Target Server Version

iWay Integration Tools (iIT) is fully upward compatible and enables you to test and deploy your iWay Integration Applications (iIAs) against a higher release of iWay Service Manager (iSM). This is done by setting the appropriate Target Server Version for a specific component (or project), which will load all of the metadata associated for that component at the selected Target Server Version level. In addition, it forces the compiler to switch to the same version as specified by theTarget Server Version and compile at that level.

This is important to understand as some services and components have different configuration parameters that are introduced with a newer version of iSM and you may need to configure and compile your iIA against a specific Target Server Version.

For example, if you currently have iSM Version 7.0.3 and iIT Version 7.0.3, and need to upgrade to a higher release of iSM (the runtime environment) or may already have a newer runtime environment available in parallel for testing, you can:

  1. Install Core Services into your existing version of iIT. Core Services provide the components that are required to compile and load the corresponding metadata for the required version of iSM (known as the Target Server).
  2. Set the Target Server Version of your configured components in iIT to that version (for example, 7.0.5).

This will enable you to compile and test your existing iIAs (for example, originally created in a Version 7.0.3 iSM and iIT environment) against a higher release of the runtime environment (for example, Version 7.0.5).

However, iIT is not backward compatible. Newer versions may introduce functionality that may only be available in an iSM version that is equal to or greater than that of IIT. For example, the Transformer component available in iIT and ISM was enhanced in Version 7.0.5 to support the Java Script Object Notation (JSON) format. This allows users of iIT Version 7.0.5 to write transformations from XML to JSON, JSON to XML, and so on. Deploying a transform that uses this functionality would only work when the Target Server runtime was at least Version 7.0.5. Deploying this transform to Version 7.0.4 would not produce the correct results since JSON support was only introduced in Version 7.0.5. Therefore, it is a best practice for users to work with a version of iIT that matches their Target Server (iSM) version.

It is important to understand that the Target Server, which is made available by downloading the Core Services into iIT, is designed to load the corresponding metadata that is used by the components and compiler. It is strongly recommended that you use the same version of iIT that corresponds to the matching iSM version for that release (for example, iIT Version 7.0.5 with iSM Version 7.0.5). This will ensure that you can take advantage of all of the latest iIT features and be fully compatible with the corresponding iSM version as well.

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