In this learning unit, you are going to learn the basics of OFS.

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When we are engaged in a mobile conversation, the speaker from one

end, waits for a response, to proceed further. The speakers at both
ends stay connected. In this method of communication, there is no need
to have a standard format of communication. This is because you have
the other person to explain the things.

This type of communication through connected media is known as

stateful connection. Here it is assured that the receiver understands the
information that is been delivered.

In contrast, a stateless connection is one in which no direct

connection is retained by either sender or receiver. The sender sends
information to the receiver and does not expect an acknowledgment of
receipt. The recipient receives the information without any prior
connection setup. When we send a SMS, the recipient can read the
SMS later & respond at his convenience and the sender does not wait
for a response . This leads to a structured communication.

For stateless interactions, the format in which the information is sent is

very important. This is because you do not have the sender connected
to you to explain the information that is been sent to you.
Let us understand the this requirement with an example

You all would be familiar with the screen shot shown above. And you
might be using other interfaces like Gmail, yahoo etc., to send and
receive mail. But the interesting thing is, let it be any e-mail facility you
use, the format of the message remains same. The whole point is,
interface differs, but the process of sending and receiving mail remains
same.

Similar to email T24 receives messages from various interface, like

internet banking, ATM, front office at bank. But the format in which T24
gets the data remains same and the format is OFS.
This implies that when you input a transaction , say a Funds Transfer in
Browser, T24 actually receives an OFS message for Funds Transfer.
This also implies that the OFS processing is not merely an update to
the database, but goes through the same level of validations, including
SMS, as in a manual effort.

Secondly , with OFS, it becomes possible for T24 to transact with and
reply to queries from various external channels (or systems). This is
especially handy when we have huge volumes of transaction to be
updated, or when there are systems like ATM switches and other
banking systems requiring a 24/7 connection to T24.

OFS is the message format to communicate toT24

Communication standard used by all channels to communicate to T24
Works based on a request – response based system
 Enables III party systems to post requests and obtain responses

You have seen that OFS messages are requests to T24 . There are 2
types of common requests in T24. Each request follows a particular
syntax which you will learn as you go through this session.
1. One is a transaction request that will create, modify or delete a
record in any table in T24. Simply to say, transaction request is
nothing but DML.

2. The other is an enquiry request, which queries data from T24 or

otherwise you can say, it performs DQL.

You are going to learn How to use native OFS format

To do a transaction in T24, what you need to know is,

The credentials to access T24.
The name of the application and version, that you want to
access. The function you want to perform.
Data for the transaction

If you want to do a fund transfer, then you require the below mentioned
information:
1. Whether you have rights to access T24 : LOGIN CREDENTIALS
2. Name of the Application and Version : FUNDS.TRANSFER
3. The operation, that you are supposed to perform in T24 : I
4. Data : Debit account no, debit amount, debit currency, amount,
credit Account no, transaction date

In this slide, you can see an example for transaction request and the
syntax for the same.
In the syntax :

Application Name – Used to specify T24 table name.

Options -Options is optional since many of the parameters here may be
defaulted. This contains many sub-parts with each sub-part separated from
the other using a forward slash. The sub-parts are Version
name/Function/Process type/ GTS.Control value/No.of.authorisers.
VERSION – Valid T24 Version name
Function –Valid T24 function such as I, R, A,H,V. Note that C and P is
not supported.
Process Type – This may be VALIDATE or PROCESS and controls
whether the transaction is to be validated or processed.
No of authorisers - Used to specify the no of authorisers .
GTS control and no of authorisers if supplied will override the
corresponding settings in the Version.

User Information -The user credentials using which the enquiry will be
executed.

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If you just paste the OFS transaction request seen earlier, you will be get a response as shown
above.

