Outbound Notification Service (ONS) 101: General Help Page

What is an API?

API stands for "Application Programming Interface." APIs are a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with one another.

AMS360 has the following APIs: WSAPI 2.4, 3.0, OData and EMS. EMS is the preferred, newest API.

What is EMS?

EMS stands for "Enterprise Management Service." An EMS server provides messaging that communicates with the responding monitoring queue. EMS is an API.

What is an Endpoint?

An Endpoint is a specific location in an API that accepts requests and sends back a response.

Example: GET /bank-transaction/total (endpoint). This element retrieves information for Bank Transaction Totals.

What is ONS?

ONS stands for "Outbound Notification Service." ONS is a service that AMS360 offers to its customers. It allows customers to be notified, by API call, of changes that have been made to various elements, such as customers, policies, or employees.

The New Outbound Notification Service (ONS)

  • Internally, ONS uses EMS to create the notifications, replacing Service Broker.

  • EMS inserts notifications for each recipient

If a change is made, the customer's software will receive a notification. This change could involve new data, changes to data, or deletions of data. Notification elements can include customers, policies, business units, employees, and several other types of changes.

Details of any such change are sent to the customer's software (either written by the customer, or via third-party software such as Agency Zoom) that can accept an API message from the AMS360. Potential messages are as follow:

  • Object (Customer X) was changed (Inserted, Updated, Deleted)

  • Keys of Customer X, where the customer can be looked up

  • Optionally, some data about the object (in Versions 1 and 2 only)

There are three versions of the ONS format, each of which has different API formats that are sent

  • Version 1 sends a SOAP .xml message somewhat similar to WSAPI 2.4

  • Version 2 sends a SOAP .xml message somewhat similar to WSAPI 3.0

  • Version 3 sends a REST API message in JSON format

The customer's software will be prompted to do something with this information. These choices include:

  • Ignore it

  • Update the data in another application to match AMS360

  • Trigger some action, such as making a call to AMS360 API (EMS, Odata, WSAPI) to get more information.

The Outbound Notification Service (ONS) send notifications to ImageRight/WSOL and third-party/other products such as Orange Partners, AgencyZoom, etc.

  • Notification: A packet of AMS360 data sent to a subscriber that indicates a change has been made.

  • Message: A packet of data that is used in the intermediate processing of a notification.

  • A notification recipient is set up to receive the notification you intend to generate.

  • The notification recipient's delivery status is set to "On" or "Suspended" [In the latter case, the notification will be stored but not sent until the recipient is later turned on.]

Setup Recipients to Receive Notifications in AMS360

  • Administration Center > General > Notification Service Setup

  • You must have at least one client, with one recipient that is enabled.

New and Old Notification Service

The new notification service will be used in AMS360 24R2 and later releases. The old ONS will continue to be used for earlier releases.