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Data

What is the Relay?

Overview

The AMI Relay is the data virtualization layer in the 3forge platform. It serves as the real-time bridge between external systems — such as databases, files, shell scripts, etc. — and the AMI Center.

AMI Relay manages streaming data by processing real-time inputs from local applications before passing them to the Center. In addition, it provides access to system resources, enabling it to read files and logs, upload data into databases, and more. It acts as the conduit through which the Center can trigger external processes or perform bulk data uploads. The Relay is equipped to handle message routing and transformation, using feedhandlers to parse incoming data streams for integration into the 3forge platform.

Advanced

Features of the AMI Relay include:

  • Real-time Streaming: Data from custom applications and messaging systems can be streamed directly into the Relay in real-time. The data is cleaned and validated by the relay and fed into the Center where it is processed.
  • Commands to external applications/backends: The Web can issue commands to the Relay. The Relay will then pass the command to an external application and can wait for it to acknowledge.
  • On-Demand Query: The Center can issue queries to the Relay. The Relay will then send that query to the appropriate database and return the response to the Center for processing.
  • Data Uploading: The Center can issue bulk data uploads to the Relay. The Relay will then send the data to upload into the appropriate database and return the result of the upload to the center for further processing.
  • Message routing: The Relay is a fully customizable routing layer. 3forge allows users to define granular rules for directing messages, which can be selectively forwarded to specific destinations, multiple targets, or dropped entirely based on configurable logic.
  • Message transformation: Before final routing, messages pass through a fully configurable transformation layer that enables payload modification, schema translation, enrichment, etc. The Relay ensures that all data is structured and optimized for downstream use.