Connector Utils

TypeConnector DistributionFree

Connector Utils is a shared dependency plugin required by all connectors.

It provides a common set of classes, permissions, pages, and maintenance utilities that support the execution and monitoring of connectors within CMDBuild. Connector plugins rely on these components and require Connector Utils to be installed before they can operate correctly.

Features

Connectors Dashboard

Connector Utils provides a dedicated Connectors dashboard custom page that aims to be a reference point for the executions of all connectors installed in the system. For this purpose, it has the ability to provide an overview from the executions perspective, showing cards of the ConnectorRun class, or from the sources perspective, showing cards of ConnectorSource.

The page is divided in two tabs, Executions and Sources. These tabs provide the information that could be useful to check the state of the connector executions to an operator.

Executions

The first tab shows the records of the ConnectorRun class that represent the executions of the connectors, with information such as the type, the state, execution time and more. Moreover, they are represented in a hierarchical structure, so that if an execution generated another one their relation is immediately clear. For each record in the grid, it is possible to open the relative card in read mode in a popup.

It is often interesting to filter the records to check the state of the connectors. To this end, multiple ways to filter the grid are available:

Toolbar

This section is separated to emphasize the fact that the search filter applies to both the dashboard and the grid. It also allows the refresh of the data and reports the number of records shown in the grid.

Filters and dashboard

This fieldset contains the main filters which are:

• The filter on the type of the ConnectorRun, a list of the connectors can be specified and only those executions will be listed
• The filter on the period, which by default is set to Today's runs; it shows only the executions whose Start is in the specified interval
• The filter on the status, that will show only the executions that are of the selected states. This filter will not impact the data shown in the graph

A bar graph is also present in this section and it provides information for the number of executions in each state for each type of connector.

This field is collapsible to ease the readability of the grid once the filters are set.

Grid

The last section of the page is a tree grid that shows the information of the ConnectorRun cards. The records are grouped by the executions with the same context and the Execution time column is transformed in a human-readable time. The records are ordered by the End attribute descending, such that the newest executions are shown first.

An action column allows to open the details of each execution in view mode in a popup.

Sources

This tab is intended to allow an overview of the various instances of the connectors, in order to quickly check the last execution of a specific source. It is composed of a grid that groups all the ConnectorSource cards in their respective types and shows the Last execution status and the Last execution time for each. It is also possible, given that the user has the correct permissions, to execute each instance of the connector from this page.

Each record of the grid can be expanded to have more information. Only the attributes of the General data grouping are shown, and a tabpanel allows to swap between three grids showing relations with application records, system records or the list of the executions of that specific instance.

The grid can be reloaded with a button on the topbar and another button allows to execute the connectors in batch mode instead of a specific instance; in this mode, all active instances of a specific type are executed in succession.

Connector-specific groups

Connector Utils creates two groups that can be assigned to users to grant the permissions required to work with connectors. These are:

• Connector reader: users belonging to this group can

  • Access the Connectors Dashboard.
  • View connector executions.
  • View connector source instances.
  • Access the classes managed by the System Branch.

• Connector operator: users belonging to this group inherit the capabilities of the Connector Viewer group and can also:

  • Execute connector instances.
  • Execute batch synchronizations.

These groups can be assigned directly to users to quickly grant the permissions required for connector monitoring and operations.

Automatic Maintenance

Connector Utils includes an automatic maintenance job responsible for keeping connector execution data consistent and preventing unnecessary accumulation of historical records.

The job performs the following activities:

• Removes connector execution records that are older than the configured retention period.
• Detects execution records that have remained in a pending state for more than one day and updates their status accordingly.

This maintenance process runs automatically and does not require manual intervention.