In Chapter 2, you learned how to set up a system including the basic steps to set up communications. In Chapter 3, you will learn the additional steps to set up and implement communications. EC Gateway supports two types of communication: asynchronous and FTP. Each communication type has its own set of rules that govern how a file is transmitted from one computer to another.
Asynchronous transmission is a form of data transmission in which data is sent intermittently, one character at a time, rather than in a steady stream with characters separated by fixed time intervals. Asynchronous transmission relies on the use of a start bit and stop bits, in addition to the bits representing the character (and an optional parity bit), to distinguish separate characters.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the protocol used for transferring files over a TCP/IP network (Internet, UNIX, and so on). FTP handles binary files directly and enables different types of computers to communicate for functions such as logging on to a network, listing directories, and copying files.
The first step in setting up communications is to define the communications channels that will be used with a system. This is the step you took in Chapter 1. In EC Gateway, each system may have one or more communications channels linked to it. Each communications channel is associated with one specific type of communications. When you set up a communications channel, you select the communications type that will regulate the transmission of data for that channel. The two most commonly used communications types in EC Gateway are asynchronous communication (pfs/Async) and FTP.
In this chapter, you enter any additional information that EC Gateway needs to use the communications type that you selected. The last step in setting up communications is to record the transmission scripts that will be executed during a communications session. In a later chapter, you will learn how to create processes and set up the scheduler to implement hands-off, unattended transfer and processing of your data.
