InfoDyne's IT Class Library API
The core API component of TPS+Plus is the IT Class Library (ITCL), which provides a transport agnostic application programming interface (API) between the middleware infrastructure and the client/server applications within TPS+Plus. The ITCL is an object oriented C++ API, offering an easy to use API enabling client/server applications to participate in several request/response and publish/subscribe distribution tiers. There are several ITCL variants that expose the ITCL abstract model to other programming environments, including the C#, Java, .NET, COM, and Excel integration. These variant libraries are implemented as thin wrappers to the ITCL, allowing them to take advantage of the underlying ITCL which has broad capabilities and high performance characteristics. Through the .NET and COM libraries, Windows programmers can utilize .NET and COM compliant languages, including VB and VBA. The Excel macro plug-ins can subscribe to data within a cell and contribute data from a cell, effectively allowing Excel to serve as a client/server development tool. Throughout this document, descriptions of ITCL will refer to all variants unless otherwise noted.
The ITCL’s abstract object interface includes a Session through which client/server applications interact with the distribution tier. Features of a Session include an object cache, service provisioning, and service announcements. Client/Server applications use the Session to register objects that are either published or subscribed. Objects can include records or grids of data representing various kinds of data. These objects have convenient methods for setting and getting data. They ultimately consist of self-describing data models that can contain virtually any data, for any purpose. Within the TPS+Plus system, these objects contain market data. Underlying the Session are multiple adaptors that are hidden from the application, which can be configured to communicate to multiple distribution tiers. This is referred to as Multi-home Adaptor Technology, and effectively allows an ITCL-based application to participate in multiple middleware environments simultaneously if/as necessary. As such, any client and/or server applications mentioned in reference to TPS+Plus have this capability since they are based on the ITCL.