Conversation support

By default, a single instance of a map has exclusive use of a client connection (-CCON command). With an exclusive client connection, you can use the number of event messages (-NEM command) to initiate a conversational map instance. The -NEM command specifies how many messages the adapter must receive to start an instance of a map. If the map runs in burst mode, each burst can process one or more additional messages from the client, and send one or more responses to the client. In this scenario, the map ends when the client disconnects from the socket.

When the client connection is shared, multiple map instances concurrently use a single client connection. You cannot use the -NEM command with a shared connection. Instead, use the Quantity (-QTY) and Listen (-LSN) commands to determine the number of messages that a single map instance processes. The listener receives the specified number of messages. The map instance processes the messages and sends one or more response messages to the client.

If the client continues to send messages while a map instance is running, the adapter can start another map instance. Both map instances use the same client connection. The client is responsible for associating the request message with any responses from the maps. The -CCON shared command does not preclude multiple clients from connecting to the socket.