EXTOL Integration Studio

EXTOL Integration Studio (EIS) is an easy-to-use design-time modeling environment for EXTOL Business Integrator (EBI), including its subsidiary Data Integration Options. Its Design-time Automation^™ features slash the time required to create and maintain business processes, data transformation maps, and other integration deliverables.

EIS provides complete lifecycle support for building and maintaining sophisticated integration applications, with support for process composition, object reuse, and iterative development - all without coding. EIS delivers the power needed to tackle large, complex integration problems, yet can be used effectively even by IT professionals with limited experience and technical skills.

With EXTOL Integration Studio, you can:

• Create new integration processes in minutes - without coding
• Integrate cloud applications, external trading partners, internal applications and services, and enterprise data resources - in any combination, with one set of tools and skills.
• Run the integration applications you build on multiple platforms - including Windows, Linux, and IBM i OS
• Operate on virtually any type of business data - including XML documents, EDI messages, databases, flat files, and spreadsheets
• Deliver integration applications that require less maintenance and are easier to extend
• Build integration applications incrementally, testing and incorporating business user feedback at multiple stages
• Exploit Cloud-based integration assets for faster delivery of new projects
  
  
   

EIS provides a graphical workbench and repository-driven tool set that support all aspects of the integration life cycle, including:

• Project definition
• Configuration of Mediations for EDI, web services, change data capture, and other cases
• Metadata-driven business document definition for XML, EDI, flat file, spreadsheet, and database syntax categories
• Process modeling
• Specification of mapping rules for transforming, enriching, and routing business data
• Adapter configuration
• Configuration of Event and Schedule triggers
• Interactive testing
• Object and project archiving and deployment
• Process monitoring
• Process auditing and debugging

EXTOL Integration Studio was built from the ground up to be easy to use and maintain. Like other EXTOL products it installs in minutes, automatically, and new releases include automated upgrades.

Learn more about How You Use EXTOL Integration Studio

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EIS is easy to use for IT professionals and even technical business analysts. A single user can create, test, and deploy an integration project from beginning to end. Or, teams with multiple participants and roles can collaborate to deliver larger projects.

Building and maintaining integration applications using EIS is simpler, easier, and faster than conventional business application development, for three reasons:

1. Planning integration projects is simpler, because you define your requirements using a small number of high-level integration object types.
2. Building and maintaining integration applications is easier, because you build integration applications by combining configured integration objects, without programming.
3. Delivering integration results is faster, because EXTOL's unique Design-time Automation^™ approach accelerates many low-level, time-consuming manual specification tasks.

Building and maintaining integration applications revolves around a small set of design-time activities, as depicted in the life cycle diagram below. The sequence in which these activities can occur is flexible, not fixed. For descriptions of the design-time tools mentioned in this section, refer to the EIS Functional Overview, below.

1. Provision Project: Creating a new project is a simple matter of creating a project folder and populating it with integration objects. You can do this in two ways:
   
   • Using the Project Builder: Creates and populates a project folder for smaller projects using a graphical scaffold and guided configuration sequence.
   • By creating a Project folder and populating it with objects in your preferred sequence: You can add integration objects to a Project at any time, in any of three ways:
   • By dragging objects you want to reuse from other Projects
   • By invoking wizards that generate project objects for EDI or Web Service Mediations
   • By creating new objects, using object-specific-generators, modelers, or configurators
2. Define Document Schemas: Projects that contain data transformations require document definitions ("schemas") for each transformation source and target. EIS provides metadata importers that generate EDI, XML, and database schemas from imported document metadata, and metadata generators that produce flat file and spreadsheet schemas from data samples. You can also create and edit document schemas manually, using the Schema Editor.
3. Create Transformation Maps: EIS provides the most advanced automated mapping technology available - EXTOL Smart Mapping. With Smart Mapping, you create data transformation maps using a combination of drag-and-drop gestures and automated matching and rule generation assistance. By applying artificial intelligence and advanced heuristics, Smart Mapping dramatically improves mapping speed, quality, and consistency. And Smart Mapping is smart from day one. Unlike tools limited to dictionary methods, there is no requirement to predefine mapping associations.
   
