Imported from previous forum
[ original email was from Kate Ardini - kate.ardini@nyfix.com ]
TradeScope 2.0 is Here!
Javelin Technologies is pleased to announce the availability of the 2.0 release of its TradeScope product. This innovative tool for engine monitoring and control offers several new features, enhancements, and an SDK that significantly expand the product customization options for limiting access to sensitive data, being made aware of alert conditions, and obtaining critical engine, session, and FIX message details.
New Features and Major Enhancements
The 2.0 release of TradeScope offers several new features and enhancements, including session group assignment for users, more options for alert subscriptions, a new LogPatternMatcher agent, new plugins for the log reader agents (LocalIndexMessageBrowser, MessageWatcher, and PatternMatcher), and a new task scheduler for running and monitoring server jobs.
Session Group Assignment
Previous versions of TradeScope allowed users to create logical session groupings to simplify alert subscriptions, session filters, and application of active intervals. With TradeScope 2.0, these session groups can also be applied to a user’s profile to limit the information the user is authorized to access. These users will be able to access only those details relating to the engines and sessions in their assigned session groups. As in previous releases, when no session groups are assigned, users will have access to all of the engine and session details normally allowed by their role assignment.
For more information, see the heading “Understand the Scope of Session Groups” in Chapter 2, “Get Started,” of the TradeScope 2.0 User’s Guide.
Expanded Alert Subscription Options
TradeScope 2.0 offers a vastly expanded set of alert subscription options:
· Users can now subscribe to individual alerts (itemized subscriptions) in addition to creating the qualified alert subscriptions (wildcard subscriptions) allowed in previous releases of TradeScope.
· An administrator or other authorized user can create alert subscription templates with predefined itemized and wildcard subscriptions that users can apply when they create their alert subscriptions. Any modifications to applied templates are immediately carried through to the user’s subscription settings.
· Users can set default alert delivery options (selected notifiers and recurrence policy) for all of their alert subscriptions, allow applied templates to override these options for the subscriptions obtained from the templates, or override any previously set delivery options for individual subscriptions, regardless of whether the subscription came from a template or was set up by the user.
· Developers can use the TradeScope SDK to generate additional alert messages and create custom alert notifiers.
For more information about alert subscriptions, see Chapter 6, “Receive and View Alerts,” and the heading “Alert Template Configuration” in Chapter 7, “Review System Configuration Settings,” of the TradeScope 2.0 User’s Guide. For more information about editing alert messages, see Chapter 10, “Modify Event Descriptions,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide. For details about generating custom alerts and creating alert notifiers, see the TradeScope SDK documentation.
LogPatternMatcher Agent
TradeScope 2.0 includes a new LogPatternMatcher agent that can be used to scan log files for particular patterns, and to generate TradeScope alerts when those patterns exceed a certain frequency. This agent is configured in a similar manner to the other TradeScope agents; however, the patterns used in the log file scanning are specified in a separate configuration file. For log files that are already being monitored by a TradeScope log reader agent, TradeScope 2.0 includes a PatternMatcher agent plugin that provides similar functionality.
For more information about the LogPatternMatcher agent, see the heading “LogPatternMatcher Agent” in Chapter 6, “Configure the Agents,” and Chapter 7, “Create Pattern Matching Files,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
LocalIndexMessageBrowser Plugin (Distributed Message Browser)
In previous versions of TradeScope, Message Browser data was always stored in a central database. However, there are some circumstances under which this model may not be efficient. For example, when a monitored engine and its log reader agent are connected to the TradeScope server through a heavily trafficked wide area network (WAN), writes to the database may be slower than desired. Similarly, when the engine and its log reader agent are connected to the server in a local area network (LAN), the volume of message traffic with the counterparty is very high, and the database is heavily loaded, the writes to the database may be extremely slow and create a backlog of data to be added to the database. To address these types of situations, TradeScope 2.0 includes an alternate Distributed Message Browser in addition to the standard Database Message Browser.
