Management Application Introduction

This page will provide an overview of the Connexion Management Application (UI). Once you have installed Connexion, you can get started creating workflows.

Basic Concepts & Terminology

Please familiarize yourself with the terminology and concepts used in Connexion.

Device: A device encapsulates logic and (usually) a user interface for performing a specific task. For example, an HL7 Inbound Device is used to receive HL7 over network. This device exposes a user interface to allow you to configure the parameters and actions related to receiving HL7. In Connexion, one or more devices are chained together to create a Channel.

Channel: A channel is a collection of devices (arranged linearly) which together create a workflow. For example, you could use an HL7 Inbound Device, Queue Device, HL7 Transform Device, and HL7 Outbound device to create a channel which receives HL7v2 over the network, modifies the HL7, and then sends out the modified messages to a network listener.

Queue Device: A queue device is typically used within every channel. This device stores incoming messages as well as any metadata related to their processing. The UI for the queue device can be used to view, track, and manipulate messages flowing through your channels.

Groups & Tabs: Connexion has two levels of channel grouping. The first is level is called Groups, which can be used to represent customers, regions, products, or other high-level concepts. Within groups are Tabs. Tabs can organize channels by product, message type, or any other grouping related to your workflows. There are a number of concepts within Connexion which apply to a grouping (either a group or tab) - for example a grouping can have a dedicated process (called Execution Groups in Connexion) or associated global variables (a variable which can be applied to all channels within a grouping).

Overview

A new/empty Connexion system will appear as follows. Familiarize yourself with each section of the UI.

Open

1. Enterprise Toolbar: This area provides access to enterprise functionality. From left to right, the clickable icons are:

   1. Advanced Search: Search via different criteria and aggregate results.

   2. Servers: View and configure Connexion application servers and databases. This is where you can add connections to other Connexion instances on your network.

   3. Dashboard: A Channel-level dashboard.

   4. Groups: Configure groups (the top-level grouping of channels within Connexion).

   5. System Configuration: Configure a plethora of system-level options here, including alerting, authorization, auditing, monitoring, active users, globals, metrics, and so on.

   6. Events: View (and clear) logged events.

2. Tabs: Organize channels within Tabs. Tabs are organized within groups (see above). Note that a drop-down displaying the currently selected group is displayed as soon as multiple groups are configured. Right-click on a tab to view related operations.

3. Connexion Instance: When multiple Connexion instances are available, select the instance you wish to connect to from this drop-down.

4. System Throughput: This shows the queue and process speeds for the currently selected Connexion instance. More detailed performance metrics are available elsewhere (see dashboard above).

5. Actions Toolbar: This toolbar contains common action items. You’ll learn more about these specific items in later tutorials.

6. Channels Pane: This is the area which displays channels.

7. Device Configuration Pane: This is the area which displays device configuration (Device UI).

Continue your tour by Creating Your First Channel.