PRB: MIFST Frequently Asked Questions

• Microsoft Internet Finance Server Toolkit

SUMMARY

This article contains the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) on the Microsoft Internet Finance Server Toolkit (MIFST).

MORE INFORMATION

MIFST Installation and Configuration

Q: Sockets Resource Manager sample code is not included in the product.

A: It is available upon request (a Knowledge Base article is pending).

Q: Requests from Quicken are rejected by MIFST.

A: Quicken uses only a linefeed (instead of carriage-return/linefeed) to separate the OFX headers. A temporary workaround for MIFST is available. The question of whether CR-LF is required or not is currently being debated.

Q: How do I use the "Validate FII OFX Response" option?

A: This will cause a 400 application error to be returned if there are any errors in the response, and the response to be written to the log file. You can use the Parser Shell Tool to see exactly what the error is.

Q: Where do I get the Parser Shell Tool?

A: Download the tool from the following Web site:

     http://www.microsoft.com/industry/finserv/mifst/tools.htm

A: MIFST 1.0 was designed and tested for IIS 3.0. Testing with IIS 4.0 has begun, and no problems have been found so far.

Q: Can I install the Web Development Kit and Translation Server on the same system?

A: This is an unsupported configuration. It is not tested for, and most reports are that it does not work. Each component (Web kit, TS, and Security Server) must be on its own machine.

Questions on MIFST Development

Q: How do I get the Translation Server to use my custom FII component?

A: There are two registry settings to set. The following lines can be placed in a .reg script file, substituting the CLSIDs of your custom FII. Double-clicking the .reg file causes the new registry settings to be entered:

   REGEDIT4

   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\OFX_Gateway]
   "FI_Interface_Component"="{EFABEA05-9140-11D0-B091-00AA006C588C}"
   "FI_Interface_Module"="{EFABEA07-9140-11D0-B091-00AA006C588C}"

A: You may have seen this function documented in an SDK Errata. There is a known memory leak that occurs any time it is called. Its functionality can be achieved by the use of other Parser object functions, and it should not be used at this time.

Q: Why does the parser hang (in an infinite loop) after returning from the FI frame?

A: This may be due to an invalid aggregate tag. Make sure that all aggregate objects are set to the proper name.

Q: Why don't the SDK Samples compile?

A1: Set Visual C++ directories to point to necessary libraries and header files. A2: Remove the old SDK before installing new one, to make sure that old files aren't being used.

Q: How can I turn off MIFST Crash Recovery?

A: You can't. When using Lite Synchronization, Crash Recovery is required by the OFX Specification. When using Full Synchronization, it is not required, but the current version of MIFST offers no way to disable it. See pages 40 - 43 of the Gateway Development Guide and section 6.10.2 of the OFX Specification.

Q: How can I add a custom installation OCX to the Gateway Administrator, as mentioned on page 58 of the Gateway Development Guide?

A: At this time, no documentation is available for this.

Q: How can I use Directory Services to store and retrieve my custom FII information?

A: Within the FII component, you can use the Directory Services component. From outside the FII, you would need to directly call the stored procedures in the Directory Services database. There is no SDK available for the stored procedures at this time.

Q: Why does the ping tool terminate when a response is received?

A: If the response is greater than 65K (the maximum size for a text box), this will occur.

Q: IParser::Validate() succeeds on a response that MIFST rejected as an error. Why?

A: The successful return just means that the function did not encounter an unexpected error; it does not indicate that the response itself is valid OFX. To test for errors, you must call IParser- >get_Validate_Error_Count().

Q: When I correct a password in a request and resend it, the Translation Server rejects the request. Why?

A: The previous request with the incorrect password is still in Crash Recovery. If the new request has the same NEWFILEUID, the CRC value for the new request will not match that of the previous request (since the passwords are different). This is an ambiguity in the OFX specification, and a resolution is being worked on. Once the Crash Recovery cleanup tasks have removed the previous request, the new one will succeed. For development purposes, you run the following ISQL commands to remove just the problem request from Crash Recovery, assuming that you know the NEWFILEUID (substitute this where you see NEWFILEUID below):

1. In the Crash Recovery List Database, the following will return the Server and Database in which the data is stored. Make note of this.

         CrashRecoveryIndexDel @FILEUID = "NEWFILEUID"
   

2. Then, still on the Crash Recovery List database, the following deletes the entry from the Crash Recover list database:

         CrashRecoveryIndexDel @FILEUID = "NEWFILEUID"
   

3. Now go to the Crash Recovery database determined in step 1. On this database the following will delete the actual Crash Recovery Database entry:

         OFX_Header_Del @FILEUID = "NEWFILEUID", @DeleteFlag="Y"
   

Questions on the Web Development Kit

Q: Does the IOFXParseAndBuild interface support crash recovery? How do you

   get/put OLDFILEID/NEWFILEID information?

Q: In the OFX Headers, the Web client requests are hard-coded with SECURITY TYPE = NONE. Will this be a problem if your Gateway is expecting a different security type?

A: This will be fixed in the next version of MIFST.

Q: The Web client requires a valid SSL connection with the OFX server. How do I handle this if I don't want to test with one?

A: If your OFX server does not have a valid certificate, you will need to follow the instructions on page 8 of the Web Development Guide to turn off the SSL verification.

Q: In the ParseAndBuild object of the Web client, the pointer pofxDoc- >pofxBankingRSV1->psyncrs->ptrnrs is not valid [is null] after the Parse() method call. Why?

A: This is a bug in this release of MIFST. The next element in the structure, pofxDoc->pofxBankingRSV1->psyncrs->szINCIMAGES, will contain the pointer to ptrnrs.