TCPIPClientInput node

Use the TCPIPClientInput node to create a client connection to a raw TCP/IP socket, and to receive data over that connection.

The TCPIPClientInput node is available in the following operation modes:

Developer
Application Integration Suite
Standard
Advanced
Express
Adapter

For more information, see Operation modes.

This topic contains the following sections:

For information about configuring the TCPIPClientInput node, see Configuring the TCPIPClientInput node.

Purpose

The TCPIPClientInput node opens connections to a remote server application that is listening on a TCP/IP port. The connections are not made directly by the node but are obtained from a connection pool managed by the IBM® Integration Bus integration server. The integration server uses the default TCPIPClient configurable service to determine which attributes are used for the socket connection. However, if the configurable service is set on the node, the configurable service is used for all the properties, including the host and port number.

You can configure the Integration node to use SSL for TCP/IP nodes; see SSL and the TCP/IP nodes.

When a connection is opened by the connection pool, it is sent to a TCPIPClientInput node (if the Open terminal of the node is connected). The input event is sent to only one TCPIPClientInput node on the connection.

The node requests a client connection that contains data ready for reading. Until such a connection is available, the node is paused, waiting for data (in a similar way to the MQInput node). Therefore, two criteria must be met before the node becomes available:

A client connection has been made
At least one byte of data is available to be processed

By default, a minimum of one connection is created when a TCPIPClientInput node is deployed. If you specify a value of -1 for the MinimumConnections property of the TCPIPClient configurable service, the TCPIPClientInput node does not create a connection, and relies on output or receive nodes to create connections. In this mode of operation, an input node is never started until an output or receive node starts an interaction.

You can change the mode on the configurable service to create a pool of client connections ready for processing. To use this function, minimumConnections must be set to a value larger than zero. The integration server then ensures that the specified number of connections are always available by creating them at the start, and continuing to create the connections until the minimum value is reached.

This behavior is different from the TCPIPServerInput node, which does not attempt to make a minimum number of connections. For more information, see TCPIPServerInput node.

The client node also has a maximum value, which limits how many connections it can create. More connections than the minimum value can exist as a result of output nodes creating connections.

When connections are available, the second criterion is met when there is at least one byte of data to be processed; otherwise, the connection closes. In either case, the connection is given to the node and the event is processed.

The first record of data is detected in accordance with properties on the node and then sent to the Out terminal. If an error occurs, including a timeout waiting for data or the closure of a connection while waiting for the full record, the data is sent to the Failure terminal. If the connection closes and there is no data, a message is sent to the Close terminal. Although the message has no data, the local environment does have details of the connection that closed.

For both data and close events, the following local environment is created:

Table 1. Location in local environment
Location in local environment	Description
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/Type	The client.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/Hostname	The host name used to make a connection.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/Port	The port number used to make a connection.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/OpenTimestamp	The time stamp when the connection was first opened.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/CloseTimestamp	The time stamp when the connection was closed (null if not yet closed).
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/SequenceNumber/InputRecord	The sequence number of the message received on this connection. The first record has a sequencing number of 1; the second record has a sequencing number of 2, and so on.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/SequenceNumber/OutputRecord	The sequence number of the message sent on this connection. The first record has a sequencing number of 1; the second record has a sequencing number of 2, and so on.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/Id	The ID of the socket being used. This ID is an internal identifier used by the Integration node to uniquely identify a connection.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/ReplyId	The reply ID that has been stored on this connection. The value can be any text string.

When the node has constructed the record from the connection stream it releases the connection back to the connection pool for use by other nodes. Properties on the Advanced tab show how that connection can be used by other nodes in the future. By default, the Advanced properties mark the input stream on the TCP/IP connection as being reserved, which means that no other input node can use it, until the current use of the message flow is finished. Alternatively, you can reserve the connection until it is unreserved by another node, or not to reserve it at all and permit any other node (or thread in this node) to use the connection straight away. Similar options are available on the output stream but it is kept unreserved by default.

Another node can access a reserved stream only if the ID of the connection is known. This behavior allows all the nodes in a message flow to access the same connection using the same ID while stopping any other flow acquiring the connection.

