heartbeat

Sends a command to AMPS that starts or refreshes a heartbeat timer. When a heartbeat timer is active, AMPS publishes periodic heartbeat messages to AMPS and expects the client to respond with a heartbeat message. If the client does not provide a heartbeat within the time specified, AMPS logs an error and disconnects the connection.

The AMPS client libraries automatically manage creating and returning heartbeats. It is rarely, if ever, necessary for an application to manage heartbeats. See the Developer Guide for the client library you are using for details.

Header Fields

The following table contains the header fields available to a heartbeat command.

Field	Description
Command	The command to be executed. Value: heartbeat
Options	Specifies whether this command starts the timer or refreshes the timer. Valid options are: start, immediately followed by an interval - This option specifies that the command starts a timer, and sets the interval at which AMPS will expect heartbeat messages. For example, to specify an interval of 5 seconds, the option is start,5 beat - This option specifies that the command refreshes the heartbeat timer.

Returns

The heartbeat message does not typically request an acknowledgment, and therefore does not receive a response. The command can, however, request acknowledgments as listed below.

Acknowledgment	Description
none	Not supported at this time.
completed	Not supported at this time.
parsed	Not supported at this time.
persisted	Not supported at this time.
processed	AMPS has processed the heartbeat message.
received	AMPS has received the heartbeat message.
stats	Not supported at this time.