Integrating Sybase CEP with External Systems

This section discusses a variety of topics in the Sybase CEP Integration Guide that are related to interfacing Sybase CEP with external systems.

Topics in this manual include:

• Data input and output:

  • Adapters are software that convert data from external formats to the Sybase CEP Server's native format and vice versa. Sybase CEP provides a set of adapters that convert between the server's format and several common data formats. Sybase CEP also provides a set of SDKs to help you build a custom adapter if your data format does not match any of the included adapters or native stream formats.

• Sybase CEP Server Control:

  • Server control allows you to start and stop the execution of a project (query module), check the status of an executing project, and so on.

  • Command-line tools (such as the Sybase CEP CCL compiler) can be used outside of Sybase CEP Studio.

• Extending the Sybase CEP Server:

  • User-Defined Functions, which are functions that you write and then call from CCL statements.

  • Plugins, which allow you to call external programs in response to server status events (for example, such as a server process shutting down).

  • Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs).

• Accessing Sybase CEP streams directly over the network.

• Embedding the server as a library inside another process.

The table below shows the capabilities of each of the Sybase CEP SDKs in terms of converting to different data formats. Some terms used in this table are defined later in the manual; you may wish to re-read this table after you have read about those terms.

Sybase CEP uses the term "Sybase CEP Engine" to refer to the entire product, and uses the term "Sybase CEP Server" to refer to the program that processes queries and generates output. The term "Sybase CEP Engine" thus includes:

• Sybase CEP Server.

• Sybase CEP Studio, which is a GUI tool that helps you create and edit queries, streams, and so on.

• Sybase CEP SDKs, which help you create adapters, user-defined functions, and separate applications that act as "clients" of Sybase CEP Server.

• Sybase CEP command-line utilities, which do tasks such as compiling queries that are written in the CCL query language.

It's common to use Sybase CEP Studio primarily when developing CCL applications, and use the command-line utilities primarily in production. Of course, you may use either Sybase CEP Studio or the command-line utilities in either situation.

• Sybase CEP Integration and Enterprise Software Architecture
  Use Sybase CEP Engine as a stand-alone product or as part of a larger system. Describes actions you can perform when Sybase CEP Engine is integrated with a larger system.
• Software Development Aspects of Sybase CEP Integration
  An outline of the chapters in the Sybase CEP Integration Guide that contain information for developers.
• Other Interfaces to Sybase CEP
  Sybase CEP Server supports other useful interfaces. For example, it provides a status stream that enables you to monitor servers and queries. It also provides an ability to control the Sybase CEP Server with an API based on Simple Object Access Protocol.
• Other Helpful Documents
  If you are interested in running multiple copies of the server, either to enhance reliability by having backup servers or to enhance performance by doing more parallel processing , see the Sybase CEP Installation Guide .