Deploy

Overview

Deploy is a tool of the ConnectPlaza suite where you can deploy your interfaces to your end users. You can only enter ConnectPlaza Deploy if you have the permission to do so. 

Initially you will be presented with a selection of all your ConnectAgents. Here you can select the ConnectAgent, you want to work with. You can order the columns of this screen in the order you like by clicking on the column header.

Select the ConnectAgent by double clicking on the ConnectAgents row, or using the and selecting Open.After selecting a working ConnectAgent, you will be presented with the main screen of ConnectPlaza Deploy.

If you've selected a ConnectAgent, which is not active, you will be presented with the following screen:

If you are a developer you can see all the tabs you are licensed to, at the top of the screen. If you are an End User, you will probably only see the Deploy tab. 

When you first log in into this application, you will probably have no ConnectAgent installed. You can get your ConnectAgent here. Deploy will configure the ConnectAgent for you and gives you the opportunity to download it. 

As you can see, the ConnectPlaza Deploy screen is divided in a few sections. At the top left you will find the Agent generator, the Connection check and the Legend. Also there is a button to get you back to the ConnectAgent selection overview.

At the top right, above the Agent configuration tab, you will see a few buttons: 

  • The Home button
  • Number of logged in users button
  • The help button

The workspace will inform you about your ConnectAgent. This will be discussed in greater detail later in this article. For now it will show you the Agent configuration, as you have no connection to your ConnectPlaza Connect Agent.

Download Agent

As of version 4.0.0, you can choose between different downloads for your agent. Select the to get a list of the possible downloads.

There are two options. Generate repbuild zip, which is the old fashioned way to install your client. And, for Windows operating systems, the Windows Installer.

Generate prepbuild zip

You can generate your ConnectPlaza Connect Agent by clicking on the  next to the Agent generator. In the Agent configuration, set the Use reverse connect on, this is enabled by default. Do not change this value, unless told to do so by one of ConnectPlaza's employees. If this value has been changed, press Save, to update the settings. You must generate the agent again after changing the settings, or you must modify the connectagent.properties file on your agent, in case of a production system. 

When you enter the Agent generator, you will be presented with the following screen: 

The ConnectAgent software must be installed on the End User's machine. For detailed installation instructions, please refer to the technical documentation about installing the ConnectAgent for your machine. 

Field Description

Internal IP-address (blank = 127.0.0.1)

Internal bind address for your ConnectAgent. This is the bind address where your internal network can access the ConnectAgent. If you use the default setting, you will only be able to access the ConnectAgent, from the machine on which it is installed (localhost/127.0.0.1). If you want to be able to access this ConnectAgent from other machines in your network, enter your machine's IP address in this box.

Agent HTTP port

HTTP port for your ConnectAgent, default 8088. Change if necessary. 

Agent HTTPS port

HTTPS port for your ConnectAgent, default 8443. Change if necessary.

Agent License key

Your ConnectAgent license key. This value is for identification only. This value cannot be changed.
Type*

 

Select your Analyze database connection. This selection will set up a default connection with the Analyze database at your site. Beware of the fact that not all JDBC drivers are available by default. To upload your driver, place the jar file into the ConnectAgent directory <ConnectPlazaInstallDir>/jars/endorsed and restart your ConnectAgent.

PLEASE NOTE!

The following database types are for development / testing purposes only:

  • Embedded
  • InMemory

InMemory, means that the database only exists in computer memory and is therefore transient. If you restart the agent, the Analyze database will be lost and created again as an empty database.

If you use an Embedded database, the database is created on disk and is therefore persistent. So after a restart, the data will be preserved. 

Press the Generate button to generate your ConnectAgent. The file will be presented to you via a download box.

You can save the .zip file anywhere you want. 

You will also be presented by the following instruction page.

On this page there are instructions to configure the ConnectAgent. You will also find a section where you can copy a download link for the generated agent to your clipboard.

The generated ConnectAgent will be available for 7 days, so this link will be valid for 7 days. After this period, the system will automatically remove files older than 7 days.

You can send this link to your customers, so they can download the ConnectAgent themselves. The link will look like this:

https://test.connectplaza.com/en/download-connectagent.html?download=aHR0cHM6Ly90ZXN0LmNvbm5lY3RwbGF6YS5jb20vZG93bmxvYWQvYzVhYWRlMzItYmNiZS00YTkzLWE3NGYtODc0ZjU1YzllMjE0L2FnZW50LnppcA==

Place the link in your browser and you will be redirected to the download page:

Click on the button, to download the ConnectAgent.

After 7 days, the download will not be available anymore. If you need to download the agent after this period, you will need to generate a new ConnectAgent. A new download link will be created, the old download link will no longer be valid.

The Windows Installer

When your ConnectAgent is fully downloaded, run the installer with the option Run as administrator (right mouse click option!). The welcome screen will be presented to you.

