Adapter Menu

Use

The Adapters menu of the Adapter Engine enables you to add new adapters, deactivate existing adapters, and reactivate or remove deactivated adapters. Furthermore, you can manage existing adapters in the detailed view.

Prerequisites

You have installed the Adapter Engine and the adapters you require, started the Adapter Engine and called it using your web browser.

Features

The Adapters menu is displayed on the right-hand side when you call the configuration screen . It displays the available (installed) adapters with their current status, as well as a traffic light that displays the condition of this status. A green traffic light means that the adapter is free of errors, red means errors have occurred, and amber means that the condition of the status is unknown.

You have the following options from the menu:

Rename Adapter
Use this function to rename an existing adapter. To do so, proceed as follows:
1. Choose the function by clicking it.
  A selection list appears containing all the adapters that are currently activated.
2. Select an adapter from the list.
3. Enter a new name for the adapter.
4. If you want the adapter to be started automatically when the Adapter Engine is started, check the checkbox Automatic Startup. If you do not check the checkbox, the adapter remains in the status INITIALIZED following a restart and must be started manually from the adapters menu.
5. Choose Rename to complete the renaming process.
  Once the adapter has been renamed, the configuration is displayed in the selection list of the adapter menu under its new name.
Add New Adapter
Choose this function to generate a new adapter configuration from an existing adapter. To do so, proceed as follows:
1. Choose the function by clicking it.
  A selection list appears containing all the adapters that are currently activated.
2. Select an adapter from the list.
3. Enter a name for the new adapter.
4. If you want the adapter to be started automatically when the Adapter Engine is started, check the checkbox Automatic Startup. If you do not check the checkbox, the adapter remains in the status INITIALIZED following a restart and must be started manually from the adapters menu.
5. To create an adapter configuration under the new name that has the same settings as the adapter configuration that you used as a template, choose Create.
  The configuration is now displayed under the new name in the selection list of the adapters menu and can be edited there to adjust the copied settings.
  
  Caution
  
  You must not activate identical adapter configurations under different names. This is usually not technically possible and leads to an error message when you attempt to initialize the new adapter. In isolated cases however, it is possible and can lead to unexpected results with messages being duplicated or lost.
Deactivate Adapters
Choose this function to remove (deactivate) existing adapters from the adapters menu. However, the adapter configurations are not deleted and can, if required, be re-included (reactivated) in the adapters menu. Proceed as follows:
1. Choose the function by clicking it.
  A selection list appears containing all the adapters that are currently activated.
2. Select one or more adapters from the list.
3. To remove the selected adapter(s) from the adapters menu, choose Deactivate.
Reactivate Deactivated Adapter
Choose this function to re-include existing, but deactivated adapters in the adapters menu. Proceed as follows:
1. Choose the function by clicking it.
  A selection list appears containing all the adapters that are currently deactivated.
2. Select one or more adapters from the list.
3. If you want all the adapters selected to be started automatically when the Adapter Engine is started, check the checkbox Automatic Startup. If you do not check the checkbox, the adapters remain in the status INITIALIZED following a restart and must be started manually from the adapters menu.
4. To re-include the selected adapters in the adapters menu, choose Reactivate.
  
  Note
  
  Copying Adapter Configurations from Other Installations
  
  Since the name of a deactivated adapter is no longer managed by the Adapter Engine, but a properties file with the same name still exists in the configuration directory of the Adapter Engine, you can use this function to copy adapter configurations from other installations of the Adapter Engine.
  
  To do so, copy the source file <AdapterName>.properties from the directory ../tech_adapter/Configuration to the same directory in the target installation. It is then automatically displayed in the list of deactivated adapters and can be reactivated correspondingly.
  
  Note
  
  Changing the Start Mode for an Adapter
  
  If you have defined an adapter so that it starts automatically, you can change the start mode by choosing the function Deactivate Adapters.
  
  To do so, first deactivate the adapter(s) in question and the reactivate it/them again with the start mode required.
Remove Deactivated Adapters
Choose this function to delete existing deactivated adapters. Once you have deleted an adapter configuration it can no longer be reactivated. Proceed as follows:
1. Choose the function by clicking it.
  A selection list appears containing all the adapters that are currently deactivated.
2. Select one or more adapters from the list.
3. To delete the selected adapter(s), choose Remove.
Refresh Adapter Menu
To update the displayed status and condition of all adapters, choose Refresh to reload the adapter menu.

Activities

To display details about the displayed adapter, double-click it.

The detailed view displays the name, type, version, and status of the adapter. As in the adapter menu, a traffic light specifies the condition of the current status. A green traffic light means that the adapter is free of errors, red means errors have occurred, and amber means that the condition of the status is unknown.

The Log area displays an adapter-specific log if one exists.

From the detailed view you can do the following:

Return to the Main Menu
Update the contents currently displayed, by choosing Reload

Note

The current status of the adapter is displayed in each case (INITIALIZED, STARTED, STOPPED, or TERMINATED). Due to the partly asynchronous processing of the corresponding actions described below, the status displayed might also just be an intermediate status. This is particularly true for Restart, which involves the statuses STOPPED, TERMINATED, INITIALIZED, and STARTED. In this case, you can update the display by choosing Reload.
You can do the following to the adapter:
- Configure
  To call the configuration that you require to configure an adapter, choose Configure. It then appears in a window in the Configuration area.
  
  The following options are available to those users with the user role Administrator or Configurator:
  - To switch between edit and view mode, choose Edit/View.
  - To save configuration data modified in change mode, choose Store Configuration Data.
  - To delete any changes made in change mode that have not yet been saved, choose Cancel.
  The system displays the name of the configuration underneath the window.
  
  Note
  
  Essentially, changes made to the configuration are only applied when you choose Store Configuration Data. If you exit the configuration screen by using any other means (for example, by choosing one of the buttons on the left of the detailed view), then the original configuration is maintained and is displayed again when you next call the configuration.
  
  To activate an adapter configuration that you have changed, you must always reinitialize the adapter first. To do so, choose either Terminate and Create or Restart, which is the same as the button sequence Terminate, Create, and Start.
  
  It is not sufficient to simply choose Stop and Start since this combination does not reinitialize the adapter and therefore the modified configuration data is not recognized.
- Start
  To start an adapter, choose Start. To do so, you must have already created and configured the adapter. Adapters that were stopped by choosing Stop can also be restarted again by choosing Start.
- Create
  To regenerate and initialize the adapter, choose Create. This is necessary if you have changed the configuration data or have deleted the current instance of the adapter using Terminate.
- Restart
  To restart the adapter, regardless of its status, choose Restart. This is necessary if you have changed its configuration, for example. This action is the same as the button sequence Terminate, Create, and Start.
- Stop
  To stop a running adapter, choose Stop. The adapter has now been stopped and can either be restarted by choosing Start, or it can be stopped completely by choosing Terminate.
- Terminate
  To end an adapter instance, for example, if you no longer require it, or if it is not functioning as you want it to, choose Terminate.
Display and delete the adapter-specific log