Creating a Payload

When you want the payload data sent to an external system, you can place the OTD on the outbound side of the Collaboration interfacing with that system. Successive calls to put() build up the payload data in the format defined in the adapter configuration.

Once all the records have been added to the payload, you can drag and drop the payload onto the node or nodes that represent the Collaboration’s outbound destination. Also, you can set an output stream as the payload’s destination (see Table 1–3 for details on payload streaming).

When you are building a data payload, you must take into account the type and format of the data you are sending. The adapter allows you to use the following formats:

• Single Record: This type of payload represents a single record to be sent. Each successive call to put() has the effect of growing the payload by the size of the data being put, and the payload is one contiguous stream of bytes.

• Fixed-size Records: This type of payload is made up of records, with each being exactly the same size. An attempt to put() a record that is not of the size specified causes an exception to be thrown.

• Delimited Records: This type of payload is made up of records that have a delimiter at the end. Each record can be a different size. Do not add any delimiters to this data type when it is passed to put(). The delimiters are added automatically by the adapter.

• User Defined: In this type of payload, the semantics are fully controlled by your own implementation.