The response may contain the following components:

TRANSACTION ID - The transaction ID contains either the value supplied for the transaction in
the request or the value that is automatically generated by the T24 table (when no such value
had been supplied in the request).
MESSAGE ID - The Message ID contains the value of the Message ID if it had been supplied in
the request.
SUCCESS / FAILURE INDICATOR - This part of the message indicates the status of the
transaction request processed. OFS returns one of the following values:

1 Successful transaction.
-1 Errors encountered during processing.
-2 Override condition (s) encountered during processing.
-3 T24 server is offline

RETURNED MESSAGE DATA – A successfully processed message will contain all the fields
populated in the transaction as field and value pairs

The structure for the Returned Message Data portion of an OFS transaction response is similar
to that of the request. Each field in this is further subdivided in to 4 different parts. Namely:

Field Name –The field name is as in the STANDARD.SELECTION record of the table.
Multi value number –the multi value field number is returned.
Sub value number –the sub value field number is returned.
Field content – the contents of the field

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The response format is slightly different when there are errors. When an
attempt to store data in a field has failed, the error message is returned
in place of field content

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That means, if you want to fetch data from T24, you need to know
1. Whether you have rights to access T24
2. Name of the Application that executes the report
3. The name of the report
4. Conditions

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If you want get the list of currency in T24, then you require the below
mentioned information:

1. Whether you have rights to access T24 : Login credentials

2. Name of the Application that executes the report:ENQUIRY.SELECT
3. The name of the report : CURRENCY-LIST
4. Conditions : USD currency details has to be fetched

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In this slide, you can see an example for enquiry request and the syntax
for the same.

In this syntax:

ENQUIRY.SELECT – Is the name of the table that executes the enquiry.

And for enquiry request, this value cannot be changed.
User Information – The user credentials using which the enquiry will be
executed.
Enquiry Name – The name of the enquiry to be executed
Message Data – Is the condition based on which the data will be
fetched.

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If you just paste the OFS enquiry request seen earlier, you will get a
response as shown above.

The response is in three parts if you observe carefully. First part is

contains the HEADER section of the enquiry, the second part contains
the field name and labels (if available) separated with ::, and the third
the actual data from the currency table.

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In this slide, you can see an example for enquiry request and the syntax
for the same.

In this syntax:

ENQUIRY.SELECT – Is the name of the application that executes the

enquiry. And for enquiry request, this value cannot be changed.
User Information – The user credentials using which the enquiry will be
executed.
Enquiry Name – The name of the enquiry to be executed
Message Data – Is the condition based on which the data will be
fetched.

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OFS message can be processed in 3 different ways.
1. The first way we can use OFS is in Batch processing. Batch
processing , as the name implies, is used for handling multiple
messages which may be processed offline. This is useful for handling
offline requests from third party systems. The mode used is obviously
BATCH .

2. The second way that we use OFS is Telnet mode, where An external
system or user connects directly to OFS or to OFS through TCS or
TOCF.

3. The last way in which we can use OFS is Session mode. Online
processing signifies that is a request is sent , processed immediately
and the response sent back to the requestor. A user connects to the
T24 system using Browser. In this case SESSION mode is used.

You will now learn about processing OFS message using telnet and
batch modes in detail.

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The first step is to run OFS message is to create a record in
OFS.SOURCE table. OFS.SOURCE contains the parameters for
setting up a OFS connection into T24. The important fields in this
application are:

Description – A short description about the OFS.SOURCE record.

Source Type – Mode in which the OFS Message will be
processed. Login ID – To be provided only for telnet mode
In Msg Rtn – The routine specified here will be executed just BEFORE
a message is processed by OFS
Out Msg Rtn - The routine specified here will be executed AFTER each
message has been processed but prior to sending back to it’s origin.
Log file Dir – OFS allows you to log the OFS message execution
details. To configure logging you need to specify the Log file name in
this field
Log Detail Level - This field defines the extent of information to be
logged
Maint Msg Dets – If you want the details about OFS message
processing to be stored in OFS.REQUEST.DETAIL, then check this
field.
Det Prefix – Specifies the prefix for the OFS.REQUEST.DETAIL record

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The Telnet mode was used for setting up a direct connection to T24 ,
usually from a third party system, via a live TELNET link / connection. It
used a Operating System level user id and password to gain Telnet
access to the T24 server. Once the connection was established, the
third party system would send an OFS request via the open connection
and wait for the response.

To setup telnet mode, the first step is to create a record in

OFS.SOURCE table. OFS.SOURCE contains the parameters for
setting up a OFS connection into T24. So now you have to have a
record in OFS.SOURCE with Source Type as TELNET and Syntax
Type as OFS.

Then you have to use the program tSS to talk to T24 with the
OFS.SOURCE record ID.

Now tSS is ready to process your OFS commands.

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1. No
2. Yes
3. OFS.SOURCE
4. Batch and Telnet mode
5. When there are no headers

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