Edge Technologies, Inc. | Documentation | Application Definition File

An adapter facilitates the integration of a third-party application with EdgeCore. The application definition file, appdef.json, primarily encapsulates all the metadata required to extend EdgeCore. It defines the connection and feed types to be made available to administrative users of EdgeCore to be used for configuring the pipeline.

The Application:AppDefDO

The application definition encapsulates all the definitions. Some of the top-level fields are used to generate a connection type for the adapter.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
name	Yes	String	n/a	A unique identifier for this application. This will be used as the name of the Connection type for this application.
connectionTypeName	No	String	GenericWebContentConne ction	Name of the Connection type which this one will extend. Refer to the table below for a list of the connection types edgeSuite defines.
feedDefs	No	List<AppFeedDefDO>	empty list	The pool of Feed type definitions available to be used with each version. This is a separate list to avoid having to repeat definitions for Feed types that are used in multiple versions (probably the case for most types).
serverActionDefs	No	List<ServerActionD efDO>	empty list	The pool of Server Action type definitions available to be used with each version. This is a separate list to avoid having to repeat definitions for Server Action types that are used in multiple versions (probably the case for most types).
versionDefs	No	List<AppVersionDef DO>	empty list	Definitions of distinct versions. For each version of the target application where a different set of feeds types should be made available, or different authentication and/or content rules need to be applied.
versionMappings	No	List<AppVersionMap pingDO>	empty list	Some versions of the application are equivalent from the point of view of our integration artifacts (feed type definitions, authentication, and content rules), but we want them to be listed explicitly when configuring a connection. One reason for this is that a common rule can be used for two different versions, but we might have conditional logic within the rule that depends on the value of the application version property.
defaultVersion	No	String	null	When a new connection for this application is created, which application version should be selected by default.

edgeSuite Connection Types

These are the connection types edgeSuite defines as part of the core product.

Type Name	Abstract	Category	Description
GenericWebContentConn ection	No	Web	A generic web content connection with no specific authentication or content handling. All web adapters extend this type, and normally define their own SSO handler and specific content-handling rules.
Web Data	No	Data	Web Data connections for HTTP-based APIs.
Database Basic Connection	Yes	Data	Support custom DB types where Datasource-based configuration can be used.
Database Urlbuilder Connection	Yes	Data	Support custom DB types where Datasource-based configuration is not available.
DB2	No	Data	IBM DB2 connections. Extend this for applications that have a DB2 backend.
H2	No	Data	H2 database. Extend this for applications that have an H2 backend.
MySQL	No	Data	MySQL database. Extend this for applications that have a MySQL backend.
Oracle URL	No	Data	Oracle database. Extend this for applications that have an Oracle backend.
Oracle	No	Data	Oracle database. Extend this for applications that have an Oracle backend.
Postgres	No	Data	Postgres database. Extend this for applications that have a Postgres backend.
SQLServer	No	Data	MS SQLServer database. Extend this for applications that have an SQLServer backend.
Sybase	No	Data	Sybase database. Extend this for applications that have a Sybase backend.
ServerFilesystem	No	Data	A connection to the local server filesystem.
jSONAR	No	Data	Connect to a jSONAR backend.
ShellExec	No	Data	Execute shell commands on the server operating system.
Javascript Connection	No	Data	Execute JavaScript to generate arbitrary datasets.

Feed Types: AppFeedDefDO

The feedDefs field of the top-level AppDefDO is a list of AppDefFeedDO-derivedobjects.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
name	Yes	String	n/a	A unique identifier for this feed type.
displayName	Yes	String	n/a
extendsType	No	String	GenericWebContentFe ed	Name of the feed type which this type will extend.
startUri	No	String	(inherited)	Default value for the Start URI property when a feed of this type is created
rule	No	String	(inherited)	Default selected rule when a feed of this type is created. Though strictly speaking this is not required, the value specified here should be consistent with the list of rules for each related AppVersionDefDO.
ssoSessionScope	No	String	(inherited)	Default value for the Session Scope property when a feed of this type is created.
appProperties	No	List<AppPropertyD efDO>	empty list	List of properties specific to this feed type (and those that extend it).
nodeVars	No	List<AppFeedNodeV arDefDO>	empty list	List of node variables that need to be created for this feed type. Normally these will be referenced in one or more of the default values for properties of feeds of this type.

