FDC3 in AdapTable

Understanding FDC3

AdapTable provides full and comprehensive support for FDC3 - the Open Standard for the financial desktop.

The mission of the Financial Desktop Connectivity and Collaboration Consortium (FDC3) is to develop specific protocols and taxonomies to advance the ability of desktop applications in financial workflows to interoperate in a plug-and-play fashion, without prior bi-lateral agreements.

FDC3 provides an open standard for interoperability between applications on the financial desktop.

End-users of AdapTable are able to access FDC3 in a number of ways including:

• raise, and listen for, FDC3 Intents
• broadcast, and listen for, FDC3 Contexts
• use Custom Intents and Contexts

How it Works

FDC3 support in AdapTable is provided at design-time by developers using FDC3 Options.

AdapTable's FDC3 configuration is managed via a 2 step-process:

1. provide FDC3 data mappings - essentially mapping formal FDC3 types against AdapTable Columns
2. use these mappings to raise and listen for Intents, and broadcast and listen for Contexts

Grid Data Mappings

AdapTable's FDC3 support is data-centric.

Grid Data Mappings provide the "glue" to map the Grid's data and columns to FDC3 behaviour.

Essentially they tell AdapTable which columns in the Grid to use when creating Intents and Contexts.

Mappings are provided in the gridDataContextMapping property of FDC3 Options.

ֵEach entry has a key of a formal FDC3 type and an associated mapping to existing Grid Columns.

Intents

Intents are FDC3 actions that a user wants to perform or react to.

According to the official FDC3 Documentation:

FDC3 Intents define a standard set of verbs that, in conjunction with context data acting as nouns, can be used to put together common cross-application workflows on the financial desktop.

AdapTable supports Intents through the intents property in FDC3 Options.

This contains 2 properties:

• raises - provides a list of FDC3 Intents which can be raised

  Note

  Intents can be raised either via a Context Menu item or by creating an Action Column Button

• listensFor - lists the FDC3 Intents to which the Grid will listen

  Hint

  Intents are listened to by implementing the handleIntent property function - also in FDC3 Options

Contexts

If Intents are the verbs that define actions, then Contexts are the accompanying nouns.

According to the official FDC3 Documentation:

FDC3 Context Data defines a standard for passing common identifiers and data between apps to create a seamless workflow....Context objects are used when raising intents and when broadcasting context to other applications.

AdapTable supports FDC3 Contexts through the contexts property in FDC3 Options.

This contains 2 properties:

• broadcasts - publishes information about a given FDC3 Context

  Note

  Context can be broadcast either via a Context Menu item or by creating an Action Column Button

• listensFor - lists the FDC3 Contexts to which the Grid will listen

  Hint

  Context is listened to by implementing the handleContext property function - also in FDC3 Options

Custom FDC3

Typically users will want to raise intents and broadcast contexts which are officially provided by FDC3.

However AdapTable also supports Custom FDC3 context and intents.

This can be used to communicate between multiple AdapTable instances or between AdapTable and other applications in your workflow.

FDC3 UI Components

Developers are easily able to configure the AdapTable UI to perform FDC3-related actions.

FDC3 Action Columns

This is primarily achieved through FDC3 Action Columns.

These are normal Action Columns (used widely in AdapTable) which are leveraged for FDC3 purposes.

These dynamically created Columns will display buttons used for Raising Intents or Broadcasting Contexts.

FDC3 Action Columns can be provided in 2 ways:

• By providing Action Buttons - which AdapTable will then display in the default FDC3 Action Column

• By providing a custom FDC3 Action Column - which AdapTable will render as required

The Buttons and Action Columns are defined inside whichever Intents and / or Contexts they reference.

FDC3 Context Menu Items

Another way to use the AdapTable UI to perform FDC3 activity is through Context Menu Items.

Developers provided the menu configuration details in FDC3 Options, and AdapTable will wire up the menu items automatically.

FDC3 Message Event

AdapTable fires the FDC3 Message Event whenever an FDC3 Message is sent or received.

UI Entitlements

The UI Entitlements behaviour for FDC3 is that ReadOnly and Full Access Levels are identical (since everything is provided at design-time).