Advanced Polling

PageGate version 4.0 has an 'Advanced Ascii Polling' feature. By using advanced ascii polling, GetAscii can check for files in an unlimited number of different directories, and for files with any name. In addition, the text files don't need any special header information in them, and can be slotted for a particular recipient by the file's name, by its location, or by both values. PageGate can also 'watch' for message information in files that change or that are added to.

Setting Advanced Polling Options

Files - This is where you set the folders and file names that the GetAscii module should monitor. Fill in each row on the 'Advanced Polling Files' screen with a new set of polling parameters. An existing rule can be edited or deleted by highlighting the row and choosing 'Edit' or 'Delete' .

Recipient - This field can contain either an asterisk (*) or an existing PageGate recipient's name. If an asterisk is used, the message's recipient and from fields are extracted from the message file(s). If a recipient's name is used instead of an asterisk, the from field is used, and any files that are described by the 'File(s)' and 'Path' fields are collected and sent to this recipient.

From - This field is ignored when an asterisk is used in the 'Recipient' field. Otherwise, the 'From' field becomes part of each message that is collected by this rule.

File(s) - This field is used to describe what files are collected by this rule. Wildcard characters ('*' and '?') can be used. For example, an entry of '*.txt' will collect all files that end with '.txt'. An entry of '?at' will collect files like 'cat' and 'bat' and 'rat', but not 'flat'.

File Type - The Advanced ASCII interface supports four file types:

Standard - the text file is in the standard format that the GetAscii interface looks for. This is option is usually used when the files are in the regular format, but the file isn't named with the standard .asc file extension, or is in a folder other than the main GetAscii polling folder.

Custom - each text file contains a single message, but the message information is not in the regular format and must be extracted from the text file using the Symbols, Record, Recipient, Sender, and Message objects below.

Adding - the text file periodically has message information added to the end of the file. With this file type the GetAscii interface will read in the new data and extract the message information using the Symbols, Record, Recipient, Sender, and Message objects below.

Changing - the text file changes periodically. Each time it changes, the GetAscii interface will try to extract message information from it using the Symbols, Record, Recipient, Sender, and Message objects below.

Path - This field is used to set where (which directory or folder, and on what drive) the ascii text files will be collected from. Wildcards are not valid in this field.

Symbols - These are characters that have special meanings and are used to help extract message information from the text files.

Single Character Wildcard - when searching for pattern matches in the text files, this character can be used to stand for any single character

Multiple Character Wildcard - when searching for pattern matches in the text files, this character can be used to stand for any character or group of characters.

End Of Record Symbol - when extracting data from the text files, this character stands for the end of the record. It is usually used as an ending pattern if the data being extracted always goes to the end of the current record.

ASCII Value Delimiter - this symbol is used to help represent characters that normally can't be typed. This character is always followed three numbers which represent the decimal ascii value for the character. For example (assuming that the \ character is the ASCII Value Delimiter) these strings represents a carriage-return, linefeed, tab and backslash respectively: \013 \010 \009 \092

Record - These settings are used to define how a record (which typically contains the recipient, sender, and message data) is to be recognized in the text file.

Start Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the text file that will designate the beginning of a new record

Start Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the start pattern is where the actual record starts. A value of -999 always means that the beginning of the record is one character after the start pattern. This is helpful when the start pattern contains an * and you don't always know the length of the matching pattern.

End Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the text file that will designate the end of a new record. If this pattern is set to the End Of Record symbol, the end of the record will be assumed to be the end of the text file.

End Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the end pattern is where the actual record ends. A value of -999 always means that the end of the record is one character after the end pattern. This is helpful when the end pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

Recipient - These settings are used to define who the recipient of the message should be.

Static Recipient - when this option is chosen, all messages read in will be sent to the same recipient or group.

Recipient - when the Static Recipient option is chosen, this is the name of the recipient or group that will receive all the messages that are read in.

Dynamic Recipient - when this option is chosen, the recipient of the message is extracted from the text read in by the GetAscii interface.

Start Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record text that will designate the beginning of the recipient text.

Start Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the start pattern, is where the actual recipient text starts. A value of -999 always means that the beginning of the recipient text is one character after the start pattern. This is helpful when the start pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

End Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record that will designate the end of recipient text. If this pattern is set to the End Of Record symbol, the end of the recipient text will be assumed to be everything up to the end of the record.

End Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the end pattern, is where the actual recipient text ends. A value of -999 always means that the end of the recipient text is one character after the end pattern. This is helpful when the end pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

Use Lookup Table - check this box if you want pre-set text substituted for the actual text read in from the file. This is especially useful if codes are used in the text. For example, if the text that is read in contains numbers to signify what pager should get the message, the lookup table could have a list of these numbers, and automatically use the actual recipient name instead of the numeric code.

Edit Table - click on this button to edit the lookup table to be used by the GetAscii interface.

Sender - These settings are used to define who the sender of the message should be.

Static Sender - when this option is chosen, all messages read in will use the same text for the sender field.

Sender - when the Static Sender option is chosen, this is the name of the sender that will be used with each message.

Dynamic Sender - when this option is chosen, the sender of the message is extracted from the text read in by the GetAscii interface.

Start Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record text that will designate the beginning of the sender text.

Start Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the start pattern, is where the actual sender text starts. A value of -999 always means that the beginning of the sender text is one character after the start pattern. This is helpful when the start pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

End Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record that will designate the end of sender text. If this pattern is set to the End Of Record symbol, the end of the sender text will be assumed to be everything up to the end of the record.

End Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the end pattern, is where the actual sender text ends. A value of -999 always means that the end of the sender text is one character after the end pattern. This is helpful when the end pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

Use Lookup Table - check this box if you want pre-set text substituted for the actual text read in from the file. This is especially useful if codes are used in the text. For example, if the text that is read in contains codes to specify a piece of equipment that the message is from, the lookup table could have a list of the numbers, and automatically substitute the equipment name as the sender instead of the number.

Edit Table - click on this button to edit the lookup table to be used by the GetAscii interface.

Message - These settings are used to define the actual message text that should be sent.

Static Message - this option is used when the same message should be sent each time the GetAscii interface reads in a new record

Message - when the Static Message option is chosen, this is the message that will be sent each time.

Dynamic Message - when this option is chosen, the message is extracted from the text read in by the GetAscii interface.

Start Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record text that will designate the beginning of the message text.

Start Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the start pattern, is where the actual message text starts. A value of -999 always means that the beginning of the message text is one character after the start pattern. This is helpful when the start pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

End Pattern - this is a pattern that is looked for in the record that will designate the end of message text. If this pattern is set to the End Of Record symbol, the end of the message text will be assumed to be everything up to the end of the record.

End Offset - this value tells how many characters before or how many characters after the beginning of the end pattern, is where the actual message text ends. A value of -999 always means that the end of the message text is one character after the end pattern. This is helpful when the end pattern contains an * and you don't always know what the length of the matching pattern will be.

Use Lookup Table - check this box if you want pre-set text substituted for the actual text read in from the file. This is especially useful if codes are used in the text. For example, if the text that is read in contains numbers to signify different alerts, the lookup table could have a list of these numbers, and automatically substitute the actual alert text for the code.

Edit Table - click on this button to edit the lookup table to be used by the GetAscii interface.