   Mapping rules implement data validation, data transformation, conditional processing, routing, and other functions. Users can define custom mapping functions that can be used by others. View Product DemoTo learn more about EXTOL's advanced mapping technology, see the Functional Overview below, or watch a demo:         
   
   
4. Configure Endpoints and Adapters: Endpoint configuration encompasses communication and routing functions. To define communications with data sources and targets, EIS supplies Adapter configurator dialogs for both internal (applications, databases, file, services) and external (customers, suppliers, SaaS applications, industry hubs, etc.) resources. And for cases that require data-driven routing (e.g., matching EDI messages to message- or partner-specific processes) EIS supplies configurators for Endpoints and Collaborations that associate data envelope signatures with corresponding Business Processes.
5. Model Business Processes: In the EXTOL Business Integrator object model, business processes are the primary components of integration applications. They aggregate and conditionally sequence the execution of Adapter, Transformation, and other runtime tasks. EIS provides graphical tools for modeling business processes and configuring Events, Schedules, and other process activation objects. You can create simple business processes in seconds, and build larger, more powerful ones by composing or chaining smaller processes.
6. Test: EIS includes a local runtime environment to support rapid iterative testing. You can test any business process by launching it manually (using the EIS Process Launcher), invoking it from another process or transformation, or by triggering a configured activation method (Schedule, Event, web service Consumer, Database Monitor, File System Monitor, external Program). The EIS Process Monitor and Auditor tools provide tracing and diagnosis support during the testing phase.
   
   To minimize changes when moving tested applications to production, you can set Global Variables to substitute local adapters, file paths, and other environment-specific application characteristics, at multiple points in your integration applications. And because EBI applications are portable, you can deploy your tested applications to staging or production systems on your choice of supported platforms.
7. Deploy: EIS provides Archiver and UnArchiver utilities that automate the process of creating and deploying project packages to Test and Production target systems. The Archiver utility automatically analyzes dependencies in your project and includes in the resulting archive (.jar) all of the objects required for execution. At the target system, the UnArchiver identifies object collisions (e.g., older versions) and provides an interactive dialog for resolving them.

Monitoring your integration application

Once deployed, you can monitor and manage your integration applications using the included EBI Dashboard and Auditor tools. The EBI Dashboard includes functions for reporting and analyzing the results of integration process execution. The Auditor provides detailed analysis and drill-down inspection of process and task execution results, including data transformations.

Maintaining your integration application

The steps involved in maintaining your integration applications depend on the scope of changes or new requirements to which you must respond. Most maintenance cases involve isolated changes to document versions, data transformation rules, adapter configurations, and business processes. To implement those changes, you use the same highly automated tools that are available for building new integration applications. Additional tools support controlled application of changes to multiple objects at once. For example, the Migration Assistant implements changes to multiple data transformation maps when changes occur to source or target documents - for example, when changes occur to application interfaces or trading partner message versions.

Learn more about EXTOL Integration Studio Tools

EXTOL Integration Studio includes graphical tools for the complete integration life cycle, from project provisioning through testing and deployment. Using the EIS tools, you can build and maintain objects that comprise your integration applications, including:

• Mediation objects that route, activate, and interact with business processes. Using EIS, you can create mediations for inbound and outbound EDI, web services, change data capture, and other cases. Mediation objects include monitor objects for database content, file system content, web service requests, and schedules, plus routing objects such as Endpoints, Collaborations, and Events.
• Process Automation objects that define and control business process execution. In addition to business processes, these include adapters, data transformations, document schemas, web service invocations, sub-process invocations, and email notifcations.

As you build and maintain integration objects, EIS retains your configurations in the built-in repository, where they can be maintained and reused. For example, by substituting different adapter objects, you can build cloud, B2B, A2A, and data integration applications, using the same object model and EIS tools.

EIS includes a project Organizer and tab-oriented Workspace for browsing, selecting, and editing integration objects. Each object type is associated with the configuration tool(s) needed to maintain it, so EIS selects the right tool in each case, automatically.

The sections below list the tools provided by EIS for each of the lifecycle phases described in the section above.

Project Provisioning

EIS includes tools for creating, generating, and maintaining Projects, plus tool launchers, navigators, and browsers for accessing and managing Projects and the objects they contain.

