More about Connect HTTP rules

Important: Connect HTTP rules are no longer being actively developed. To avoid upgrade issues when these rules are deprecated, use REST connectors instead. For more information about REST connectors, see Connect REST rules.

Calling activity

An HTTP connector is called by an activity with the Activity type set to Connect that applies to a class derived from the Work- base class. Such activities can be referenced in an Integrator shape in a flow rule.

To start a HTTP connection and execute a Connect HTTP connector rule, create an activity that:

  1. Creates a named page for the class that the connector rule applies to. This page becomes the primary page for the connector.
  2. Sets property values and input parameter values that serve as the input for the connector's message sent to the external application.
  3. Calls the connector rule. This step uses the Connect-HTTP method. The step page is the primary page of the connector.
  4. Processes the reply message that the connector rule receives.

Asynchronous execution by the Pega-IntSvcs agents

To perform HTTP connector processing asynchronously:

  1. Create a Connector Request Processor data instance that defines the characteristics and classes of queued requests. Associate this data instance with the ruleset that contains the Connect HTTP rules.
  2. On the Service tab of the Connect HTTP rule, select queuing in the Intended for field and identify the Connector Request Processor created in step 1. Leave the Response tab blank.
  3. Update one or more Data-Agent-Queue instances to ensure that the ProcessConnectQueue agent entry within the Pega-IntSvcs agent is enabled with an appropriate time period.
  4. In the activity steps that execute the Connect-HTTP method, set the Execution mode parameter value to Queue.
  5. Test.

Performance statistics

For information on gathering performance information about this connector see Testing Services and Connectors on Pega Community.

Simulation and debugging

You can simulate an HTTP connector when the external system is unavailable or when you need to test an application but lack a test environment.

For more information on testing connectors, see Testing Services and Connectors on the Pega Community.

Working with SSL-enabled endpoints

When a customer has a Connector rule for an HTTP-based protocol such as HTTP, SOAP, REST, and sometimes Email, they may point to an SSL-enabled ("https") endpoint. The service that it is connected to will provide an SSL certificate in order to identify itself and secure the connection.

Pega Platform relies on the Application Server in order to "trust" the certificate that another service provided. When Pega Platform is deployed in tomcat, this usually means that the default Java truststore is in use. IBM Websphere has its own truststore, controlled in the Admin Console.

When the certificate provided by a service is not in the truststore, or otherwise not trusted (for instance, it is out of date or issued to a different organization), Pega Platform cannot complete the connection and an exception such as "Peer not authenticated" results.

It is the responsibility of the customer to ensure that the application server's truststore is set up correctly.