Web Feed Types

Web – content and data – feeds have the following fields in common:

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
uri	No	String	(inherited)	Default value for the Start URI property when a feed of this type is created
rule	No	String	(inherited)	Default selected rule when a feed of this type is created. Though strictly speaking this is not required, the value specified here should be consistent with the list of rules for each related `AppVersionDefDO`.

Web content feed types are represented by the WebContentFeedDefDO class. Web data feed types are represented by the WebDataFeedDefDO class. In addition to the fields above, the web data feed types are defined by the fields below:

Attribute Required Type Default Description

parserType

Yes

String

n/a

The parser to be used for feeds of this type. Can be one of:

CSV
JSON
XML
Javascript

headers

KeyValuePairsDO

n/a

A list of header names and values to be specified by default for feeds of this type. Each element of the list is a KeyValuePairDO, which has two string fields: key and value.

Any other properties of the feed type being extended (typically the generic web data feed), or the specified parser type, can be overridden by specifying the appProperties field.

FileFeedDefDO and ShellFeedDefDO

Both FileFeedDefDO and ShellFeedDefDO allow the specification of a parser. Any other properties can be overridden, or added, via the appProperties field.

Attribute

Required

Type

Default

Description

parserType

Yes

String

n/a

The parser to be used for feeds of this type. Can be one of:

CSV
JSON
XML
Javascript

SqlFeedDefDO

The SqlFeedDefDO feed definition doesn’t have any special fields, but it does imply a value – “SQL” – for the extendsType field. As with the other feed definitions, additional properties can be overridden or added using the appProperties field.

Server Action Types

The serverActionDefs field of the top-level AppDefDO is a list of AbstractServerActionDefDO-derived objects.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
name	Yes	String	n/a	A unique identifier for this feed type.
displayName	Yes	String	n/a
extendsType	No	String	Action Base	Name of the feed type which this type will extend.
appProperties	No	List<AppPropertyD efDO>	empty list	List of properties specific to this feed type (and those that extend it).
nodeVars	No	List<AppFeedNodeV arDefDO>	empty list	List of node variables that need to be created for this feed type. Normally these will be referenced in one or more of the default values for properties of feeds of this type.

Web Data Action Types: WebDataServerActionDefDO

The Web Data Action Type Definition is very similar to the Web Data Feed Type Definition. It inherits from the abstract action type definition above:

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
uri	No	String	(inherited)	Default value for the URI property when a feed of this type is created
rule	No	String	(inherited)	Default selected rule when a feed of this type is created. Though strictly speaking this is not required, the value specified here should be consistent with the list of rules for each related `AppVersionDefDO`.
headers	No	KeyValuePairsDO	(inherited)	A list of header names and values to be specified by default for feeds of this type. Each element of the list is a `KeyValuePairDO`, which has two string fields: `key` and `value`.

SQL Action Types:SqlServerActionDefDO

Like the SqlFeedDefDO feed definition, the SQL Action Type Definition doesn’t have any special fields, but it does imply a value – “SQL Action” – for the extendsType field. As with the other feed definitions, additional properties can be overridden or added using the appProperties field.

ShellExec Action Types: ShellExecServerActionDefDO

Like the SQL Action Type, most of the definition can be achieved via the appProperties field, but like the ShellExec Feed Type Definition, there is an environmentVars field for convenience.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
environmentVars	No	KeyValuePairsDO	(empty)	Environment variables (key-value pairs) to be set before executing the script executed by this Server Actions of this type.

JavaScript Action Types: JavascriptServerActionDefDO

The main field that is likely to be specified for application-specific JavaScript Action Type Definitions is the script – it might be useful to provide a template (or perhaps a generic script) for easier deployment of edgeCore Pipeline configurations. The other fields are provided for convenience (they can also be specified via the appProperties), but might be more difficult to provide sensible defaults for.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
script	No	String	(empty)	A default (JavaScript) script to be
jsLibs	No	List<String>	(empty)	A default list of JavaScript libraries required actions of this type.
javaLibs	No	List<String>	(empty)	A default list of Java libraries required actions of this type.
secVars	No	List<String>	(empty)	Unlikely to be used, but it is possible to

Additional Properties: AppPropertyDefDO

Note that additional properties with the same name as an additional property in the extended feed or action type (or ancestor) will override the definition from the extended type. Any fields not specified here will be inherited – if specified – from the extended type.

