The MainBoss Service Module

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
This help file does not exist in MainBoss 4.2.4, but the index for that version can be found here.

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MainBoss Service is a piece of software which processes notifications sent to the assignees of requests, work orders, and purchase orders. It also processes requests submitted by authorized requestors via e-mail.

In order to use the facilities of MainBoss Service, you must have a MainBoss Service license key. For information about installing MainBoss Service, see the Installation and Administration Guide.

Note: Earlier versions of MainBoss contained a facility named @Requests. MainBoss Service replaces @Requests; it does everything @Requests did but provides additional functionality.

Here's how MainBoss Service processes requests:

Users send e-mail requests to a designated mail address.
On a regular basis (e.g. every half hour), MainBoss Service checks for incoming mail at the designated address. If there are new messages, each one is turned into a request and added to the Requests table. Once a request has been made in this way, MainBoss Service sends e-mail to the requestor saying that the message has been received and processed.
Whenever the state of the request changes, MainBoss Service sends another acknowledgement message to the requestor. For example, when someone marks the request as In Progress, an appropriate e-mail message is sent to the requestor.

MainBoss Service follows a similar system for sending out notifications: on a regular basis, MainBoss Service checks to see if any notifications should be sent out. If so, MainBoss Service does so.

You can configure how often MainBoss Service checks for incoming requests and how often it checks if notifications should be sent. These can have different schedules; for example, you might check on incoming requests every half hour and on outgoing notifications every ten minutes.

You control the operation of MainBoss Service using Administration | MainBoss Service. This displays the following:

Machine Name: The name of the computer where MainBoss Service is running. (This will be blank if you haven't installed MainBoss Service yet.)

Service Name: The name of the MainBoss Service service. This will be "MainBoss Service - XXX" where XXX is the name of your MainBoss database.

Status: The current status of MainBoss Service on your system. Possibilities are:

NotInstalled: MainBoss Service has not yet been installed on any system.

Stopped: MainBoss Service isn't running.

Running: MainBoss Service is active.

Event Log: Diagnostic messages that have been generated in connection with MainBoss Service. To read the details of any message in the list, click the message. The details will be displayed in the Details area below the Event Log.

If you do not have Windows Administrator privileges on the computer where MainBoss Service is installed, or if there is some other reason why the event log can't be displayed, MainBoss shows a diagnostic message in place of the event log. For further information, see the Installation and Administration Guide.

Enable Filter: Lets you set up a filter to select which records should be shown in the table. For more information, see Table Filters.

Search: Lets you search through the event log. For more information, see Searching for a Particular Record. The Search button has an accompanying drop-down list containing the following:

Find Next: Uses the same search condition(s) as your most recent search and finds the next record in the table that matches the condition(s). If the search reaches the end of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the start of the table and continues the search.

Find Previous: Same as Find Next except that it goes backward in the table. If the search reaches the start of the table without finding a matching record, it goes to the end of the table and continues the search.

Start Service/Stop Service: Starts or stops the service. You must have Windows Administration privileges in order to perform these operations.

Process All: Tells MainBoss Service to immediately process any incoming requests and to send out notifications and/or acknowledgements as appropriate. This supersedes the usual schedule. For example, suppose you have MainBoss Service set up to do its processing every half hour. Clicking Process All tells MainBoss Service to do its processing immediately, rather than waiting for its usual half-hour schedule.

This button has a drop-down list containing:

Process Request Acknowledgements: Immediately processes request acknowledgements only. This supersedes the usual schedule.

Process E-mail Requests: Immediately processes any incoming requests submitted by e-mail. This supersedes the usual schedule.

Process Assignment Notifications: Immediately processes any notifications that should be sent to assignees of requests, work orders, and purchase orders. This supersedes the usual schedule.

Pause Service: Temporarily suspends MainBoss Service. The software will not process any requests, acknowledgements or notifications while it is suspended.

Resume Service: Activates MainBoss Service after it has been suspended by Pause Service.

Note: In order to use Start Service and Stop Service, you need Windows Administrator privileges. For Pause Service and Resume Service, you only need the MainBoss Administration security role. If you want to reconfigure MainBoss Service, usually Pause Service and Resume Service are sufficient to suspend MainBoss Service while you make changes.

On the other hand, if you're running a demonstration version of MainBoss, MainBoss Service will only run for 60 minutes before terminating. In this case, you must use Start Service to restart the service, and you must have Windows Administrator privileges.

Set Minimum Logging: Tells MainBoss Service to generate as few log messages as possible. This button has a drop-down list containing:

Set Maximum Logging: Tells MainBoss Service to generate as many log messages as possible.

Set Medium Logging: Tells MainBoss Service to generate an intermediate number of log messages between the minimum and the maximum.

Set No Logging: Tells MainBoss Service not to generate any log messages.

Clear Events: Deletes all entries in the MainBoss Service events log.

Refresh: Updates the window to reflect any recent changes.

Close: Closes the window.

For information on configuring MainBoss Service, see Configuring MainBoss Service.