I want to post a simple JSON message to an external system and do not want to add any external library to Maximo as it would require a restart.
In the past, I used the java HTTPClient library that comes with Maximo, but it would require half a page of boilerplate Jython code. Recently, I found a simpler solution below.
Just to document a weird issue I had today. I was attempting to configure LDAP (Microsoft AD) for Maximo/Websphere. After it is configured (and I've tested that it can query AD data), Application Server security was enabled. Then the server is rebooted to refresh the new configuration.
To enable HTTP compression for Maximo, follow the steps below:
I needed to send an external system a file import request. The external system would take some time to process the file before the import result can be queried. Making a status query immediately after the import request would always return an "import process is still running". It's best to wait for a few seconds before making the first attempt to query the import status.
It took quite a bit of time to look up the web for a "wait" or "sleep" function. Some posts suggested using Java flow, some recommended complex processes or involved an external library.
The easiest method I finally settled with is to use Repeat as follows:
One of our clients undertook a massive IT transformation program which involved switching to a new financial management system, upgrading and rebuilding a plethora of interfaces among several systems, both internal and external to the business. Kronos was chosen to replace an old timesheet software and there was the need to integrate it with other systems such as Maximo and TechnologyOne. WebMethods was used as the integration tool for this IT ecosystem. This is my first experience with Kronos. The project took almost two years to finish. As always, when dealing with something new, I had quite a bit of fun (and pain) during this project. As it is approaching the final stage now, I think I should write down what I’ve learnt. Hopefully, it will be useful for people out there who’re doing a similar task.
REST API: Kronos provides a pretty good reference source for the REST API at this Link. REST API theoretically offers the advantage of supporting real-time integration and enables seamless workflow. However, we don’t have such a requirement in this project. On the other hand, this has two major limitations.
In WebMethods, the most basic way to write a string “IN” operator is to use Branch as follows:
I had to deal with this quite often. Most of the times, I got it right and able to identify the problem quickly. In a few cases, it took some time, and usually very stressful as it mostly occurs in Production. (It occurs in DEV and PRE-PROD all the time, it’s just that people usually don’t care, and it goes unnoticed)
Today I had to deal with it again and it took me some time. The cause was something I dealt with before, was told by a colleague on how to fix it (the easy way), but I forgot. This time around, under panic mode, I restarted a few JVMs before I remembered I should ask around and was reminded by my colleague again that it could be fixed with much less damage. I told myself I should write it down for the next time, so here is the sum of what I learned:
When writing a piece of software, we are in total control of the quality of the product. With integration, many elements are not under our control. Network and firewall are usually managed by IT. With external systems, we usually don’t know how they work, or many times, not given access. Yet, any changes to these elements can cause our interfaces to fail.
For synchronous interfaces, the
user would receive instant feedback after each action is taken (e.g. Maximo
- GIS integration), thus, we don’t usually need to setup alarms. For
asynchronous interfaces, which usually run in the background, and don’t give instant
feedback, when failure occurs, it usually goes unnoticed. In many cases, we
only find out about failures after it has caused some major damage.
A good interface must provide adequate mechanism to handle failures, and in the case of async integration, proper alarms and reports should be setup so that failures are captured and handled proactively by IT and application administrators.
