Configuring the TCPIPClientInput node

When you add the TCPIPClientInput node to a message flow, you can configure it.

1. Optional: On the Description tab, enter a Short description, a Long description, or both.
   You can also rename the node on this tab.
2. On the Basic tab, set the properties that determine how the TCP/IP connection is controlled.
   1. Use the Connection details property to specify either the host name and port number to be used, or the name of a configurable service. This property is mandatory. The following formats are supported:
      • Configurable service name. This value is used to look up the port and host name in configurable services. For example, TCPIPProfile1.
      • <Hostname>:<Port>. This value is the host name followed by the port number (separated by a colon). For example, tcpip.server.com:1111.
      • <Port>. This value is the port number. In this case, the host name is assumed to be localhost.
   2. Use the Timeout waiting for a data record (seconds) property to specify how long the node listens on a connection for more data after the first byte of data arrives. You can specify any length of time in seconds. The default is 60 seconds. When the specified time is exceeded, all available data is sent to the Failure terminal.
3. On the Advanced tab, set the properties that determine how the data stream is controlled.
   1. Use the Close connection property to specify when and how to close the connection.
      • Select No to leave the connection open. This value is the default.
      • Select After timeout to close the connection when a timeout occurs.
      • Select After data has been received to close the connection when the end of the record is found.
      • Select At end of flow to close the connection after the flow runs.
   2. Select Close input stream after a record has been received to close the input stream as soon as the data is retrieved. This property is not selected by default. When the connection input stream is reserved, no other node can use it without specifying the ID.
   3. Use the Input Stream Modification property to specify whether to reserve the input stream for use only by input and receive nodes that specify the connection ID, or to release the input stream at the end of the flow.
      These options are available only if you do not select the Close input stream after a record has been received property.
      • Select Leave unchanged to leave the input stream as it was when it entered the node. This value is selected by default.
      • Select Reserve input stream (for use by future TCPIP input and receive nodes) to specify that this input stream can be used only by this node and by other input or receive nodes that request it by specifying the connection ID. When the connection input stream is reserved, no other nodes can use it without specifying the correct connection ID.
      • Select Reserve input stream (for use by future TCPIP input and receive nodes) then release at the end of flow to specify that this input stream can be used only by this node and receive nodes that request it by specifying the connection ID. After the flow is run, this input stream is returned to the pool and becomes available for use by any input or receive node.
   4. Use the Output Stream Modification property to specify whether to release the output stream.
      • Select Leave unchanged to leave the output stream as it was when it entered the node. This value is selected by default.
      • Select Release output stream and reset ReplyID to specify that this output stream is returned to the pool and is available for use by any output node. The ReplyID is passed in the local environment when it leaves this node, but is reset for the next record on this connection.
4. On the Input Message Parsing tab, set values for the properties that the node uses to determine how to parse the incoming message.
   If the incoming message has an MQRFH2 header, you are not required to set values for the Input Message Parsing properties because the values are derived from the <mcd> folder in the MQRFH2 header; for example:

   <mcd><Msd>MRM</Msd><Set>DHM4UO906S001</Set><Type>receiptmsg1</Type>
   <Fmt>XML</Fmt></mcd>

   If you set values, and if they differ from the values in the MQRFH2 header, the values in the MQRFH2 header take precedence.

   1. In Message domain, select the name of the parser that you are using from the list. The default is BLOB.
      You can choose from the following options:

      • DFDL
      • XMLNSC
      • DataObject
      • JSON
      • BLOB
      • MIME
      • MRM
      • JMSMap
      • JMSStream
      • XMLNS

      You can also specify a user-defined parser, if appropriate.
   2. If you are using the DFDL parser, the XMLNSC parser in validating mode, or the MRM parser, specify the relevant Message model.
      For XMLNSC, if your schema files are in an application or static library, leave this property blank. If your messages are modeled in a referenced shared library or message set, select the top-level shared library for the shared library or message set that contains the schema files.
   3. If you are using the DFDL or MRM parsers, select the correct message from the list in Message.
      This list is populated with messages that are defined in the Message model that you selected.
   4. If you are using the MRM parser, select the format of the message from the list in Physical format.
      This list includes all the physical formats that you defined for this Message model.
   5. Specify the message coded character set ID in Message coded character set ID.
   6. Select the message encoding from the list in Message encoding or specify a numeric encoding value.
      The default is Broker System Determined. You can choose from the following options:

