The SuccessWare21® Http Server has been developed to allow third party solutions (agents) to interact and communicate with SuccessWare21®. This product processes requests from third party software against the SuccessWare21® Database. IMPORTANT: Be sure to review the SuccessWare21® Http Server Requirements.
SuccessWare21® Http Server Administrator
IMPORTANT: The SuccessWare21® Http Server must be installed/administered/operate on your server (not a workstation). You must be logged on as an administrator when installing, configuring, and starting the service. Your administrator account must also have access to the MSDE or MSSQL Database Server and SuccessWare21® Databases if applicable.
At your server, from within SuccessWare, access the main menu. Select “Setup | Utilities | Administrative tools | Http Service Administrator”. You must have administrative ability in order to access this option.
The Http Server runs as a NT Service. You cannot access “Properties” to configure the service until the service is installed on the server. To install the service, click “Install”. Once installed, the status in the Administrator will show “Stopped”. This indicates that the service in installed but not running. Once installed you can configure your service.
Once installed, before starting the service, you must configure it by clicking the “Properties” button.
Select the port number on which you want your SuccessWare21® Http Server to operate (2142 is recommended). Port forwarding to this port number on this machines IP address will be required if the SuccessWare21® Http Server will be accessed from the internet. You will need your network administrator or internet service provider to set this up. Specific knowledge of your network router, firewall, or internet access will be required.
NOTE: If you do not enable SSL, an SSL port is automatically enabled one port above the port you select here. If you select port 2142 here, then port 2143 will also be opened for SSL communications.
First, you must supply the information required for the service to access the SuccessWare21® Database by completing either step A or B below, depending on your SuccessWare21® Installation/Database Type. Then complete step C.
If your installation of SuccessWare21® uses a MSSQL or a MSDE database, Check the “SQL Server Name” radio button and enter the name of your SQL Server in the edit box. When the Database Server name is the same as the Machine name, you need only enter the Machine name. Otherwise, you will need to enter both: “\\<machine name>\<database server name>” (do not include the quotes).
For MSDE Installations, the server name should be “<servername>\SW21_MSDE” where <servername> is the computer name of your server. Be sure to use a backslash and not a forward slash.
If your installation of SuccessWare21® does not use MSSQL or MSDE, it uses MSAccess or Jet Database. Check the “Access Database” radio button. The path to your Access database should automatically be filled in the edit box below this radio button.
If there is any problem with this default path, you will need to browse, locate, and select your master database named “sw21_master.mdb”.
Click the “Test Connection” button. A message box should appear that says “Connected successfully.”
If the test is not successful, ensure that you have the correctly identified your SQL Database Server or that you have the correct path entered to access your Access database. For a few MSDE Installations, try using “<servername>” for the SQL Server Name, where <servername> is the computer name of your server.
If the third party agent will be accessing the server from the internet, and not from your local area network, and you use a dynamic IP address, you will want to enable and configure a heartbeat. The heartbeat sends a periodic signal to the designated url, indicating the current IP address for the server. If the IP address changes, the third party is notified and will be able to find the server. NOTE: The third party agent must be able to process the heartbeat message in order for this to be effective.
The Vettro Mobile Technician is an example of a third party agent that requires a heartbeat.
Enter your MasterID in the “MasterID” box. This can be obtained by contacting SuccessWare.
Enter the url for the third party agent in the box under the “Destination URL(s)” list and click add to add the URL to the list. For the Vettro Mobile Technician, the heartbeat URL is currently “http://vettrosc.successware21.com:80/wfe/sswUpdateDest.jsp”.
With the URL selected, click the “Test Heartbeat” button. This will confirm that there is a service running at this URL that responds to the heartbeat message.
The SuccessWare21® Http Server maintains a log of requests and responses. These logs are stored in the log folder. This folder defaults to a folder “logs” under the SWHttpServer Administrator folder. Do not change this setting.
The SuccessWare21® Http Server can perform data encryption with SSL. Before activating SSL, check to make sure your third party solution support SSL encryption.
To activate SSL select “Use SSL”. Default Certificates and Keys are included and can be used to perform data encryption. If you understand enough about SSL Certificates and Keys, and you can obtain or create your own certificate, you can use this page to specify your Certificate File, Key File, Root Certificate File, and Password.
Once installed and configured, you can start the service by clicking the “Start” button. The service will always be running unless you uninstall it. The service will automatically start in the event that the server is rebooted.
Once the service is started, you can test the service. This test is only required to test port forwarding to ensure that the service can see the internet, and the internet can see the service.
Click the “Test” button. A request will be sent over the internet to a SuccessWare Server, telling the server your SuccessWare21® Http Servers IP address and port settings. The SuccessWare Server will then attempt a connection to your SuccessWare21® Http Server at that IP on that port. You should receive one of three messages in response to the Test:
· Could not connect to the SuccessWare Test Site. , then the server does not have access to the internet.
· If you connect to the Test Site, but are not “exposed”, then your firewall/router port forwarding is not setup properly.
Once you have tested successfully, you have completed the installation/configuration of the service. Third party agents can now attempt to access SuccessWare21®. They will be denyied access until a SuccessWare21® Administrator explicitly grants access to the individual agent via the Agent Manager.