Getting back to Mobilink after 10+ years; two easy questions

[vlad1]

Hi all, (17.0.11.7458)

We have a Mobilink project again after 15 years or even more than that. Luckily an easy one, only two remote databases. Since it's been so long, I can no longer remember some of the options, so:

1. I know that for a time, output log of Mobilink server and DBMLSYNC services were available as small windows that you open/minimize to system tray. Then, due to some Windows security issue (right?) this was discontinued. Has this, in the meantime, been restored somehow, or is the only option just -o to a text file?

2. In our setup ages ago, I remember we had behaviour that if the sync fails for any reason, a primary key conflict or a script error, that an email gets sent to an X address just to warn the administrator about it immediately. I'm afraid there's nothing I can find in the old documentation, does anyone know if a handy example exists about how to code this?

Thanks

[regdomaratzki]

1) Windows for dbmlsync and the ML Server still appear when you run, and when you minimize them they go to the system tray. There was no security issue that has changed this. You can choose to run your processes as windows services that don't interact with the desktop, and there were some security changes WRT making shared memory connections from the same machine that are about 10-15 years old, so that might be what you are remembering. If you were running as a service that didn't interact with the desktop, then looking at the log generated by the -o switch would give you some insight into the current state of the process.

2) This is likely something you will have coded yourself in the report_error Connection Event.

Reg

[vlad1]

1. Huh. Guess my memory is poorer than I thought, but good to know that you can actually get them back as desktop-bound log windows.

2. I'll have a look at the docs about report_error. I remember that after a while we got our mobilink scripts foolproof, so there weren't any errors against consolidated database, but mostly on remote DBs connecting and encountering primary key duplicates so the sync would fail. These are the ones we're hoping to catch now.

Thanks Reg.

[vlad1]

I just tried this, and it's a bit odd that when I run mlsrv17.exe and dbmlsync.exe as executables from batch file, there is indeed the log window shown on the desktop which you can minimize to system tray or leave running on the screen. But I can't get it to appear if I create the windows service for both the mobilink server and dbmlsync client with identical parameters (-dl switch is 100% included). I did go to services.msc and ticked the option "Allow service to interact with desktop", but nothing appears on the desktop when the service is started?

Not a big thing, but more of a nice to have.

[chris_keating]

Interact with Desktop is disabled in modern versions of Windows as it exposed a shatter attack security hole.

[VolkerBarth]

Note Services cannot directly interact with a user as of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. The Allow Service To Interact With Desktop option cannot change this.

It would be nice if the v17 documentation could clarify on that, particularly if the disabled interaction is a feature of all currently supported Windows versions (which it is in my understanding).