Integrations

Open Settings → Advanced & security → Integrations to connect RescueConsole to another system your rescue exchanges records with. An integration is a standing instruction to move records between the two: for example, sending your adoptable animals to Adopt-a-Pet every few hours. Each integration has its own settings, which open in a window of their own so you can keep the other system’s instructions open beside them. What an integration needs differs from one system to the next; a system with its own guide, such as Adopt-a-Pet, says exactly what to enter. Only an Organization admin can see and set up integrations. Anyone else is told Only an organization admin can set up an integration.

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The list

Integrations are grouped under headings such as Adoption listing sites. Each one shows its name, which way records go and how often, such as We send, they receive · Every 6 hours. Nothing connected yet. means there are none. Two lines can appear under an integration, and both need you to act:

• Not connected yet. It needs credentials before it can sync.
• The last error, in red.

Press Settings to open an integration’s settings window, or Remove to take it away.

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Adding an integration

A new integration starts Paused, set to every hour, and waiting for credentials: adding one never starts moving your records before anybody has said which way they go. You can add each system once. When every system on offer is already added, the list says Everything available is already connected.

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The connection

The first part of the settings window holds what RescueConsole signs in to the other system with. The other system issues it from its own settings. What you enter is stored and never shown again, not even to you. Once it is set, the window says which kind is set and the day it was last changed, such as The FTP Username and FTP Password are set. To change it, type it again and press Replace it. Some systems take a key, some a login (a username and a password), and some either. Where a system takes both, the window says what each can reach before you choose. Where it takes a login, give the integration its own user on the other system if you can, rather than a person’s own login. Some systems also ask for your organization’s ID or account number with them, or a server address that you change only if theirs has changed. Test the connection asks the other system, now, whether it accepts what you entered, and shows the answer. It needs the credentials first. Forget it removes the stored credentials. It asks you to confirm, and it also pauses the integration, because there is nothing left to sign in with.

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Which way

Only the ways the other system, and the credentials you gave, can actually do are offered. When a way is missing, the window says why.

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How often

Choose from Every 15 minutes, Every 30 minutes, Every hour, Every 6 hours, Every 12 hours and Once a day. Some systems have a longer shortest time, and the window says why under the choice; Adopt-a-Pet is at most hourly. As it happens is offered only for a system that can tell RescueConsole when something changes. For any other, the window says it is checked on a schedule.

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What to sync

Each kind of record the system can exchange has a box. Leave a record type unticked and it is not exchanged at all. A ticked record type can go its own way, or Same as above. For some systems every field and status is matched for you, and the window says how instead of offering a choice. Press Save to keep the changes to Which way, How often and What to sync. They are saved together, and the window says Saved. Nothing in them is kept until you do. Close closes the window.

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When it runs

An integration runs on its own, at the interval you chose, only after a run you started by hand has worked. Until then, the settings window says so. If a run fails, the integration stops running on its own and the window shows what the last run said. Fix the cause, then run it by hand again; once that works, it carries on by itself. The settings window shows when the integration last ran and what its last run said. It does not keep a list of earlier runs. Changes to an integration’s settings are recorded in Settings history.

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Pausing an integration

To stop an integration without losing its setup, open its settings, choose Paused under Which way, and press Save. Choose the way you want again to start it.

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Removing an integration

Press Remove on the list and confirm. The integration and its settings are removed. Nothing that has already synced is deleted.