Accessing Source Message Attributes

When you create translation or reference maps for inbound or outbound message flows, you can access source message attributes in those maps. You can then map the attributes to fields in the translated message payload or use the attribute values in your mapping logic to perform dynamic condition execution.

Common Use Cases

Accessing source message attributes helps in many use cases, such as with performing dynamic message routing decisions, performing specific functions, and mapping fields within the data transformation in the message flow execution.

Some common use cases include:

Achieving end-to-end transmission tracing

Accessing transmission IDs in the translation maps enables end-to-end transmission tracing because these IDs are passed to the translated JSON or XML output file.
Mapping attributes to pass them to the backend

For example, if the backend must see the source filename or a specific HTTP header, you can access the filename or HTTP header and map the values to the translated message payload fields.
Applying mapping logic based either on a filename part or pattern within the transformation

For example, you can access a filename prefix through substring operations and then build dynamic mapping logic based on this prefix.
Mapping attributes to make them available in the search

For example, you can access the source filename or a specific HTTP header value as a custom message attribute in the message type’s reference map to easily search for these values in the Activity screens.

For more information, see Use Case Implementation Examples.

The source attributes that you can access are available within a predefined variable named b2bMessageContext. The content of this variable differs depending on the source endpoint’s protocol.

AS2 Source Endpoint

Messages received via AS2 contain the following fields in the b2bMessageContext variable:

sourceProtocol
transmissionId
sourceEndpointAttributes:
- as2MessageId
- as2From
- as2To
- fileName
- subject
- fileSize
customProtocolHeaders

For security reasons, only the headers with the prefix x-apm- are available in the b2bMessageContext variable.

For example:

{
  "b2bMessageContext": {
    "sourceProtocol": "AS2",
    "transmissionId": "06bc20c8-475e-4a6f-b010-9b7933b2bfac",
    "sourceEndpointAttributes": {
        "as2MessageId": "<2023-04-12T19:37:42.273-46b95696-83f4-4e65-9222-61c40a854200@partnera_mythical-as2>",
        "as2From": "partnera",
        "as2To": "mythical-as2",
        "fileName": "EDI_850_20230401_1245678.edi",
        "subject": "EDI Message via Mule Generic Service",
        "fileSize": 3887
    },
    "customProtocolHeaders": {
      "x-apm-order-type": "drop-ship",
      "x-apm-tracking-id": "9d26d4ce-59ea-4448-8b51-ccc975d4efec"
    },
    "messageId": "9bf446f8-4a02-475f-afa3-c8772a340154"
  }
}

FTP and SFTP Source Endpoint

Messages received via FTP or SFTP contain the following fields in the b2bMessageContext variable:

sourceProtocol
transmissionId
sourceEndpointAttributes:
- fileName
- filePath
- fileSize
- fileTimeStamp
- partnerReferenceId
  
  This attribute is available only for Receive from Partner endpoints that have the partner reference ID configured.
messageId

For example:

{
  "b2bMessageContext": {
    "sourceProtocol": "SFTP",
    "transmissionId": "3ef5654a-5cda-41b1-8909-59a28c8b1537",
    "sourceEndpointAttributes": {
      "fileName": "RandomMessageType_PO_20230331_1559_003.xml",
      "filePath": "/partners/pacific-corp/in-orders",
      "fileSize": 4889,
      "fileTimeStamp": "2023-04-05T15:16:29",
      "partnerReferenceId": "PACIFICCORP"
    },
    "messageId": "cdaf6c12-bb3b-4978-9ac6-e8ace053f7c5"
  }
}

HTTP and HTTPS Source Endpoint

Messages received via HTTP or HTTPS contain the following fields in the b2bMessageContext variable:

sourceProtocol
transmissionId
sourceEndpointAttributes:
- path
- fileSize
customProtocolHeaders

For security reasons, only the headers with the prefix x-apm- are available in the b2bMessageContext variable.
messageId

For example:

{
  "b2bMessageContext": {
    "sourceProtocol": "HTTPS",
    "transmissionId": "a7a800ad-4117-40c1-98a0-79892c982fd4",
    "sourceEndpointAttributes": {
    "path": "/",
    "fileSize": 866
    },
    "customProtocolHeaders": {
      "x-apm-order-number": "ORD12345-A",
      "x-apm-order-type": "drop-ship"
    },
    "messageId": "cdaf6c12-bb3b-4978-9ac6-e8ace053f7c5"
  }
}

Use Case Implementation Examples

The following examples show how to implement some common use cases for source message attributes.

This example shows how to map the messageId and fileName attributes in the translated data payload within a message flow’s translation map:

messageId: vars.b2bMessageContext.messageId
fileName: vars.b2bMessageContext.sourceEndpointAttributes.fileName

This example shows how to apply mapping logic based on the filename prefix message in the message flow’s translation map:

POPurpose:
substringBefore(vars.b2bMessageContext.sourceEndpointAttributes.fileName, "_") default "PO-CREATE",

This example shows how to perform a substringBefore operation on the source filename to get the value before _ and use it as the partner reference identifier:

%dw 2.0
output application/json
import * from dw::core::Strings
ns ns0 http://xmlns.mulesoft.com/enterpriseobjects/b2b/
---
{
	partnerReferenceId: substringBefore(vars.b2bMessageContext.sourceEndpointAttributes.fileName, "_") default "UNKNOWN" ,
	hostReferenceId: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#Seller,
	businessDocumentKey: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber,
	customAttributes: [
		{
			alias: "purchaseOrderNumber",
			values: [payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber]
		},
		{
			alias: "buyerEmail",
			values: [payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#BuyerEmailID]
		}	]
}

This example shows how to:

Use the partner identifier associated with an FTP or SFTP Receive from Partners endpoint configuration as the partner reference identifier for routing the message.
Map the source filename as a custom message attribute.

%dw 2.0
output application/json
ns ns0 http://xmlns.mulesoft.com/enterpriseobjects/b2b/
---
{
	partnerReferenceId: vars.b2bMessageContext.sourceEndpointAttributes.partnerReferenceId,
	hostReferenceId: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#Seller,
	businessDocumentKey: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber,
	customAttributes: [
		{
			alias: "purchaseOrderNumber",
			values: [payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber]
		},
		{
			alias: "buyerEmail",
			values: [payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#BuyerEmailID]
		},
		{
			alias: "sourceFileName",
			values: [vars.b2bMessageContext.sourceEndpointAttributes.fileName default “UNKNOWN]
		}
	]
}

This example shows how to map a custom header on the received HTTP message as a custom message attribute:

%dw 2.0
output application/json
ns ns0 http://xmlns.mulesoft.com/enterpriseobjects/b2b/
---
{
	partnerReferenceId: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#Seller,
	hostReferenceId: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#Buyer,
	businessDocumentKey: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.ns0#PurchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber,
	customAttributes: [
		{
			alias: "purchaseOrderNumber",
			values: payload.ns0#B2BMessage.ns0#Data.*ns0#PurchaseOrder map ( purchaseOrder , indexOfPurchaseOrder )
						-> purchaseOrder.ns0#PurchaseOrderNumber default "UNKNOWN"
		},
		{
			alias: "supplierName",
			values: [vars.b2bMessageContext.customProtocolHeaders.'x-apm-supplierName' default "UNKNOWN"]
		}
	]
}

Accessing Source Message Attributes

Common Use Cases

AS2 Source Endpoint

FTP and SFTP Source Endpoint

HTTP and HTTPS Source Endpoint

Use Case Implementation Examples

See Also