Overview 

The Agility Virtual Channel (AVC) application, installed on client desktops, allows you to transfer files and information between the Agility terminal server environment and your desktop. The application supports the Agility Credit Card Interface, file transfer applications, the opening of external links in Agility, and opening APG cash drawers. Through the use of virtual channels created in the Terminal Services Session, the plugins allow you to enhance the functionality of the session as well as configure and set up additional plugin options. The following functions are supported by the AVC application. 

·         Credit card interface functions to support the transfer of data between the card swipe device and Agility. 

·         File transfer functionality for manually sending data to and from the Terminal Server; including the ability to export to Excel on a local PC. 

·         File chooser functionality for selecting and sending data to the Terminal Server from within Agility. Supported by standard Agility conversion programs, EDI, imports and interfaces. 

·         Cash drawer functions for allowing Agility to send open commands to USB or Serial cash drawers when payments are applied in Agility.  

While you can use this tool for locally hosted environments, the file transfer is designed specifically to work with the Agility SaaS environment. 

Structure of Agility Virtual Channel Application 

The Agility Virtual Channel application consists of a main application window to access the following functions. 

·         Credit Card plugin – Used to view a communication log for the Credit Card Interface service on the local PC 

·         File Transfer plugin – Used to set up/configure the File Transfer client on the local PC 

·         Cash Drawer plugin – Used to set up/configure the Cash Drawer on the local PC 

·         File Chooser plugin – Used to view a communication log for the File Chooser on the local PC  

Processing Components for Accessing External Links 

The following steps illustrate the process flow for displaying external links within Agility. All steps must be passed before the system can display the external link. 

1.       The system reads the SaaS environment field on the System Configuration Settings screen to determine if the system is hosted or locally hosted. If locally hosted and users access Agility from local machines, AVC is not necessary. If hosted or locally hosted and users access Agility from a terminal server, the system continues to step 2.  

2.       The system reads the Virtual channel file transfer executable path field on the System Configuration Settings to determine the location to open external links and checks if the Agility VC is installed. 

3.       The system searches the Agility PROPATH file for a defined transfer executable. When a valid executable is found, external links including Help Doc, Document Storage and other websites are launched on the user's local machine. If not found, the system opens external links including Help Doc, Document Storage, and other websites on the terminal server. 

Processing Components for Accessing Spreadsheets 

The following steps illustrate the process flow for exporting spreadsheets within Agility. All steps must be passed before the system can display the external link. 

1.       The system reads the SaaS environment field on the System Configuration Settings screen to determine if the system is hosted or locally hosted. If locally hosted and users access Agility from local machines, AVC is not necessary. If hosted or locally hosted and users access Agility from a terminal server, the system continues to step 2.  

2.       The system reads the Spreadsheet viewer field within User Preferences to determine if the field is set to 'ftserver.exe' and checks if AVC is installed. When a valid path is defined in this field, spreadsheets are opened on the user's local machine. If a valid path is not defined, spreadsheets are opened on the terminal server. 

Processing Components for Accessing Local Files within Agility 

The following steps illustrate the process flow for accessing files from the user’s local machine when processing standard Agility conversion programs, EDI, imports, and interfaces. All steps must be passed before the system can use the local file. 

1.       The user's local machine must have Agility Virtual Channel Plugin Manager version 5.0 or higher installed to utilize this functionality. 

2.       The system reads the SaaS environment field on the System Configuration Settings screen to determine if the system is hosted or locally hosted. If locally hosted and users access Agility from local machines, AVC is not necessary. If hosted or locally hosted and users access Agility from a terminal server, the system continues to step 2. 

3.       The system checks the Agility Virtual Channel version on the System Configuration Settings screen for a value of “AVC5”.  When set to “AVC5”, the system allows users to browse and process files located on the user’s local machine or the terminal server.  If not set to “AVC5”, the system only processes files located on the terminal server. 

Installation and Setup 

Complete the following steps to install the AVC application. 

