How do I install the TOPAZ Front Office Interface

[Belinda Frick]

Description

The TOPAZ Front Office interface is a generic interface that should work with
most commonly found Hotel and Guest packages. It provides two means of inter-
facing.

1. ASCII File.
2. Serial Communications.

The record layout for both methods are exactly the same. The interface can run
on the same PC as TOPAZ or on a remote PC linked via TCPIP. TOPAZ uses the
UDP protocol to communicate to the Front Office interface.

Requirements

Topaz verion 1.4.0.00 or later.
A PC with TCPIP and a fixed IP address installed. This is required
even if Topaz and FrontOffice is running on the same PC.
FrontOffice Ver 1.0. or newer.
Available: on the TOPAZ CD in the FrontOffice folder.
www.datatex.co.za, select 'downloads' and then TOPAZ.TOPAZ and FrontOffice must be running at all times for this interface to
work. We suggest using UPS's for powerfailures if information is critical.
If any filewall is in place, please allow TOPAZ, FrontOffice and
PABX3 traffic.

Setup TOPAZ

1. Topaz uses the "Billing" option under extensions to send information to our
FrontOffice Interface. Billing must be set for all the extensions that you
would like to interface to the guest package.

2. Networking must be enabled on TOPAZ.

3. FrontOffice Interface must be enabled on TOPAZ.

4. Specify the IP address and port for the PC where FrontOffice is running.
This is normally 127.0.0.1 and 25002 if running on the same PC as TOPAZ.

FrontOffice Setup

1. Create a directory for FrontOffice e.g "C:\FrontOffice".

2. Copy the frontOffice.exe into this directory.

3. Run the self-extracting program and extract to the same directory.

4. Run FrontOffice.exe. Make sure your TOPAZ IP address and port is correct.

5. ASCII

If you require an ASCII file for interfacing turn the Create Rawdata under the
Menu->Tools options to ON. This will create a file called FrontOffice.txt. We
use optimistic locking with this file when writing data to it.

Make sure you move this file away before reading it. Your program
should continue to try and move the file away while it is locked.

6. SERIAL

If you require a serial interface turn the Create Rawdata under the
Menu->Tools options to OFF. Make sure your communications protocol and the
FrontOffice protocol are the same. FrontOffice will continuesly send the
same data record to the serial port until it receives an "ACK" back from
your inteface. All exisiting data in FrontOffice will be preserved even
during shutdowns and power failures. FrontOffice will start beeping if there
are more than five records in the in buffer.


Record Layout for both serial and ASCII records

TOPAZ makes provision for locations under extensions. This information
will be sent if available else only the extension will be used to
identify a location.

EXT-- NUMBER-------------- COST-- LOCATION Not part of the data
211 1026 0.78 ROOM 11
218 7013095 6.34
213 1026 0.78 ROOM 13
218 5774610 0.78
200 7159373 0.78
224 9378892 0.78
213 9020013 0.91 ROOM 13
213 6831382 0.78 ROOM 13