The TCPIPClientInput node is contained in the TCPIP drawer of the palette, and is represented in the IBM Integration Toolkit by the following icon:

TCPIPClientInput node icon

Message structure

The TCPIPClientInput node handles messages in the following message domains:

DFDL
XMLNSC
DataObject
JSON
BLOB
MIME
MRM
JMSMap
JMSStream
XMLNS

Terminals and properties

The terminals of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

Terminal	Description
Open	The output terminal to which a message is routed when a connection is first opened. Use the Open terminal if processing is required when a connection is opened rather than when data first arrives. The connection associated with the message is reserved from the general connection pool until propagation to the Open terminal has finished. However, the connection can be accessed using the connectionId specified in the local environment. Each connection that is created is sent to the Open terminal, including any connections that are created mid-flow by a TCPIPClientReceive node or TCPIPClientOutput node. If the Open terminal is not attached, open events are automatically made available in the connection pool.
Failure	The output terminal to which the message is routed if an error occurs. This value includes failures caused by retry processing. Even if the Validation property is set, messages propagated to this terminal are not validated.
Out	The output terminal to which the message is routed if it is successfully retrieved from an external resource. If no errors occur within the input node, a message received from an external resource is always sent to the Out terminal first.
Close	The output terminal to which the message is routed if the connection closes.
Catch	The output terminal to which the message is routed if an exception is issued downstream and caught by this node. Exceptions are caught only if this terminal is attached.

The following tables describe the node properties. The column headed M indicates whether the property is mandatory (marked with an asterisk if you must enter a value when no default is defined); the column headed C indicates whether the property is configurable (you can change the value when you add the message flow to the BAR file for deployment).

The Description properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Node name	No	No	TCPIPClientInput	The name of the node.
Short description	No	No		A brief description of the node.
Long description	No	No		Text that describes the purpose of the node in the message flow.

The Basic properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description	mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Connection details	Yes	Yes		A string containing either the host name and port number to be used, or the name of a TCPIPClient configurable service.	connectionDetails
Timeout waiting for a data record (seconds)	Yes	Yes	60	Specifies how long the node listens on a connection for more data after the first byte of data has arrived. You can specify any length of time in seconds.	timeoutWaitingForData

The Advanced properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Close connection	Yes	No	No	Controls when the connection is closed, or if it remains open. Valid options are: No After Timeout After Data has been Received At End of Flow
Close input stream after a record has been received	Yes	No	Cleared	Specifies whether to close the input stream as soon as the data has been retrieved. When the connection input stream is reserved, no other node can use it without knowing the ID. This property is not selected by default.
Input Stream Modification	No	No	Leave unchanged	Specifies whether to reserve the input stream for use only by input and receive nodes that specify the connection ID, or to release it at the end of the flow. Valid options are: Leave unchanged Reserve input stream (for use by future TCPIP nodes) Reserve input stream (for use by future TCPIP nodes) then release at end of flow When the connection input stream is reserved, no other nodes can use it without specifying the correct connection ID. If the input stream is released at the end of the flow, it is returned to the pool and becomes available for use by any input or receive node.
Output Stream Modification	No	No	Leave unchanged	Specifies whether this output stream is released and returned to the pool for use by any output node. Valid options are: Leave unchanged Release output stream and reset ReplyID If you select Release output stream and reset ReplyID, the ReplyID is passed in the LocalEnvironment when leaving this node, but is reset for the next record on this connection.

The TCPIPClientInput node Input Message Parsing properties are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description	mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Message domain	No	No	BLOB	The domain that is used to parse the incoming message.
Message model	No	No		The name or location of the message model in which the incoming message is defined.
Message	No	No		The name or location of a global element that models an entire document of data, and is contained in your message model schema file. This list is populated with all available messages that are defined in the Message model that you have selected.
Physical format	No	No		The name of the physical format of the incoming message.
Message coded character set ID	Yes	No	Broker System Default	The ID of the coded character set used to interpret the data being read.	messageCodedCharSetIdProperty
Message encoding	Yes	No	Broker System Determined	The encoding scheme for numbers and large characters used to interpret the data being read. Valid values are Broker System Determined or a numeric encoding value. For more information about encoding, see Data conversion.	messageEncodingProperty

