Building a Custom Connector Using the Sample Connector › How to Build a Custom Connector › Connector Configuration Files

Connector Configuration Files

To deploy and use a custom connector in the CA SOI IFW, you must define a configuration file for the connector in the SOI_HOME\resources\Configurations directory. This configuration file is an XML file that helps perform various tasks similar to any other connector configuration file. For example, it contains data pertaining to how to connect to the domain manager, the location of the connector class, the name of the connector, and so on.

You can create the connector configuration file manually by following the template file myMDR_template.xml provided with the Sample connector installer kit. Comments marked within this template file explain the properties that help you create your configuration file. You must create a copy of the template file, edit it as required, and rename it based on the naming convention (<MdrProduct>_template.xml). Additionally, while creating your configuration file, you must consider the following points:

• Some entries in the configuration files begin and end with the @ symbol. These are tokenized fields that the installer replaces with data that the user provides during installation. Any data that you want to collect from the user must have an entry with a tokenized value in the configuration file.
• Connector configuration files must begin and end with the main ConnectorConfig tag. Additionally, files must include the following tags and properties:
  • Must begin and end with the <Silo> tag
  • Must contain the fields State and name
  • Must contain the <ImplementationClass> tag and name and policy fields
  • Must contain the <ConnectionInfo> tag
  • Must contain the <ConnectorControls> tag
• The installer does not change the string literal values in the template file; therefore, they remain as is after installation. You can change these values while creating the configuration file, by directly editing the file after the connector installation, or using the Administration UI.

During installation, the installer replaces the word template in <MdrProduct>_template.xml with the location of the domain manager server to which the connector is pointing (MdrProdInstance). For example, the sample template is called myMDR_template.xml. During installation, the user is prompted for the location of the domain manager server. If the user enters the server name as myServerX, the configuration file is renamed to myMDR_myServerX.xml.

Note: The connector configuration file becomes available under the SOI_HOME\ resources\Configurations folder when the connector installation is done.