4.5.3.2. Proxy Source Manager

 
A Proxy is a lightweight representation of an external object within IRM. A Proxy Source contains configuration information for a source of Proxies. Proxies are generated on behalf of some software that IRM integrates with, usually by a special "integration service" application. Information in the Proxy Source is used by the integration applications and other IRM components as necessary to make the integration work. Proxy Sources can only be configured by administrator-level IRM users.
 
 

Configuring the Fluke Linkware Live Integration

In order for the Linkware Live integration to work properly, the Proxy Source for Linkware Live needs to be configured by using the Proxy Source Manager dialog, which is the central place for specifying how the Linkware Live integration components are configured. It can be accessed by clicking on the same-named button from either the Cable Test Manager dialog or the Global Settings dialog:
 
One can think of Proxy Source as a generic interface which is used to configure integrations with third party products.
 
The screenshot below shows a pre-configured Proxy Source set up for Linkware inside the Proxy Source Manager dialog:
By click on its name or the edit (pencil) action button, the Proxy Source Properties dialog opens. The dialog is divided into several tabs, each containing a specific group of properties to be configured for the Linkware Live service integration within IRM. The following is a description of each tab, broken down into sections, with one section per tab.

General tab

 
For a given Proxy Source (Linkware in our example) several general properties need to be specified, like:
  • Name for the Proxy Source (read-only)
  • Base URL, which identifies URL of the associated cloud service used by our API to push and collect data for the selected Data Source
  • When the Proxy Source is configured correctly, the Linkware Integration Service sets the is Functional? checkbox, indicating that it can successfully communicate with Linkware

Logins tab

This tab is used to map IRM logins to Linkware Live logins and to filter Linkware data in IRM according to the User's Linkware Live project. This is possible using the standard Action buttons, which enable editing, removing, or creating a new Login entry.
 
Below is an example of the Login Editor subdialog, which opens upon click of the + or pencil action buttons:
From here an existing IRM User is selected from the drop-down User list, while the Linkware Live Login and Password must be directly entered. An additional Test button on the bottom enables a quick test to be done regarding whether IRM can connect successfully to the Linkware Live server.
 
Note: IRM Users refer to people that can login to the IRM software and should not be confused with the objects from Users tab in the Web Client, which refers to persons that can be assigned to Configuration Items for Asset Management purposes.

Proxy Varieties tab

A Proxy Variety identifies the objects that are supported by the specific Proxy Source integration, that is, what information is passed between the IRM system and Linkware Live, for our example. For Linkware Live we're passing and managing Logins, Projects, Test Setups and associated Cable Ids. 
 
Notice here we have two additional grids - Field Aliases and Identity Fields. These are not being used as part of the IRM-Linkware Live integration, but they are used in other integrations.
 
The first grid lists the Proxy Varieties specified for the selected Proxy Source, along with its basic properties, such as the Category and a flag indicating if it's a full object. It also enables editing each Proxy Variety, simply by click on the pencil action button:
 
Within the Proxy Variety Properties dialog, there are two tabs:
  • the General tab, which shows the same information as in the data grid, with the addition of enabling the user to directly open the Category Properties by click on their name(s)
  • and the Correlation Strategy tab, which enables the user to set a Proxy Correlation Strategy for the selected Proxy Variety - see the following topic for more details.

Fluke API Login

The user (with Administrator privileges) creates a Login entry for each user that has his/her own Fluke login (as shown for the second, Login tab).
 
However, in order to allow API access, Linkware also requires a special "API login" to be configured.  To use the integration, the customer must get a special Username and Password from Fluke, for this purpose. These values are then entered in this separate Fluke API Login tab. Again, the Test button enables a quick test of whether the login information allow IRM to successfully connect to the Linkware Live server.
 
This topic demonstrated how to configure the Linkware Live Proxy Source. The following topics will show practical use of the integration through specific use case scenarios.