Managing Interfaces

The SMS|Host Interface Control Panel provides tools to manage and control SMS|Host serial interfaces, SMS|Enterprise and SMS|Diplomat interfaces. Using the Interface Control Panel, you may suspend or “put interfaces to sleep” to gain exclusive use for End-of-Day, Night Audit, and System Maintenance functions. You will also use the Interface Control Panel to “wake up” the interfaces and have them resume processing data. The Interface Control Panel also provides, at a glance the status of all configured serial interfaces.

Suspending interfaces will stop the interfaces from accessing SMS|Host databases. In order to gain Exclusive use, you must also ensure that SMS|Host, SMS|POS and SMS|Touch users are not accessing the databases.

Important Note: Disabling serial interfaces, SMS|Enterprise or SMS|Diplomat interfaces by any other means than outlined above, should not be done without specific direction from SMS Support. SMS systems perform several maintenance tasks during the Put To Sleep and Wake functions (eg Enterprise re-indexing) that are essential to the health of your SMS systems. Without performing these maintenance tasks, interface errors may occur, new and queued transactions may not be processed.

Definitions

Interface

For the purposes of this section, an interface is a mechanism that enables data interchange among two or more separate software applications. In this case, the interconnected systems are SMS|Host and a third-party application such as another property management system (PMS) or a standalone system such as a telecommunications system, point-of-sale (POS) system, or keylock system.

Sleep

An inactive condition for a serial interface, SMS|Diplomat, and SMS|Enterprise interface, during which it neither sends nor receives data. In some cases these processes will remain running, but will not be communicating with SMS|Host.

Wake Up

Bring an inactive or sleeping interface to an active state in which it is processing transactions between systems.

Interface Control Panel

The Interface Control Panel is the SMS|Host screen you will use to manage and oversee activity for each enabled interface. You will use the Interface Control Panel for tasks such as “putting interfaces to sleep,” which is required to gain exclusive use of the SMS|Host system.

Accessing the Control Panel

From the SMS|Host Main menu:

  1. Select Bookkeeping and Audit
  2. Select Manage Interfaces

The Interface Control Panel lists all configured serial interfaces.

All active interfaces are listed in the left-hand column as well as data for each to the right to indicate current interface status, last request for sleep or wake, and the ID of the user that made the last request. The 'Interface Last Active' column shows the date and time of the most recent activity for each interface.

Note: If an interface is not logging activity in the 'Interface Last Active' - the interface may be down.

There are two main functions available via the buttons along the bottom of the control panel; Put All Interfaces to Sleep, and Wake Up All Interfaces.

If SMS|Diplomat is installed and active on the system, a third button is available to “Ping Diplomat” to verify connectivity directly from the Control Panel.

Sleep: Suspending the Interface Data Flow

All interfaces listed in the Interface Control Panel may be put to sleep at the same time.

Serial Interfaces

All serial interfaces configured to work with the Sleep function will appear in this list and may be suspended using the Put All Interfaces to Sleep command. Serial interfaces must be configured by SMS Installation and / or Support personnel.

SMS|Enterprise and SMS|Diplomat Interfaces

SMS|Enterprise and SMS|Diplomat Interfaces (XML) will not display in the Interface Control Panel as an interface.

Though they are not specifically listed, these interfaces will be suspended when the Put All Interfaces to Sleep function is used.

Putting Interfaces to Sleep

Use the Put All Interfaces to Sleep option to put all serial interfaces, SMS|Diplomat, and SMS|Enterprise Interfaces to sleep before beginning your daily system maintenance and SMS|Host End-of-Day processing.

From the Interface Control Panel:

  1. Select Put All Interfaces to Sleep

What Happens?

When you select Put All Interfaces to Sleep, the SMS|Host system sends a request to each configured serial interface, SMS|Diplomat, and SMS|Enterprise Interface, to stop sending and receiving information. The Sleep Request data column is updated with the time the request was sent. Each interface completes any data transfers that were in process when it received the sleep request. Once any transactions in process are completed, each interface stops processing and “goes to sleep”. The date and time when each interface successfully received the sleep request appears in the Interface Response column to the right of the Sleep Request column.

Each interface should respond within one minute to the sleep request. There are two common causes for interfaces that do not appear to enter sleep mode:

  • The interface was not running when the request was received.
  • The interface was not configured to work with this function.

If you are unable to shut down interfaces, Contact your SMS Customer Support Representative for assistance in doing so.

See related:

Interfaces: Sleep Mode Notification Messages

Waking Interfaces

After completing tasks that require exclusive use, you can resume the data flow between interfacing systems by waking the sleeping interfaces.

Select this option after your daily system maintenance and SMS|Host End-of-Day processing are complete. This requests all serial interfaces, SMS|Diplomat, and SMS|Enterprise interfaces to resume processing new and queued transactions.

Note: This will wake up SMS|Diplomat and SMS|Enterprise interfaces as well.

From the Interface Control Panel:

  1. Select Wake Up All Interfaces

What Happens?

When you select Wake Up All Interfaces, the SMS|Host system sends a request to all configured interfaces to resume sending and receiving information. The Wake Up Request column is updated with the time the request was sent. All interfaces should acknowledge the request, renew normal activity, and send a response confirming that they received the wake-up message. The Interface Response column to the right of the Wake Up Request column displays the date and time the interface successfully received the wake-up request.