I want to build a billing system for Kannel - the usage of every user of the Kannel based SMS gateway may be tracked and billed accordingly.
I was wondering, rather than building from scratch, are there any generic opensource billing solutions which may be integrated into Kannel?
It should be easily extendible so I may introduce my own reporting and other interfaces. Also, scalability requirement is high as it needs to process large volumes (maybe thousands of SMS/sec) but billing may not necessarily be in real time.
I am using playsms and it is a nice web based open source application to utilize kannel and other gatways too. As far as i know it have its own billing module but now sure it is extensible.
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Banks are now offering payments to be made via APIs and no longer needing to use their host-to-host (h2h) file transfer (connect direct or SFTP) integrations to make payments. The key benefit outlined is that it is a simpler way to integrate.
I am not familiar with host-to-host intergration effort but I wanted to understand how is this a benefit on the API method? as I understand for both the connectivity methods h2h or API there is still integration involved. Does this translate to less effort required in terms of integration with APIs and as a result less development resources required?
Host-to-Host and API method shared same principle, which is synchronize information between our ERP and Bank system. The difference is API method usually based on the call that we request to the bank in real-time (e.g. checking balance, request payment transfer, etc.).
While H2H will be based on batch of information sent between our ERP and Bank System within designated time (e.g. every 15 mins, or else). Both will have integration involved, but for API usually will have deeper integration compared to H2H in our past experience.
What considerations are needed when creating a web app that is intended to be used in an industrial plant setting for a company? My specific use case is an industrial facility with several different production plants that would each have its own device for the application interface.
How do companies enforce the usage of such apps on a monitor/tablet? For example, could I prevent them from using other stuff on the tablet?
Importantly, how would security work? They'd share a device. There may be multiple operators that use the app in a given shift. Would they all use the same authentication session (this is not preferable, as I'd like to uniquely identify the active user)? Obviously I could use standard username/passwords with token based sessions that expire, however, this leaves a lot of potential for account hijacking. Ideally, they'd be able to log on very quickly (PIN, perhaps?) and their session would end when they are done.
As long as there is internet connection, I would presume that there isn't much pro/con regarding the use of native applications versus web based or progressive web apps. Is this assumption correct?
What's the best way of identifying which device the application is being run on?
Is this a common thing to do in general? What other technologies are used to create software that obtains input from industrial operators?
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Update - this is a good higher level consideration of the question at hand, however, it has become apparent why focused, specific questions are helpful. As such, I will follow up with questions that are specific.
Identifying the Area/Device a Web Application is Accessed On
Enforcing Specific Application Use on Tablets
Best Practices for Web App Authentication in Industrial Settings
I'm not able to answer everything in great detail but here are a few pointers. In the environment as you describe we usually see these two options. 1) you tell them what you need, internet, security, if they give you device and how it will be configured 2) they tell you exactly what you need to deliver.
I do not think you can 100% prevent them. We did it by providing the tablet( well laptops in our case) and the OS configuration took care of that, downside we had few devices to support. You seem to hint that there is always an internet connection so I guess you can collect all info about the system and send it back to you daily?
We were allowed to "tap" into their attendance SW and when you entered the facility you were able to use your 4 digit pin to log in if you were out of premisses you could not log in at all. I can imagine the following: you log in with your username and password - this does full verification, after that, you can use 4 digit pin to login for next n hours.
maybe, kinda, depends on what you are doing. Does the browser have all features you need? Our system needs multicast to perform really fast, so we have a native app
touched on this in 1. You could also use device enrolment process. You can also contractually force them that there will be only your software and it may invalidate support contract. It really depends on your creativity. My favourite( and it works - just tell them, there will only be installed my software and if not you will pay me double for support. I only saw one customer who installed some crap on the device when there were told not to
it really depends on what industry you are talking about, every industry is different. We almost always build a custom solution
The enforcement of the device/app usage depends on the customer, if the customer asked for help in the enforcement, then you can provide guide, training and workshops. If the customer serious about the enforcement then it will be a policy that's adapted by all the organization from top to down. Usually seniors will resist a workflow change more than juniors, so top management/executive should deal with that. Real life story: SAP team took 6 months to transform major newspaper workflow, during that few seniors got fired because they refuse to adapt the change.
Security shouldn't handicap the users, usually in industrial environment the network is isolated or at least restricted through VPN to connect multiple sites (plants in your case), regarding the active user: we usually provide guide/training/workshop for the users and inform them that using colleague account or device will prevent the system from tracking your accomplishment/tasks, so each user is responsible to make sure the active account/device is the one assigned to him/her.
It depends, with native you have more controls than web, but if the app is just doing monitoring then most of today apps use web for monitoring and the common way to receive input is REST APIs (even if the industrial devices doesn't support REST API, a middleware could be written to transform the output). If you need more depth about native vs web you need to ask new question with more details about the requirements.
