Adapters Development

[Taková Pecka]

What tool do you use for adapter development? Does exist something better than discontinued ADT?

Thanks for tips!

[Eddie Hartman]

I have been away from IBM for a year now, but I seem to remember that ADT, although not supported, is still the best tool. Not sure if it has updated to generate the extra json file for a Security Verify Governance (IGI) adapter. Hoping someone in the know (like Ser Franz Wolfhagen) might chime in...

/Eddie

[Taková Pecka]

The last version I'm aware of is "Version: 5.1.2.4 (ITIM 5.1,TDI 7.1.x)" so that answers the json question. Maybe IBM has some interal updates but nothing accessible via Sofware Access Catalog. They release simple HTML custom development guide, but no tool at all unfortunately.

I hoped that maybe someone continued with the development secretly and will be happy to share the results now or has something even more better :) Quite sad that IBM does not provide anything made in-house for such great product.

[Mark Blakey]

On Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 1:51:17 AM UTC-6, Taková Pecka wrote:
> The last version I'm aware of is "Version: 5.1.2.4 (ITIM 5.1,TDI 7.1.x)" so that answers the json question. Maybe IBM has some interal updates but nothing accessible via Sofware Access Catalog. They release simple HTML custom development guide, but no tool at all unfortunately.
>
> I hoped that maybe someone continued with the development secretly and will be happy to share the results now or has something even more better :) Quite sad that IBM does not provide anything made in-house for such great product.

Directory Integrator is the answer, in conjunction with the HTML guide that you mention. I know it's not much, I wish there was a better tool as well. ADT was never that great IMO, it did the same things as TDI but also packaged the templates which are pretty easy to do by hand anyway. My advice is to taking an existing adapter, import it into TDI to see how it works and then modify or create your own from there. The XML that gets generated and written to the Runtime directory in your workspace is what's needed in your adapter JAR, or if you want to get sneaky for an existing adapter you can copy the XMl directly into ISIM ldap under ou=itim,ou=assemblyLine.

[Eddie Hartman]

Sneaking the xml directly into the directory is a cool trick. Not also that you don't have export each AL into an individual .xml file - just use the whole Config for each AL - the right AL will get called as needed.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I worked on an adapter tool - i.e. an AL that takes a configuration text file and generates an adapter .jar file. Note that I struggled with which Java install to use to actually create the jar so that TIM/ISIM would be able to use it. And I can't find my notes on what I figured out... If anyone has the time to import this Config and play around with the exportAdapter AL. It uses a .properties file to set up the Adapter. I think the one with tutProfile may be the most complete. Note also that I started down the path of generating the JSON file for Security Verify Governance (the app formally known as IGI), but did not get very far before getting new marching orders.

I'm happy to help out :)

/Eddie

https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/013KolPA9pqaSMwnVJ3A6d7Sw#AdapterKit

[Franzw]

I will be glad to look into this - my time is also limited, but as Adapter development is very important to me I may be able to have a look....

That said - ADT is not maintained - so currently the best usage of ADT IMHO is to use to build your initial adapter stub - then transfer the development to SDI. There are a couple of caveat in the ADT setup on the test ALs - they do not handle multivalue attributes and also the enhanced "test" introduced in ISIM 6 is not covered either.

Implementing a new ADT using SDI only would IMHO opinion be a better solution going forward.

Another couple of things - the custom adapter guide is hiding a lot of gold if you go to the details - the new HTML based one (ISVG10) is relatively complete but IMHO useless as documentation. I still use the old ISIM 6 custom adapter guide (PDF format :-)) and then only for the newer additions go to the ISVG 10. Did you know that you can actually setup ISIM to use a real AL (avoiding to load the AL into ISIM) ?

HTH
Regards
Franz Wolfhagen

[Mark Blakey]

On Monday, January 24, 2022 at 12:51:29 AM UTC-6, Franzw wrote:
> Another couple of things - the custom adapter guide is hiding a lot of gold if you go to the details - the new HTML based one (ISVG10) is relatively complete but IMHO useless as documentation. I still use the old ISIM 6 custom adapter guide (PDF format :-)) and then only for the newer additions go to the ISVG 10. Did you know that you can actually setup ISIM to use a real AL (avoiding to load the AL into ISIM) ?
>
> HTH
> Regards
> Franz Wolfhagen

Franz, do you know where we can find the ISIM 6 custom adapter guide PDF? I can't find it anymore.

Also are you referring to adding the AL FileSystem Path attribute in the service form -> Dispatcher Attributes?

[Taková Pecka]

Dne sobota 22. ledna 2022 v 23:01:48 UTC+1 uživatel Eddie Hartman napsal:

Quite a lot of good work, this might be worth bringing it back to life! Please can you check if the package is complete? I think there is missing adapter.config=TutProfile.xml.

[Taková Pecka]

Dne pondělí 24. ledna 2022 v 7:51:29 UTC+1 uživatel Franzw napsal:

Agree. SDI would be the best tool for that. Also I'm aware of the lack of information in the current guides and still reference the old one :)

[Taková Pecka]

Dne pondělí 24. ledna 2022 v 18:30:30 UTC+1 uživatel shak...@gmail.com napsal:

Here you go https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J8vX7OQP_F3opWEr8PD8CUvr4VguRULE/view?usp=sharing

[Franzw]

I do not think you are allowed to share IBM formal documentation from IBM Passport Advantage - so my advice is to remove it unless you feel sure you are on legal grounds.

No reason to start arguing with IBM Legal - they are know to loose very few cases...

Personally I would really love that these things were opensource - but that is not case right now....

Regards
Franz Wolfhagen

[Taková Pecka]

Dne úterý 25. ledna 2022 v 10:52:39 UTC+1 uživatel Franzw napsal:

Ok, I'm not sure with that (deleted).
Anyway, the guide is still available online https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/system/files/support/swg/sectech.nsf/0/f2b462f7beb9d55585257a1e00552377/$FILE/ISIM6%20adapter%20developer%20reference%20guide.pdf