To access the ADS Manager from the Main Menu, Go to System Admin > ADS Manager.
The aACE Data Service Manager window is where you configure the service.
In the General Settings area, the Web Service URL is the end point. 
The ADS File Name is the name of our integration file.
The Server Address is the address of the ACE server from which the data is being extracted.
Looking at this service as an add-on to aACE, these fields are telling the service where to go to get the data and where to post the data.
Under the Data area, to the right, the Data Starts field is the first year of data extracted.
By default, the service loops through every year since there is data in the system and asks, "What are all of my record IDs in ACE?" And then it hands that off to ADS as a special request. ADS then says, "Is there anything in ADS that is not in the list just sent to me?" And if there is, then it pulls it out of ADS. That's part of the nightly process.
The Modules list shows us all the tables (or modules) in the aACE system that are currently set up to be extracted. Using the Sync checkboxes you can select the Modules that you want included in the upload.
The Process Data button will sync the table. This includes updating the schema, uploading the records, adding missing records, and removing deleted records.
Clicking on the little pencil icon will display the Module Table Detail window for that module.
The Module Table Detail is where we can get more specific configuration and details per Table.
In the upper right corner of the window, the Actions button displays a drop-down list of actions that can be performed on this table/module specifically outside of the scheduled activity. The list is a breakdown of steps the scheduled nightly process takes.
- Go to ADS Layout – This takes you to more advanced field settings. Contact aACE Support for additional information in this area.
- Update Schema – First Step: if field names changed or were added, that is accommodated.
- Upload Data – Second Step: the actual upload process.
- Add Missing Records – Third Step: missing records are added.
- Remove Deleted Records – Forth Step: deleted records are removed.
In the Table Details area on the upper left of the window we see the Last Updated field.
In the example shown, we can see the last time this module was uploaded was 8/26/25 at 8:00 PM. Above the field in grey text we can also see that the upload took 10 seconds to perform.
The Record count field is important for record by record comparisons. If you're in ACE and you see 2312 companies, but ADS only has 2311. So, one new company was added since the upload process was performed.
The Rec’s Per Query field records the number of IDs allowed per query. We use this to regulate how much data we allow in a single payload. If “100” is set here, aACE will loop through this table 100 at a time and upload those to ADS. One ADS subscriber may have a lot of information in their company records, but maybe another subscriber may have very little. aACE is designed to zero that in to be as efficient as possible which is especially important for tables with millions of records. The system starts at a 500, and if it encounters a payload error, it drops it down to 400 and then tries again, and then if it continues to fail, then it tries 300 and tries again until it finds the correct record count for a query.
There is the possibility that something gets missed. For example, there is maybe some overlap between records or between data sets. Consider the scenario of uploaded 500 and then getting an error, then uploaded 400 and getting an error. Then 300… With all of that juggling, there is a possibility that a record or a batch of records gets missed. The scheduled Self-Healer corrects for that.
With the settings shown here, we see that once a week (on Saturday) a record comparison is performed which will make sure that nothing got missed for too long. In the event something was missed, it'll upload it.
There are two components of ADS scheduling. In aACE System Preferences, the ADS Sync and ADS Self-Heal scripts can be enabled and assigned a schedule.
In the above example, we have the ACE ADS Sync schedule starting every night at 8:00 PM, and then the self-healer kicking off every Saturday at 6:00. Once that gets triggered, then it kind of does a second evaluation. Within the ADS Manager Module/Table Detail interface a sub-schedule can be set. For example, even if we have the overall ADS Sync running every night at 8:00, but Companies is only set to sync on Saturday, then the script will skip it every day except for Saturday.
In the Modules table, the Last Updated column will show how long the process is taking to run. In the example below, we have it initiating at 8:00 PM, that means Currencies, at the top of the list, is finished in 45 seconds; and, at the bottom of the list, Timesheets is done 11 minutes, 41 seconds later.
The Current Upload area will give the user a real time view as an upload is being performed.
Filemaker versus SQL Data Types
FileMaker is a lot more forgiving when it comes to the data in a particular data type. It lets you put text values, for example, into number fields. SQL does not let you do that. So, in the event we run into that particular error, we flip the data type in SQL to be long text and that schema override gets populated in in the Field Type Definition Overrides field.
We can also entirely exclude fields from the schema, for example, if it is determined that the Order Description field is never going be useful for reporting, and it contains an extraordinary amount of data. We can remove it using the Fields to Exclude from Schema field. This can also be done via the Actions drop down menu: Actions> Go to ADS Layout.
If an error does occur notifications can be set up in the Notice Setup module.