Modify a Web Services API server application pickup or delivery

Web Services API server settings tab (server)

Embedded Web Services API server – Displays the name of the Web Services API server as a hyperlink to the server settings:

Settings tab

• Host – The fully-qualified domain name of the computer on which the embedded server runs. Activator detects this setting; you cannot change it.
• Port – The port on which the server listens for connection requests. Default = 5080.

Advanced tab

• Minimum threads – Lowest number of threads Activator must dedicate to the server.
• Maximum treads – Largest number of threads Activator can dedicate to the server.
• Read timeout – The maximum number of seconds the server waits when reading data from a partner.

Web Services API client settings tab (client)

• URL – The URL Activator uses to post messages to a back-end system for integration delivery.

Advanced tab (server)

• Back up the files that go through this transport – Indicates whether the system backs up copies of the messages it retrieves from integration or receives from partners. Backing up files. This is required for the system to perform fail-over operations such as attempting to send messages again (retries) in case of a transport connection failure. Without backups, a message in process cannot be recovered if the server stops or restarts. Backups are needed to resubmit messages to back-end applications or resend messages to partners. Backup files are stored in \<install directory>\common\data\backup, unless you specify otherwise.
• Process consumed messages using community collaboration settings – Apply the community collaboration settings to the messages that are consumed by this pickup.
• Perform content processing on consumed messages – Select this option if you want to apply processing to the messages you pick up using this exchange. If you select this option you can then select a service to supply the processing.
• Restrict maximum file size for this transport – Optionally lets you specify the maximum size of files a transport can handle.
• If Activator receives a file larger than the maximum, the file is rejected and a message is written to the events log. If received via HTTP, a 413 response also is sent and the connection is closed. A 413 message is Request Entity Too Large.
• Express the maximum size in bytes. Do not use commas. For example, a kilobyte is 1024 bytes, a megabyte is 1048576 bytes, a gigabyte is 1073741824 bytes. The smallest maximum allowed is 1000 bytes. On the opposite extreme, you can enter the largest number the field can accommodate. This control is available only for transports used for picking up messages from integration or receiving messages from partners.

Advanced tab (client)

• Maximum concurrent connections – The number of total open connections Activator server can make to a partner.
• Retries – This is the number of times Activator tries to connect to the partner’s transport if the initial attempt to connect and send the message failed. The following are common reasons for triggering retries:
  • The connection attempt failed immediately for a specific reason such as host not found.
  • The host was found, but the connection process took longer than the connect timeout interval specified on the Advanced tab.
  • The connection was successful, but the partner’s HTTP server took longer than the response timeout interval to return a 200 OK response indicating the message was successfully received. A 200 OK response is a transport response, separate from a message protocol response such as an AS2 receipt.

  Note: In the last case above, the 200 OK response also includes the receipt if synchronous receipts were requested. Otherwise, it will be a simple 200 OK response with no payload. And if an asynchronous receipt was requested, the partner will connect later to send it.

  Retries occur according to an algorithm that starts at 5 minutes. The interval between retries increases with each subsequent retry in this pattern: 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes. The interval plateaus at 60 minutes. This means if the retry value is greater than 5, the fifth and each subsequent retry occurs at 60 minute intervals.

  For example, if retries is 3, the system will try connecting again in 5 minutes if the initial connection attempt fails. If this retry attempt also fails, the system attempts a second retry in 10 minutes. The third retry attempt is made 15 minutes later. If the third retry attempt fails, the message is given a failed status. So after four attempts (the first attempt plus 3 retries), the message fails. You can search for and manually resubmit failed messages in Message Tracker.

  Retries do not occur precisely at these intervals because each connection attempt takes some seconds, which varies by computer. So retries actually occur after the connection attempt time plus the interval.

  This control applies only to retrying to send messages, not receiving. It applies only to retrying to send related to transport issues. It does not apply to successfully sent messages for which receipts have not been received as expected. Another control, resends, determines how many times the system will resend a message when a receipt is not received from the partner. For information about resends, see reliable messaging in the collaboration settings chapter.

