Job and Interface Setup

The Job and Interface Setup page was added to Common Setup Data in version 2.0 of VetView, as part of our back end upgrade to combine the API project into the main VetView application.  With version 2.0 you no longer need to install the VetView API separately, nor do you need to log into it separately.  Instead, all the API jobs are configured directly inside our main application on this page.

This is available under the Common Setup Data section, as it contains both Hospital and Labs API settings.  You will need the privilege "Access API Module" under Administration to see this option.

There are three major sections of the Job & Interface Setup page:  

• Web Servers Connected to the Current Database
• A list of enabled API Jobs and their current statuses
• The details page of an API Job

Web Servers Connected to the Database

Under the new structure of VetView, there is a single instance of the database that can be connected to multiple Tomcat servers running instances of VetView.  For load balancing purposes, you are allowed to assign a web server to a specific API, or choose to route all API jobs through a single VetView instance that is not available for users, to prevent an API job that is processor intense from pegging out a server while people are on it. 

This part of the API page is the list of the current connections and the last time they were accessed.  You can close off connections that are no longer in use, if the IP address has changed.

List of Interfaces and their Status

Active interfaces are grouped in Common, Hospital, and Labs.  

A red square means the interface is configured, but not currently set to run.  A green triangle means the interface is configured and actively running.

Each interface in the list contains similar information:

• The name of the interface
• Status
• The server this API job has been told to run on
• The frequency of the job
• Next execution (active jobs only)

There are two or three links at the bottom of each log:

• Settings
• View Logs
• Start or Stop interface

Add a new API Interface

If you have never started or configured an interface before, or you disabled it on your system for any reason, the interface can now be found under the Add Interface and/or Job button at the top of this screen.

A window will appear with a list of all the available interfaces.

Double Click the name of the interface you want to add to open the interface details page. 

The interface is not actually started until you click on the Active button and click Save. 

At that point, the interface will become available to Start, and will appear on the previous page.

Interface Details and Settings

Each interface settings page will be different.  Some API interfaces have very simple settings, others have multiple options you will need to configure.

The minimum required settings for all interfaces are:

• The server that this interface will run on
• An email address to notify if there are errors processing the job
• The job's execution time, which may be once a minute, once an hour, or once a day, depending on the specific job

Auto Start indicates that this API job should immediately begin when the server itself starts.  For jobs that run at a specific time during the day, it is safe to auto start as long as it is not at the same time or shortly after any scheduled server reboots.  For other jobs that only need to be run periodically, you can configure them and set them to be active, but then manually run them when necessary.

Stop Job and Start Job are used to enable or disable an active interface.  These buttons are also available on the main page.  You can safely Stop Job on an active interface to pause it, without losing any of your previous settings.  

Only One Server Can Own an API Job 

With VetView 2.0, the system is designed for load balancing, to allow multiple instances of VetView to run on different Tomcat servers, and for each API Job to be assigned to a specific server to run.

If VetView detects that two or more servers have been designated to run the same API job, then the API job will be disabled until the issue can be corrected.  This is to prevent unintended consequences from two different instances of an API job running, such as account balances being posted twice or emails being mailed to clients multiple times.  

Please contact the VetView team if you run into difficulty configuring the API jobs to run on a designated server.