Overview

The following provides a guide on the installation and configuration of the Syrinx Mobile Web service which is used by the various mobile apps for connectivity to the Syrinx database.

Step 1 – Installing IIS

Ensure IIS is installed on the web server and that it has the appropriate features enabled.  (If it is already installed, skip to step 2) If it isn’t or you are unsure, do the following:

Windows Server 2012-2019

**Older versions of Windows server may require a manual installation of .Net Framework 4.x.  The current version of the Syrinx Mobile service requires .Net 4.8.

Windows 10/11

Go to:

Control Panel

Programs and Features 

Turn Windows features on or off

**Older versions of Windows may require a manual installation of .Net Framework 4.x.  The current version of the Syrinx Mobile service requires .Net 4.8.

Step 2 – Run the Syrinx Mobile Web Service Installer

The current version of the Syrinx Mobile Web Service can be downloaded from the following location:

https://www.syrinxusers.co.uk/Syrinx%20Mobile%20Service/SyrinxMobileServiceInstaller.exe

username: download

password: c0nc3pt

 
Note - .Net Framework 4.8 is required when installing Syrinx Mobile Service version 4.41.1 or later.  Systems running earlier versions of the .Net Framework should be updated to 4.8 prior to installation of the Syrinx Mobile Service.
 

Once downloaded, run the installer SyrinxMobileServiceInstaller.exe and press the “Install” button when prompted and then press “Next” on the subsequent installation screen:

Then, select the “Install” option when prompted for the “Setup Type”:

If the web service is to be installed in the default IIS file location, C:\inetpub\wwwroot, and is to be linked to the default website select the “Simple” installation option:

**The Advanced installation will be covered below at the end of this section of the guide

Next, enter the connection details for the Syrinx database:

Finally, click the “Next” button to begin the installation:

The installer will make the appropriate system changes and advise when finished.  Click the “Finish” button to complete the installation:

**Advanced Installation - If the web service is to be installed in a different location from default IIS file location, C:\inetpub\wwwroot, and/or is not going to be linked to the default website select the “Advanced” installation option and browse to the folder where the Syrinx Mobile Service files should be installed via the “Change…” button:

Then, select the website to which the Syrinx Mobile Service should be linked and, if required, you can also amend the site name of the Syrinx Mobile Service:

The installer will then prompt for database connection details as per the “Simple” install and will complete the installation.

Please note, the Syrinx Mobile Service installer can only be used to install and upgrade one instance of the mobile service site.  If additional mobile service sites are required, then this would potentially require manual installation of the site and the website files for this additional site would not be replaced/updated if the installer is used to upgrade the mobile web service in future.

*If this is a standalone webserver you should also download and install the Crystal .Net 11.5 runtime if the customer wants to send emails via the Android Service.

Step 3 – Create the syrinxmobile database user

The Syrinx Mobile web service uses a defined user account in order to connect to the Syrinx database.  This “syrinxmobile” user can either be manually added through the Syrinx SP Configuration program via the Users\Logon Users menu or can be added via a patch.  If the user is created manually, you must ensure that the “syrinxmobile” user has a password of syr1nxmob1le$.

The patch to add the syrinxmobile user can be downloaded from the following location:

http://www.syrinxusers.co.uk:443/Syrinx%20Mobile%20Service/CreateSyrinxMobileUser.syp

username: download

password: c0nc3pt

Step 4 – Allow access to web-service through Windows Firewall. 

As you will be using an external device to communicate with the web-service, you need to grant access to port 80 (the port the web-service uses) through your windows firewall.  In some instances Windows will enable the inbuilt Windows Firewall rule that allows incoming connections to the web server.  The below details how to check if the default rule is enabled or how to manually create a new rule to allow the incoming connection:

Right-click on Inbound Rules and 

Scroll down the list until you find

the entry “World Wide Web

Services (HTTP Traffic-In)” and 

verify that the rule is enabled and

the connection is set to “Allow”                

The Inbound Rule Wizard will now come up, choose the following options:

Rule Type = Port

Protocol and Ports = TCP and type “80” into Specific local ports

Action = Allow the connection

Profile = Check Domain, Private and Public

Name = “Port80” – this doesn’t matter.

Step 5 – Test the web service

Now test the web-service out and see if it works.

First you need your IP address of the machine you installed the web service on.

