Altova FlowForce Server 2025 Advanced Edition

When you install other Altova servers alongside FlowForce Server, for example, by selecting the relevant server products in the FlowForce Server installation wizard or installing these server products using their stand-alone installers later, a .tool file is installed for each application that runs under FlowForce Server management. The following Altova products can run under FlowForce Server management: MapForce Server, StyleVision Server and RaptorXML Server. Usually, you do not need to configure .tool files unless you need to change environment variables such as CLASSPATH for MapForce Server and StyleVision Server.

FlowForce Server uses .tool files to locate and configure the execution of other server applications under its management. FlowForce Server first scans INSTANCEDIR to search for .tool files and then scans INSTALLDIR. The tables below show the paths of these directories for different operating systems. Note that the directories shown for the INSTANCEDIR are default paths. During the configuration of FlowForce Server, you can set your custom path to the INSTANCEDIR.

The INSTANCEDIR\tools is usually an empty directory, where you place any customized tool files. The INSTALLDIR directory is managed by the installation process, and the .tool files contained in it must not be edited.

Information messages

FlowForce Server groups running tool process instances and manages them as configured in the .tool files. When FlowForce enforces the rules regarding the lifetime of tool process instances, all these events may produce information messages in the log. For example:

Starting instance {id} of {tool} for {session}.

Starting {commandline}.

Instance {id} of {tool} for {session} is now idle.

Shutting down instance {id} of {tool} for {session}; sitting idle for too long.

Shutting down instance {id} of {tool} for {session}; maximum reuse count reached.

Instance {id} of {tool} for {session} unexpectedly ceased communication.

Instance {id} of {tool} for {session} attached to job instance {instanceid}.

The information messages listed above do not indicate licensing or queueing issues. Instead, they make it possible to track down potential problems, for example, by offering information about processes that were running at a particular time. If steps or jobs fail, this will generate a separate log message.

Tool file editing

Files with a .tool extension can be edited in a text editor (e.g., Notepad++). The following editing options are available:

1.The executable path under the [Tool] section. Changing this path might be necessary in certain cases, for example, when you need to make .tool files of older versions execute newer versions, or vice versa.

2.The [Environment] section. You can add or edit this section in order to define environment variables required by the tool. For more information, see the subsection below.

Important:

•When you edit a .tool file in INSTANCEDIR, changes take effect at once. You do not have to restart FlowForce Server.

•Do not change any .tool file settings other than the ones mentioned above, unless advised by Altova Support.

•It is not possible to define custom tools.

Environment variables

When MapForce Server mappings or StyleVision Server stylesheets run under FlowForce Server management, they may require setting environment variables. For example, you need to set CLASSPATH to specify the location of the JDBC drivers when connecting to a database. To set environment variables required by MapForce Server mappings or StyleVision Server transformations, edit the .tool file of the respective Altova server product. To edit the .tool file, first check if it already exists in the INSTANCEDIR directory. If the .tool file does not exist in INSTANCEDIR, copy it from INSTALLDIR of FlowForce Server.  

You would find .tool files in the INSTALLDIR directory only if MapForce Server or StyleVision Server were installed after FlowForce Server. If the .tool file exists neither in INSTANCEDIR nor in INSTALLDIR, it is likely that FlowForce Server was installed after MapForce Server or StyleVision Server. In this case, you can find the .tool file in the etc directory relative to the MapForce Server or StyleVision Server installation directory.

You can add the required environment variables under the [Environment] section in the .tool file. The environment variables set in the .tool file override the environment variables defined by other means. The example of a .tool file (Linux) which sets the CLASSPATH variable is given below:

[Environment]

CLASSPATH=.:/usr/local/jdbc/oracle/ojdbc6.jar

For information about executing shell commands or scripts as FlowForce Server jobs, see the /system/shell/commandline function.