TCPIPServerInput node

Use the TCPIPServerInput node to create a server connection to a raw TCPIP socket, and to receive data over that connection.

The TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput node, see Configuring the TCPIPServerInput node.

Purpose

The TCPIPServerInput node listens on a port and, when a client socket connects to the port, the server socket creates a connection for the client. Unlike the TCPIPClientInput node, the TCPIPServerInput node does not attempt to make a minimum number of connections, because the server end of the socket cannot initiate new connections, it can only accept them. The TCPIPServerInput node accepts connections up to a maximum value, which is specified in the MaximumConnections property of the TCPIPServer configurable service. By default, the Integration node can accept up to 100 server connections. For more information, see mqsicreateconfigurableservice command and mqsireportproperties command.

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, a message containing details of the connection is sent to the Open terminal; no data is routed to this terminal. Use the Open terminal if processing is required when a connection is opened rather than when data first arrives. The output stream for the connection is reserved until the propagation of the open message has finished (which happens immediately if the terminal is not attached to any other nodes). The options on the Advanced tab of the node do not apply to open events; they are applicable only when the first data arrives on the connection and is propagated down the Out terminal.

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 no data exists, 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 server.
$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 IBM® Integration Bus to uniquely identify a connection.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/ReplyId The Reply ID that is stored on this connection. It can be any text string.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/ClientDetails/Hostname The fully qualified domain name of the computer from which the client connected.
$LocalEnvironment/TCPIP/Input/ConnectionDetails/ClientDetails/Address The IP address of the computer from which the client connected.

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

TCPIPServerInput node icon

Message structure

The TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput node are described in the following table.

Terminal Description
Failure The output terminal to which the message is routed if an error occurs. These errors include failures caused by retry processing. Even if the Validation property is set, messages propagated to this terminal are not validated.
Open The output terminal to which a message is routed when it is first opened. Use the Open terminal if processing is required when a connection is opened rather than when data first arrives.
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 that is 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 thrown 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 to deploy it).

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

Property M C Default Description
Node name No No TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput node are described in the following table.

Property M C Default Description mqsiapplybaroverride command property
Connection details Yes Yes   A string containing the port number to be used, or the name of a TCPIPServer 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 TCPIPServerInput 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. By default, this option is not selected.
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, and, if reserved, whether to release the input stream 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 local environment when leaving this node, but is reset for the next record on this connection.

The TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput 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 separates, or ends, 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 (Hexadecimal) 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 TCPIPServerInput 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 (seconds) No Yes 0 The interval, in seconds, between each retry if Retry threshold is not zero. shortRetryThreshold
Long retry interval (seconds) No Yes 300 The interval between retries if Retry mechanism is Short and Long Retry and the retry threshold has been exhausted. longRetryThreshold

The Validation properties of the TCPIPServerInput 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 TCPIPServerInput 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 executed under point of consistency. Valid options are:
  • Yes
  • No
The Instances properties of the TCPIPServerInput 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.