales.domestic?region=US|transaction=0001&NewParm=NEW

This underlying process flow (pFlow) does not perform any task. It simply returns the incoming document, as follows:

This response XML document represents the generic structure of the request document being generated by the Enable component to run a REST Style service call. The URL request string has been converted into an XML representation, where the root of the document is the name of the service (pFlow) that has been run, followed by a list of the provided parameters and their values.

The design of the process flow should take into account if it will be deployed as a REST full service, such it should be able to process the XML document in the above format representing the URL specific information.

The URL format for a REST style service call is

http://iSMhost:iSMPort/ism/enable-run/pFlowName?parm1=value1&parm2=value2...parmN=valueN

where:

iSMhost:iSMPort: Is the host name and port number of the iWay Service Manager that will be servicing the request.
ism: Specifies that the iSM Console Listener will process the request.
enable-run: Is the context endpoint that allows the run-time support for REST style services.
pFlowName: Is the name of the iSM process flow that can service the request.
parmN=valueN: Is the Name-Value pair for parameters that will be passed to the process flow for processing.

The following is the format of the XML document generated by the iSM console once it receives a REST style service call on the /ism/enable-run context endpoint.

<pFlowName>
   <parm name="parm1" value="value1"/>
   <parm name="parm2" value="value2"/>
   …..
   <parm name="parmN" value="valueN"/>
</pFlowName>

Settings

Settings provide configuration options, which allow you to control various aspects of iWay Enable. The following image shows the Settings pane.

The Settings pane includes the following tabs:

Data. This section allows you to purge stale real-time data captured by Enable. You cannot undo a purge.
Metadata. This section includes Import, Export, and Storage functions. Import allows you to import a specific register set. iWay Enable uses Register Sets in the iWay Service Manager registry to handle the import/export of metadata. Export allows you to export all or specific Taps, Events, and Feeds to a register set. Storage allows you to changes the data provider for storing Enable metadata from the default database (Hypersonic File database) to one which is defined in the Providers section of the iWay Service Manager Administration Console.
Index. iWay Enable supports the use of a search engine as part of its event discovery functionality. In order to enable search, events must be run through an indexing process. You can use the settings in this section to configure the indexing process.
About. This section allows you to review iWay Enable license information.

Views

Views are used to define and organize iWay Enable data and metadata. For example, key business objectives can be monitored by tapping and analyzing events. The results are then published as real-time feeds, ready for incorporation into dashboards, composite applications and other components.

The View pane includes the following tabs:

Event Cloud. The Event Cloud tab shows the top 100 events which have occurred the most since iWay Enable started monitoring a session. This analytical view of events helps construct questions about the real-time state of a business and its related processes.
Moving your cursor over an event name will show the event description if available, as well as the total count for that event. The crossed out events indicate that the event is defined, but has a count of zero.
Term Cloud. The Term Cloud tab shows the top 100 terms which were indexed the most since iWay Enable started monitoring a session. These terms are found using WebFOCUS Magnify and appear in the passing document of the business process. In conjunction with the Infoset, this analytical view of business terms helps construct questions about the relation between events and the contents of the passing document. Some questions which a business analyst could begin to ask when viewing the term cloud can include:
- Which events are related to any set of these terms or do any of the terms have a direct effect on an event?
- Are there any unusual relationships between events and terms?
Infoset. The Infoset tab launches the Infoset Editor, which can be used to relate, aggregate, and format real-time event data within a business space. A business analyst identifies or discovers events to be related because they directly or indirectly affect one another. Event relationships only exist in the Infoset and are not globally known in iWay Enable. The Infoset Editor assists with aggregating and formatting an Infoset so that it can be used to create feeds. For more information, see Using Infosets.
Taps. The Taps tab provides a list of available Enable taps. Taps are used to capture real-time data as it flows through the business process. Taps uses its expression written as an iWay Functional Language (iFL) statement to filter and capture Events in a business process. This list shows the name of the tap, its expression, its on/off status and the business process (services) in which the tap is embedded.
A tap can be created either manually (using the New button at the bottom of the Taps pane) or it can be discovered through a business process flow before it is deployed into the run-time environment. When the business process starts, the tap is discovered and is displayed in the Taps list.

A tap can be modified by double-clicking the tap in the Name column. You can change the behavior of a tap at run time or turn a tap on and off. These features allow Enable to react quickly to changing business objectives without affecting business processing.

Taps can be deleted by selecting a tap entry, right-clicking the tap name, and selecting Delete from the context menu. You can also use the Ctrl key to select multiple tap entries.
Events. The Events tab provides a list of real-time occurrences defined by the business to help discover inferred, complex events that may affect key business objectives. Events are global, which means all events are accessible to any feed used to aggregate and report the events, as well as to any business process flow built to react to these events.
The following images show a list of events in the Events pane.

An event can be created either manually (using the New button at the bottom of the Events pane) or it can discovered in a process flow by a tap.

You should define the events before tapping them. Knowing and defining the events and how the business interprets them will help you organize event statistics when they are displayed in a CEP/BAM dashboard. If for some reason you do not know the events, the second option will assist you with discovering them. For example, if you want to monitor cell phone sales performance by sales representative, you would first have to know the name or ID of the sale representative before creating an event defined as a cell phone sale for that specific sales representative. Instead, you can dynamically create events by capturing information found in the business process. For this example, you would capture the name of the sales representative and use it as the name of the event.

Event names are always case insensitive. When an event is added to the Events tab, it will be made lowercase and trimmed automatically. Retrieving an event's statistics/metrics is also case insensitive. Events can only be named using characters 'a' through 'z', a period (.), and a hyphen (-). The event names are unique throughout the system, so the same name cannot be used by two events. In addition, since each event is a variable, a special register cannot share the same name with an event.

Events can be deleted by selecting an event entry, right-clicking the event name, and selecting Delete from the context menu. You can also use the Ctrl key to select multiple event entries.
Feeds. The Feeds tab shows the available feeds to which composite applications would subscribe to retrieve real-time CEP/BAM updates. Enable charts and graphs subscribe to the listed feeds to update themselves with real-time statistics of Events that may affect business objectives. Enable uses special registers as a way to evaluate and aggregate data stored in Events. IFLs allow the user to format the data specifically to the subscriber of the feed.

The following image shows an example of the Feeds pane.

To view a feed, double-click in the row of the feed you want to view.

Feeds provide composite applications frequently updated content. They usually are in a RSS or ATOM format and are subscribed by internet browsers, dashboards or any mashup web application. The feed required by the Enable charts and gauges is a non-XML and non-Web 2.0 format. Enable formats its feeds specifically for its charts and gauges unless otherwise configured not to.

Using the asis prefix

Overriding the default format of the feed is accomplished by adding the prefix "asis:" in front of the pre-evaluated value of the feed. Your feed will not be manipulated by the iWay Enable feed formatter. Instead, iWay Enable will return the result of the evaluation. If you override the formatter, you must also ensure that the content-type of the document you return corresponds with it.

Content/Type and Response Message Type (RMT)

Since you have the freedom to format your feed in any way, its content type must be provided in order for the subscriber to consume your data properly. Enable will not know the content type of your feed. If one is not provided the default content type will be text/html.

To set the correct content type for your feed, you must provide an additional parameter to the URL called rmt. Below is a table of possible rmt values and its corresponding content type. The remainder of the content types can be found in the iWay Service Manager Programmer’s Guide.