What type of job is needed?
The first step is to decide what type of job you need to create. There are eight types of jobs: Publication, Subscription, Consolidation, Replication, Real Time Transactions, Import/Export, and Stored Requests. According to the documentation, the most important jobs are:

• Publication (including broadcast): sending information formatted in either XML or ecKnowledge's native format across the Internet from one e-Business partner to another;

• Subscription: receiving published information;

• Consolidation: collecting information from one or more contributing partners and consolidating at the consolidating partner's site;

• Replication: synchronizing data between two data sources consisting of DBMS, ERP, or groupware applications;

• Real-Time transaction processing: allowing users to access and manipulate data stored in external databases.

What are Component Objects?
Jobs in ecKnowledge are made up of component objects. Components can be defined by either selecting component from the menu or by clicking on the appropriate icon on the icon bar. There are six component objects that can be defined either prior to or during the process of creating a job:

Connections
ecKnowledge provides the flexibility to connect to any of the 18 connection types. They are Oracle 8 Native, SAP R/3, XML, jXML, JMS, JDBC, Lotus Notes, DB2, Oracle, SQL Server, SQL Server 6, Oracle (Wire Protocol), Sybase ASE, Access, dBase, Informix, Informix (Wire Protocol), Outlook/Exchange, and Other ODBC. Figure B shows the dialog box for the Oracle 8 Native Connection.

FIGURE B

Here is the dialog box for the Oracle 8 Native Connection. Click picture for a larger image.

The connection name and the Login Info are standard for all connections. The information requested in the Connection Info area changes according the connection type selected.

Data transformations
Data transformations can be specified as script, transformation table, or external table lookup. Script can be written in VB Script, JavaScript, or Native Script.

Actions
For each action, assign an action a name and then specify the conditions that will trigger this action, update, insert, or delete. Possible actions are: Send Mail, Execute Script, Native Script, Agent/SP (Stored Procedure), and File Attachment.

Event
An event is attached to a job by providing an SQL statement that sets conditions on that job. The job will run only if one or more rows are returned when the SQL statement runs.

Error handler
If an error occurs in one of the columns, either a notification email can be sent or a script can be executed.

Rules
Rules perform integrity checking by specifying a condition (or conditions) that a record must meet before the operation (update, insert, delete) can take place. The rule can be written either in VB Script, JavaScript, or Native Script.

How do you create the job?
Once the components are created, you can easily define the job by using more wonderful wizards. Access a wizard by choosing Create from the menu and select the type of job you want to create. Then, just sit back. Well, not quite, but almost.