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How to Set Up PageGate's TCP Server API Video:
Welcome to the overview of PageGate’s TCP server module.
Welcome to the overview of PageGate’s TCP server module.
This API allows your sending systems to broadcast TCP data to your receiver.
Information received by this API is output to a directory as ASCII files that PageGate’s GetASCII interface then parses for delivery.
Before we begin, the steps we’re going through in this tutorial can be referenced in PageGate’s written documentation. You can find the documentation in the support section of our website or in the PG.chm file in the PageGate program directory.
The specific section you’re interested in will be How PageGate Accepts Messages – TCP Server Module.
To review the process, you’ll need to create a directory for the TCP server and its files to reside in. While this can be any folder, we recommend creating a directory called TCP in the PageGateData folder. Once the directory exists, find the pgtcpserver.exe and pgtcp.ini files, then copy them in to the folder you just created.
After copying the files in, we’ll need to modify the pgtcp.ini file. This file controls the behavior of the TCP server and is where you will need to enter your registration key. If a registration key isn’t present, the module will run in an evaluation mode that will stop itself every three to five days or after 500 processed messages, whichever happens first.
To register the module, go to the very end of the file and enter the following:
Registration=Your Registration Key, Including Dashes
Next, go back to the beginning of the file and set the port you want the TCP server to listen to. By default, the port is set to 5002 but you can modify this to whatever port you may need.
Then change OutPutFolder= to the TCP server’s directory. By default, c:\PageGateData\TCP\
Change LogFolder= to your logging directory. If you are unsure of what this folder is, open the PageGate Admin and go to the Program - Settings section. By default, C:\PageGateData\Logs\
Now we can get in to how the TCP server interprets data.
To start, we'll need to set the end of record delimiter but talk about what that means.
When the TCP Server is receiving information, it doesn't really know what in the received data is important; it's just receiving TCP packets of data. The end of record delimiter tells the TCP server that when a certain character or characters appear, that denotes a break in the data stream.
For example, the TCP server could receive a series of 5 packets:
a) This is
b) a
c) test message #
d) This is a new
e) message#
If you set EndOfRecordDelimiter = #, that tells the TCP server that everything before every # received is a data block to be parsed.
Put another way, the end of record delimiter tells the TCP server how to break down the information it's receiving in to relevant chunks of data.
It's the "over" of a CB radio conversation.
Below that, there are RequiredText and RequiredTextOperator values that can optionally be set.
RequiredText specifies that certain text must appear for a data block to be processed and you may specify multiple values by separating each with a | (pipe).
The RequiredTextOperator specifies whether you're using OR or AND logic in the required text.
For example, let's say you specify the following:
RequiredText=alarm|notification
RequiredTextOperator=AND
That tells the TCP server that both the words ‘alarm’ AND ‘notification’ must appear in a received data block for that block to be treated as relevant and trigger a message.
As another example:
RequiredText=alarm|alert
RequiredTextOperator=OR
That tells the TCP server that either the words ‘alarm’ or ‘alert’ need to appear in a received data block for that data block to be relevant and trigger a message.
Next we have EndOfRecordTimeout, whose value is expressed in milliseconds.
If data is received by the TCP server, but the EndOfRecordDelimiter isn't received within the time specified, the data will be accepted for processing anyway.
By default, this is set to 3000 milliseconds or 3 seconds.
RejectOnTimeout determines whether timeouts should post a rejection notice or not. By default, this is set to true.
AcceptResponse determines what the TCP server will echo to the sending system upon acceptance of a data block.
RejectResponse determines what the TCP server will echo to the sending system upon rejection of a data block.
Last, we have two optional settings: StaticRecipient and StaticSender
StaticRecipient allows you to specify the name of a specific recipient or group in PageGate that ALL traffic from the TCP server should be passed through. If triggered messages need to be delivered to dynamic recipients, leave this blank.
StaticSender allows you to hard code a sender's name that should be associated with ALL traffic from the TCP server.
Save the .ini file and close notepad.
Now that we have the TCP server configured, we’ll need to install a Windows Service for it. To do that, open a command prompt with elevated permission.
Change directory to the TCP Server's program directory. By default, c:\PageGateData\TCP\
Type the following and hit enter:
pgtcpserver /install
Exit the command prompt.
Open the Services list in Windows.
Find the PageGate TCP Server service.
Go in its Properties.
Change the Startup Type to Automatic and Start the Service.
The final step is to configure PageGate’s GetASCII interface to process messages generated by the TCP Server.
Open PG Admin, and then go to Interfaces – GetAscii – Settings.
If you don’t have a polling directory specified, set it to the TCP Server’s directory. By default, c:\PageGateData\TCP\
Check Enabled, click Apply and tell it Yes.
If you do have a polling directory specified, go to Interfaces – GetAscii – Settings – Advanced Polling – Files.
Click Add.
Set Recipient to: *
Leave From blank.
In Files, type: *.asc
Set the path to the TCP server’s directory. By default, c:\PageGateData\TCP\
Set File Type to: Standard
Click Apply, then click Apply again.
Now go to the Program – Settings section.
In ‘Run on this server’, check GetASCII and click Apply.
If prompted for credentials, leave them blank and click Apply again.
This concludes the overview of PageGate’s UDP server module. For more information, including how to configure advanced filtering, please visit our website, www.notepage.net
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