Overview

The buying organization may choose to integrate to the standard Unimarket webservices or use the Unimarket Connector middleware to handle data transformation to or from a customer external system such as FMIS, ERP, Reporting systems, Asset Management etc. The Connector minimizes the need for custom integration as it is built specifically to send and receive messages from Unimarket and transform them into a format compatible with client-side systems. Unimarket installs the Connector on a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) behind the customer firewall to receive XML messages from the Unimarket application. The Connector can then input/output data (or a flat file) in a format that is compatible with the customer FMIS/ERP system. The data or flat file is typically input/output to or from a staging table or to a specified directory location.

• Examples of Transactional messages are Orders, Receipts and Invoices.
• Examples of Master Data are Approvals, User Details and Accounting (GL) information.
• Examples of Validation / Callback are Budget Checking, Approvals and User Validation / Authentication.

Note: The above diagram does not illustrate all the available integration points.

 

Technical Documentation

For documentation on the setup and technical requirements for the UCP see Connector Setup & Technical Requirements.

Overview

The Unimarket Connector middle-ware handles integration between Unimarket and a customer system (in both directions). For a more detailed description see here.

In order for Unimarket to be able to install and configure the Unimarket Connector software in a customer's infrastructure, the following high-level requirements must be met:

• Two environments (one for Test, one for Production) to install the software. These can be physical or virtual and either Windows or Linux.
• Administrator/root account on the environment where the Unimarket Connector is to be installed.
• Installation of the Java Development Kit (JDK 8) on the environment where the Unimarket Connector is to be installed.
• Firewall rules to allow Unimarket to communicate with the Unimarket Connector and vice versa.

To ensure all the above requirements have been met, please choose the correct section below depending on the operating system of your choice and complete all the required details.

Note: Unimarket will not be able to begin work on installing and configuring the Unimarket Connector until all the requirements have been met.

 

Roles and Responsibilities

Customer is responsible for:

• Applying OS security patches/updates.
• Applying Java Development Kit patches/updates.
• Regular maintenance to ensure there is enough free disk space.
• Maintaining firewall rules.
• Maintaining any DNS rules used to provide access to the Unimarket Connector.

Unimarket is responsible for:

• Updating the Unimarket Connector with changes and security patches.

Requirements

Common

Name	Description
Technical Contact	Name, phone number and email of a technical contact to answer technical questions and make changes.
HDD 40GB	Total hard disk space on the machine/VM dedicated to run the Unimarket connector. Please tick.
Memory 4GB	Total memory on the machine/VM dedicated to run the Unimarket connector. Please tick.

 

Networking

The Customer must provide network access to the Unimarket Connector environment for Unimarket to be able to remotely install and administer the software.

There are two options to provide this access:

• Direct SSH or RDP access (with access restricted to Unimarket IP addresses)
• Access via a Customer VPN.

VPN details (if required)

Item

Software

Instructions

VPN Host

VPN User

VPN Password

 

Firewall

The customer must ensure the following firewall rules have been configured per the Firewall Rule.

Unimarket Connector Host

The customer must provide two dedicated hosts to run the Unimarket Connector software. These could be actual physical hosts or a virtual machines.

Windows

Name	Description
Version	Windows 7 or above or Windows server 2012 or above.
Test Hostname	Internal or DNS name.
Test IP Address	IP Address which can be reached.
Test Admin credentials	Username/Password of a local Administrator account.
RDP	RDP access enabled.
Prod Hostname	Internal or DNS name.
Prod IP Address	IP Address which can be reached.
Prod Admin credentials	Username/Password of a local Administrator account.
RDP	RDP access enabled.

 

Linux

Name	Description
Version	CentOS 7 or above. Redhat ES 7 or above. Ubuntu 16.04 or above.
Test Hostname	Internal or DNS name.
Test IP Address	IP Address which can be reached.
Test Admin credentials	Username/Password of a local root account - or - Username/Password of a normal user account with sudo enabled.
SSH	SSH access enabled.
Prod Hostname	Internal or DNS name.
Prod IP Address	IP Address which can be reached.
Prod Admin credentials	Username/Password of a local root account - or - Username/Password of a normal user account with sudo enabled.
SSH	SSH access enabled.

Overview

The Unimarket Connector Platform (UCP) is installed at the Customer end to accept Web Service requests from Unimarket. The Web Service requests are authenticated by the UCP and then loaded into customer's financial system via an available integration point. The financial system then processes the information via a stored procedure or batch job into the financial application (e.g. Ellucian Banner, PeopleSoft, MS Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, TechOne).

The UCP can exchange data with the customer's financial system using many different mechanisms, this shields the customer from having to implement the SOAP and Security transactions and helps ensure the UCP-Unimarket protocol integrity. Some of UCP's bi-directional integration points include File (Custom formatted CSV, XML etc.), FTP, SCP, E-mail and customer specified application/script invocation. To further discuss integration points please contact Unimarket technical support.

Environment Requirements

Installations

The UCP can be configured to integrate with a specific financial/ERP environment. Unimarket will require access to two environments (Demo and Production) and therefore two installations of the UCP will be required.

UCP	Description
DEMO	This UCP will be used to interact with the Unimarket Demo environment for testing.
PROD	This UCP will be used to interact with the Unimarket Production environment.

 

Firewall

Unimarket has a Demo and Prod server environments that will require access to the Connector UCP installations at customer's site.

Please refer to Integration > General > Firewall Requirements.

Hardware/Software

• Hardware
• Hard disk space: minimum 20GB (to allow messages to be stored for later reference)
• Memory: minimum 1GB, recommended 2GB or above
• Software
• Operating system - windows (prefer Windows Server 2003 or above), Linux, Unix (prefer Redhat ES 5.4 or above)

Setup/Access

• SSH access for Unimarket to install, configure and maintain the the Connector (optionally over VPN)
• Firewall - UCP needs to be able to communicate with Unimarket over https (both directions)
• Login with rights to install Unimarket Connector
  • On Windows, Administrator rights are required to install a windows service (to ensure the Unimarket Connector is started when the machine is rebooted)
  • On Linux, permission to install the Unimarket Connector as a “service” (e.g. on Redhat we would use chkconfig –add). This access could be granted via sudo.