Outbound Only and Await Replies

[garry r fisher]

Hi,

If the ‘Outbound Only’ button is ticked on the Inbound Tab of an outbound thread, how does this affect Await Replies and the recovery_33 (or 38 ) procedures – if at all?

We are getting rogue data items been returned back to an outbound thread causing errors – the replies are managed by the recovery procedures but these can’t handle the rogue data.

Thanks

Garry

Topic

[Jim Kosloskey]

Garry,

If you have ‘Outbound Only’ checked then any DATA messages received are ignored, otherwise DATA messages are passed into Cloverleaf(R).

Now how does Cloverleaf(R) know what is a DATA message versus a REPLY?

If you have Await Replies checked, then a switch is thrown when an outbound message is sent which essentially says the next message RECEIVED is a REPLY. Once the REPLY is received the switch is turned off. Once the switch is turned off, any messages received are treated as DATA messages. If ‘Outbound Only’ is checked any DATA messages received are ignored at the protocol level.

If ‘Outbound Only’ is not checked, then any DATA messages received are passed on and you must handle them.

The only time I have had an Outbound thread where I do not have ‘Outbound Only’ checked is in a Query/Reply integration wherein the replies (really DATA) are received over the same thread. I tend to like to have true Asynchronous message delivery technique deployed for Query/Reply integrations and have the replies come over another connection so I would have the ‘Outbound Only’ checked on the Query thread (the Replies coming in on another thread).

If you turn the engine noise level up all the way you will see this activity.

In my opinion, if the connection is supposed to be for the sending of DATA one way only, then the receiving system has an issue they need to address.

In an earlier version of Cloverleaf(R) there was an issue wherein the switch for Awaiting Replies was not reliably thrown related to timeouts and replies were being treated like data. I have not seen that recently.

Jim Kosloskey

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[garry r fisher]

Thanks Jim,

Just to clarify (I’m a bit slow today) – If I enable Outbound Only does that mean Reply messages (ACK’s) still need to be managed? That’s what I hope you mean because that how I think it works:-)

Regards

Garry

[Jim Kosloskey]

Garry,

Oh yes you still need to handle the acknowledgments.

Jim Kosloskey

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[garry r fisher]

Again – Thanks Jim,

‘Outbound Only’ is not something we have used to date but from your description then it may become standard on our builds.

Unfortunately the interface I want to implement it on is a production one so I’m going to have go through change control.

Regards

Garry

[Jim Kosloskey]

Garry,

Based on your description of what is occurring, I would say you have a problem whether ‘Outbound Only’ is on or not.

As I understand it, you have a system which is not only sending you acknowledgments but also sending you unexpected and unwanted DATA messages.

You probably have no idea what you are supposed to do with these DATA messages so that begs the question – why are they being sent?

Jim Kosloskey

email: jim.kosloskey@jim-kosloskey.com 29+ years Cloverleaf, 59 years IT - old fart.

[garry r fisher]

Hi,

This came to light following the introduction of a thorough investigation of log files at a customers site. A number of things were identified from a leaking message handle, to a badly handled ACK. I suspect now that the DATA error may be a side affect of a leaking message handle created using msgcopy but I can’t prove it without putting the old code back in place.

Outbound Only will still be useful to us on future builds so the information is still very helpful.

Cheers

Garry

[Author]

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