      • Little Endian, with IEEE Floating Point (546)
      • Big Endian, with IEEE Floating Point (273)
      • Big Endian, with S390 Floating Point (785)
      • Broker System Determined
      For more information about encoding, see Data conversion.
5. On the Parser Options tab:
   1. The Parse timing option is, by default, set to On Demand, which causes parsing of the message to be delayed.
      To cause the message to be parsed immediately, see Parsing on demand.
   2. If you are using the XMLNSC parser, set values for the properties that determine how the XMLNSC parser operates.
      For more information, see Manipulating messages in the XMLNSC domain.
6. Use the Retry tab to define how retry processing is performed when a flow fails. You can set the following properties.
   1. Retry mechanism determines the action that occurs if the flow fails. Choose from the following values.
      • Select Failure for the node to report a failure without any retry attempts.
      • Select Short retry for the node to retry before it reports a failure if the condition persists. The number of times that it retries is specified in Retry threshold.
      • Select Short retry and long retry for the node to retry, first with the value in Retry threshold as the number of attempts it makes. If the condition persists after the Retry threshold is reached, the node then uses the Long retry interval between attempts.
   2. Specify the Retry threshold: The number of times the node retries the flow transaction if the Retry mechanism property is set to either Short retry or Short retry and long retry.
   3. Specify the Short retry interval: The length of time, in seconds, to wait between short retry attempts.
   4. Specify the Long retry interval: The length of time to wait between long retry attempts until a message is successful, the message flow is stopped, or the message flow is redeployed.
      The property MinLongRetryInterval defines the minimum value that the Long retry interval can take. If the value is lower than the minimum, the Integration node value is used.
7. Use the Records and Elements tab to specify how the data is interpreted as records.
   1. Use the Record detection property to determine how the data is split into records, each of which generates a single message. Choose from the following options:
      • The End of stream property specifies that all of the data that is sent during a connection is a single record.
      • The Fixed Length property specifies that each record is a fixed number of bytes in length. Each record contains the number of bytes specified in the Length property.
      • Select Delimited if the records that you are processing are separated, or terminated, by a DOS or UNIX line end or by a sequence of user-defined delimiter bytes. Specify the delimiter and delimiter type in the Delimiter and Delimiter type properties.
      • Select Parsed Record Sequence if the file contains a sequence of one or more records that are serially recognized by the parser that is specified in Message domain. The node propagates each recognized record as a separate message. If you select the Record detection option, the parser that is specified in Message domain must be DFDL, XMLNSC, or MRM.
   2. If you set Record detection to Fixed Length, use Length to specify the length of the output record.
      This value must be between 1 byte and 100 MB. The default is 80 bytes.
   3. If you set Record detection to End of stream, Fixed Length, or Delimited, a limit of 100 MB applies to the length of the records. If you set Record detection to Parsed Record Sequence, the TCPIPClientInput node does not determine or limit the length of a record. Nodes that are downstream in the message flow might try to determine the record length or process a long record. If you intend to process large records in this way, ensure that your Integration node has sufficient memory. You can apply message flow techniques that are described in the Large Messaging sample to make the best use of the available memory.
   4. If you set Record detection to Delimited, use Delimiter to specify the delimiter to be used. Choose from the following options:
      • DOS or UNIX Line End, on UNIX systems, specifies the line feed character (<LF>, X'0A'), and, on Windows systems, specifies a carriage return character followed by a line feed character (<CR><LF>, X'0D0A'). The node treats both of these strings as delimiters, irrespective of the system on which the Integration node is running. If both strings can be seen in the same record, the node recognizes both as delimiters. The node does not recognize X'15' which, on z/OS® systems, is the 'newline' byte; if your input file is coded with EBCDIC new lines, set this property to Custom Delimiter and set Custom delimiter to 15.
      • If you select Custom Delimiter, you can specify a sequence of bytes in Custom delimiter
   5. In Custom delimiter, specify the delimiter byte or bytes to be used when Delimiter is set to Custom delimiter.
      Specify this value as an even-numbered string of hexadecimal digits. The default is X'0A' and the maximum length of the string is 16 bytes (represented by 32 hexadecimal digits).
   6. If you set Record detection to Delimited, use Delimiter type to specify the type of delimiter. You can select from the following options.
      • Infix. If you select this value, each delimiter separates a record. If the data ends with a delimiter, the (zero length) data that follows the final delimiter is still propagated, although it contains no data.
      • Postfix. If you specify this value, each delimiter terminates records. If the data ends with a delimiter, no empty record is propagated after the delimiter. If the data does not end with a delimiter, it is processed as if a delimiter follows the final bytes of the data. The default value is Postfix.
      The TCPIPClientInput node considers each occurrence of the delimiter in the input as either separating (infix) or terminating (postfix) each record. If the data begins with a delimiter, the node treats the (zero length) content that precedes that delimiter as a record and propagates an empty record to the flow. The delimiter is never included in the propagated message.
8. Use the Validation tab to provide validation that is based on the message set for predefined messages.
   For more information about validation, see Validating messages. For information about how to complete this tab, see Validation tab properties.
9. On the Transactions tab, set the transaction mode.
   Although TCPIP operations are non-transactional, the transaction mode on this input node determines whether the rest of the nodes in the flow are to be run under point of consistency or not. Select Yes if you want the flow updates to be treated transactionally (if possible) or No if you do not.
   The default for this property is No.
10. Optional: On the Instances tab, set values for the properties that determine the additional instances (threads) that are available for a node. For more information, see Configurable properties in a BAR file.