Agility Virtual Channel Plugin Manager 

The AVC main plugin manager is accessible via the system tray (i.e. systray) icon that appears after connecting to the DMSi Desktop via the link on hosting.dmsi.com or after initializing an RDP connection locally. Upon login, the system displays the following options in the systray, depending on function. 

Use one of the following methods to access the AVC Manager. 

o    From the Start menu, select All Programs Þ DMSi Þ Agility Virtual Channel Þ Agility VC Plugin Manager. 

o    Double click in the system tray. 

o    Right click and select Show Agility VC Manager. 

The plugin manager allows you to view the enabled plugins, configure plugin-specific settings, and add/remove plugins. By default, the Cash Drawer, Credit Card Interface, File Chooser, and File Transfer plugins display.  

Click on a plugin to display the configurable settings.  

Use the Save to default folder location field when transferring files from the Agility terminal server environment to your desktop. The path is based on the selected plugin. The standard default is the My Documents directory, but you can enter a different default location. Click Apply to save the changes. To return to the standard default, click Set Default. 

When transferring files from your desktop to the Agility terminal server environment, the system automatically saves to the My Documents directory. 

Exporting to Excel on the Local PC 

You can configure the Export to Excel option in Agility to send exported Excel files through the virtual channel to the local PC and open them with the local version of Excel. This setting is defined on the User Preferences screen in Agility, accessed by selecting File Þ User Preferences. 

On the Misc tab of the User Preferences screen, enter the path to the FTServer.exe executable in the Spreadsheet viewer field. Example: G:\FTServer\FTServer.exe for customers in the SaaS environment and C:\FTServer\FTServer.exe for locally hosted customers. If the FTServer.exe is not found, please contact DMSi’s Tech department for the executable. 

To test the new path, open the Sales Order Viewer and click the Export button. 

Opening an External Link on a Local PC  

You can configure external links to launch on a local machine by sending through the virtual channel to the local PC and opening in the user's default browser. This setting is defined on the System Config screen in Agility by accessing System Administration Þ System Configuration Þ System Config. 

On the System Config Settings tab of the System Configuration Settings screen, enter the path to FTServer.exe in the Virtual channel file transfer executable path field.  

Example: G:\FTServer\FTServer.exe for SaaS customers and C:\FTServer\FTServer.exe for locally hosted customers. If the FTServer.exe is not found, please contact DMSi’s Tech department for the executable. 

To test the path, press F1 to open the Help Documentation and verify the site launches on your local machine. 

Using a File on a Local PC within Agility 

You can configure Agility to use files on a user’s local machine by automatically sending the file up through the virtual channel if the user’s PC has the Agility Virtual Channel Plugin Manager version 5.0 or higher installed. 

This setting is defined on the System Config screen in Agility by accessing System Administration Þ System Configuration Þ System Config. 

On the System Configuration Settings tab of the System Config screen, enter "AVC5" in the Agility Virtual Channel version field. 

On any standard Agility conversion program, EDI, import, and interface, use the Browse button or select “My PC” from the dropdown to search for and select a file on the user’s local machine. Use the DMSi Desktop option to search for and select a file on the terminal server. 

File Transfer Plugin 

The File Transfer Plugin (FTClient) enables users to transfer files to and from the remote computer in a Terminal Server connection via secure Virtual Channels. This plugin also allows data exported in Agility to be exported to Excel on the local computer. The maximum file size is 250MB. 

Complete the following steps to use the file transfer plugin. 

The following options display on the File Transfer context menu. 

Send File(s) to PC – Allows you to send files from the Agility SaaS environment to the default folder on your local PC. The default folder is configured on the Agility Virtual Channel Plugin Manager screen. 

Upload File to Agility SaaS – Displays a dialog to upload a file to the Agility SaaS/remote computer to which you are connected. The file is saved in the F:\My Documents folder if it exists. Otherwise the system creates a folder on the user's desktop named AVC File Transfers and saves the file in this folder. 

