Creating External Reference Files

In the External Reference Profile, you may specify a properties file that contains the External Reference values.

Note!

The Properties file should reside on the MediationZone Platform Container host.

If you are using characters encoded with something other than ISO-8859-1 in your properties file for External References, the properties file has to be converted to ASCII by using the Java tool native2ascii. For further information about using native2ascii, see the JDK product documentation.

If you have a large number of external references, this may impact the workflow startup time. It is therefore recommended that you do not exceed 1000 external references per file. If you require a number greater than 1000, split the references across multiple files and profiles.

Properties File Format

A properties file contains key-value pairs. The typical format of a properties file is:

Key1=Value1 
Key2=Value2 
Key3=Value3

The Value data type can be a string, a boolean, a password, or a numeric value. Boolean values can be represented by true, false, yes, or no, and are not case-sensitive.

Password values must be represented by a string encrypted by the command mzsh encryptpassword.

If the file contains two or more identical keys with different values, the last value is applied.

Add a slash ("\") to continue the value on the next line. If the value is a multi-line string, use ("\n\") to separate the rows.

key1=PrettyLongValueThat\
ContinuesOneTheSecondLine
key2=north\n\
center\n\
south

Updating Value Types

When you import an External Reference File into an External Reference Profile, the Value Type for all keys is set to String by default.

For example, the following External Reference file (ExtRef.txt) contains three keys with different kinds of values:

MY_STRING=A string value

MY_LIST=["Value 1","Value 2"]

MY_MAP={"Key 1":"Value 1","Key 2":"Value 2","Key 3":"Value 3"}

After you import the file, all keys are shown with the Value Type set to String, and the list and map values are displayed as raw JSON strings:

External Reference Profile – Properties File View Screen

To display the values correctly, you must update the Value Type for each key. In the External Reference Profile:

Open the imported External Reference File.
In the Value Type column, double‑click the value you want to change.
In the Edit External Reference Definition window, select the correct Value Type (for example, List or Map), and confirm.

The list and map values are then parsed and shown in a readable format:

External Reference Profile – Properties File View Screen with Keys added

Note!
All leading and trailing spaces around keys and values are ignored when the file is imported. For example, the following entries are treated as equivalent:

MY_STRING=A string value
MY_STRING = A string value