Background Processing

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Before you run ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition in the background, we recommend that you run in the foreground and make sure that all the settings are the way you want the software to run. Running in the background is like clicking on the Process button and answering yes to all the prompts.



Setting Background Processing Options
The background processing can be set using either the main screen tools option or by right clicking the background processor and then accessing the settings menu.



The Background Processor
The ACT-To-Outlook Advanced Edition Background Processor is a process that resides in the system bar and it "wakes" up at programmed times and runs the ACT-To-Outlook process in the background.

When ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition is installed, the background processor is automatically installed and it appears in the system tray with the following icon:

The system tray is the area on the right hand side of the screen where icons reside that control installed background items on your system as shown below.


Controlling The Background Processor
To gain access to the background processor, simply right-click on the icon and the following screen will appear:

Run ACT-Outlook Synchronization Now. Selecting this option, ACT-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition will run without waiting for the scheduled time to run.

Automation Settings. Selecting this option, the setup screen to set the background automation settings is opened:

Frequency:You can schedule ACT-Outlook Synchronization frequency using the following times:

None - Background Synchronization is disabled (this is the default)

Every 5 Minutes: Background synchronization occurs every 5 minutes.

Every 15 Minutes: Background synchronization occurs every 15 minutes.

Every 30 Minutes: Background synchronization occurs every 30 minutes.

Every Hour: Background synchronization occurs every Hour.

Every 2 Hours: Background synchronization occurs every 2 Hours.

Every 4 Hours: Background synchronization occurs every 4 Hours.

Once a Day: Background synchronization occurs once a day and the user then enters the Hour and Minutes when the sync is to occur..

Exclude Weekends: When enabled, synchronization does not occur during the weekends

Do not run from 6pm to 8am: When enabled, synchronization does not occur from 6pm to 8am

Background Processing
You can run ACT-To-Outlook Professional in the background by calling the software executable and using the -B option in the command line. For example,
For ACT! 9.0(2007)
ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-9.exe -B

For ACT! 10.0 (2008)
ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-10.exe -B

We have provided 2 .BAT files in the installation folder that show how to call our software to run in the background that you can run from the windows scheduler to run ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition in the background. Just call these files from the Windows scheduler and it should work just fine.

A couple of things about the background mode:

·

There are no prompts when running in the background

·

Only the users that are enabled (check marked) will run

·

An icon appears in the system tray while the background process runs.

Windows Scheduler Command Line
Below is the windows scheduler command line to run the Advanced Edition:
For ACT! 2007, V 9.0.557.0
"C:\Program Files\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-Edition\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-9.exe" "-B"
For ACT! 2007, V 9.1.162.0
"C:\Program Files\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-Edition\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-9.1.exe" "-B"
For ACT! 2008, V 10.0.237.1
"C:\Program Files\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-Edition\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-10.exe" "-B"
For ACT! 2008, V 10.1.199.0
"C:\Program Files\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-Edition\ACT-To-Outlook-Professional-Advanced-10.1.exe" "-B"

Remember, there is a space between the double quotes.

For more information on calling ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition from the windows command line, click here.

ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition Background Icon and status window
When ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition runs in the background, the icon appears in the system tray. When the software is finished processing, the icon disappears from the system tray. If you right click on the icon while it is in the system tray, you get the following menu:

Show Conversion Status: Selecting this option opens the conversion status window so you can see where in the conversion the software is. This is the same status window you see when you run the software interactively.

Stop Background Conversion and Exit: this is the same as pressing the stop button in the conversion status window. The software basically stops and exits.

Processing Log

ACT-To-Outlook Professional Advanced Edition keeps a log of all the conversions. You can open this log from the tools menu. The log provides information that is very useful whether the sync succeeded or not. It is invaluable as a debugging tool if you encounter any sync problems or if the software stops synchronizing.