Overview: Process for Developing an Inventory Adapter

FlexNet Manager Suite 2022 R1 (On-Premises)

Here is your mental roadmap through the development process for inventory adapters, with links to the details.

The development process for inventory adapters:

1. Create a new adapter, normally pre-populated with an appropriate set of steps to gather and process data (Creating a New Adapter).
2. Specify a new connection to a data source. Initially this is a test connection during your development phase. (See To Create a Source Connection)
3. Use the Step Explorer to:
   • Add a new step to one of the grouping folders (see Adding a New Step to an Inventory Adapter)
   • Remove any steps provided automatically that are not required in your inventory adapter (see Removing a Step from an Inventory Adapter)
   • Change the execution order of steps within your inventory adapter (see Reordering Steps in an Inventory Adapter)
   • Update the details included within an individual step.
     Note: You cannot add, delete, or reorder folders in the Step Explorer. These are optimized for the order of insertion into the operations database. You may only modify or reorder the steps within a given folder.
4. Test each step in your adapter as you develop it (see Tips for Editing an Adapter and Testing an Adapter). Cycle through until you have created and tested all the steps needed to complete your inventory adapter.
5. Run the entire adapter, and validate that the collected data is as you expect (again, see Tips for Editing an Adapter). On an inventory beacon, validation means unzipping the intermediate package and examining the XML file it contains. Look for your created intermediate package in C:\Program Data\Flexera Software\Beacon\IntermediateData.
6. Put the completed and test inventory adapter into production (see Publishing Your Adapter).