Trading Partner Synchronization Action

Synchronizations are defined in AUTOMATION > Triggers that use the Trading Partner Synchronization action. As with all triggers, you can specify an Event that would initiate the synchronization process as well as a set of Conditions that need to be satisfied before the synchronization process (defined by the Trading Partner Synchronization action) could ever commence. For example, you can choose the Current Time event and specify a date and time in the Trigger Conditions dialog to let the synchronization run on a predefined schedule. To learn more about triggers and how to create them, read the section on Triggers.  See Triggers

 

After selecting a Trigger Event type and specifying an optional Trigger Condition, proceed by adding the Trading Partner Synchronization action.

 

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Click OK. The fields associated with the action are depicted in the image below.

 

 

Parameters

 

This section describes the fields on the Parameters tab.

 

Name — Identifies the name of the Action. The system-generated default name, depicted in the image above, can be changed to a different name to suit your preferences. The Name must be unique within the current Trigger workflow.

 

Notes — Describes the action.

 

Tip: The values in the Name and Notes fields are displayed in a tooltip when you mouse over an Action node.

 

CONNECTION

PartnerA - The trading partner source or where you are synchronizing from.

 

PartnerB - The trading partner destination or where you are synchronizing to.

 

For both fields, a drop down list will display the trading partners created in AUTOMATION > Trading Partners that are compatible with this action. Select the desired trading partner from the list. The connection information that will be used is configured in the selected trading partner (for example, hostname, port, etc.).

 

TARGET

PathA - This is the source path, whose value can be either a relative path (if PartnerA is a remote service) or an absolute path (if PartnerA is of type Local Directory).

 

PathB - This is the destination path, whose value can be either a relative path (if PartnerB is a remote service) or an absolute path (if PartnerB is of type Local Directory).

 

Subdirectories included - Check this checkbox if you want subdirectories and their contents to be included in the synchronization.

 

Exclude Subdirectories Matching Regex - Any subdirectories that match the Regex will be excluded from the synchronization.

 

Copy condition - The condition MFT Server will use to determine when to commence copying files

 

  • different time - copies files when the timestamp on A is different from the one on B

  • different size - copies files when the size on A is different from the one on B

  • different content - copies files when the content on A is different from the one on B

 

Latency period - Files on A that are modified within the specified latency period will not be synchronized

 

Synchronization Mode - Choose from the following:

 

  • mirror - New and modified files from A are copied to B; redundant files in B will be deleted

  • synchronize - New and modified files from both paths are copied to each other

  • backup - All files from A are copied to B

  • contribute - New and modified files from A are copied to B

 

Result Directory - Results of the synchronization process will be written to this directory.

 

Advanced

 

This section describes the fields on the Advanced tab.

 

 

LOG

Debug directory — Identifies the complete file path where debugging information is saved during an Action run. The system logs information and errors for both successful and failed Actions.

 

  • The file can be located anywhere on the MFT Server system.

  • If the file does not exist, it is created, and debug information is appended to it.

  • If the file already exists, debug information is appended to the existing file.

 

 

It is recommended you specify a debug file name that will allow you to quickly identify what action resulted in the creation of the file. If you wish the file name to match the name of your trigger, use the built-in event variable %TriggerName%.

 

If you would like to use a new file each time an Action executes, you can append a date/time stamp the root of the file name, so the file name will be unique.

Example: %DateFormat(CurrentDate(),"MM.dd.yyyy_H.m.s")%.txt. This will result in individual debug files each time an action is run, instead of using a single file that may grow overly large when it is repeatedly appended to.

Debug files are not purged by the system. To prevent too many files from growing unchecked, you can create a Current Time event trigger, using a condition (e.g. DayofWeek = 5) to clean up the files at the time specified using a Delete Files action. See Using time based triggers.

If you plan on using a single directory on the MFT Server to store all the debug files, you can create a global variable in Triggers > Settings and reference that variable in the debug file name.

