F5. So Easy a ...

In the leadership circles of the Exchange Network I’m seen as a technical type. When I hang out with the Network Technology Group (NTG) like I did last week, it is obvious that I’m Management. So when they said that I could build plug-ins for the OpenNode2, I was skeptical. The last time I actually wrote code that required compiling, I think it was in C. I never got the hang of Windows and C++. I have a pretty fair general knowledge of how this stuff works, but that’s it.

The NTG met in Kansas City last week. One item on their incredibly packed agenda was a demo of a tool to build plug-ins. In a matter of hours, I saw a plug-in built from scratch—literally dragging and dropping field from staging tables into the schema to implement the DMR flow. Not only that, but once the plug-in is built; the same tool can help you map data from your back-end system to re-use the plug-in. It really did look like I could do it!

You do have to have Visual Studio or the appropriate Java tool to make executables for your environment. After you’ve done all the dragging and dropping, you’ll have to put all the output files together and hit F5 to compile the whole thing. Funny—that is about all I remember about programming with Visual C. F5. So easy a manager could do it.

Note: This approach is part of a pending update release for OpenNode2. The node is free, and the plug-ins can be freely shared, but it does rely on a mapping tool that you’ll have to buy. It’s about 500 bucks. Then again, folks have been spending tens of thousands of dollars implementing flows. That’s a drop in the bucket if you save a couple of weeks work. If you can’t spring for the tool, you can still use the plug-ins that anyone else builds. You still have to have a source data system—no magic bullet for that, but it looks to me like this lowers the bar so far it is barely a tripping hazard!

Also from Kansas City: Look for an updated Design Rules and Conventions. The existing instructions on schema and flow design have been adjusted over the years to the point that they are no longer comprehensible. Read this—then modify it by what it says over there. If there are conflicts, do your best. We have learned a lot in the past 7 years. Now the NTG will be putting it all in one easy-to-read set of instructions. Watch for it. This will replace more than half of the instructions in our “library”. I’m not sure that means that a manager could design flows, but at least you or your vendor can do so with a little less frustration and confusion.