Introduction to Transact connectors
Transact enables reception of transaction data which is stored in the database. The transaction data can be browsed and searched in XProtect Smart Client in combination with video.
Transact connectors are the components that determine how a Transact source acquires the transaction data. This could be through a network, other cable connections, or simply from files on a disk.
Ideally connectors do not interpret the data in any way, but simply pass it on to the Transact system which interprets it according to a transaction definition. The definition is configured by the administrator.
Implementation
When implementing a connector, we recommend that you take a look at the Transact Connector sample found in the Plug-in integration section.
A connector must implement derivations of the following two abstract classes:
VideoOS.Platform.Transact.Connector.ConnectorDefinition: Provides general information about the connector plus methods for initializing and closing the connector and creating new connector instances.VideoOS.Platform.Transact.Connector.ConnectorInstance: An instance of this class is created for each source configured by the administrator. Contains methods for initializing and closing the source and methods for validating and applying properties.
Both reside in the VideoOS.Platform.Transact.dll file so your project must refer to it.
For detailed information about these classes, see the code documentation in the Plug-in integration section.
In addition to these two classes, you must create a file named connector.def. It tells the event server that the plug-in is a Transact connector plug-in, and which dll to load. The contents should be like this:
<plugin>
<file name="TransactConnector.dll"/>
<load env="Service"/>
</plugin>Deployment
The Transact connector should be deployed to a plug-in specific subfolder in either the general MIPPlugins folder (typically C:\Program Files\Milestone\MIPPlugins) or the event server specific MIPPlugins folder (c:\Program Files\Milestone\XProtect Event Server\MIPPlugins) on the server running the event server. You should place both the plug-in binary and the connector.def file in this folder.
After the connector has been deployed, you should restart the event server.