Select Next to go the next screen.

Select your installation folder. It is not recommended to install your ConnectAgent into the Program files folder, because of the following reasons.

  • The Program Files directory is protected with the Windows UAC. This prevents the software writing in this directory. ConnectPlaza Agents frequently writes and creates files into its own directory structure, so this will be an issue over time.
  • The length of the paths can become an issue within Java. So the smaller the path, the better. This is to prevent the software to crash because the OS cannot get the right path

Spaces in the pathname is strongly discouraged. If at all possible, leave the default path as is.

Select Next to continue.

This is the selection of the software to be installed. Just press Next, to continue.

Read the license agreement and accept it. Select Next to continue.

In the Windows menu, shortcuts will be created within the menu name you enter in this screen. As this installer can install a second ConnectAgent with a different license key, you can define a different name here. If you do not change the name of the menu, the shortcuts will be created all in the same menu.

Select Next to continue.

If you are ready to install the software, select Install to perform the installation of the ConnectAgent.

The software is now installing, you can select Show Details to get more information about the installation.

 

After finishing the installation, it is time to configure the ConnectAgent. Now you need the license key from the webpage.

Just copy it and past it in the license key field.

Above you see a default configuration. Select Install as a service if you want to create a service for ConnectPlaza Agent. The service will start the ConnectAgent automatically when starting your server. Select Start Agent to start your agent after installation. This is the recommended configuration.

Select Next to continue.

The installation is now finished. Select Finish to end the installation process

Deploy

After you open ConnectPlaza Deploy, you can connect to your ConnectAgent. You will see the following screen: 

This is your standard home page of Deploy. At the left-hand side you see the Agent generator you will need this to generate a new ConnectAgent. 

Next you see that your ConnectAgent is connected with Deploy.

 

Within the Acitve Connection box you can see the number active flows installed on this agent and the maximum number of flows you can install on this agent. You can also remotely restart your ConnectAgent here. Press the button, , to do so.

Right below the Active connection box, you will see the legend. This legend refers to state of the interfaces.

In the Workspace Cockpit part of the screen you see a button to go to your Deploy workspace overview,  .

At the bottom of the Workspace Cockpit,you will find the widgets. There are a number of default widgets. You can open a widget by clicking on it or discard a widget by pressing the button on the title of the widget. You can add a widget on this desktop by pressing on the empty widget and selecting a new one. If no additional widgets are avalable, this button will not be displayed on your screen.

This will open the Add widget box.

Select the widget by clicking on the widget you want to add to your desktop.

Updates available for your agent

If there is an update available for your ConnectAgent, you will be notified on this dashboard by an orange box:

Click on this button and you will be redirected to the Agent Updates page. 

Workspace overview

When you click the Workspace overview button, you will be redirected to the following screen: 

The selected workspace is show at the top of the screen, like this: .

At the top of the workspace you see the following interface: .

  • Show available interfaces toggles between an overview with business connectors with an installed interface and business connectors without any installed interfaces. Default is an overview of all business connectors with installed interfaces. The system interfaces are always visible.
  • Search in interfaces is a search field where you can type a part of the name of the interface. 
  • Refresh button, refresh / reload the screen.

There are 5 tabs in the Workspace overview:

  • Business connectors
  • Certificate management
  • Agent updates
  • Agent configuration
  • Agent log

Each of these will be discussed in the following sections.

Business connectors

These are the available business connectors for this agent. Every row is a business connector. The row is divided into the following parts. 

Part Description
Indicator. This will tell you the status of the business connector. Check the Legend, to find out what the colors mean.
Name of the business connector. If the name is System, this business connector consists of internal or system interfaces needed to perform system tasks of the ConnectAgent. 

Number of flows used within your interface. As the number of flows used within the system interfaces will not influence your licensed flows, this number will initially be 0. This is why you see at the System interfaces row.

This number represents the number of interfaces within the business connector. 

To open the business connector and see which interfaces are within the business connector, click on the arrow at the right of the row, the business connector will open. 

Interfaces

After you opened the selected business connector, you will see the interfaces you have built in this business connector. 

You can see 4 columns on this screen. 

Part Description
Ready to install These interfaces are ready to install.
Installed These interfaces are installed.
Running These interfaces are installed and running.
Problem These interfaces are installed, but have problems.


You can see that every box has a  button. When you press this button, a menu will open. You can select one of the following options:

Option Description
Open your installation screen to install your interface.
Unloads the running interface from your ConnectAgent. This removes the context from your ConnectAgent. This is not the same as stopping the interface. You can stop your interface with ConnectPlaza Control. If you unload the interface, you will not see it in ConnectPlaza Control
Loads the installed interface onto your ConnectAgent. This adds the context to your ConnectAgent. If you add the context to your ConnectAgent, the interface will reappear in ConnectPlaza Control.
Open the log for the specific interface.