Example: %GetGlobalVariable("DirName")% where DirName consists of a directory name. If the location of the directory should ever change, you can simply update the value of one global variable to reflect that change.

See below an example debug file name that uses all the file naming tips described in this section.

 

Example: %GetGlobalVariable("DirName")%%TriggerName%%DateFormat(CurrentDate(),"MM.dd.yyyy_H.m.s")%.txt, where the DirName global variable is equal to C:\MFTServerDebugFiles\.

Trigger Error Message — Used when a Trigger Action fails. The two uses are described below.

 

  1. The Trigger Error Message is displayed in the Trigger Error column of the Action history (Triggers > History > View).

     

  2. If you create an error-handling Trigger, the Trigger Error Message is passed to the error-handling Trigger.

  • An error-handling Trigger is a distinct Trigger that uses the Trigger Error Event type, as selected in the Trigger > Parameters dialog.

  • If a Trigger Error event occurs, the Trigger Error Trigger runs.

  • The Trigger Error Message is accessible in the Trigger Error Trigger as a variable named TriggerErrorMessage.

The image below depicts the Trigger Error Message displayed in the history of a failed Trigger Action.

 

 

The image below depicts selecting the Trigger Error Event type used to handle Trigger errors.

 

 

The image below depicts a Trigger Action (part of the Trigger Error Trigger workflow) accessing a Trigger Error Message. This is accomplished using the TriggerErrorMessage variable. To reference built-in variables, enclose the variable name in percent signs (%).

 

 

As a practical use case example, you can reference the Trigger Error Message in the body of an Email Action that is part of the Trigger Error workflow. The email alerts interested parties that a Trigger Action failed.

Log Action — When selected, Trigger Action records are added to the Domain > AUDIT > Logging module. The state of the Action is included, such as action started, action completed, and action failed. When unselected, Action records are not added to the Logging module. However, the Trigger itself is still logged.

 

EXECUTION

Priority — Identifies the Action’s priority. An Action can be interrupted by an Action with a higher priority. The highest priority is 1. The maximum priority value is 1000. Priority comes into play when certain scenarios occur, like when Triggers or transfers are exceeded (see Settings for more information).

 

Buttons

Add Variable — Displays a list of built-in event variables. Each Trigger has several event variables you can use in one or more of the Trigger Action fields. When a variable is selected from the list, it is added to the Action field that is currently active. Built-in event variables are enclosed using the percent sign (e.g., %DomainName%).

 

In addition to using built-in variables, you can also specify a user-defined global variable, created in AUTOMATION > Triggers > Settings. To reference a global variable (Defining global variables), use the %GetGlobalVariable% function.

 

Example: %GetGlobalVariable("DirName")% retrieves the global variable named DirName. When using global variables, specify the variable name enclosed in quotes, as depicted in this example.

 

Add Function — Displays a list of built-in functions. Functions are useful for formatting or parsing a Trigger event variable. When a function is selected from the list, it is added to the Action field that is currently active. For more details about functions and their usage, see Function types.

 

Link Action — Displays a list of Actions. When an Action is selected, the Action ID is returned.

 

An Action ID (a string of alphanumeric characters) is an input parameter used in the GetActionResult function. This function returns the results of a previously executed Action in the current Trigger workflow. This means that Action results can be passed to a linked (following) Action.

 

Note: The GetActionResult function also supports using the Action Name as an input parameter. This is an enhancement added in a more current version of MFT Server.

Using Link Action

  1. Select a field in the Trigger Action that you want to populate using the results of a previous Action.

     

  2. Click Add Function. A list of functions displays.

     

  3. Select GetActionResult(actionId). The field displays %GetActionResult(actionId)%.

     

  4. Highlight the word actionId in the field.

     

  5. Click Link Action. A list of Actions displays.

     

  6. Select an Action. The actionId text is replaced with the Action ID.

Example: The GetActionResult function looks similar to this: %GetActionResult("bee7cd8b-8021-4e19-8f76-1ae382e60c9d")%