Overview of PageGate Accepts Messages Transcript for Video:
Welcome to the overview of how PageGate accepts messages. In this tutorial, we’ll be going over the different interfaces, APIs and modules PageGate supports for receiving information in the form of messages and triggers.
PageGate has the ability to accept data and messaging commands in many different formats, making the program easy to deploy in any environment. It can be integrated with network performance monitors, like the Solarwinds and PRTG platforms, just as easily as it can be integrated with a computer automated dispatch system in a public safety environment.
It’s also possible to accept multiple data types simultaneously and from multiple sources; it’s just a matter of owning the appropriate interface or module as a part of your license.
In total, PageGate accepts 12 methods of input and a filtering system
- GUI Client
- GetASCII
- GetMail
- GetWeb
- GetSerial and SERIAL2ASCII
- GetTAP, TAP2ASCII and TAP-IP Server
- Webdata API (requires GetASCII)
- TCP Server (requires GetASCII)
- UDP Server (requires GetASCII)
- SNPP Server (requires GetASCII)
- TouchTone Receiver (requires GetASCII)
- Direct Database Integration
- Filter Pack (requires GetASCII)
The GUI Client is a Windows based application that can be installed on any workstation that has network/UNC access to the PageGate server’s database. This client provides a messaging interface that allows users to select recipients and groups and deliver messages. The client also has the ability to schedule messages, schedule repeating messages and maintain a list of pre-configured message templates.
PageGate’s robust security system also allows administrators to completely control which workstations and/or users are allowed to see which recipients and groups. For example, any given workstation can be locked to only display a specific set of recipients and groups. You could also say that any given user’s Windows logon name is locked to a specific set of recipients or groups. That way, the user will only ever be allowed to access the recipients and groups they’ve been permitted to see regardless of what workstation they log in to.
For more detailed information, please see the PageGate GUI Client section of our documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Next we have the GetAscii interface. Also known as the Command Line/ASCII interface, this API is capable of monitoring for ASCII files in multiple local or network directories. Those ASCII files may be in a custom format, XML, JSON or anything else; the important part is that they’re ASCII.
GetAscii also provides a command line interface for other applications to trigger messages in PageGate, which allows for easy integration in many cases.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – GetAscii Integration section of our documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Reviewing the GetMail interface, this API gives PageGate the ability to function as an email server which allows you to receive SMTP/Email and translate it into a different format.
As an example, let’s say that you have PageGate configured to send SMS to your recipients, that you’re using GetMail to host the email domain messaging.yourdomain.com and that you have a group named ‘alerts’. You could trigger a messaging by sending an email to alerts@messaging.yourdomain.com and that message would be delivered as an SMS to every member of the alerts group.
Also, GetMail enables a feature in PageGate that allows you to have a copy of all traffic sent to a recipient or group forwarded to a specified email address and allows the program to host POP accessible mailboxes for your recipients and groups.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – GetMail Integration section of our documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Next we have the GetWeb interface, which provides a CGI executable and a series of pre-formatted templates to publish a messaging website or series of messaging websites. This allows you to host messaging websites to trigger messages through your PageGate server, whether that’s providing a list of recipients and groups to choose from or accepting a dynamic ID.
This means you can host messaging websites on your local intranet or, if GetWeb is referencing an outward facing web server, on the internet. It’s also important to note that anything capable of using GET/POST HTTP methods can make use of GetWeb's CGI executable, which allows developers to trigger messages from most Web, REST and SOAP APIs in to PageGate.
For more detailed information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – GetWeb Integration section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
The GetSerial interface allows PageGate to monitor a serial/RS232 port, virtual or physical, for raw data text strings to be parsed in to outbound messages. When a data string is sent to a monitored a serial port, GetSerial pattern matches sections of the data string to parse information for messaging. This is useful for monitoring arduinos, raspberry pi’s, alarm panels, nurse call stations and anything else that can be connected via serial/RS232 cable to transmit alarm and alerting data. We also offer the ability to monitor an array of serial ports with additional Serial2ASCII modules, so you can monitor as many inputs as you may need.
The GetTAP interface allows PageGate to function as a TAP terminal, allowing it to receive the TAP protocol by either modem or RS-232/serial line. We also offer the ability to monitor an array of modems and serial ports with additional TAP2ASCII modules, so you can monitor as many inputs as you may need. It’s also important to note that PageGate offers an IP based TAP receiver, allowing it to receive the TAP protocol by TCP connection as well.
Next up, we have PageGate’s Webdata API. PageGate has an HTTP data receiver (webdata.exe) that can receive input from nearly any API or protocol that offers an HTTP/S request like HTTP GET, HTTP POST and WCTP.
This allows you to receive JSON, XML, HTML, WCTP and similar data submissions via HTTP/S request. Received data doesn't need to conform to a single standard as it is fully processed with the GetASCII interface and, optionally depending on what you want to do with the received data, Filter Pack.
If you want to receive multiple data formats, the Filter Pack isn't optional and you will need to implement a filtering system to tell PageGate what to do with each format received.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – Accepting HTTP Requests: Webdata API section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
The TCP and UDP Server modules allow you to host a TCP or UDP receiver that monitors a required port for incoming TCP or UDP packets, which can be parsed for alerts and message triggers.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – TCP Server and UDP Server sections of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Reviewing the SNPP Server, this module allows PageGate to receive the SNPP protocol from other systems. This is most often used in public safety environments with some CAD systems and with general monitoring utilities capable of triggering messages via SNPP.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – SNPP Server section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Next we have the TouchTone receiver. The TouchTone receiver gives PageGate the ability to receive touch-tones by phone line. This is most often used with relatively antiquated systems and anything that still relies on touch-tones to operate. The TouchTone receiver monitors a modem with attached phone line for incoming calls, then answers the call and records the touch tones. The touch tones are then submitted to PageGate for translation and processing.
For more information, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – TouchTone Receiver section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
As an additional method of integration, PageGate supports direct database integration with ODBC expressions to link to a variety of formats, including SQL. If you have an SQL environment, you could create a series of linked table expressions between PageGate’s database and your SQL database to tie the systems together.
For more information, including detailed breakdowns of the users and messages tables, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – Direct Database Integration section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
Last, we have PageGate’s filtering system. PageGate’s Filter Pack is an add-on to PageGate that allows you to modify any input to or output from any of PageGate's interfaces based on nearly any criteria of your choosing.
The filtering system functions on a series of scripts that allow you to conditionally modify nearly anything but let's break that concept down a little. When I say 'conditionally modify', what I really mean is that you can tell the script to look for certain key phrases or characters, then do something special when it finds them. As for what 'something special' does? You could have it search and replace any instance of a specific word or phrase, you could change to whom the message is meant to be delivered based on what the body or subject line say, you could change the sender's name, you could execute a batch file or script that triggers something in another application or do all of that at once.
For more information, including examples of real-world filtering systems, please see the How PageGate Accepts Messages – Filter Pack section of the documentation or visit the PageGate support section of our website.
This concludes the overview of how PageGate accepts messages. For more information, including step by step instructions on how to implement PageGate’s interfaces, please visit our website, www.notepage.net
|