Depends on the tech you are using (native or web), and things I mentioned in point 2: you can use whitelist of devices that's allowed to run the app. overall there are many best ways to track down the device.
How common in general? I think such information can only be achieved by survey, the world full of variations. And having something common not mean its safe or best, our industry keep changing at all levels. So to stay in the loop, we must keep learning and self-updating without reboot.
I am looking for a software that can within defined timeframe request one endpoint in the system and provide its output to another one. I am dealing with internal endpoints, that is why 3rd party SaaS are not an option.
Things that I need it to do is
It should be configurable on the run (preferably through HTTP API)
It should request one endpoint and feed the output to another one
It should let to configure time frame
It should accept various authentication methods (for both sides)
Preferably support by community and opensource
Preferably free to use
I made quite extensive research on the internet withing last two days but was able to find only SaaS that provides that. I also asked my collegues at work but they could not suggest me anything useful. I am sure there is already something exists, it just me who could not find it.
After searching for me and looking for various DevOps tools, I discovered that such class of software is refereed as job Schedulers or Workload Automation. Most of the solutions are rather complex commercial system that provides not only such functionality. However there are some open source solutions available as well.
List of available software (it is not complete):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_job_scheduler_software
Is there a single open source library which contains API calls for each brokers to do common functionalities like, get price ticks, submit orders?
for ex)
buy("MSFT",33); //will send buy order to Interactive Brokers, MBtrade etc.
Basically I am looking to run some algorithm trades to multiple brokers.
Is there an existing solution out there?
paid ones would be okay too.
preferably Java or cross-platform support.
Algo-Trader and Tradelink are a couple of platforms that provide the capability to connect to multiple brokers and data providers using a single programming interface.
If you want to check out a paid option you can check out Openquant or RightEdge - both provide a month's free trial.
There are quite a few trading platforms out there but only you'll be in a position to decide which one best fits your needs.
Quickfixj is an open source FIX engine for Java
Cameron is a commercially available.
I have worked on both of them so I can recommend them but you have to evaluate each one for your needs before you decide on one.
There are multiples of them available, just google for a FIX engine.
Also there is Tradelink and CEP Trader
I'm looking for a stockbroker but can't seem to find one that 'ticks all the right boxes' - can anyone help please?!
The essential requirements are:
Supports Shares ISA accounts
Access to ETFs on the LSE, especially iShares
Real-time price info/trading (with as low latency as possible)
Low fees/charges (preferably with a heavy discount for say 10+ trades per week)
Available to individuals, not just institutions
Execution-only is fine, don't need anything fancy. The ISA requirement probably restricts it to UK brokers I guess. There are loads of brokers that do all of the above, so then it comes down to my key additional requirement:
API access, e.g. FIX (for automated/algorithmic trading)
But I can't find any brokers that have both ISA support and API access. I guess it mustn't be a common requirement for individual investors in the UK but it seems commonly available from US brokers. I can probably live without API access if I really have to. (As long as there's a web interface, which they all seem to do nowadays. And I have no requirement for desktop/mobile trading platform software.)
My 'would really like but can be flexible on' requirements are:
Existing (open source/cheap) connector for Marketcetera or similar
Real-time level 2 price info at a reasonable price
DMA (Direct Market Access) on the LSE at a reasonable price (preferably without a massive 'professional client' process to have to go through)
Then the optional/'nice to have's are:
Demo/'monopoly money' account for testing
Ultra low latency pricing/trades
Can switch into CFDs/spreadbetting
Also supports SIPPs
So, does anyone know of any brokers that meet some/all these requirements?
The cheapest ones I've found that meet my essential requirements are x-o.co.uk and hl.co.uk, both currently charging £5.95. There's also share.com whose Premium account might be useful in the future but rather pricey up front - £3000 per year for unlimited trades with no other major charges. E*TRADE might have done the job but they're no longer trading in the UK. Interactive Brokers seems to be the only choice for API access in the UK (?) but they don't support ISAs. (They've said "After reviewing this we have decided not to support ISA's at this time." so it won't happen anytime soon.) There are some nice-looking platforms like Marketcetera/JBookTrader/tradelink/ActiveQuant - but if they can't connect to a broker that does ISAs they're skuppered for my purposes.
And some additional questions while I'm thinking:
Anyone know how much latency there actually is on a normal UK retail broker's web interface's "real-time" prices/trades?
Are stock prices pretty much the same across different brokers? I read in a review somewhere that one broker didn't offer as good a stock prices as others?! Is this down to the RSPs they use maybe?
Is it even possible to get DMA on the LSE at a reasonable price without a massive 'professional client' process to have to go through?
It seems that IG brokers may have both ISAs and and an API... Can't seem to find any others.