• Workbench - A tree-oriented tool launcher that supports direct creation, browsing, and maintenance of integration objects.
• Organizer - A folder-oriented interface for organizing and sharing collections of integration objects by project, partner, interface, or other user-defined organizational scheme.
• Tab-oriented Object Browsers - Sortable and filterable viewers for browsing and selecting integration objects, organized in a multi-tab window that persists across session boundaries.
• Project Builder - A graphical scaffold for rapid creation and maintenance of small projects and subsets of larger projects. The Project Builder supports drag-and-drop object reuse and in-context object configuration, with visual cues and active validation throughout the Project provisioning process.
  
  
  
  To build a project using the Project Builder, you drag document schemas, adapters, and transformations onto the scaffold. If you need an object that doesn't exist, simply double-click on the empty node to activate the appropriate object editor or Design-time Accelerator. As you copy and save objects to the scaffold, color-coded validation cues tell you that they are valid - or need to be fixed. At the end of the process, the Project Builder generates an executable business process that ties together the objects in your project.
• EDI Inbound and Outbound Wizards - EDI Projects consist of inbound and outbound mediations that connect built-in services for routing, functional acknowledgment generation, and other EDI functions. Available with the EDI Integrator Option, the EDI wizards generate Process frameworks that incorporate connections with these services, including process templates, EDI document schemas, adapters, and other project deliverables.
• Web Service Consumer and Provider Wizards - Web service providers are mediations that connect web service requests with EBI business processes that can access or update data, invoke applications or other web services, and transform request and / or response data. Web service consumers are generated processes that can be called from EBI business processes or transformations, to integrate web services for validation, method invocation, data publication or retrieval, and other purposes.
  Web service support is integral to EXTOL Business Integrator, and is available for the Data Integrator subset options as the EXTOL Web Service Integration Option. The Web Service Provider wizards generate Consumer and Provider processes for both SOAP and REST, WSDLs for web service provider publication, plus business processes and task objects for connecting web services, EBI business processes, and data transformations.
• Database Monitor Configurator - Database monitors are trigger objects that, in conjunction with an EXTOL-supplied stored procedure, automate change data capture processing for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, and IBM DB2i.
  
  The Database Monitor Configurator identifies tables and columns to monitor, trigger conditions, filter criteria, and data to return on trigger events. It deploys configured triggers to a target DBMS and optionally generates an Event object for activation of a corresponding business process. The Database Monitor Configurator requires no coding, DBMS-specific knowledge, or DBA intervention.
• File System Monitor Configurator - File System Monitors are server objects that automate change data capture processing for file system content. The File System Monitor Configurator identifies directories to monitor, polling frequency, file name signature filters, and file renaming, archiving, and collision actions. It optionally generates an Event object for activation of a corresponding business process.

Document Definition

To support the transformation of XML, EDI, database, flat file, and spreadsheet data, EIS provides tools and Design-time Accelerators for creating and maintaining document definitions ("schemas") that are used for mapping source data to target data.

• Schema Editor - Creates, customizes, and maintains structure, attributes, and typing for documents and document elements used in transformation mapping.
  
• Metadata-driven schema generation - EIS includes a complete set of metadata Accelerators that generate error-free document schemas in a fraction of the time needed to define them manually.
• Database metadata importer: Generates document schemas from imported database catalog metadata, including multi-table views, without DBA involvement.
• EDI metadata importer: Generates EDI document schemas from EDI standards metadata (included with the EDI Integrator Option).
• Flat file schema wizard: Generates document schemas from flat file sample data, including fixed format, delimited, and complex, multi-format files.
• Spreadsheet schema wizard: Generates document schemas from spreadsheet sample data, including complex, multi-section worksheets and multi-worksheet workbooks.
• XML metadata importers: Generate document schemas from standard XML DTDs, XSDs (XML schema), and WSDLs (for web service Consumers).
• IDoc metadata importer: Generates flat file document schemas from SAP IDoc parser file metadata. Available with the EXTOL Enterprise Adapter for SAP option.
• Oracle EC Gateway metadata importer: Generates document schemas from Oracle EC Gateway metadata. (Note: Oracle XML Gateway metadata is supported by the XML schema importer, above). Available with the EXTOL Enterprise Adapter for Oracle E-Business Suite option.

