Adding custom protocols

You can add support for custom protocols for listening consumers in addition to the ones preconfigured in Sterling File Gateway.

About this task

The information you provide in performing this procedure determines the text displayed in the Partner management wizard. That is, after you perform this procedure, new choices are available for protocols offered by Sterling File Gateway when creating a community and when creating a listening consumer in a community that is configured for the custom protocol.

Procedure

  1. Write a business process that implements the custom protocol. The business process name must be unique for each custom protocol. Do not use an underscore character (_) in the name of the business process.
    Restriction: The configured business process queue is disregarded because the business process is invoked inline.
  2. Use the existing AFTExtensions.xml as a guide to create an AFTExtensionsCustomer.xml file to describe the protocol. Do not edit the AFTExtensions.xml file.
    The AFTExtensions.xml file is located in the following directory:<install_dir >/container/Applications/aft/WEB-INF/classes/resources/xml. For the Element "AFTExtensions", the following attribute is required:
    • bp - The business process created in step 1 that implements the custom protocol
    Important: The value for bp cannot be edited after it is set. The application does not read the AFTExtensionsCustomer.xml file at run time to obtain a new value. Do not edit the value of the bp attribute. Create a new protocol with a different name to use a different business process.
    Restriction: When creating custom fields for a custom protocol, the value of the "maxsize" attribute for a VARDEF element in the AFTExtensionsCustomer.xml file cannot be set higher than 255.
  3. Save the AFTExtensionsCustomer.xml file to the following directories:
    <install_dir >/container/Applications/aft/WEB-INF/classes/resources/xml
    <install_dir >/container/Applications/myaft/WEB-INF/classes/resources/xml
  4. Use the existing AFTExtensions.properties file as a guide to create the AFTExtensionsCustomer.properties file. Do not edit the AFTExtensions.properties file. The AFTExtensions.properties is located in the following directory:
    <install_dir>/container/Applications/aft/WEB-INF/classes/resources The user interface elements to describe the protocol are specified in the htmlType parameter. Valid values are:
    • text
    • password
    • select - When "select" is chosen for htmlType, the UI presents a list whose contents are derived from an "options" class. An example of an "options" class list is in the AFTExtensions.xml file (the text starts with "<OPTION name="SSHRemoteProfiles" class="
  5. Save the AFTExtensionsCustomer.properties file to the following directories:
    <install_dir>/container/Applications/aft/WEB-INF/classes/resources
    <install_dir>/container/Applications/myaft/WEB-INF/classes/resources
  6. Reference the business process you created in step 1 in a new AFTExtension element in the AFTExtensionsCustomer.xml file.
  7. Stop Sterling File Gateway.
  8. Run <install_dir>/bin/setupfiles.sh.
  9. Run <install_dir>/bin/deployer.sh.
  10. Start Sterling File Gateway.
    The additional protocol will be available when adding and editing communities. After this protocol has been chosen for a community, it then becomes available when creating and editing partners in that community.