Export Interval Choices for Receive Adapters

When you configure a Commerce Server 2009 receive adapter endpoint, you will need to decide the intervals upon which you want the receive adapter to generate export messages for that endpoint. Each Commerce Server 2009 receive adapter has ten properties that you can configure for each endpoint associated with, or instance of, that receive adapter. The following table shows these ten properties, organized logically into groups of related properties, according to which they are categorized in the Commerce Server system Transport Properties dialog boxes used to configure them.

Related Properties	Property Category and Description
Invocation Method	Category: Invocation Style Depending on whether you set the Invocation Method property to be Fixed or Peak-Off peak, the properties in the Fixed Query Interval category, or the properties in the Peak Hours, Peak Hours Query Interval, or the Off Peak Hours Query Interval categories, respectively, will be used.
Days Hours Minutes	Category: Fixed Query Interval The three properties in this category are used when you set the Invocation Method property to Fixed. The numeric values you provide for these properties are combined to determine the interval at which the corresponding receive adapter will generate export messages for the endpoint being configured. Note: Whenever the status of a receive adapter endpoint transitions from disabled to enabled, an export message will be generated and the specified interval until the next export will begin.
Begin End	Category: Peak Hours The two properties in this category are used when you set the Invocation Method property to Peak-Off peak. The numeric values that you provide, in the range 0 to 23, are used to establish your peak hours of the day. Use the Begin property to specify the hour of the day at which your peak hours begin, and use the End property to specify the hour of the day at which your peak hours end. For example, if you consider your peak hours to be normal business hours (9 AM to 5 PM), you should set the Begin property to 9 and the End property to 17. If your peak hours were in the middle of the night, say from 11 PM to 2 AM, you should set the Begin property to 23 and the End property to 2. Note: Whenever the status of a receive adapter endpoint transitions from disabled to enabled, or whenever the time boundary between peak and off-peak hours occurs, an export message will be generated and the specified interval until the next peak or off-peak export will begin.This means that if you enable a receive adapter at a random time, subsequent exports during that peak or off-peak period will occur at the specified interval from when the adapter was enabled and continue until the next time boundary between peak and off-peak hours occurs. At this time, the export intervals will resume the configured schedule.
Peak Hours Peak Minutes	Category: Peak Hours Query Interval The two properties in this category are used when you set the Invocation Method property to Peak-Off peak. The numeric values that you provide for these properties are combined to determine the interval at which the corresponding receive adapter will generate export messages for the endpoint being configured during your specified peak hours. Note: The combined hours and minutes must be less than the specified peak hour duration. Note: If you want your receive adapter endpoint to run only at the start of your specified peak period, and not run again during your peak period, set both of these transport property values to zero (0).
Off Peak Hours Off Peak Minutes	Category: Off Peak Hours Query Interval The two properties in this category are used when you set the Invocation Method property to Peak-Off peak. The numeric values that you provide for these properties are combined to determine the interval at which the corresponding receive adapter will generate export messages for the endpoint being configured during your specified off peak hours. Note: The combined hours and minutes must be less than the specified off peak hour duration. Note: If you want your receive adapter endpoint to run only at the start of your specified off-peak period, and not run again during your off-peak period, set both of these transport property values to zero (0).

As you can see from the descriptions above, you must use the fixed invocation method when you want your export intervals to be greater than one day, in which case you cannot directly control whether they will occur during any hours that you may consider peak.

Choosing the peak/off peak invocation method is more appropriate when your Commerce Server 2009 application experiences uneven usage throughout the day and you want to minimize the extra demand that the Commerce Server 2009 adapters may place on an otherwise heavily used system. For example, it might be better to run processing-intensive exports of catalog data during off peak hours in the middle of the night when Web site usage is low and telecom costs might be less expensive.

On the other hand, in some export scenarios, it might be important to export data more frequently during peak hours, as shown in the following example.

Peak/Off Peak Example

The following table provides example settings for peak/off peak usage.

These example settings specify a peak hours period from 08:00 to 17:00, with exports during peak hours occurring on two hour intervals and exports during off peak hours occurring on four hour intervals. With these settings, the corresponding Commerce Server 2009 receive adapter, for the endpoint being configured, would generate an export message at the following times:

• 08:00, 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, and 16:00 during peak hours, and,

• 17:00, 21:00, 01:00 and 05:00 AM during off peak hours.

See Also

Other Resources

How to Configure the Orders Transport Properties for a Receive Endpoint

How to Configure the Catalog Transport Properties for a Receive Endpoint

How to Configure the Inventory Transport Properties for a Receive Endpoint

How to Configure the Profiles Transport Properties for a Receive Endpoint

BizTalk Adapter Concepts