The Distributed Message Browser is enabled with the new LocalIndexMessageBrowser agent plugin. Instead of recording a copy of FIX messages in the central TradeScope database, this plugin creates and manages a local index file that indexes FIX messages by a configured set of message fields. This allows messages to be quickly located and retrieved from the engine’s log files in response to Message Browser queries. Because the FIX messages are indexed, rather than copied into a separate database, the query options for the Distributed Message Browser differ slightly from the query options for the Database Message Browser.
For more information about configuring the LocalIndexMessageBrowser agent plugin, see the heading “LocalIndexMessageBrowser Agent Plugin” in Chapter 6, “Configure the Agents,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide. For details about using the Distributed Message Browser for message queries, see the heading “Start a Distributed Search” in Chapter 5, “Check Message Contents,” in the TradeScope 2.0 User’s Guide.
MessageWatcher Plugin
TradeScope 2.0 includes a new MessageWatcher plugin for log reader agents, which can be used to search the engine log files for the occurrence and frequency of specific FIX messages and generate related alerts. This plugin is configured in a similar manner to the other TradeScope plugins.
For more information about the MessageWatcher agent plugin, see the heading “MessageWatcher Agent Plugin” in Chapter 6, "Configure the Agents in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
PatternMatcher Plugin
TradeScope 2.0 includes a new PatternMatcher plugin for log reader agents that can be used to search the engine log files (which are already being monitored by a log reader agent) for the occurrence and frequency of particular patterns and generate related alerts. This plugin provides similar functionality to the LogPatternMatcher agent. It is also configured in a similar manner to the other TradeScope agent plugins; however, the patterns used in the log file scanning are specified in a separate configuration file.
For more information about the PatternMatcher agent plugin, see the heading “PatternMatcher Agent Plugin” in Chapter 6, “Configure the Agents,” and Chapter 7, “Create Pattern Matching Files,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
Task Scheduler
TradeScope includes a task scheduler that allows you to identify one or more TradeScope server jobs that will be available for scheduling, specify the schedule details, and monitor the status of the job(s). This release includes a PurgeAuditTables server job, which can be scheduled for routine database maintenance. Other server jobs can be developed using the TradeScope SDK.
For more information about configuring TradeScope to run a server job, see the headings “Identify Server Jobs for Scheduling” and “Schedule Server Jobs” in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” of the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide. For information about monitoring the status of a server job, see the heading “Server Jobs Configuration” in Chapter 14, “Administrative Tasks,” of the same guide. Information about creating custom server jobs is provided in the TradeScope SDK documentation.
Software Development Kit
TradeScope 2.0 makes an optional Software Development Kit (SDK) available to further customize and extend TradeScope’s core functionality. The initial release of the SDK allows you to create:
· Custom Authorization Handlers, for altering the way in which users are validated and granted access to the TradeScope system. This allows you to customize TradeScope to integrate with other authentication mechanisms and to add convenience for end users by enabling single signon, where users need to supply their logon credentials only once to gain access to all of the systems they are authorized to use.
· Server Jobs that need to be run on a regular basis and can be managed by the new TradeScope task scheduler in the TradeScope user interface.
· Custom Alert Notifiers, to provide alternate delivery mechanisms for TradeScope alerts such as paging or instant messaging. Custom alert notifiers are configured and made available for alert subscriptions in the same manner as the email alert notifier included with the standard TradeScope package.
· Custom Pages for the TradeScope User Interface, allowing you to provide convenient access to information and web-based applications that relate to TradeScope monitoring activities. Each custom page will be associated with a top-level tab and a sub tab that will be added to the TradeScope tab menu. The page content can come from an existing URL address or be dynamically generated from a Java Server Page (JSP). Access to the custom page(s) is controlled through standard configuration of user roles and user accounts.
· Customized LogReader Agents, for monitoring and reporting on additional engine files that may differ in content, structure, and naming convention from the engine log files currently supported by TradeScope. Customized LogReader agents can use both standard and custom agent plugins, make relevant data available through the TradeScope user interface, generate alerts, and perform custom tasks. These agents are configured in the same manner as the standard set of TradeScope log reader agents. Note: A few customized LogReader agents have already been developed. If you need a log reader agent for a specific FIX engine, contact your Javelin Account Manager for details.