 

Installing/Uninstalling/Updating an interface

To install or update an interface you select the Open option in one of the menus. The following screen will be presented to you: 

On this screen you will find the created snapshots and releases you have created. Keep in mind that the system will only save five snapshots. Releases will always be saved and appear in this list. You can see that it is a release version by the extension -RELEASE, at the end of the version number. 

If you only want to see your release versions, you can remove the tick at the View snapshots selection box. Only the releases will be visible.

At the left-hand side you see some information about the interface:

At the right-hand side you see all the versions of the interface available to you. You can see a  near the version installed on your system. When you click on the menu button at the installed version of the interface, you can Reinstall or Uninstall, the selected version of your interface. If you press the menu button with a version not yet installed on your system, you can Install this version on your ConnectPlaza ConnectAgent.

Menu Description
Reinstall This reinstalls the same version of your interface. This opens your installation dialog windows and you can alter your dynamic values. The old interface will be uninstalled from your system, and the same one will be installed on your system. 
Uninstall This will uninstall the interface from your system. It will no longer be available.
Install Install the selected version to the system. If this is a new interface, it will be installed, otherwise the installed version will be uninstalled and the selected version will be installed. 

Updates available

You can see if an update is available if the indicator has an orange indication: . If you open the Business connector, you will see an indication at the interface itself, that there is an update available.

If you open the details, via the Open option, you will see that a new version is available.

You can install the new version via the popup menu option Install. After installation, the indication, for update available, will be removed.

If you double-click or choose the option install you will be presented with a detailed installation screen for this interface.

Now at the left site of the screen you see the values of the current installation of the interface. At the right site you see the parameters for this interface. 

Parameter Description
Automatically start interface

As of version 4.4.0 this value is no longer part of ConnectPlaza(R) Constructor. This is now a setting of your deployment. If enabled (default), this interface will startup when the agent is started. If set disabled, the interface does not autostartup.

If you want to change the setting for the interface, you do not have to rebuild your interface in ConnectPlaza(R) Constructor anymore, but just reinstall it with the correct value. 

Parameters per component

The dynamic values and global dynamic values for your interface

 

Incompatible agent message

If you have built a new interface just after ConnectPlaza Cloud has been upgraded, your interface and your ConnectAgent will be out-of-sync. Your interface has a later version number and cannot be installed on your older ConnectAgent.

You can run an older version of your interface, but cannot upgrade to the latest version just build, if your ConnectAgent is not the same version as the build of the interface.

Log

An installed interface, running or not, has a log file. This log file can be partially read via the deploy interface. The system will read the last 10.000 characters from the end of the logfile. If you need more information, you have to enter the system and check the logfiles by hand.
You can set the depth of the logging via this option. To open the log for the specific interface, select Log in the popup menu. 

You can scroll up and down to look into this logfile. To refresh the logfile, press the  button. To set the depth of the logging, select the appropriate selection at the top right corner of this screen. The options are:

Log depth Description
Tracelog You see only the components where the message has been passed.
Tracelogmsg The same as tracelog, but the message will also be printed out.
Minimal As tracelogmsg, only error messages.
Normal Information logging and error messages.
Full Debug information.

Certificate management

With the Certificate management tab, you can administer your trusted certificates and your server certificates. You can manage your Java truststore and Java keystore with this application. 

Trusted Certificates

Field Description
Alias Alias name of your certificate. This name will be used in your applications.
Common name Common name of the certificate.
Valid until Expiration date of the certificate.
Remove button. Click this button to remove the certificate.

Server Certificates

Field Description
Alias Alias name of your certificate. This name will be used in your applications.
Common name Common name of the certificate.
Organization The value of the field organization name within the certificate.
Location The value of the field location within the certificate.
Valid until Expiration date of the certificate.
Remove button. Click this button to remove the certificate.

Adding a certificate

Add a certificate to your trust store by clicking on the  button at the top right of the screen. 

Drag your certificate in this screen or click in the middle of the screen to open a File Upload screen, like this:

The file will be uploaded to the trust store. After you have uploaded all the certificates you need, restart your ConnectAgent by pressing the Restart agent button, in order to activate the new trust store. 

Uploading a server certificate

When you need to upload a server certificate, another upload screen will be presented to you.

Before uploading the certificate, enter the source key alias first, otherwise you will get an error.

Field Description
Source keystore password Keystore password. If empty, no password is used.
Source key alias* This is a mandatory field, this is the alias for the specific key.
Source key password Source key password. If empty, no password is used.
Target key alias The alias for the target key.

Removing a certificate

If you want to remove a certificate, select the  button at the end of the row of the certificate you want to remove from the trust store. You will be asked if you are sure you want to remove the certificate permanently.