• Send the entire payload contents – Send the payload through this transport. This option is only for integration delivery.
• Send the payload URL only – Send only the URL that points to the payload and not the payload itself.
• Response timeout (seconds) – How long in seconds that Activator waits for the delivery exchange to respond to a request before terminating the connection.
• Enable HTTP chunking – If you are sending files larger than 2 gigabytes, select this option to turn on chunking. A chunked message is a large message broken into smaller pieces for sending to a partner over the Internet or to back-end integration.
• Although primarily for handling large messages, chunking can be enabled for small messages, too. However, if your partners use a trading engine other than Activator or use an external or staged HTTP server, they may be unable to accept messages larger than 2 gigabytes, even if the messages are chunked.
• Also, in rare cases a partner’s HTTP server may be unable to handle chunked messages, regardless of message size. You should perform tests to determine whether a partner’s server can handle chunked messages. If not, the partner must use Activator with the embedded server to receive large chunked messages successfully.
• If you enable chunking because of large messages, you also probably need to request that receipts be sent over an asynchronous connection. See the chapter on collaboration settings for details.
• Attempt restarts – Select this option to turn on checkpoint-restart. A checkpoint is information saved to disk that is a recovery point in the event of a transport failure. The restart program uses the last saved checkpoint and starts again, ensuring no loss of data.
• The checkpoint files are saved on the server under the <install directory>/common/data/http/restartable, which is normally common to all nodes. Thus, if a transfer is interrupted and the load balancer directs the restart request to a different node, the restart file will be accessible to the new node even though it did not process the original request.
• To reduce unnecessary overhead when processing small files, checkpoint files are only created for messages that are at least 100 KB in size. Also, if a restart is attempted for a message whose checkpoint file on the server is more than four hours old, the checkpoint file will be discarded and the entire message will be retransmitted.
• The restart logic is used only during transport retries, such as might occur when a transfer is interrupted due to network problems. If you resubmit a message in Message Tracker, no attempt is made to perform a checkpoint-restart.
• This feature only works if your partner uses Activator and its embedded HTTP server. Do not select this option if a partner uses an external or staged HTTP server or uses a trading engine other than Activator.
• Enable use of 102-processing – This option is available to ensure that the connection between the client and server does not become idle and fail while message processing is in progress. For example, this makes sure the connection remains active when the client is sending a multi-gigabyte message. Or, to prevent a firewall from disconnecting an idle connection before the server receives the entire message and returns a 200 OK response. Most often this setting is useful when the client requests a synchronous receipt, but also could be recommended in some cases for an asynchronous receipt.
• Selecting this check box directs Activator to add the following to the header of an outbound message: Expect: 102-processing. This is an HTTP response code that indicates processing is in progress. If the receiving server supports 102 responses, the header triggers the server to send 102 responses to the client repeatedly until the server has completely processed the inbound message.
• Before selecting this option, make sure the server supports 102 responses. If you turn on 102 processing and the server does not support it, the server will return a 417 message (the server could not meet the expectation given in the Expect header) and the connection may fail. If the receiving partner uses the embedded HTTP server in Interchange 5.5.1 or later, 102 responses are supported. This also is supported if your partner uses Jetty 6 or later.
• Back up the files that go through this transport – Indicates whether the system backs up copies of the messages it retrieves from integration or receives from partners. Backing up files is required for the system to perform fail-over operations such as attempting to send messages again (retries) in case of a transport connection failure. Without backups, a message in process cannot be recovered if the serve stops or restarts. Backups are needed to resubmit messages to back-end applications or resend messages to partners. Backup files are stored in \<install directory>\common\data\backup, unless you specify otherwise.
• Post-processing script – The full path to an executable file that contains post-processing commands. This field is available for community integration delivery exchanges and partner trading delivery exchanges.