Outbound message queued in cloverfleaf

[Hongle Sun]

Hi, we have new a outbound only thread created reacenly, and found the outbound messge (more than 100) to this new system alway pile up in interface engine side easily. Every often, we have to manually turn off and on the connection, and the queued OB message will go quickly, can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks

Topic

[James Cobane]

Hongle Sun,

You may want to look at the configuration for the ‘Await Replies’ on the thread and see how it is configured.  If ‘Await Replies’ is checked (I’m assuming it is) and the timeout is set to -1 (wait forever) then if you don’t get a reply back it’s going to sit forever until you bounce the thread (which will then resend the message and force the receiving system to respond).  So, if the thread is configured to ‘Await Replies’ check the timeout value and set it to something appropriate (i.e. 60 seconds or whatever is appropriate).  I’m assuming that the thread is configured with the normal ack/nak procs (save_ob_msg, resend_ob_msg, etc.).  With the resend_ob_msg proc employed in the ‘Generate Reply’ section, this proc will execute when the timeout value is reached and resend the message.

Hope this helps.

Jim Cobane

Henry Ford Health

[Hongle Sun]

Thanks. But the thing is if i use resend_ob_message  tcl proc, it will resend the message N times till get a reply ack back to interface engine. then this system will have N identical message then. Am i right?

[Russ Ross]

Even with your current configuration to wait for a reply indefinitely, the foriegn system could get a duplicate message when you recycle your interface with messages queued.

For example, you send the message, they send back an ACK that does not make it to you; then you recycle and the message goes out again and things start flowing.

Of course duplicate messages are also a reality of a persistant interface like the one described by James Cobane that awaits replies and resends.

I learned this when I decided to do a real-time charge integration, which caused me to change my mind and stick with batch files for charge integrations.

Most receiving interfaces will handle identical duplicate messages and some might even use a sequence number and shutdown when out of sequence occurs.

However, let me tell you that the ones that shutdown when out of sequence occurs is a real pain in the butt to support, and if you do one, you will get to find out just how many duplicate message events do occur.

In other words, you really want the foriegn interface listener to be able to handle identical messages effectively.

Russ Ross
RussRoss318@gmail.com

[Author]

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