Setting up connection points

The purpose of the file connection point is to read or write files to a local network folder.


Direction	Input	Output
Outbound	Application connection point of the ERP	Location of the proprietary message
Inbound	Location of the proprietary message	Application connection point of the ERP

If an integration is to be made between ION CE and an on-premises environment, the on-premises environment communicates with ION CE through the Enterprise Connector. Each document flow comes with an empty file connection point and an empty application connection point, called Input and Output. The empty file connection point must be connected to a file connection point, and the application connection point must be connected to an application connection point. See Infor ION Cloud Edition Desk User Guide for more information.

The setup of connection points and the configuration of the folder structure differs for each deployment. Each document flow comes with an empty file connection point and an empty application point. The detailed information on how to do this process can be found in the Infor ION Technology Connectors Administration Guide. You must set up a separate Read folder and file connection point for each region.

Note: You can also use SFTP in place of the Enterprise Connector.

Each custom BOD that is created in the document flow and sent to the file connection point must be configured. The simplest approach is to create one folder for each individual custom BOD, then the connection point writes that proprietary file to this folder.

You can take this one step further, so that you have one set of folders per accounting entity, since files are not usually mixed between legal entities or accounting entities.

In addition to accounting entity, there are other key words, which can be used in the write location of a file connection point. See Using key words in the write location of a file connection point for more information.

In the current configuration, you must set up a file connection point to consume all the BODs in the document flow and not only the ones that you require for your solution. For example, if there are 10 proprietary messages that use 10 custom BODs, then there must be at least 10 scenarios configured in the file connection point created for the solution. If you are only interested in three of the proprietary messages, then you create separate folders for these three BODs and route the other seven to a forth "trash" folder, so that they are ignored.

The file template for the file connection point is included in the content installation. This template carries the name of the proprietary format. If the proprietary message file is a flat file, the file template carries a binary word as part of the name to indicate that the flat file is base64 encoded inside the BOD. The file connection point automatically base64 decodes the flat file and stores the file in the appointed folder.

Note: If you decide to replace an activity or insert a new activity between two pre-existing ones in a route, the documents, settings, and all configurations may disappear. You can correctly insert a new activity if you insert the new connection point prior to the first input activity or after the output activity. The connection point must be completely configured with the correct document selected before you remove the standard file connection point.