Worked example

This part of the SDK documentation demonstrates the process of setting a up a development environment and creating a connector through a worked example.

Prerequisites

This guide is designed as a continuation of Getting Started, so be sure to have completed that topic before you continue.

Developing a connector

The procedure for understanding, deploying, and configuring both i2 Analyze and the example connector is divided into the following sections:

  1. Designing an i2 Analyze connector schema
  2. Adding a service
  3. Querying an external data source
  4. Implementing parameterized searches
  5. Implementing seeded searches
  6. Implementing seeded, parameterized searches
  7. Validating requests
  8. Packaging and distribution

System requirements

The example requires the following tools and technologies:

  • i2 Analyze 4.4.4: The server that hosts the i2 Connect gateway.

  • i2 Analyst's Notebook 10.0.2: The client that provides the user interface for interacting with your connector. The client displays the resulting entity and link records with their properties.

  • i2 Analyze Schema Designer: The tool that enables you to design and create your i2 Analyze schema. During installation of Analyst's Notebook, ensure that you also install Schema Designer.

  • Microsoft Visual Studio Code: The recommended IDE for developing your connector. You can use any IDE you like, but the Visual Studio Code Spring Boot Dashboard plugin can handle running and redeploying the connector for you. Download it here.

  • Node.js Express: The connector is written with in Node with Express, which is a lightweight web application framework.