Maximo 7 Integration: A first look
March 10, 2009 in Maximo, Maximo 7, Maximo: MIF by Michael Chrisman 28 Comments
I can accurately say that in Maximo 7, IBM changed just about everything in the MEA and yet, changed very little. (I just really wanted to say that.) In Maximo 7, IBM changed many of the names of things as well as how you access them. Functionally speaking, it works pretty much the same way (with a few small changes).
The MEA is dead, long live the MIF
The first change is that it is no longer called the Maximo Enterprise Adapter (MEA). It is now called the Maximo Integration Framework (MIF). IBM does still sell Enterprise Adapters, but these are for specific applications (like Oracle Financials, etc.). This is literally just a name change.
The split personality of interfaces
Technically, Integration Interfaces no longer exist in 7. Instead you have Published Channels, Invocation Channels and Enterprise Services. Basically, all three of these are Integration interfaces, but each are a specific type. Here is comparison chart:
Maximo 6
Maximo 7
Outbound Interface, type: Notify Publish Channel In/Out bound Interface, type: Query/Response Invocation Channel Inbound Interface, type: Notify Enterprise Service Inbound Interface Web Service Web Services Library
Better access
Many of the items that were buried in the Select Action menu have now been moved out to the menu. For example, Web Services now has its own menu option.
Error Handling from the UI
OK, I really like this feature. From the Integration menu, you can now view any MEA MIF error message without having to have access to the back end file system. You can view the errors, remove them and even send them to be reprocessed. That is pretty cool as sometimes it is a pain to get rights to the file side to manage your errors. In fact, the default is that errors are now stored in the database and not on the file system. You have to apply a patch (7.1.1.4 I think) in order to enable storing the error messages on the file side.
In Maximo 7, IBM enabled a lot of functionality from the UI that you used to have to do outside the application (like running a configdb). From a developer's point of view.
My plan is to go over every screen in the MIF and document it like I did for the MEA in 6.
Hello man, first of all, congratulations, you must be one of the best MEA experts today. I would like to ask you a question about an inbound issue I’m having with MX 7.1.1.3:
I have a problem when the crontask brings the records from the interface table to Maximo (inbound).
Example.:
The interface table has 1 purchase requisition, but after the crontask runs, I have two, three, four or more records of that same requisition in PR table.
The problem occur with a certain frequency, but not all the time. I want to know if this is a CORE problem related to java classes, DB or JMS.
I can use a few workarounds to solve this, but I like to know if you are aware of this situation and if you know a regular way to solve it.
Thanks in advance.