Hide Dropbox – Hides the dropbox on the desktop. You can access the dropbox again by double clicking the icon in the systray or right clicking on it and selecting Show Dropbox. 

Stay on Top – Keeps the dropbox on top of other windows. 

Show Version Info – Displays the specific version information of the FTServer, FTClient plugin, AVC plugin, and RDP dll version. 

Reset –Resets the Virtual Channel connection if connections become unsynchronized (e.g. disconnects and on reconnect cannot find the open channel). 

Exit – Ends the File Transfer Server application and any current transfer.  

Cash Drawer Client 

Use the Cash Drawer plugin to automatically open a cash drawer when a payment is applied within Agility using a remote desktop session (RDP). This plugin supports both serial and USB cash drawers.  

The most up-to-date model certified to work with Agility is the APG T554B-BL1616.  

If you select Serial, you must also identify the port used on the PC to attach the cash drawer and the delay for initial opening of the drawer. The delay allows the drawer to charge prior to opening for the first time. Once the drawer has opened for the first time after connection to the remote session, the delay no longer applies. The delay setting varies based on the drawer model and the age of the PC hardware. The delay could be between 4 and 12 seconds.  

NOTE: Any changes made to the Virtual Channel cash drawer settings while a remote connection is in session requires disconnecting and reconnecting for the changes to take effect.  

Network Connection Monitor 

The Network Connection Monitor Plugin (NCM) allows for troubleshooting connectivity issues associated with the Remote Desktop Session client and its connection with the datacenter.  A high-level overview of its purpose and function is to monitor (via TCP pings and/or ICMP pings) the response time between the client and three separate endpoint ip addresses (default: datacenter server the client is connected to, google.com, and yahoo.com).  This gives a basic understand of the current and average response time to expect data to be exchanged between each, and can help isolate network issues to their network location (local / ISP / hub / backbone / datacenter / etc). 

In addition, whenever a network issue occurs causing a lost ping packet between the client and the datacenter, specialized trace routes are performed to all three monitored ip endpoints to help isolate where the issue is occurring.  The automation of this immediately after an anomaly is detected can greatly help make more informed decisions and allows for a better understanding and faster resolution. 

To launch the NCM, open the Agility Virtual Channel Plugin Manger, and select the Network Connection Monitor tab.  Simply click the “Launch NCM” button from the session you are wanting to monitor, (or manually enter the ip/hostname in the custom server box if manually running and use the Launch Custom NCM). 

To configure or change the NCM defaults, click “Configure Settings”. 

The default start state is to launch with the NCM enabled and checking, and to close the NCM when the parent RDP process (or parent launch process) ends.   

If you are having network issues and the RDP sessions are not staying open, then disabling the box by the option “Shutdown NCM when parent RDP process ends” should be unchecked so that the NCM will continue to run and monitor the network status even when the RDP session is failing to reconnect.   

*Note: unchecking this option means that you will need to manually close the Network Connection Monitor form when finished using it by clicking the “Exit” button in the bottom right of the form. 

Connection Statistics: This section displays the Average Round-trip Time (Avg. RTT in msec), Consequetively Lost Packets (Clops), Total Lost Packets (Lost), and Total Sent Packets (Sent), for each ip endpoint listed. 

Current RTT latency (gauges): This section displays the Current RTT times in msec to each ip endpoint.  The lower the value, the quicker the response time and the better the connection/user experience will be.  As this value approaches 400 milliseconds, slowness and lag can become much more noticeable, therefore, the color coding is intended to give a good general expectation of user experience. 

SMART Trace Route files: This section displays the automatically captured trace route files to each ip endpoint and the details are viewed below when one is selected from the list.  By default, only “priority tracert files are displayed in the list, although all recorded files can be accessed by unchecking the “Hide non-priority tracert files” option.  Tracert files displayed in red, indicate that the initial ping and secondary Smart Ping both failed, alerting us that there is a high certainty of a network issue.  If the initial ping fails triggering the Smart trace routes, but the secondary Smart Ping succeeds, the results will still be recorded but will be marked as non-priority.