Subscriptions best practices

[saskia]

I have previously implemented subscriptions but had very mixed results and hoping I'm either missing something or add a request to the feature list. I've gone through viewtopic.php?t=7935 (thank you, very helpful!) but looking at that and the documentation on some of the more recent updates, some of the pitfalls I've seen don't appear to be addressed. The big one for me is the ability to see which of workstations (computers) is actually the server, which I think is the one that has the API Service installed (and running) - we'd often have issues figuring out which computer was the server and had to guess based on heartbeat or name. The customer can sometimes be helpful, but not always. The other issue we'd have is even if we had the server selected (confirmed by the customer's IT), subscriptions would sometimes still go silent - I'm wondering if that's related the API Service not running/having issues? Thanks.

[justine]

I have previously implemented subscriptions but had very mixed results and hoping I'm either missing something or add a request to the feature list. I've gone through viewtopic.php?t=7935 (thank you, very helpful!) but looking at that and the documentation on some of the more recent updates, some of the pitfalls I've seen don't appear to be addressed. The big one for me is the ability to see which of workstations (computers) is actually the server, which I think is the one that has the API Service installed (and running) - we'd often have issues figuring out which computer was the server and had to guess based on heartbeat or name. The customer can sometimes be helpful, but not always. The other issue we'd have is even if we had the server selected (confirmed by the customer's IT), subscriptions would sometimes still go silent - I'm wondering if that's related the API Service not running/having issues? Thanks.

Hello saskia,

The Workstation on the subscription is the workstation supplied by the API developer when the subscription is created, so it can tell you where that subscription is configured to be processed, but it isn't necessarily a way to discover where the API Service is installed.

To help locate the typical API Service server, you can call:

Code: Select all

GET /preferences?PrefName=WebServiceServerName

That returns the server where the eConnector is installed. The API Service and eConnector are both automatically installed, and are typically on the same server, so that is usually the first server to check.

You can then call GET /subscriptions and compare the WebServiceServerName preference ValueString with the subscription's Workstation. They do not necessarily have to match, since an API Service can be installed on another server. If they differ, verify that an API Service is installed and running on the workstation specified by the subscription.

For a subscription that appears to have gone silent, GET /subscriptions is also useful for checking whether DateTimeStart is continuing to advance and for reviewing DateTimeLastFailure, FailureReason, SubsequentFailures, and DateTimeNextRetry fields.

Thanks!