PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The XCS eiConsole for Human Resources is a graphical Integrated Development Environment created for the express purpose of developing, deploying, managing, and maintaining interfaces. The XCS eiConsole offers the Human Resources industry the fastest, surest, most cost effective way to manage dozens or even hundreds of interfaces an order of magnitude easier.

The "assembly line" approach used by the XCS eiConsole to configure interfaces allows you to interface any system(s) or service(s) to any other system(s) or service(s) regardless of platform, operating system, database, or communications protocol. Whether implementing a simple point-to-point interface or a comprehensive SOA, experience accumulated from hundreds of implementations has proven that any interface can be organized into logical stages to support the connectivity, transformation, and delivery of information. These stages include:

• The Listener - to connect to the Source system(s) or service(s).
• The Transformer - to transform information from its proprietary format to a common format.
• The Router - to direct the information to its intended Target(s).
• Another Transformer - to transform the information from its common format to the format acceptable to the Target(s).
• The Transport - to connect to the Target system(s) or service(s).

The XCS eiConsole is the developer's complement to the XCS eiPlatform. The stages comprising each interface are configured in the XCS eiConsole, tested end-to-end, and then deployed to the XCS eiPlatform Java framework at the click of a mouse for runtime processing.

The XCS eiConsole delivers exceptional value to business and technical professionals alike. The "power user" can use the "point, click, drag, and drop" visual interface to quickly build and deploy interfaces without requiring expertise in Java, XML, XSLT, or other enabling technologies. At the same time, technology experts will want to use the XCS eiConsole because it is a much faster way to create end-to-end interfaces without requiring the tedious hand-coding.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The Listeners allow you to connect to any Source system or service regardless of communication protocol. To configure the Listener, click the Listener icon, select a Listener from the drop-down list, and fill in the configuration information for the type of Listener selected.

All of the popular Listeners are included with the XCS eiConsole including:

• Database Polling SQL Listener
• Database Table
• Directory
• Email (POP3) Transformer
• Encrypted FTP / FTP / FTP over SSL (Explicit and Implicit)
• HTTP Form/Post
• JMS
• Programmable
• RMI
• SOAP Web Service

Processors can also be configured at this stage. Processors perform operations that affect all of the incoming data. They may be layered in any order. Processors included with the XCS eiConsole include:

• Asymmetric Decryption/Encryption
• EBCDIC (input/output)
• Java Objects (input/output)
• MIME Multipart (input/output)
• Symmetric Decryption/Encryption
• Validation

In addition to the comprehensive list of Listeners and Processors included with the XCS eiConsole, users can easily add their own through documented API's. They can also "wrap" existing Listeners or connectors to maximize reuse and preserve technology investments.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The XCS eiConsole supports data transformation using a point, click, drag, and drop visual interface. Clicking the "Source Transform" icon presents you with two powerful eiConsole components to enable the transformation of the data format output from the Source System into the common XML standard format. Thes are the File Specification Editor and the Data Mapper.

Clicking the "Edit" button on the Transformation Module Configuration panel opens the File Specification Editor. The File Specification Editor (below) lets you import sample data formats and data from the Source System into the File Spec Editor, where it can be visually edited. Tab Delimited, CSV, COBOL copybooks, spreadsheet and other files can be directly imported. By clicking "Save". the incoming data format is converted to a generic XML format - the first stage in the transformation process.

Clicking the "Edit" button on the XSLT Configuration panel opens the Data Mapper (below). The Data Mapper is a graphical editor used to generate the XSLT transformations that transform any data format to any other data format. Typically this is used to transform data from a proprietary format to a common format, such as HR-XML, but can also be used to transform data to another proprietary format, a company's common model, other standards, or different versions or interpretations of a standard.

The Data Mapper utilizes a unique "triple-pane" mapper. The pane on the left represents the Source format, the pane on the right represents the Target format, and the pane in the middle represents the relationship between the Source and the Target. Relating Source formats to Target formats is accomplished by simply dragging the corresponding fields from the Source and the Target to the map in the middle. This approach is of particular advantage when the Source and Target have repeating or recursive elements.

Data formats are loaded into the Source and Target panels by clicking the "Open Source / Target" icon, selecting the format, browsing for the file, and clicking "Read Format". Some of the Source and Target format readers included with the XCS eiConsole are:

• The HR-XML Schema Release
• The XSD Format Builder
• The Flat File Format Builder
• The XML Format Builder
• The HTML Format Builder
• The SQLXML Format Builder
• The WSDL Format Builder

The Data Mapper is the only data mapping tool that can read both the HR-XML XSD and the HR-XML Metadata. This unique capability is crucial to enabling many of the time saving features in the Data Mapper.

In addition to dragging Source and Target elements onto the map, users can also take advantage of a "computationally complete" pallette of XSLT Structures, Functions, and custom "macros" to speed the development of high quality transformations.

A user can also switch back and forth from a graphical view of the transformation to an XSLT view. Changes made in one view are automatically reflected in the other view.

The XSLT Transformations created using the Data Mapper are W3C-compliant. They can be deployed to existing Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) or at the click of a button, to the XCS eiPlatform Java framework to support runtime transformations.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The Route stage serves several purposes. You can maintain general metadata describing the Route, specifiy routing rules, and configure Transaction Monitoring. To configure the Route, click the Route icon, and click the appropriate tab.

The "General" tab lets you turn on and off transaction logging and debug tracing. It also lets you create your own metadata describing the Route. This is useful for documenting the interface. Also, as the number of interfaces that you maintain within the XCS eiConsole grows, this will help you or others in your organization easily find the interface when maintenance is required.

