How to do this?

Manat

Hello,

I have an online form, all data is sent to a .nsf file, which is a Domino(Lotus/Domino) parsing file, formats some data and sends it all to JDE.

Anyhow, problem is what happens when Domino is down?  So what IT is saying to me is that I should be able to Queue all forms, and if Domino is down, keep in the queue for when it's back up.  One person told me this might be possible with a web service.

Can anyone help me on this? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that anyone might have. I know one option is putting all data into a file and then sending the file after, but can my production server handle this? I have a linux box with apache, 1gig of Ram and 2.0mhz processor, yes only one server, 1-tier, db is one same server.

Please let me know your thoughts on this, I would greatly greatly apreciate any help that anyone can provide to me.

Thanks a million in advance!
MK

AstroTeg

You have access to a database from that server? If so, one thought might be to put the form data in some tables and then retrieve it by date. Once its retrieved, you update a field saying the data has been imported. Advantage: data is never losted and could be easily retrieved and retrieved by date range as well.

The file process could work the same as well. The concern is when you start working with monster sized files you're server will not appreciate it that much (it could handle it, but it could be a lot of work for it).

Manat

Hi,

So what you are saying is that the best way to tackle this is what you suggested? That would be my optimal queuing option?

How would I export this data? I mean how would I send the relevant data to Domino or whatever whenever? And when it's time to transfer, Domino might still be down then? However yes I could do a ping and if successfull only then transfer, does this seem like a big project to you?

But how would I do this? I mean what code in PHP allows me to dynamically send db info to a parsing file whenever it feels like, php is event based, but in this scenario there would be no event, no submit-click. So how would this work?

Thx
MK

AstroTeg

It sounds like you're server is *nix based so you could setup a cron job that does a few things in a particular period of time (say maybe every 10 minute?).

Check if Domino is online by pinging. Check ping results. If not online then script is done. Wait for next running of script.
Domino is online. Time to do some processing:
Pull all records from table(s) that have not been marked as transferred (or imported). This "marking" could be an int. field and you set it from 0 to 1. Query for the non-moved information.
With this data, create your export file in the format Domino wants. Some way keep track of the data you are writing so you can update the records as being exported.
Update the exported records so they are not re-exported later on.

Now in theory, if something breaks, or the cron job doesn't run, or something bad happens, as long as you have the data in the database with a time stamp, you could always pull that data back up. With a little tweaking of the suggest script above, you could have it query for all data within a date range instead of an export flag.

This isn't the only way to do it, but its just an idea. The database approach indirectly adds a mechanism to log and keep track of what gets exported which I think you would find import. You could do it with flat files as well. It depends on what you're willing to do though.

Manat

Hi,

Sounds interesting, also sounds like a huge project, obviously it depends on my programming and db skills, but how long do you think such a project would take?

Yes I am using a LAMP, linux/apache/mysql/php all on ONE server, yep we got a 1-tier infrastructure, lol.

Anyhow, what do you mean when you say cron job? Doesn't sound like PHP, sounds more like linux shell scripts or something, or at least desktop programming. How would I do this cron job, also, can this be queued with a web service?

Thanks
MK