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Communications Manger

Overview

Automation and MyInfo rely on a program called the Communications Manager.

This is a separate program provided by BBL and installed with ProfitSystem (called CM.EXE, and located in the main Profit System program folder) that should be running all the time on one computer in your shop's LAN. The computer must have internet access available at all times.

The CM.EXE program is started automatically by the first instance of the ProfitSystem to start. Only one copy of the CM.EXE program will run at a time. Also, the CM.EXE could be added to the Startup program group on one computer and the computer would then remain turned on and logged in at all times. In this case, the ProfitSystem will not automatically start a new instance of the ProfitSystem.

The automatic start of CM can be disabled by checking 'Do not auto-start CM, it must be manually started?' on the General/Time Clock tab of the System Setup form.

The Communications Manager transmits customer details to the BBL Systems Customer Server located at BBL, so those details can be viewed by bridal customers. The Communications Manager also receives requests from your web site when a customer wants a copy of their receipt. The Communications Manager receives this request, creates the receipt, and sends it to the customer.

Changes to a Ticket, PO, or Pickup Inv. are tracked and queued up by the Communications Manager to be sent to the BBL Systems Customer Server.

Queued 'data change updates' are processed via the running Communications Manager software (CM.EXE is installed when ProfitSystem is installed) approximately every 30 seconds.

A disruption to communications will cause an alert message will appear if the BBL Communications Manager is not running or there is a network problem and the requests are not being transferred. The alert message triggers if more than 50 records are in the queue, the message displayed is:

'The MyInfo queue has more than 50 actions queued up. Make sure the Communications Manager PROGRAM(CM.EXE) is running on one computer'

Every 30 seconds the Communications Manager program checks the Queue table for web keys. When it finds one it retrieves the customer details (balance, order statues, etc.) and sends it to the BBL Customer Server.

The Communication Manager, when it connects to the BBL Customer Server checks for your customer's receipt requests coming in from your shop's website. Customer may request their receipt be emailed to themselves from your website. Tthe email address and web key are placed in a queue at the BBL Customer Server. The communications manager downloads these requests when it connects, generates, and emails the receipts. It uses the store's SMTP email settings from the Profit System to email the receipts.

Modifications to the Housekeeping-> System Setup -> Days to Add to Confirmed Ship date on PO for est. ready for pickup date on MyInfo page.will require the Communications Manager to be stopped then restarted for the changes to take effect Existing customer information must be re-queued for the new settings to be seen. This is done by displaying the customer ticket, and clicking Save/Done with Ticket, or making a change to the PO confirmed shipping date or Notification date.

CM uses the data path from the primary TPSWIN.INI file and also uses the license file in that data folder.

CM will normally auto-start if any automation are set up and enabled OR if the MyInfo option is enabled on the Integrations tab of the Stores form. CM will not auto-start if the ProfitSystem is in development mode or if the system setting is set to disable auto-start.

BBL SAAS users will have a setting set by BBL to auto-run CM when a user is logged in and to auto stop running when the user logs out of the online service.