Introduction to TRANSFER Delivery System

Agents The TRANSFER Environment
2-20 109426—Introduction to TRANSFER Delivery System
Agents
Applications that use TRANSFER can include agents. An agent is a program that is
invoked by a TRANSFER asynchronous process when a package arrives at a depot.
Tandem supplies two agents with its ADMIN application.
■ The vacation agent handles messages for a correspondent who is away from the
terminal for an extended period of time.
■ The print-on-delivery agent automatically sends incoming packages to a specified
printer.
Customers can also develop their own agents.
As Figure 2-7 shows, when you have an agent configured, TRANSFER saves an
incoming package in your INBOX and immediately invokes an agent to take the action
that you have prescribed.
Without an agent, a correspondent must check to see whether packages have arrived at
the depot. With an agent, however, a correspondent can be told that a package has
arrived, or some other action can take place automatically when a package arrives.
An agent might react to reports of expiration or delivery problems by notifying the
operator, revising a set of values used to calculate timeframes and priorities, or
automatically sending a package again under certain conditions.
Figure 2-7. A TRANSFER Agent
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TRANSFER
Asynchronous
Process
Depot
Save in
INBOX
Depot
Invoke
Agent