Understanding publisher tools

The MultiPublisher and DALMultiPublisher tools are used to publish data on test topics and to send debugging commands to the PubSub Engine. The tools look very similar and are functionally equivalent, with minor variations.

The DALMultiPublisher uses the PubSub Data Access Layer (DAL) Application Programming Interface (API) to connect to the PubSub system, whereas the non-DAL version uses a lower-level PubSub API. The PubSub DAL API is built on top of the lower-level API and has additional support for automatically healing lost PubSub connections.

The publisher tools can be used to publish data against any topic except a reserved topic or a secured topic. To use the tool, enter a topic string and one or more data values, and then select Publish. Unless the functionality is being exercised, populating the Publish Type and Security Group fields with information is not necessary.

Either tool can remove itself as a publisher for a previously published topic. Enter the topic name, and then select Pub Sub > Remove Publisher.

Execute a simple performance test by modifying the value for Number of Publications. When Publish is selected, the tool rapidly publishes the same topic and data the specified number of times.

The publisher tools can also send debugging commands to the PubSub Engine to request it to log information about subscribers, publishers, and subscriptions, or to enable the publication of performance statistics associated with the Network Delivery Layer (NDL).