Sending a file by WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition

Send files to an existing WebSphere® MQ File Transfer Edition network.

Before you begin

  1. Read about WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition.
  2. Get the following information from your WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition administrator:
    • The name of the remote WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition agent to which the file is to be sent.
    • The name of the destination queue manager.
    • The name of the output file.
  3. Ensure that WebSphere MQ is installed on the same machine as your integration node. Information about file transfers is held on storage queues that are controlled by WebSphere MQ, so you must install WebSphere MQ on the same computer as your integration node if you want to use the capabilities provided by the FTEOutput node.
  4. Ensure that a queue manager has been specified on the integration node; this queue manager will own the system queues that store information about the file transfer. For information about specifying a queue manager on the integration node, see mqsicreatebroker command.
  5. Create the system queues that will store the file transfer information. For more information about creating the system queues, see Creating the default IBM Integration Bus queues on a WebSphere MQ queue manager.
  6. Create a message flow that contains an input node.

About this task

Detailed information about configuring the FTEOutput node is given on the property panels for the node, in the IBM Integration Toolkit.

Procedure

  1. Drag an FTEOutput node onto the message flow, and wire its In terminal to the input node.
  2. On the Basic panel, set values for the Destination agent and Destination file name properties.
    Configuring just these two properties is enough if you want to send all the input message tree as a single record in the output file.
  3. Optional: On the Basic panel, set a value for the Destination queue manager property.
    The default destination queue manager is the queue manager for the integration node.
  4. Optional: To specify a location in the input message tree for the data to be sent, configure the Data location property on the "Request properties" panel.
  5. Optional: To change how records are placed in the output file, configure the Record definition property on the "Record definition" panel.
    For example, you might want to specify that a record is fixed length, and set the record length.
    1. If you set the Record definition property to anything other than Record is Whole File, drag a node such as the MQOutput node to the flow, and wire its Out terminal to the Finish File terminal on the FTEOutput node, as shown in the following figure:
      MQInput node connected to FTEOutput node In terminal. Second MQInput node connected to FTEOutput node, Finish File terminal.
      The node connected to the Finish File terminal must have logic to determine the last record in the file.
  6. Optional: To set properties for the transfer dynamically, place a node such as the Compute node or Mapping node before the FTEOutput node.
    You can override the following properties:
    • Destination agent
    • Destination file directory
    • Destination file name
    • Destination queue manager
    • Job name
    • Overwrite files on destination
    Configure the node to write the overrides to the LocalEnvironment.Destination.FTE subtree.
  7. Add the flow to a BAR file and deploy the BAR file.
  8. Optional: Change the coordination queue manager; see Preparing the environment for WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition nodes.
    The queue manager for the integration node is the default coordination queue manager. The default might be adequate for testing; for production, consider changing it. A warning is written to the log if the coordination queue manager is not changed from the default.