Transformation Mapping

EIS includes industry-leading tools for data transformation mapping and maintenance, including Smart Mapping, a unique Design-time Accelerator that dramatically reduces both mapping and testing time.

• Transformation Ruleset Editor - A graphical mapping utility that generates mapping rules from drag-and-drop actions, for transforming, validating, enriching, routing, caching, and aggregating data. 
• Smart Mapping - An integrated mapping Accelerator that employs advanced pattern matching and artificial intelligence methods to automate source-target element matching and rule generation. Smart Mapping combines multiple methods with user-configurable weighting, to produce optimal recommendations for each situation:
• Attribute method: Matches source-target elements based on similarities in type, length, description, element name root, and acronym permutations. This method requires no setup effort, so you can automate mapping immediately, in any situation.
• History method: Matches source-target elements by applying past mapping choices to new maps and document types. Given sufficient mapping history, Smart Mapping can produce 80% or more of the rules in a new map using this method. 
  
• Dictionary method: Matches source-target elements based on synonym matching. Synonym dictionaries can be imported from spreadsheets or defined in the tool.
• Matching ID method: Matches source-target elements based on surrogate keys. Among other cases, this supports consistent matching between sources and targets when element names vary, as when mapping across multiple languages.
Smart Mapping works with any combination of supported document syntaxes (XML, EDI, database, flat file, spreadsheet). It can use multiple matching methods at the same time and applies fuzzy logic to suggest the most likely matches, so you don't have to guess which automated method will produce the best result. And Smart Mapping is highly configurable. For example, you can assign your own weighting factors to the Smart Mapping methods, adjust the precision used to identify possible matches, and configure the number of candidate matches presented for selection by the user.

• Migration Assistant - Slashes mapping maintenance time by generating updated data transformation maps when changes occur to source or target schemas. Using a "meta-map" that associates elements in original and replacement schemas, the Migration Assistant remaps transformation rules that operate on schema elements that have changed. The Migration Assistant makes it easy to create and apply the meta-maps by automating the process of matching original schema elements to their replacements.
  
  
  
  The Migration Assistant can save significant time when a document change affects mulitple data tranformation maps - when migrating multiple maps to a newer EDI document version, or from an older ERP application interface to a newer one, for example. It can even automate the migration of transformation maps between dissimilar syntax categories, for example, migrating maps from a flat file transaction to a semantically equivalent XML document.
• Integration Pattern Repository (IPR) – Available with EXTOL Business Integrator v2.6, the Integration Pattern Repository is a secure, Cloud-based repository that enables sharing of mapping histories across organizations and companies.  Mapping histories are used by the EXTOL Smart Mapping engine to automate map creation and modification, based on past mapping experiences. Unlike simple map reuse, Smart Mapping identifies mapping possibilities automatically, so you can choose from a set of options, instead of mapping manually.
  
  Mapping histories are repository objects that encode mapping associations between source and target document elements as well as transformations that produce target element values.  The History Profile generation utility included with EXTOL Integration Studio generates mapping history profiles by extracting source-target matches and transformations from one or more rulesets (maps).  The IPR maintains mapping histories uploaded by EXTOL, plus ongoing contributions uploaded by EXTOL customers and partners.
  
  
  
  When used with Smart Mapping, the IPR greatly reduces the time needed to create “standard-to-standard” transformations, in which both source and target documents conform to industry standards (X12 EDI, EDIFACT EDI, RosettaNet XML, etc.) or vendor-defined standards (JD Edwards F47 flat files, Oracle XML Gateway documents, SAP IDocs, TMW Flex files, etc.).  For example, a history profile for mapping inbound X12 EDI 850 Purchase Orders to SAP ORDERS01 IDocs can be downloaded from the IPR and used by any number of EXTOL customers to produce custom maps, in a fraction of the time needed to create them manually.
  
  EXTOL Integration Studio (EIS) integrates with the IPR to support automated uploading, searching, and downloading of mapping histories.  EIS users can search for and download mapping histories from the IPR, as they create new transformation maps.  So the IPR becomes a Cloud-based extension to the local integration environment.
  
  The IPR incorporates a highly sophisticated search engine that identifies best-fit mapping histories.  It compares elements and composites in available mapping histories against the source-target schema pair supplied as the search argument. The downloaded result is a customized history profile, optimized for the source / target schema pair in the search argument.
  
