Considerations for integrations with HCL Compass

This topic provides guidelines to follow when integrating HCL Compass with other products.

If you are working with or creating an integration with HCL Compass software, you must consider how the following features might affect the integration, to ensure correct operation.
  • Globalization support and return string mode

    Integrations with HCL Compass software might receive error messages that the application must be able to handle to support mixed character-set deployments. If your environment requires a HCL Compass data code page that is not the same as all local character sets for client and Web servers, you might need to modify existing integrations to handle return string errors.

    Errors are returned to the calling integrating application if any of these conditions are true:
    • The application writes characters that cannot be represented in the HCL Compass data code page. These characters cannot be stored in the database.
    • The application reads characters from a HCL Compass database that cannot be represented in the local character set.
    For more information, see Supporting a mixed character set deployment.

    If the local character sets of all clients connected to a database set or clan match the HCL Compass data code page, you do not need to consider these issues. For more information about character representations and code page settings, see the Administering HCL Compass online Help.

  • Support for larger number of database IDs

    The number of database IDs (DBIDs) supported is greater than 16 million. HCL Compass API methods and queries can now return DBIDs that are greater than 16 million. This change can affect an existing integration that requires but does not check for DBIDs less than 16 million. For more information, see Working with records.

  • LDAP authentication

    The GetAccessibleDatabases method allows the user name argument (GetAccessibleDatabases(user_name)) to be either the HCL Compass user name for users authenticated by HCL Compass software or the LDAP user name for users authenticated by LDAP. This change might affect an integration that uses the GetAccessibleDatabases method. You can no longer use a HCL Compass user name if the user is LDAP authenticated. For more information, see API support for LDAP authentication.

  • Client version checking for mixed-client environments

    You should check the version of a HCL Compass client before you authorize it to make any changes to a user database. For more information, see Client version checking.