Select Remove to remove the certificate. You have to restart your ConnectAgent by pressing the Restart agent button, in order to activate the new trust store. 

Agent updates

The system will download all available updates by itself. It will place them on your system, ready for installation. In this tab you can setup the behavior of how the updates will be installed. You will see the following options:

 

Field  Description
The following updates are available These updates are available. If you click on the version number you will be redirected to the release notes page in the documentation website.
Apply updates to version Here you can set your installation strategy.
Select update report Here you can select the update report. The report will be shown in a window below this selection. 
Refresh the page


You can set your install strategy by selecting one of the options below. 

Option Description
Always Downloads all updates available. 
Off Downloads no updates.
Only maintenance Downloads only maintenance updates.
<Version Number> You can select a version number here. The system will install all updates until this version. 

 

Save your selection and restart your ConnectAgent to activate your selection. If you have installed until the desired version number, the value will be set to OFF.

After the installation, you can retrieve the logfile via the Select update report selection box. Select the report from the selection list:

The report will be shown in the viewer.

PLEASE NOTE!

If the backend / ConnectPlaza webservice is upgraded and you build a bundle, you will see the next version number as part of the version number of your bundle. You cannot deploy a bundle with a higher build version to an agent of a lower version.

For example, if ConnectPlaza is upgraded to version 3.4.0, and you build a bundle of your interface after the upgrade, you cannot deploy this bundle to a 3.3.x ConnectAgent. You will first have to update your environment.

Agent configuration

As of version 3.5.0 you can configure your ConnectAgent settings, Analyze settings and Control settings from ConnectPlaza Deploy. These settings modify the connectplaza-agent.properties, connectplaza-analyze.properties and connectplaza-control.properties files.

Configuration settings

This part of the screen shows the selected property file. You can select the following property files:

  • ConnectAgent
  • Analyze
  • Control
  • SystemStartUp

Select the file using the dropdown selection box at the right-hand side of the screen:

The system is built to display all the settings in the property file, if there is a corresponding MetaTag in our system.

A line of the configuration file will be displayed in the following format:

The box is checked if the selected option is active. If the checkbox is not set the option is commented out and the default value is used for this field.
Description of the property. This is set in a MetaDataFile of the ConnectAgent.

Value of the property.

 

If we look into the configuration file of this ConnectAgent, we see the following setting for this property:

connect.jetty.connector.host=10.1.0.184

If we now disable this setting, this line will be commented out with a #, and the default will be active.

You see a few things are changed. You cannot add a value anymore, and the default value is shown in the configurator. Save the file and restart the ConnectAgent to activate the new settings.

After saving the new settings you can check the configuration file you can see the changes:

#connect.jetty.connector.host=10.1.0.184

Agent log

The last 10.000 characters of your ConnectAgent logfile are displayed in the agent log. If you need more information, you have to enter the system and check the logfiles by hand.
You can set the depth of the logging. You can scroll up and down to inspect this logfile. To refresh the logfile, press the  button. To set the log depth, select the appropriate depth at the top right corner of this screen. The options are:

Log depth Description
Tracelog You see only the components where the message has been passed.
Tracelogmsg As same as Tracelog, but the message will also be printed out.
Minimal As Tracelogmsg, only error messages.
Normal Information logging and error messages.
Full Debug information.

 

As of version 3.6.0, files larger than 10 MB will not be displayed in the logs anymore. Instead a message will appear notifying you that a file larger than 10 MB is used. This is done to prevent memory issues within the ConnectAgent.

For instance:

20191007 11:49:56.078 [cpTaskScheduler-33] DEBUG c.o.myesb.connect.log.TraceLogger - GenericMessage [payload=ConnectMessageImpl [parts={msgprt0=ConnectMessagePartStringImpl [content=Payload 20971520 larger than 10485760 bytes, payload too large, id=msgprt0, partNumber=0, properties=]}, properties=(connectmessageTimestamp=1570441796045,connectmessageID=98ecc7de-13ee-4155-9238-4e878f939b11,file_name=10mb.txt,)], headers={myesb-channel-id=LFS-Pickup-and-send, myesb-component-id=null-producer-1, file_name=10mb.txt, flowstart=10710915066100, history=LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.file-pickup-1.FileConsumer,LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.file-pickup-1.filterChannel,LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.InboundServiceChannel,LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.Service,LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.OutboundServiceChannel,LFS.LFS-Pickup-and-send.null-producer-1.enricherOutboundChannel, myesb-componenttype-id=Producer, file_originalFile=E:\data\agent-testomgeving-360\connectplaza-agent\temp\in\10mb.txt, id=1b6c4236-da92-3c76-d3e7-0dec3b34b764, myesb-adapter-id=LFS, timestamp=1570441796077}]