Running JSON Agent

JSON Agent is a .NET application written in C# and supported on Windows and Linux systems. It monitors the Kafka CDC topic for messages indicating that data has changed, reformats the base-64 encoded record data in each message into JSON, and posts the JSON-formatted CDC messages to an alternate Kafka topic.

This agent does not participate in any snapshot processing.

Three options on the LaunchPad Agents menu allow you to control and interact with the JSON Agent.

Starting the JSON Agent

The Start ISAM Agent option (Ctrl+J) can be used to launch an instance of the JSON agent on your local machine.

Before startin the agent LaunchPad checks that the Kafka server specified in the currently selected profile is available.

The agent is started as a background process, and when it's running, its process ID is displayed in the tab of the applications console.

The agent's console window is hooked and messages are captured and displayed in the JSON Agent console window. A context menu associated with that log display can be used to perform various operations, such as copying messages to the clipboard and clearing the console display.

TODO: Add a screen capture

When the agent is running, the menu option used to start the agent changes to one that can be used to stop the agent, and two additional menu options become available.

Viewing the JSON Agent Web Console

When the agent is running, the JSON Agent UI menu option (Ctrl+Shift+J) or the agent console context menu can be used to view the agent's admin UI in a web browser.

When you open the UI in this way, LaunchPad reads the necessary admin password from the agents local database and automatically authenticates with the asmin UI.

TODO: Add a screen capture

Viewing the JSON Agent API Documentation

When the agent is running, the JSON Agent API Docs menu option (Ctrl+Alt+J) or the agent console context menu can be used to view and interact with the agent's API docs in a web browser.

TODO: Add a screen capture