Putting Data into the Platform

A DataSource application services subscriptions for data on behalf of Liberator. DataSource applications communicate with other DataSource applications (which include Liberator and Transformer) using TCP/IP sockets. You develop these applications using the Caplin Integration Suite.

Integration Adapters and the Caplin Integration Suite

A DataSource application can be implemented as an Integration Adapter that simply acts as a bridge between the Caplin Platform and the API or protocol that an existing service or system uses.

To do this, it uses one of the APIs in the Caplin Integration Suite. The Adapter processes subscription requests, passing them on to the existing system, and passes back to the subscribing Liberator the data updates returned by the system, as shown here:

platform figure mini 4a

You can deploy the components of the Caplin Platform and the required Integration Adapters in a number of ways. For example, the Caplin Platform Deployment Framework makes it easy to deploy, run, and upgrade applications and Integration Adapters.

The DataSource library

The Caplin Integration Suite contains a DataSource library that handles a DataSource application’s connections to other DataSource applications. It also looks after failover to alternative DataSource applications if connections fail.

The DataSource library also converts data to and from the DataSource Protocol, This protocol is the common language that DataSource applications use to communicate with each other. This means that using the DataSource Library, an Integration Adapter can communicate with the Caplin Platform and onward to StreamLink-based client applications.

Multiple Integration Adapters

You can make multiple Integration Adapters work alongside each other. This means that you can access different types of data (let’s say, data about FX instruments, and data about FI instruments), or as multiple instances providing the same type of data (for example multiple connections to the same system for fault tolerance or load balancing).

Data published by clients

DataSource applications can also receive data published by clients, as shown here:

platform figure mini 4b

It is the job of the DataSource application to process this data. It could be private data relating to a trade, which would be passed on to a trading system to process, or it could be data to be re-published back into the Platform and thence on to other client applications.

Now that you know all about how to get data into Caplin Platform, let’s take a look at how to work with the data.