To Start the Business Adapter Studio

For adapters that run on an inventory beacon, start the Business Adapter Studio from your inventory beacon interface. Alternatively, for those that will run on your central application server, start it from the Windows Start menu.

Disconnected mode is used whenever the business adapter runs on a separate computer that is not the operations server for an on-premises installation of FlexNet Manager Suite. A typical example is where the business adapter will run on an inventory beacon, perhaps because of network partitioning that separates the data gathering from your central server.

When the adapter runs on your central, on-premises server and has simultaneous access both to the business data and to the operations database for FlexNet Manager Suite, this is called connected mode. There are separate methods for starting Business Adapter Studio in connected and disconnected modes.

Note: The account running the FlexNet Beacon interface requires administrator privileges. In particular, when running the Business Adapter Studio, the account must have write privileges to the registry on the server where it is executing. If this privilege is not available, and you select the encryption option in the Business Adapter Studio, the product will fail with the error The type initializer for 'Flexera.BusinessImport.BusinessImporterCryptgrapher' threw an exception.

To start the Business Adapter Studio:

1. In disconnected mode, where the finished adapter will run on an inventory beacon:
   1. Select the Business Importer tab in the user interface for the inventory beacon.
   2. Optionally, if you think that new templates and reference files may be available since you started the inventory beacon user interface (UI), you may click Download Configuration.
      As the configuration files don't change often, and are checked for currency each time that you start the inventory beacon UI, this is necessary only in special circumstances.
   3. Click one of the following buttons:
      • Click New... if you are starting development of a new business adapter.
      • Click Edit... to modify one of your existing business adapters.

      Business Adapter Studio displays an initial dialog to collect details, and opens the appropriate business adapter in the editing environment.
2. In connected mode, where the business adapter will run on your on-premises operations server:
   1. From the Windows Start menu, open the Flexera Software program group.
   2. In that group, click Business Adapter Studio.
      Business Adapter Studio opens a blank window.