Now open Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you are using) and type the following address into the address bar (replacing the red text with your IP address):

http://your_IP_address/SyrinxAndroidService/api/Syrinx/Checkconnection

**Alternatively, you can use the URL http://localhost/SyrinxAndroidService/api/Syrinx/Checkconnection but this connection string will only work on the web server and cannot be used for external connections.  Even when using the web server’s internal IP address, you are still only testing connections from within the internal network.  The customer’s IT department will need to provide an external IP address or domain name and set up the appropriate port forwarding rules in their network in order to test external connections from the internet.

If you get the following pages up (Depending on browser), it means your web-service is running correctly:

Chrome:

Internet Explorer:

(at the bottom of the window)

FireFox:

Step 6 - Configure SMTP Details for Emailing Mobile Job Document Confirmations

From Syrinx version 4.41 and later, email server details used by the Syrinx Mobile Service when emailing app confirmations to customer contacts can be set on the “Android SMTP” tab of Syrinx SP/Configuration/General:

In earlier versions, these settings are held in an smtp.config file found in the Mobile Service web directory (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SyrinxAndroidService).  

If one of the settings does not have a value it should be entered as a space value (e.g. “ “ instead of “”). The “Syrinx Android” application pool in IIS should be stopped and restarted if these values are updated.

Step 7 - Update Default Mobile Job Documents and Email Templates or Ceate Virtual Directories

When emailing job confirmations to customer contacts, the mobile web service uses crystal reports documents found in the “Reports” and “EmailTemplates” folders found in the Mobile Service web directory (e.g. C:\inetpub\wwwroot\SyrinxAndroidService).  If the customer already has specific copies of the crystal documents or has a specific HTML template that they would like to use when emailing, these should be copied into the appropriate directory overwriting the default versions of those files.

From Syrinx version 4.40.6 and later, you can optionally define the “Reports” and “EmailTemplates” folders as virtual directories on the mobile service site and point them to the appropriate location for those documents on the customer’s file or database server:

The web service or the web server it is running on must be have the appropriate share/security permissions to access the locations specified by the virtual directories.

Step 8 – Install the Syrinx Task Scheduler

The Syrinx Mobile Apps save any uploaded photos to the Syrinx database and it can grow in size until it is larger than the physical limit allowed by SQL Server 2008 Express R2 which is currently set at 10GB.  When this limit is reached, users will be prevented from writing new information to the database until the size of the database file is reduced.  Therefore, it is necessary to periodically archive these photos out of the database and on to the database server’s file system.  This is accomplished by installing and configuring the Syrinx Task Scheduler service. 

The Syrinx installation or upgrade process will create a folder named ‘Mobile Images’ in the SQLDataSP directory on the database server: C:\SQLData\Docs\Mobile Images (this may be on another drive such as D:\, E:\, etc.).  You should note down the UNC path (network path) to this folder as you will need to enter it in to the Syrinx SP Configuration program so that Syrinx users can access the archived photos.  The C:\SQLData\Docs  folder is normally shared as SPDocs.  So, for example if your server name is server1, the UNC path to the ‘Mobile Images’ folder would be \\server1\SPDocs\Mobile Images .  If the directory that contains the ‘Mobile Images’ folder has not been shared, you should set the appropriate share and security permissions on that directory so that the folder is accessible to all Syrinx users on the network.  Alternatively, you can also define your own directory for saving these photos but this directory should be accessible to the LOCAL SYSTEM account on the PC running the Syrinx Task Scheduler service.

After Identifying the UNC path to the ‘Mobile Images’ folder, connect to the Syrinx SP V4 Configuration program and login as the ‘sa’ administrative user and then click on the ‘Documents’ tab and then click on the ‘Root Folders’ menu option on the ‘Document Management’ section of that tab:

Enter the UNC path to the ‘Mobile Images’ folder in to the ‘Mobile Images Folder’ root folder path and then click ‘Close’ to save your changes.  You can exit the Syrinx SP V4 Configuration program after making this change:

A guide on installing and configuring the task scheduler can be found here: Syrinx Task Scheduler Guide

Upgrade the Syrinx Mobile Web Service

In order to upgrade the Syrinx Mobile Web Service, you simply need to download and run the installer for the desired Syrinx version.  It should detect the existing installation and give the option to upgrade it:

The “Syrinx Android” application pool in IIS may need to be restarted once the upgrade is complete if the mobile web service does not appear to be working following the upgrade process.