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Development Tips

 

• ConneXion uses the same business logic as TAM. For example, you must have a Client before you can insert a Policy and you must have a Policy before you can insert an Application.

• When doing an update, it is best to do a find first. This will populate the object with all the existing data before the update is made. If a find is not executed first, the object will be empty except for the data elements set in the update code. Examples of an update are given in the sample code.

• After loading any TAM patches, be sure to run ASUpdate.exe on the Workstation using ConneXion. This will ensure that all registry settings are correct. If ASUpdate.exe is not run after TAM patches are loaded, ConneXion may not function properly.

• Below are instructions for settings that you will need to add when Terminal Services is on the ConneXion machine. To have ConneXion work with Terminal Server, you will need to add 2 new system environment variables to Terminal Server. The first one is HOMEDRIVE which will be set to your main drive with your WINNT folder. The second one is HOMEPATH which will be set to a value containing a valid user profile path that contains a valid WINTAM.INI file in the WINDOWS folder. You will have to restart that machine in order for those to take effect. An example of system environment variables look like this:

HOMEDRIVE = C:

HOMEPATH = \Documents and Settings\stech

There needs to be a valid WINTAM file located at C:\Documents and Settings\stech\WINDOWS. Stech needs to be replaced by a valid user account on your machine.

• A TAMCentralAgency tag only needs to be set if you are integrating with an agency on TAMCentral.

• A LicenseKey only needs to be set if you are a vendor.

• The only field REQUIRED by ConneXion to insert an Activity is the ActivityType. However, if you want this activity attached to a Customer, Policy, etc, then those fields need to be set as well. The CSR and Producer from the Customer Detail screen will default into the activity and the WhoToFollowUp, FollowUpAction, FollowUpDate and KillDate will default from the Activity Setup. Any other fields you want set you will need to set programmatically.

• Some functions require the PolicyIndex to be set. PolicyIndex consists of the ClientID, PolicySlot and PolicySection. For example, the PolicyIndex for policy 4001 on ABBOJO1 would be ABBOJO1-4001. For policies 1 - 9, a dash (-) is used as a placeholder. When the policy is greater than 9, the dash should not be used. For example ABBOJO111001 would be policy 11001 on ABBOJO1. There are times when ConneXion will trim the PolicyIndex down to the ClientID and the PolicySlot, or the first 9 characters. If you use a dash for policies greater than 9, it will be read incorrectly by ConneXion and will not return the results desired. For example, if policy 11001 is set as ABBOJO1-11001, ConneXion may trim it down to ABBOJO1-1 and read it as policy 1 on ABBOJO1 instead of policy 11.

• For performance purposes, not all data in the Policy object is returned for FindPoliciesForCustomer. A minimum data set is returned and then the application can loop thru the array to find the policy needed and do a FindPolicy which will return all data in the object.

• When inserting a Commercial Customer, CustomerType should be set to 2. If it is not, ConneXion will assume it is a personal customer and create the Customer ID accordingly.

• When running a .NET application from the Terminal Services Server, the user must either be logged in as the administrator or the Application must be given full rights and full trust in IIS. This is an IIS issue with Terminal Services and any .NET application.

• A new area in TAM was added called Contacts as of version 7.1.1 patch 711U012.EXE. Contacts expands and replaces the functionality of Personnel Info. If your current integration uses the PersonnelInfo Method, it will continue to work and these entries will show up under the Contacts area. If you want to take advantage of the new functionality or if your is a new application, you should use the Contacts Method.

• InsertIntoOutlook Functionality for Activities- InsertIntoOutlook is a boolean field in the Activity object. If set to true, the activity item will be inserted into the user's Outlook Calendar provided the FollowUpTime is passed. If no time is set, the item is added to the user's Outlook Task List. This functionality only works if MAPI integration is enabled. If MAPI is not enabled or not functioning properly, no error will be returned in the ConneXion.ConneXionResult object, the routine to add to outlook will simply not be executed. This works on an Insert Only. If InsertIntoOutlook is set to True on an update, the routine to add to outlook will not be executed. Currently, because of the way that MAPI integration works in TAM, this functionality is only available for the Class Library. It will not work with the Web Service. Also, either TAM or Outlook must be open. If TAM or Outlook is not open and InsertIntoOutlook = True is sent, the InsertActivity will return false.