The "Routing Rules" tab enables you to route messages to the appropriate target or targets based on the content of the message. A facility for configuring XPath-based routing rules is included with the XCS eiConsole. While XPath is the most commonly used means to route transactions, you can also configure your own routing rules program, call out to another program, or integrate with popular workflow and message orchestration programs.

The "Transaction Monitoring" tab lets you configure transaction monitors utilized when the interface is deployed to the runtime environment. A few examples of transaction monitoring include:.

• Email Alert
• SNMP Trap
• Error Route Trigger
• XCS Dashboard

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The XCS eiConsole supports data transformation using a point, click, drag, and drop visual interface. Clicking the "Target Transform" icon presents you with two powerful eiConsole components to enable the transformation of the data format output from the common XML representation of the data into the format of the Target system or service. These are the Data Mapper and the File Specification Editor.

Clicking the "Edit" button on the XSLT Configuration panel opens the Data Mapper (below). The Data Mapper is a graphical editor used to generate the XSLT transformations that transform any data format to any other data format. Typically the Target Transform is used to transform data from a common XML format to the proprietary format of the Target, but can also be used to transform data to a company's common model, other standards, or different versions or interpretations of a standard.

The Data Mapper utilizes a unique "triple-pane" mapper. When doing a Target transformation, the pane on the left represents the common or canonical format, the pane on the right represents the Target format, and the pane in the middle represents the relationship between the Source and the Target. Relating Source formats to Target formats is accomplished by simply dragging the corresponding fields from the Source and the Target to the map in the middle. This approach is of particular advantage when the Source and Target have repeating or recursive elements.

Data formats are loaded into the Source and Target panels by clicking the "Open Source / Target" icon, selecting the format, browsing for the file, and clicking "Read Format". Some of the Source and Target format readers included with the XCS eiConsole are:

• The HR-XML Schema Release
• The XSD Format Builder
• The Flat File Format Builder
• The XML Format Builder
• The HTML Format Builder
• The SQLXML Format Builder
• The WSDL Format Builder

In addition to dragging Source and Target elements onto the map, users can also take advantage of a "computationally complete" pallette of XSLT Structures, Functions, and custom "macros" to speed the development of high quality transformations.

A user can also switch back and forth from a graphical view of the transformation to an XSLT view. Changes made in one view are automatically reflected in the other view.

Clicking the "Edit" button on the Transformation Module Configuration panel opens the File Specification Editor. The File Specification Editor (below) lets you import sample data formats from the Target System into the File Spec Editor, where it can be visually edited. This is the last step in the Target Transform process and is used when the Target system can only accept non-XML data such as Tab Delimited, CSV, COBOL copybooks, spreadsheet, and other files.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The Transports allow you to connect to any Target system or service regardless of communication protocol. To configure the Transport, click the Transport icon, select a Transport from the drop-down list, and fill in the configuration information for the type of Transport selected.

All of the popular Transports are included with the XCS eiConsole including:

• Database SQL Transport
• Database Table
• Directory Drop
• Email (SMTP) Transport
• Encrypted FTP / FTP / FTP over SSL (Explicit and Implicit)
• HTTP Form/Post
• JMS
• Programmable
• RMI
• SOAP Web Service (Syncronous /Asynchronous)

Processors can also be configured at this stage. Processors perform operations that affect all of the outgoing data. They may be layered in any order. Processors included with the XCS eiConsole include:

• Asymmetric Decryption/Encryption
• EBCDIC (input/output)
• Java Objects (input/output)
• MIME Multipart (input/output)
• Symmetric Decryption/Encryption
• Validation

In addition to the comprehensive list of Transports and Processors included with the XCS eiConsole, users can easily add their own through documented API's. They can also "wrap" existing Transports or connectors to maximize reuse and preserve technology investments.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

The XCS eiConsole supports complete end-to-end integration testing of developed interfaces prior to deployment. Simply select "Switch to Testing Mode" from the main menu. Select the Stage at which to begin the testing, provide sample input data, and click the "Execute Test" icon.

When you first switch to the testing mode, you will see that the configuration icons are replace by "Question Marks". Click the Question Mark for a selected Stage and then click "Start Test Here". You can also click the Stage where you want to end the test or let it run all the way through. You can actually connect to remote systems directly from the XCS eiConsole to test the Transport connection. When you click "Execute Test", all of the Stages that have run successfully will have the Question Mark icon replaced with a green checkmark. Stages that fail will be replaced with a red "X".

You can click any of the Stages and view the output of each Stage as the data undergoes the transformation process. For example, you can see the data in a flat file format transformed to generic XML, then to an XML standard format (e.g. HR-XML). and then to a proprietary format of the Target. Any Stages that fail provide detailed error messages.

PilotFish Technology's XCS eiConsole for HR

Once you have configured and tested an end-to-end interface, using the Route File Management screen, you can deploy it to a server (test or production), at the click of a mouse. Simply highlight the interface, point it to the correct server, and click commit Route.

The XCS eiConsole is also designed to simplify ongoing management and maintenance of interfaces. The Route File Management Screen allows you to view all of the interfaces for the entire enterprise in one place. As the number of interfaces increases, you can filter and sort the interfaces using user-defined fields. For example, you may want to view only the interfaces emanating from a specific system or all those written by a single author.

Once you have identified a particular interface, it can be "downloaded" from the runtime server, copied, modified, and "uploaded" back to the server with just a few mouse-clicks.