Components are broken down into 3 types in Esprida LiveControl:

1. Peripherals: hardware devices such as printers, card readers etc. Peripherals can be further broken down into simple USB devices with simple Online / Offline characteristics or more complex devices with multiple states.

2. Applications: software running on the device

This article refers to the addition of USB peripherals with only two states: Connected and Not Connected.

For USB components to be properly monitored there are 2 core pieces required:

1. An agent side application that monitors the Microsoft Windows USB tree and then drops status messages into a specific Esprida LiveControl Agent folder.

2. Updates to the Esprida LiveControl Server that specify the new USB component’s critical information: the ComponentCode, the states the component can be in (Connected or Not Connected) and what the severity level is for each state (Normal and Error respectively).

For simple USB components, Esprida has created the USB Component Monitor application. This application is installed (optionally) during the installation of the Esprida LiveControl Agent. The USB Component Monitor application monitors the status of specified USB devices using their PID and VID numbers through the Windows USB tree and reports back on their connected status. The application scans an Esprida LiveControl Agent folder for a list of USB devices to monitor therefore it is easy to add or remove devices from being monitored by simply adding or deleting files from this folder.

To add your USB component to Esprida LiveControl, Esprida Support needs the following information for each new component:

a) Component Code (e.g. Magtek_mt215)
b) Component Name (e.g. Magtek MT215 MSR). This is the name that would appear on the user Interface of Esprida LiveControl
c) Component Description (e.g. Magtek MT215 Magnetic Stripe Reader). This is the name that would appear within the details of a state message from the device on the user Interface of Esprida LiveControl
d) The device VID the manufacturer’s vendor ID. It is an integer number up to 16 characters long.
e) The device PID the manufacturer’s product ID. It is an integer number up to 16 characters long.
f) Polling Interval the frequency in seconds for checking the USB device’s status

After submitting this information in a support ticket to Esprida Support.

1. Esprida will perform the steps to add your component to the Esprida LiveControl Server.

2. Esprida will update the ticket with an INI file required by the USB Component Monitor application to monitor the USB device. This file should be distributed to the agent using a generic digital content package through Esprida LiveControl Server. The file should be distributed to the C:\Program Files\Esprida\Esprida USB Component Monitor\components folder.