BackEnd Connection Class

[FSLobao]

The Problem

Current versions of the apps (appAnalise, MonitorRNI, SCH, monitorSPED), employ a simple file mapping for the shared folder and a cookie (.appAnalise_post, .monitorrni_post, .sch_post, .monitorsped_post) to mark the SharePoint folder presence.

This method is unable to detect if the file sync process from OneDrive client is active and the files were properly synced with Sharepoint folders, resulting in frequent erros where data is not received by the central server simply because the OneDrive client was inactive.

Furthermore, the fact that simple file save operations are used limit the ability to implement future changes in the back-end to provide more reliable and faster syncing capabilities, such as the implementation of alternative REST services, Object Storage to support back-end operations, instead of file-sharing.

The proposal

Create a new class to integrate and harmonize all data connections to the backend.

The new class should provide simple integration methods, such as get, post, put, delete, patch, which applications could use to interact with the back-end regardless if it is a simple file sharing as currently implemented or a full fledged web service.

Implementation should also complementary methods to set the service configuration parameters and provide status information to indicate that the service is currently operating as expected.

Additionally, one should consider implementing callback or other alert methods that could be used by a service self test to send messages to the user, for example, to alert if the sync process is inactive.

Initial Implementation

Initial implementation using Sharepoint OneDrive Sync method could be improved by including test operations, including:

• evaluate timestamps for files with extension: .odlsent, .odl, .aodl in subfolders of C:\Users\/<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\logs\Business\<DIGIT>
• evaluate the file: C:\Users\/<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\logs\Business\<DIGIT>\SyncDiagnostics.log
• evaluate the time for files to disappear from the post folder.

Future implementations could use also perform some level of monitoring over other sharepoint folders, specially the GET folder. Taking into account the consolidated data may bring additional benefits to allow applications to providing history data at the users interface.