This section describes how to configure FIX Engine and FIX session.

1. Configuring FIX Engine

The FIX Engine is based on the FIX Antenna Java library. 

FIX Engine's basic settings are stored in the fixengine.properties file, located in the conf directory. Refer to the B2BITS FIX Antenna Java Programmer’s Guide for a complete list of FIX Antenna settings.

The fixengine.properties file contains both global B2BITS FIX Antenna settings which can also be FIX session default parameters. 

The fixedge.properties file contains settings of the default FIX server port by which the FIX Antenna listens to incoming data.

Currently, server.port=8911 is used by default.

Additional listening ports can be defined within FIX session configurations (see port property). In this case FIX engine automatically manages their opening and closing according to started sessions.

1.1. Custom FIX dictionaries setup

The custom FIX dictionaries setup in the FIXEdge Java (FEJ) product is based on the FIX Antenna custom FIX dictionaries setup (see FIX Antenna Java custom dictionaries), but there are certain FIXEdge Java configuration specifics that are described below.

Follow these steps to set up FIX dictionaries:

1. Place the customFIXVersions section into the default fixengine.properties file (located in the conf directory) to set up custom FIX version info for all FIX sessions.

   fixengine.properties

   # comma separated list of custom FIX dictionary aliases
   customFixVersions=FIX44Custom,FIX50Custom
   
   # pair of 'fixVersion' and 'fileName' for each FIX dictionary alias with pattern:
   # customFixVersion.<custom FIX version alias>.fixVersion=<base standard FIX version>
   # customFixVersion.<custom FIX version alias>.fileName=<custom FIX dictionary file name>
   
   # example of custom FIX dictionary based on FIX.4.4
   customFixVersion.FIX44Custom.fixVersion=FIX.4.4
   customFixVersion.FIX44Custom.fileName=classpath:fixdic44-custom.xml
   
   # examples of custom FIX dictionary based on FIX.5.0
   customFixVersion.FIX50Custom.fixVersion=FIX.5.0
   customFixVersion.FIX50Custom.fileName=classpath:fixdic50-custom.xml
   

2. Set the defined dictionary aliases as a session's fixVersion or appVersion in the appropriate FIXEdge Java session configuration file 's_fix_[SESSION_ID].properties':

   s_fix_session1.properties

   # FIXEdge Java session configuration properties
   
   fixVersion=FIX44Custom

   s_fix_session2.properties

   # FIXEdge Java session configuration properties
   
   fixVersion=FIX50Custom

   NOTE: Changes that are made in the fixengine.properties file will only be applied after the FIXEdge server restarts.

2. Configuring FIX Session

For establishing and managing FIX sessions, the FIX Antenna Java library is used. FEJ also introduces a per-file base configuration for each FIX session. All such configuration files are placed into subdirectories of the conf/session directory and should follow the s_fix_[SESSION_ID].properties mask (this behavior can be changed with the sessionConfigManager bean into fej-server.xml). Additionally, each subdirectory may have the s_fixDefault.properties configuration file which defines a common option for all groups of the FIX session.

To add a new FIX session, the s_fix_[SESSION_ID].properties file is used with new session settings. 

To modify the FIX session, changes to the s_fix_[SESSION_ID].properties file should be made.

To apply changes to the FIX session, the following options are available:

• Restart the FIXEdge Java server by using the administrative instruments (all sessions will be initialized in this case)
• Load or reload the session configuration from the FIXICC app (refer to the FIXICC & FEJ Integration User Guide)

NOTE: Changes, which are made in the fixengine.properties will be applied to FIX engine and sessions only after FIXEdge server restart.

For monitoring available sessions and their states, use the administrative tools (SSH, JMX), or FIXICC.

FIX session configuration options:

(You can find the advanced options for the FIX session on the FIX Antenna Java configuration page.)

NOTE: The FIX session can be started or stopped only if scheduling is applied. Otherwise, the session will be inactive. Refer to the Scheduler configuration section where the session start procedure is specified.

2.1 Timestamps in storages

FIX Antenna Java library provides the ability to mark storages and messages inside them with timestamps. This feature is supported only for storages with human-readable formats

• Filesystem Storage - persistent storage, all messages will be saved on disk;
• Sliced File Storage - persistent storage with a defined maximum file size;
• MMF Storage - persistent file storage that uses the technology of memory-mapped files.

Incoming and outgoing message storages could contain the FIX sessions start timestamps in their names.

Configuration options:

If the option storageNameTimestamped is enabled and the storage filename includes the session start timestamp, during the backup procedure this file will be moved to a backup folder with the same name. Otherwise, if the filename does not contain a timestamp, the file will be copied by the FIX Engine backup procedure with a timestamp to support the uniqueness of the file in the backup folder.

By default, human-readable storages include a millisecond timestamp for each message. This behavior is flexible and can be changed. For example, it's possible to disable timestamps to minimize latency and save time for timestamp generation. Or, it's possible to increase the precision of timestamps if there is a need for better statistics.

Please pay attention the fact that, by default, messages are marked with a timestamp at the moment they are stored. However, for incoming messages, it possible to store the timestamp of the message reading by enabling the markIncomingMessageTime option, which slightly increases the latency.

Options for incoming messages:

2.2 Secure connection configuration

FIXEdge Java supports configuring secure transport for each session separately. For an acceptor session, the configuration will be applied to the new listening port if it is defined in the session configuration.

Configuration options:

Sample configuration for an initiator FIX session with secure connection:

host=localhost
port=3000
senderCompId=initiator
targetCompId=target
        
# Define options for secure connection
enableSSL=true
keyStorePath=conf/ssl/keystore.jks
keyStorePassword=keypass
trustStorePath=conf/ssl/truststore.jks
trustStorePassword=trustpass