Web service help

[petersb]

Hi all,

I'm hoping I can be pointed in the right direction. I want to have an access or sql database that receives records via a web service. I'm actually trying to create a print service. I have got most of it working except at the moment it accepts job via batch files.

The concept is as follws

A calling application submits an xml document wich contains print information as well as letter code which is used to determine which letter to print with the data provided. I then want to be able to provide a response with a return code indiacating the outcome of the print job.

As I said I have all this working already using a batch process with csv files.

Could anyone point me towards some examples of simple web services that interogate dsn's.

Thanks in advance.

 

[theniteowl]

We need more info about your current process to make any specific and meaningful suggestions.
The approach should be relatively straightforward but it all depends on how you need it to operate. How you handle submission and response is important.

At first glance I would say you should have the calling application upload directly into the database. You would of course want enough detail submitted along with the XML file to document the requestor and any needed contact information.
A second piece of the application would poll the database for waiting print jobs that already exist in the database.
You could even have the web front end allow setting the priority for the print jobs visually and writing the priority of the jobs into fields in each record or maintaining one separate table/record with a delimited list of job numbers set in their order of execution and just modify that list to alter priority.

When the print job ends you must have a way of submitting the change in status back to the database. How that happens is an unknown to us but you should be able to trigger an event that will update the database and fire off an email if it is successful, or change the status in the database and set a flag in the web app to show an error.

Every so often the web app will need to test for new submissions, have the new submisions appear at the bottom of the list or in a separate window until they are assigned a priority. If no priority is specified they could just print out in the order they arrived.

None of this is likely new thought for you since you have a working system now, but to be more specific on the approach I would have to know how existing files are submitted, what data is passed, what data NEEDS to be passed, how status of the print job is currently reported back, etc. Too many unknowns to do more than outline a generalized approach.


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