Events SPI (4.0)

The IBM Connections Event SPI allows third parties to consume event data generated by the IBM Connections features.

See:
Description

Packages

com.ibm.connections.spi.events
com.ibm.connections.spi.events.object
com.ibm.connections.spi.events.object.mutable

The IBM Connections Event SPI allows third parties to consume event data generated by the IBM Connections features.

By contributing Java code written to this SPI, third parties can plug into the creation, deletion and update of content within IBM Connections, and in some cases influence the creation, deletion or update of that content. There are various potential uses for the SPI, and example may include:

• Using events to audit/log the activity in IBM Connections
• Using events to gather statistical information about activity in IBM Connections
• Pushing content from IBM Connections to other systems

What are events?

Events are collections of data generated by Connections when certain activity occurs in the Connections system. Typically, events are generated for any activity that represents the creation, update or delete of content, changes in access control/membership and other such activity. Generally, read activity does not result in the generation of events. Events contain a set of standard meta-data, as well as optional data sets that may be present for certain event types. Additionally, every event can also contain arbitrary properties. In the SPI, an event is represented by the Event interface.

Event Handlers

An event handler is a third-party contributed piece of code written to this SPI. There are essentially two types of event handler:

• Pre Event Handler - A "Pre" event hander implements the PreEventHandler interface. "Pre" event handlers are always invoked at a point where the action the event represents has not yet been committed. As such, "Pre" event handlers are capable of modifying some event data. In IBM Connections 4.0 Pre Event Handlers are only supported for certain moderation operations in certain components. You should not expect any data modification made in a Pre Event Handler to be reflected in the system in all cases. For more details about the event data that a "Pre" event handler works with, look at the MutableEvent object. Pre event handlers are always invoked synchronously and therefore can directly impact the response times of the system.
• Event Hander - An event handler implements the EventHandler interface. Event handlers are invoked after any action the event represents has been committed, and therefore represent the result of some action. Event handlers have access to the same data as Pre event handlers, but the data is all immutable. For more details about the event data that an event handler works with, look at the Event object. Event handlers can be configured to be invoked either synchronously or asynchronously. Synchronously invoked handlers can directly impact the response times of the system. In almost all cases, event handlers should be registered asynchronously.

Event handler deployment and registration

Event handlers need to be deployed to the IBM Connections system, and also registered in the events-config.xml configuration file. Details of how to deploy and register event handlers are contained in the product documentation