Deploy Event Consumers Between Environments

Overview

Deploying event consumers from a development environment to testing or production follows the same import/export process as other Appian design objects.

This page explains what moves between environments, what you need to prepare, and how to validate your integration after deployment.

Treat each deployment as you would any other Appian release. Package all dependencies, verify that the service account has correct permissions, and validate with representative test data before you deploy the consumer in production.

The following table details which parts of an event consumer move during deployment and what you need to ensure is present in the target environment.

Element	Deployment behavior	Details
Event consumer configuration	Moves	This includes the configured filter condition and the event handler expression.
Event consumer activation status	Moves	If the consumer is active when you create the deployment package, the deployed version will automatically activate in the target environment.
Dependencies (Kafka connected system, process models, record types, expression rules, documents, and folders)	Must exist in target	These design objects must be included in the deployment package or already exist in the target environment. Ensure the service account has the appropriate access to all dependencies.

Before you deploy

To prepare your event consumer for deployment, follow these steps:

1. Package precedents:
   • Include the Kafka connected system, as well as the process model or record type referenced by the event consumer.
2. Check security:
   • In the target environment, confirm the service account has the correct permissions for every object needed to complete. For example, the initiator needs Viewer access to record types, Initiator access to process models, and Editor access to documents.
3. Verify target environment settings:
   • The Kafka broker connected to the target environment may have different topic names or consumer group IDs than those used in the source environment. Check with your Kafka administrator to be sure you have the correct values.
4. Decide whether to automatically start the consumer:
   • On deploying the consumer, you can choose to have the consumer begin handling events immediately. This option is controlled by the autoStart property in the import customization file (ICF).

For more information on packages and deployments, see:

• Preparing Deployment Packages
• Deploy to Target Environments
• Deployment guidelines for portals

Deploy between environments

You can choose to deploy your event consumer using any of these methods:

• Compare and deploy (direct): Directly deploy the package with guided steps.
• Programmatic using APIs (external): Customize your own deployment process using Appian's deployment and export APIs.
• Export and import (manual): Manually export and import the package.

As an example, we'll deploy an event consumer using the manual method by following these steps:

1. Export the event consumer (and its required tools) from the source environment using Appian's standard export process.
2. Update the ICF with the needed settings for the target environment:
   1. If the topic name is different for the target environment, update the topicName property with the correct value.
   2. If the consumer group ID is different for the target environment, update the consumerGroupId property with the correct value.
   3. If the offset reset configuration should be different for the target environment, update the offsetResetConfiguration property to either earliest or latest.
   4. If the event consumer should start processing events automatically after it is deployed, set the autoStart property to true.
3. Import the package into the target environment.
4. Resolve dependencies:
   • Map any environment-specific references if needed, for example, hierarchy folders, groups, or constants.
   • Confirm that any referenced design objects kept their UUIDs, or update tool links if you deliberately created new objects in the target environment.

Validate after deployment

After deployment, it's important to validate the event consumer's behavior by checking the event consumer error log for any issues.

Common validation checks

Here are some common items to check during validation:

• Permissions: The service account can access all design objects the event consumer needs to run the event handler expression.
• Process models: Long-running nodes have sensible timeouts and error handling.
• Rules: Guard against nulls, and unit-test with the same inputs the AI agent uses.
• Record types: Target a single record type. Move aggregations or joins into rules.

Troubleshooting quick reference

If you encounter issues, check for these common problems, and work with a system administrator to resolve them.

• Event consumption fails immediately with a permission error: Grant the service account access to all tools and reactivate the event consumer.
• Process node exceptions or timeouts: Inspect the failing instance, add error handling, and avoid deep subprocess chains.

See Monitoring and Toubleshooting for full guidance.

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