The Parser Options properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Parse timing	No	No	On Demand	This property controls when an input message is parsed. Valid values are: On Demand Immediate Complete For a full description of this property, see Parsing on demand.
Build tree using XML schema data types	No	No	Cleared	This property controls whether the syntax elements in the message tree have data types taken from the XML schema.
Use XMLNSC compact parser for XMLNS domain	No	No	Cleared	This property controls whether the XMLNSC Compact Parser is used for messages in the XMLNS Domain. If you set this property, the message data is displayed under XMLNSC in nodes that are connected to the output terminal when the input MQRFH2 header or Input Message Parsing property, Message Domain, is XMLNS.
Retain mixed content	No	No	Cleared	This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters mixed text in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for mixed text. If you clear the check box, mixed text is ignored and no elements are created.
Retain comments	No	No	Cleared	This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters comments in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for comments. If you clear the check box, comments are ignored and no elements are created.
Retain processing instructions	No	No	Cleared	This property controls whether the XMLNSC parser creates elements in the message tree when it encounters processing instructions in an input message. If you select the check box, elements are created for processing instructions. If you clear the check box, processing instructions are ignored and no elements are created.
Opaque elements	No	No	Blank	This property is used to specify a list of elements in the input message that are to be opaquely parsed by the XMLNSC parser.

The Records and Elements properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table:

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Record detection	Yes	No	End of Stream	The mechanism used to identify records in the input data. Valid options are: End of Stream Fixed Length Delimited Parsed Record Sequence
Length (bytes)	Yes	No	0	The length of each record, in bytes, when Fixed Length record detection is selected.
Delimiter	Yes	No	DOS or UNIX Line End	The type of delimiter bytes that separate, or end, each record when Delimited record detection is selected. Valid options are: DOS or UNIX Line End Custom Delimiter (Hexadecimal)
Custom delimiter (hexadecimal)	No	No		The delimiter bytes, expressed in hexadecimal, when Delimited record detection and Custom Delimiter are selected. This property is mandatory only if the Delimiter property is set to Custom Delimiter (Hexadecimal).
Delimiter type	Yes	No	Postfix	The location of the delimiter when Delimited record detection and Custom Delimiter (Hexadecimal) are selected. Valid options are: Infix Postfix This property is ignored unless the Delimiter property is set to Custom Delimiter (Hexadecimal).

The Retry properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table:

Property	M	C	Default	Description	mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Retry mechanism	Yes	No	Failure	How the node handles a flow failure. Valid options are: Failure Short Retry Short and Long Retry
Retry threshold	Yes	Yes	0	The number of times to retry the flow transaction when Retry mechanism is Short retry.	retryThreshold
Short retry interval	No	Yes	0	The interval, in seconds, between each retry if Retry threshold is not zero.	shortRetryInterval
Long retry interval	No	Yes	300	The interval between retries if Retry mechanism is Short and long retry and the retry threshold has been exhausted.	longRetryInterval

The Validation properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table.

For a full description of these properties, see Validation properties.

Property	M	C	Default	Description	mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Validate	No	Yes	None	This property controls whether validation takes place. Valid values are None Content and Value Content	validateMaster
Failure action	No	No	Exception	This property controls what happens if validation fails. Valid values are: User Trace Local Error Log Exception Exception List

The Transactions properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table:

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Transaction mode	No	Yes	No	The transaction mode on this input node determines whether the rest of the nodes in the flow are run under point of consistency. Valid options are: No Yes

The Instances properties of the TCPIPClientInput node are described in the following table. For a full description of these properties, see Configurable properties in a BAR file.

Property	M	C	Default	Description	mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Additional instances pool	No	Yes	Use Pool Associated with Message Flow	The pool from which additional instances are obtained. If you select Use Pool Associated with Message Flow, additional instances are obtained from the message flow pool. If you select Use Pool Associated with Node, additional instances are allocated from the additional instances of the node based on the number specified in the Additional instances property.	componentLevel
Additional instances	No	Yes	0	The number of additional instances that the node can start if the Additional instances pool property is set to Use Pool Associated with Node.	additionalInstances

The Monitoring properties of the node are described in the following table.

Property	M	C	Default	Description
Events	No	No	None	Events that you have defined for the node are displayed on this tab. By default, no monitoring events are defined on any node in a message flow. Use Add, Edit, and Delete to create, change or delete monitoring events for the node; see Configuring monitoring event sources by using monitoring properties for details. You can enable and disable events that are shown here by selecting or clearing the Enabled check box.