Creating an example with the i2 Connect gateway

Before you begin

Install i2 Analyze and any software prerequisites. For more information, see Installing i2 Analyze.

Before you create the example deployment, you must download and install Node.js to host the example connector. Download Node.js for your operating system from https://nodejs.org/en/download. You can install Node.js with the default settings.

About this task

To use any deployment of i2 Analyze with the i2 Connect gateway, you must obtain or create a connector to the external data source that you want to search. The i2 Analyze toolkit contains an example configuration for the deployment, and i2 publishes a package that contains an example connector to www.npmjs.com.

The example deployment demonstrates a working i2 Analyze system that can query and retrieve data from an external data source. You can log in with an example user. In the example deployment, i2 Analyze runs with the example security schema and matching Liberty security groups and users. The example user has the following credentials:

• The user name is Jenny

• The password is Jenny

Note: This example does not support the i2 Notebook web client. To give users the option of using the web client, you must Create an example with the Chart Store.

Procedure

1. Create the configuration directory:

   1. Navigate to the \toolkit\examples\configurations\daod-opal directory.

      This directory contains the preconfigured files that you need to deploy a system that uses the i2 Connect gateway to connect to an external data source.

   2. Copy the configuration directory to the root of the toolkit. For example, C:\i2\i2analyze\toolkit\configuration.

2. Specify the credentials to use for the deployment.

   1. Using a text editor, open the toolkit\configuration\environment\credentials.properties file.

   2. Enter a user name and password to use for Solr.

   3. Enter a password to use to encrypt LTPA tokens.

   4. Save and close the credentials.properties file.

3. Run the setup script to create the example deployment.

   1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the toolkit\scripts directory.

   2. To deploy the example, run the following command:

      setup -t deployExample

4. Install the dependencies and start the server that hosts the example connector.

   Note: The example connector uses port number 3700. Ensure that no other processes are using this port number before you start the connector.

   1. Open another command prompt, separate from the one where you ran the deployExample command.

   2. To download and run the package that contains the example connector, execute the following command:

      npx @i2analyze/example-connector

      Note: You must be connected to the internet to download the package.

5. Start i2 Analyze.

   1. Return to the command prompt where you ran the deployExample command.

   2. To start i2 Analyze, run the following command:

      setup -t start

What to do next

When you start i2 Analyze, the URI that you can use to connect to the deployment is displayed in the console. For example:

Web application available (default_host): http://<host_name>:9082/opaldaod

Install Analyst's Notebook and connect to your deployment. For more information, see Connecting clients.

Production deployments of i2 Analyze use client-authenticated SSL communication between i2 Analyze and any connectors. The example deployment does not use it, and so Analyst's Notebook displays a warning to that effect when you open the external searches window. For more information about configuring client-authenticated SSL, see Client-authenticated Secure Sockets Layer with the i2 Connect gateway.

You can create your own connectors to use with the deployment of i2 Analyze. For more information, see i2 Analyze and the i2 Connect gateway.