IBM WebSphere Everyplace Access V5 Handbook for Developers and Administrators Volume IV: Advanced Topics

8 IBM WebSphere Everyplace Access V5, Volume IV: Advanced Topics

򐂰 Subscription notifications from the Subscription Manager (via trigger

handlers)

When the Notification Manager receives a message, it receives the destination

user (or group) and the message. It queries Member Services to see if the

destination is a group and retrieves all the necessary user IDs. When the

Notification Manager knows the users, it queries one by one all the suitable

delivery channels in which it has to send out the notifications and preferences

associated to that channel or the list of channels. If any information relative to

delayed notification is available in the message it receives, the Notification

Manager works accordingly to queue that message.

After it has decided which channel or channels it must use, the Notification

Manager sends the notification to the channel adapter using a WebSphere

Application Server embedded messaging queue system. Then, messages are

delivered to the appropriate channel adapter.

The Notification Manager keeps track of all the delivery status messages that are

sent by the channel adapters. Applications can use that delivery status to check

whether a message was delivery successfully or if it failed.

1.2.6 Trigger handler

When a content match occurs, the trigger handler notifies the appropriate user

via the Notification Manager. The trigger handler also participates in adding,

modifying, and querying subscriptions. In some cases, the trigger handler could

be used for other tasks. such as login, reformatting the data that is received by

the Subscription Manager, and so on.

Intelligent Notification Services provide sample trigger handlers with the sample

subscription portlets. You can modify a sample trigger handler or use it as model

to develop a trigger handler that satisfies your business needs. For more

information about trigger handlers, see 3.4, “Trigger handler” on page 96.

1.2.7 Channel adapters

The Notification Manager sends notifications to many types of delivery channels

by interfacing with those delivery channels through channel adapters (see

Figure 1-4 on page 7). Channel adapters receive notification messages from the

Notification Manager and transcode those messages into the proper formats for

the designated delivery channels. Channel adapters use transcoders to format

messages to device specifications. A separate channel adapter is provided for

each different delivery channel.

Chapter 1. Intelligent Notification Services 9

Inside the channel adapter, the message can be modified using specific

transcoders.

Transcoders modify the message depending on the preferences.

For example, for the SMS channel adapter, if the message is too long, the

channel adapter only uses the first 160 bytes. Transcoding adapters must be

included to transform the message into the proper format.

After the message is transcoded (if needed), it is sent to the appropriate delivery

channel. Also if the message which comes from the subscription manager is

unmodified, it arrives in XML format. So, it should be modified for sending just the

specific information and not the XML tags or content that is not useful. When a

message has been treated by the transcoder of a specific channel adapter, it is

sent to the delivery channel which then sends the message to the device. Each

channel adapter has specific information about one delivery channel.

The following are the out-of-the-box channel adapters that are provided with

Intelligent Notification Services inside WebSphere Everyplace Access:

򐂰 Message Center

Using the Message Center, the recipient has a single place to look at all

recent notifications. For example, if a traffic notification is sent to the

recipient's cell phone while a news notification is sent to an e-mail account at

work, both notifications can also be sent to the Message Center, where the

recipient can view them using the Message Center portlet.

򐂰 Lotus Sametime instant messaging

The Sametime channel adapter sends notifications to a user who is logged in

to Sametime. A Sametime user ID identifies the recipient and is required by

the Sametime channel adapter to log in and send the message.

򐂰 Pager (WCTP)

The Pager channel adapter sends notifications to a WCTP pager using the

WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager.

򐂰 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail

The SMTP e-mail channel adapter sends e-mail notifications to a user

through an SMTP server. An e-mail address identifies the recipient of the

message. A message can be sent to any device that is e-mail addressable.

򐂰 Short Message Service (SMS)

The SMS channel adapter sends notifications to an SMS-enabled phone or

emulator using the WebSphere Everyplace Connection Manager. A phone

number or an IP address identifies the recipient.