4.1.1. Channel detail – Babelway

This screen presents all the aspects of a channel. It allows you to make the whole configuration, or to navigate to any other related element.

You can either access this screen by going to the Channels grid (Manage & Build > Channels) and clicking on the channel row, or by following one of the many links pointing to the channel or one of its elements.

This screen presents the following tabs :

Channel steps. You can configure there everything that will happen to a message going through this channel.
General. You can edit there basic information like name or description. It is also from here that you can delete or duplicate the channel.
Routing. When multiple channels share the same first elements, this tab will allow you to configure which channel must be chosen.
Test cases. A great way to test your configuration.
Agents. Which notification agents are observing this channel.
Related items. Links to many useful places that relates to this channel.
Change Log. Who did which change to this channel, and when.

It also display the Deployment Status.

Channel Steps

This is from far the most important tab. It allows you to configure everything that will happen to a message going through this channel.

It is structured around the 5 main steps that every message follows when going through Babelway.

The gateway in specifies how messages will be transmitted from the source external system to Babelway.
The message in describes the structure of the incoming message.
The transformation describes how the incoming message will be translated to the outgoing message.
The message out describes the structure of the outgoing message.
The gateway out specifies how the outgoing message should be communicated to the target external system.

The steps bar shows clearly these 5 steps, in the order in which they will be executed (from left to right). To work in a specific step, just click on it in this steps bar.

In this bar, the step in which you are currently working is displayed in blue, while other steps are displayed in gray.

Also, the bar will display an immediate status for each step :

This icon means that the step is not yet configured for this channel.
This icon means that the step is completed, but that some errors are detected. The configuration is not considered as finished, and it is not possible to deploy the channel. Additional information about the error can be found by just putting your mouse over the icon.
This icon means that the step is completed, without any error, but that have some changes have been made to the configuration and not yet deployed. So, the latest version is not the one currently processing your messages.
This icon means that the step is fully completed, without any error, and that the latest version is deployed.

If you click on one step, you will be able to complete the configuration for this step, seeing a screen that summarizes the configuration of the element. You can access more details by clicking on the More details link below each element. In that case, you will see directly here, in the Channel view, all the aspects of the element, the same way if you would go to the specific section about these elements (ex: Manage & Build > Components > Gateways ).

General

This tab allows you to edit the following information :

Name : a name that will clearly identify the channel. It is only intended to ease the life of channel builders. It will have no effect on how the messages are processed by this channel.
Description : a place to store any relevant information about this channel. You can use it to store some documentation, describe your implementation choices, the things still to be done, ...
Message storage duration : for how long Babelway will keep the messages processed by this channel. This parameter is usually defined at the environment level, and you should only override the default here if you want specific values for this channel. See environment settings for more details.
Partner IN and OUT : Filling these fields, will tie a partner in/out to all the messages processed by this channel. See partners section for more details.
Enabled / disabled : A disabled channel behaves like a deleted channel, except that you keep it for future use. An enabled channel is just a 'normal' channel, and all its changes will be reflected to the production system at every deployment.

Also, you can view the following fields :

Id : A unique identifier of your channel. This is especially useful to refer to a channel when speaking to somebody else, like Babelway support.
Next deployment : Tells what will happen with this channel at next deployment. 'Apply Changes' means that the channel is already in production but has changed since the last deployment; the changes will be deployed. 'Start' means the channel is not yet in production, but will be after next deployment. 'Stop' means the channel is currently in production but will be removed at the next deployment. 'No change' means nothing will be done about this channel at next deployment.
Created on : When the channel was created.
Last updated on : When the channel was last updated. You can also check Change Log tab to have all the details about the changes.

Routing

The routing allows you to define which channel must process a message, when multiple channels use the same gateway In.

You can find all information about how to define and configure gateways in the routing chapter.

Test cases

The test cases are a great way to be sure that your channels are correctly configured, and produce the expected results.

You can find all the information about how to define and configure gateways in the test cases chapter.

Related items

This tab gives direct links to many elements of the application that are relate to this channel.

If your message processing setup involves a sequence of multiple channels, the Channel flow button will allow you to display the whole flow.

Agents

You can see here all Notification agents that are observing this channel. More details in the section about the Notification Center.

Change Log

From this tab, you can see all the changes that have been made to the channel or one of its elements, including who made this change and when.

Deployment Status

In the upper right corner of the screen, you will see the Deployment Status.

You can activate or disable the channel.

You can also deploy your latest changes.

See Deployment section for more details.