  The IPR can even generate useful results when no available mapping history uses the specific document types present in the search argument.  For example, some mappings for rarely used Order-to-Cash document types are derivable from Purchase Order or Invoice mapping histories. Even when document schemas are highly customized, the IPR still generates suitable mapping history profiles.
  
  Once a history profile search result is downloaded, the Smart Mapping engine can use it immediately.  By selecting the Smart Mapping history method in the Transformation Ruleset Editor and invoking the Smart Mapping assistant, the EIS user can generate mapping rules, instead of creating them manually.  The Smart Mapping engine uses the history profile to suggest source-target element matches and generate transformation rules based on past mapping experiences. This not only reduces mapping time, it also reduces testing and debugging time, by focusing the user’s mapping effort on high-probability matches and transformations.

Adapter and Endpoint Configuration

EIS includes a variety of configurators for creating adapters, monitors, and routing objects that connect integration processes and tasks with internal endpoints (files, databases, applications, services) and external endpoints (customers, suppliers, cloud applications, industry hubs, etc.).

• Adapter Configurators - Template-driven dialogs that generate configured adapter objects for the following resource types:
• Database - Configure Select, Insert, Update, and Delete adapters for DBMSs with JDBC 2.1 or newer driver, including Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Oracle Database, and MySQL.
• Database Monitor - See Database Monitor Configurator above.
• File System - Configure Read and Write adapters for file systems on all platforms supported by EXTOL Business Integrator.
• File System Monitor - See File System Monitor Configurator above.
• FTP/S - Configure GET/MGET, PUT/MPUT, plus tunneled file system commands for standard FTP file tranfer, with or without SSL.
• AS2 (requires optional EXTOL Secure Exchange) - Configure adapters that connect with external partners using the standard secure AS2 protocol.
• Message queue filters - Configure adapters that monitor and populate standard JMS message queues.
• EXTOL Portal (requires options EXTOL Portal VAN Service) - Configure adapters that connect wtih external partners using the EXTOL Portal Internet VAN Service.
• Web Services (requires EXTOL Business Integrator or options EXTOL Web Service Integrator option) - Generate standard SOAP and REST web service Providers and Consumers, for integration with internal applications, SaaS applications, and external partners. See Web Service Consumer and Provider Wizards above
  
• Endpoint Editor - A template-driven dialog for creating and maintaining endpoint hierarchies. Endpoints are used at runtime for automated routing of inbound and outbound EDI transaction data. By organizing endpoints in hierarchies - for example, partners under document types, or document types under partners - you can automate processing at the parent level, child level, or both.
• EDI Provisioning Assistant - Generates EDI partner endpoints from sample partner interchange data. The Provisioning Assistant saves both time and potential errors, by automating configuration that can be painstaking and tedious, when performed manually.
• Collaboration Editor - Template-driven dialog for creating and maintaining collaboration routing objects that match endpoints with their business processes, at runtime. Collaborations externalize endpoint-to-business process associations in order to support many-to-many routing.
• EXTOL Enterprise Adapters (Optional) - These optional packages include metadata-driven document schema generators for application-side document types, plus customizable integration applications for Order-to-Cash, Load Tender-to-Delivery, and other common transaction cycles.
  
  Note: Most interfaces to commercial applications, including those from Infor, Oracle/JD Edwards, SAP, TMW, and others, are implemented using work files or web services, or in some cases, API or database interactions. EXTOL Business Integrator includes built-in support for such interfaces, eliminating the need for application-specific adapters, in most cases. EXTOL Enterprise Adapters complement these built-in interfaces by speeding document definition, mapping, process modeling, and testing tasks.
• EXTOL Enterprise Adapter for SAP - Design-time package that includes an IDoc metadata importer, SAP-specific logging and dashboard portlet, and pre-built maps for X12 EDI order-to-cash transactions.
• EXTOL Enterprise Adapter for Oracle EBS - Design-time package that includes a metadata importer for Oracle EC Gateway flat files, plus customizable integration applications for X12 EDI order-to-cash transactions.
  
  
In addition to offering Enterprise Adapters, EXTOL has preloaded the Integration Pattern Repository with mapping patterns for JD Edwards, TMW, and other commercial application providers. Together with the EXTOL Smart Mapping feature, these patterns can slash the time needed to create new maps for these application software products.