· Custom log reader agent plugins, for extending the functionality of either standard or customized TradeScope log reader agents. Custom plugins have access to relevant configuration details, as well as the log messages extracted by the agent. Using this information, the plugin can perform programmed tasks, which may include updates to the database, publishing JMS messages, generating custom events for alert messages, or initiating custom tasks.
For more information, see the TradeScope 2.0 Software Development Kit Reference Guide, as well as the JavaDoc and examples that accompany the TradeScope SDK.
Other Enhancements
TradeScope 2.0 also includes the following enhancements:
· Enhanced Order Chaining Logic - The FIX protocol requires sell-side counterparties to use a unique OrderID for each order chain; however, not all firms implement this requirement. TradeScope 2.0 includes enhanced order chaining logic that will use the PossDupFlag, TimeInForce, and TransactTime fields, in addition to the standard ClOrdID and OrderID fields, to determine the correct order chain when OrderIDs are reused. Simply configure the Message Browser plugin to keep track of these additional fields to enable this feature.
· Convenient Configuration Reload - The Configuration>TradeScope page in the TradeScope user interface includes a new Reload Configuration button that can be used to activate any changes made to the TradeScope configuration files while TradeScope is running. Note that some configuration file changes may cause affected agents to be restarted. See individual element descriptions in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” for more details.
· Command Line Script to Shut Down Agents - In addition to the user interface controls for shutting down TradeScope agents that were available in previous releases, TradeScope 2.0 includes a command line script for shutting down the agents for an individual node or the entire domain. In order to execute the command line script, users must supply their logon credentials to verify that they are authorized to perform this task. For more information, see the heading “Shut Down the Agents” in Chapter 13, “System Startup,” of the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· Flexible Agent and Agent Plugin Configuration - The core configuration for individual agents and agent plugins has been extracted from the main tradescope-config.xml file and placed in separate agent-specific configuration files. This allows you to set up default configurations that can be easily applied to relevant TradeScope nodes, and allows you to fine-tune the configuration on a node or domain level. For more information, see Chapter 6, “Configure the Agents,” and the heading “Identify the Agents” in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· More Agent Properties - Additional agent properties are available to allow you to limit the number of threads an agent uses when processing multiple log files, as well as to support the new agents and plugins included with this release. For more information, see the heading “Agent Property Summary” in Chapter 6, “Configure the Agents,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· Queue Over Threshold Reset Is Now 10% Below Threshold - In previous releases of TradeScope, the inbound and outbound queue over threshold conditions would be reset as soon as the number of messages in the queue dropped below the configured threshold. If the queue size continued to hover around the threshold, extraneous queue over threshold and queue below threshold alerts could be generated. To address this scenario, TradeScope 2.0 by default, will wait until the queue size drops 10% below the threshold before switching the state of the queue from over threshold to below threshold. This percentage is configurable, using a new set of server properties. For more information, see the heading “Set Queue Threshold Properties” in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· New Server Properties for Controlling Query and Filter Properties - The tradescopeconfig.xml includes a new set of server properties that allows you to specify the number of search criteria rows available in the Filter and Query forms, how long a query should run in the foreground before continuing to run in the background, how long a query can take before timing out, and the maximum size of the query results returned. For more information, see the heading “Set Query and Filter Properties” in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· New Server Property for Monitoring the TradeScope Log File - The tradescope-config.xml includes a new server property that allows you to configure TradeScope to monitor its own log file for specific patterns and generate related alerts. For more information, see the heading “Monitor Patterns in the TradeScope Log File” in Chapter 5, “Create the Main TradeScope Config File,” and Chapter 7, “Create Pattern Matching Files,” in the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
· Additional System Properties - TradeScope 2.0 allows you to use additional system properties in the tradescope.properties file for organizing TradeScope configuration files in a different directory structure from the default structure. For more information, see the heading “Property Descriptions” in Chapter 12, “Configure JBoss for TradeScope,” of the TradeScope 2.0 Installation and Configuration Guide.
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