EDIINT Required For INOVIS Access Via HTTPS

, ,
1

I’m trying to connect to a mirrored INOVIS mailbox.

To start, I’m using their OnRamp s’ware (v4.01), a Java client that is available from INOVIS via download.

When I install and configure OnRamp, I can make a successful connection to their server via port 443, the default HTTPS port.

I’d really like to use an FTP proxy, so I set up the proxy info and change the port to 21. Unfortunately, the test connection fails.

I’m beginning to fear that I can’t make an FTP connection to this mailbox. I’ve got a call in to INOVIS support to confirm this.

My goal is to use webMethods services to access the mailbox, because that way I won’t be locked in to a particular VAN provider and s’ware. I thought I’d be using the VAN connectivity services to make that FTP connection.

Does the fact that I can only seem to connect via HTTPS mean that I’ll be using webMethods EDIINT services instead? Is this reliable stuff? Please advise. Thanks. - MOD

2

I just learned from a contact at wM that their VAN connectivity services all require an FTP connection to the mailbox. If I want to use HTTPS, I’ll have to write my own custom Java service.

Certainly an HTTP connection isn’t a problem using the java.net.URL class. I simply open the InputStream and bring down the bytes.

The next problem is the decryption, which I’m assuming I have to do on my own. Is that true? Does anyone have any experience/advice they can offer? Thanks.

%

3

I’ve learned a few things that I’ll share for the sake of others to follow:

(1) There doesn’t appear to be an FTP listener listening on port 21 for that server, so FTP and VAN connectivity are out.

(2) HTTPS is sufficient. I was ignorant of certificates, etc. until webMethods showed me how to acquire the VeriSign certificate. Once I downloaded it to a .der file, put it on the server in WEB_METHODS_HOME/config/certs/cacerts, and rebooted, I was able to make an HTTPS connection just fine. I used the pub.client:http service and got back an HTTP status 200 - OK. I used Basic authentication and gave the username and password I supplied when I signed up for the mirror mailbox.

Unfortunately, bytesToString tells me that that HTML that I received back looks like this:

<html><head><title> Error400</title></head><body>
Error getting request
</body></html>

So now there are other questions I need to answer:

(0) What header/parameter values do I have to supply to get the contents of unread EDI files? What form will they take once I do acquire them?

(1) How to write to the mailbox? (e.g., for 997 ACK)

(2) How do I mark files as ‘read’?

(3) Am I responsible for removing ‘read’ files from the mailbox?

But this small step is progress. Thanks - MOD