We are implementing a wM 6.0.1 plattform that must collect different internal company flat files (via FTP/HTTP/SMTP), parse them and move them to different repositories. Around 30,000 files per day / 100 kb per file.
I am wondering if anyone can help me to decide using TN to process the flat files or the wMFlatFile package capabilities?
How are u intending to use TN without using FF package? Unless you want to write ur Flat File handler, I suppose you will still eventually use FF package to process the Flat File (convertToValue). 100KB big file has no problem, but 30k transmission maybe will be difficult to process by TN. So if you are intending to ‘submit’ flat file to TN, you have to watch out for the overwelming transmission per instance. However, if you are intending to use the flat file listener on a directory then you can simply limite the number of listeners. cheerzzz.
The fact is that I don´t have much clear the advantages I could find from using the Trading Networks framework instead of just developing services over the FF package.
Trading Networks gives you more robust features for document resubmission and tracking than the FF package. With TN, you can set up trading partners, track document submissions through the logging mechanism, resubmit failed documents, and track documents by trading partner. It also contains some special functionality for the handling of large files.
You may want to spend some time reviewing some of the Trading Networks documentation - specifically, the Analyzing Your Network and Building Your Network PDFs (these should be in the doc directory of your TNConsole installation).
The documents refer to trading partners as external businesses, but trading partners can be anything from external businesses to EAI applications to your own internal business units. For example, I implemented one system with Siebel CRM, an Oracle data store, and a custom web application defined as trading partners. You decide how best to define these for your environment.
As a general rule, I like to use TN for the monitoring and organization capabilities that it provides, but your own situation will really determine whether TN is useful to you or not.