Maintaining a deployment of Analysis Studio and iBase

Adding and removing connectors

Over time, the set of connectors that your deployment of i2 Analyze uses can change. You might add new connectors, or remove old ones, or change the behavior of an existing connector.

When you change a connector, you must check some other parts of the deployment to ensure that they continue to behave correctly:

• Do you need to add, remove, or edit the type conversion mappings from a connector schema to the gateway schema?

• If you have the Export-to-iBase plug-in, do you need to add, remove, or edit export specifications for connectors that have been added, removed, or edited?

Removing a connector

When you remove a connector, complete the following steps to ensure that the rest of the deployment continues to perform correctly:

1. Communicate to your users that the connector will be permanently removed.

2. If an export specification in the Export-to-iBase plug-in contains a group of custom settings for the connector, delete it.

3. Remove the connector from the i2 Analyze topology by reversing the procedure for adding a connector.

Modifying an existing connector

When you modify a connector, complete the following steps to ensure that the rest of the deployment continues to perform correctly during and after the modification:

1. Communicate to your users that the connector will be temporarily unavailable while the update takes place.

2. If you have the Export-to-iBase plug-in, create or edit a group of custom settings for the connector in which the checkboxes for both Update iBase records... and Create iBase records... are cleared.

   It is then impossible for users to export records from the connector to iBase.

3. If you need to, use iBase Designer to modify the iBase schema to reflect the changes in the connector. Regenerate the i2 Analyze schema, and then redeploy it as described below.

4. If you need to, create or edit type conversion mappings for the modified connector.

5. Back in the plug-in, edit the custom settings for the connector by modifying the mappings (if you need to) and then re-selecting the Update iBase records... and Create iBase records... checkboxes.

6. Communicate to your users that the connector has been updated and is available once again.

Adding a connector

When you add a connector, complete the following steps to ensure that the rest of the deployment continues to perform correctly:

1. If you need to, create or edit type conversion mappings for the new connector.

2. If you need to, use iBase Designer to modify the iBase schema to reflect the data that the new connector returns. Regenerate the i2 Analyze schema, and then redeploy it as described below.

3. If you have the Export-to-iBase plug-in, create a group of custom settings for the new connector that contains any mappings you need, and in which the checkboxes for both Update iBase records... and Create iBase records... are selected.

4. Communicate to your users that the new connector is available.

Changing the schema or a charting scheme

If the schema of the iBase database that you're using with Analysis Studio changes after the initial deployment, then you must update the generated i2 Analyze schema to match it.

To replace the gateway schema with the updated one, and assuming that the name of the schema and its charting schemes have not changed, you can put the new files in this location:

toolkit/configuration/fragments/common/WEB-INF/classes

And then redeploy i2 Analyze in the usual way:

setup -t deployLiberty
setup -t startLiberty

When the server restarts, you must check that any type conversion mappings from connectors to the gateway schema are still consistent with that schema. You might also create mappings that take advantage of new features in the updated schema.

Remember that records from connectors that are not correctly aligned with the schema cannot be exported to iBase.