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
name	Yes	String	n/a	A unique identifier (within the feed type’s properties) for this property
type	Yes*	String	n/a	Only required if this is the original definition of this property (ie. not required if overriding a property defined in a supertype). Can be one of: String Boolean Integer Credentials JSString KeyValuePair
scope	No	String	n/a	Only used for connections. Can be ‘connection’ or ‘endpoint’
required	No	Boolean	true	Is the property required to have a value?
unique	No	Boolean	false	Must the property’s value be unique across all instances of the type it is part of?
helpText	No	String	“”	Text to be displayed when the administrator requests context help for this property.
displayName	No	String	“”	The name to use for the property in the pipeline editors. This can be a message catalog key, as in the example above.
constraints	No	Object	null	Allow this property to be constrained by others.
isParseable	No	Boolean	true

Node Variables: AppFeedNodeVarDefDO

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
name	Yes	String	n/a	A unique identifier for this node variable.
defaultValue	Yes	String	n/a	A sensible default value for the variable, so that the administrator is not forced to provide one.
constraintName	Yes	String	GenericWebContentFeed	The name of the variable constraint by which this variable should be bound.

Distinct Application Versions: VersionDefDO

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
version	Yes	String	n/a	The (unique) version of the application that this definition represents.
rules	Yes	List<String>	n/a	A list of the names of content rules that apply to feeds from connections of applications of this version. These must reside in either the product, module, or user area under the adapter’s subdirectory.
feedTypeNames	No	List<String>	n/a	A list of the names of the Feed types that can be created from Connections with this version. Each name in the list should correspond to the name field of an AppFeedDefDO.
defaultFeedTypeName (deprecated)	No	String	n/a	The default feed type selected when adding a feed to a connection with this version. This must come from the list of names in feedTypeNames.
serverActionTypeNames	No	List<String>	n/a	A list of the names of the Server Action types that can be created from Connections with this version. Each name in the list should correspond to the name field of an Abstract ServerActionDefDO.
templateBundleDefs	No	List<TemplateBundl eDefDO>	n/a	A list of metadata for prepackaged content bundles that apply to this version of the application. A TemplateBundle DefDO has only one required field: name. The optional fields are displayName, description, and prefix. The last field specifies the alphanumeric prefix used for the names of entities in the bundle that should be substituted with what the administrator specifies when deploying the bundle.

Web – both content and data – application versions are defined with the WebConnectionVersionDefDO subclass of VersionDefDO. This class has a few more fields that specify property values that are potentially specific to an application version:

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
destination	Yes	String		A default value for the connection destination property.
ssoHandler	Yes	String	n/a	The name of the authentication handler to be used for connections of this type. This can be either a built-in authentication handler, or the name of a JavaScript SSO rule. Normally set to the name of the JavaScript authentication rule written for this adapter.
credentialsType	Yes	String	UserPass	The type of credentials that the authentication handler requires for this application version. The default valid values are: UserPass UserDomainPass If custom credential types have been defined, the names assigned to these can also be used.
rules	Yes	List<String>	n/a	A list of the names of content rules that apply to feeds from connections of applications of this version. These must reside in either the product, module, or user area under the adapter’s subdirectory.

Equivalent Application Versions: AppVersionMappingDO

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
version	Yes	String	n/a	The (unique) version of the application that this definition represents. This must correspond to a value of version in one of the AppVersionDefDO objects for this adapter, otherwise, the mapsTo field must be specified.
mapsTo	No	String	n/a	For versions that don’t have a definition in the versionDefs for this adapter, this value must correspond to the version value of another object in this list.

Custom Credential Types: CredentialTemplateDO

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
id	Yes	String	n/a	The (unique) identifier for this type of credentials. The built-in types have values of ‘UserPass’ and ‘UserDomainPass’.
name	Yes	String	n/a	Can just be the same as ID, but is intended to be a more human readable/friendly name for this type of credentials.
credentialFields	Yes	List<CredentialDe fFieldDO>	n/a	A list of the fields used to specify a value of this credential type.

The credentialFields field of CredentialTemplateDO is a list of CredentialDefFieldDO objects:

Attribute	Required	Type	Default	Description
key	Yes	String	n/a	The (unique) name for this field within the fields of the credential type to which this field belongs.
isPassword	Yes	Boolean	n/a	Indicates whether this field is a ‘secret’. The normal implication of this is that the field will be masked whenever it is presented to an edgeSuite user.
isRequired	No	Boolean	false	Indicates whether this field is required to form a valid credential value for the type to which this field belongs.