Business Process Modeling

• Business Process Modeler - A graphical, drag-and-drop modeler for creating and maintaining business process specifications. Creates and extends process models by dragging task objects (transformations, adapters, notifications, etc.) onto a diagram canvas, and specifying runtime sequencing and communications using process and data flow connectors.
  
  The process modeler maintains separate connector types for task success path, task failure path, and data path. The display for each connector type can be toggled independently, to allow for isolated specification analysis.
  
  Adapter and Transformation editors and Modeler sessions for sub-processes can be opened directly from the context of the Process Modeler. These in-context updates are reflected in the containing Process Model when task object updates are save.
• Business Process Editor - A tabular editor for business processes, for users who prefer tabular specification to diagram-based specification.
• Event Manager - A template-driven dialog for creating and maintaining Event objects that route event notifications (from adapters, processes, and external programs) to corresponding business processes.
• Schedule Manager - A calendar-driven configurator for specifying automated date/time, elapsed, and recurring process activations.

Testing

• Process Monitor - An interactive viewer for monitoring the execution of business processes.
• Auditor - An interactive log data viewer for filtered tracking and inspection of business process execution results, including:
• Process- and task-level stoplighting for rapid identification of failures and warnings
• Identification of runtime errors and error states, including inspection of transformation input and output data
• Configurable log filtering for selection of processes that meet specified criteria

Deployment

• Archive/Un-Archive Utilities - Package, validate, and deploy integration projects to runtime target nodes. The Archiver utility automatically analyzes dependencies in your project and includes in the resulting archive (.jar) all of the objects required for execution. At the target system, the UnArchiver identifies object collisions (e.g., older versions) and provides an interactive dialog for resolving them.
• EXTOL Server Manager - An interactive console for starting, pausing, resuming, and starting EXTOL Business Integrator runtime services.
• EXTOL Dashboard - A web-based monitoring interface for the EBI system. The EXTOL Dashboard provides reporting and visualization of EBI log data content via an easy-to-use, configurable browser interface. Reports display log information with sorting, filtering, and interactive drill-down features, plus interactive graphing and charting.
  
  
  
  Optional Dashboard services extend basic role-based security to enable controlled exposure of selected reports and data to business users and external partners.

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EXTOL Integration Studio is the design-time companion for the following EXTOL products:

• EXTOL Business Integrator, including the following Subset Options:
• Database Integrator Option
• EDI Integrator Option
• Flat File Integrator Option
• Spreadsheet Integrator Option
• XML Integrator Option
• Web Services Integrator Option
• EXTOL Data Synchronizer for 1SYNC^TM

EIS is available on multiple platforms with identical functionality - giving you freedom of platform choice and insurance against future platform changes.

The table below shows the system requirements for EIS.

EXTOL Integration Studio (Design-time) System Requirements:

Operating Systems   Windows

Linux

IBM System i OS (A VNC or X-Windows client is required to use EIS on this platform)

(See EXTOL Policy on Operating System Support for Java-Based Products for more details.)

RAM                               2 GB or greater

Disk space                  Minimum 500 MB plus storage for user integration projects and related objects

Other                            Minimum 1024 x 768 monitor resolution
                                      JDK 1.6 (included with product)
                                      JDBC driver v2.1 or higher for database adapters (supplied by your DBMS provider)

Learn more about How You Use EXTOL Integration Studio

Below, we’ve outlined the top reasons you should consider trying EIS today. When you’re ready to see a live demonstration of EIS in action, click here and get in touch with us.

Business Benefits:

• Deliver Cloud, B2B, Application, and Data integration applications with one investment in tools and skills.
• Accelerate the onset of benefits from deployment of revenue- or cost-related business automation.
• Avoid charge-backs and other penalties by achieving faster compliance with customer and industry mandates.
• Accommodate partner and application limitations and preferences for business document types, communications, and turnaround requirements.
• Deliver more projects faster, and with fewer IT resources.
• Tackle large, complex integration problems, without programming.
• Reduce or eliminate expensive consulting resources that are needed with more complicated products.
• Dramatically reduce integration life cycle costs and TCO.
• Deploy to your choice of supported platforms.
• Protect investments in software and deliverables as your platform and application needs change.

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