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IP Designer Series – User Action Node – Action Task

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Before you can assign work to users in the User Action node, you will need to create the appropriate tasks and add users to those tasks.

*Before you perform this process, you will require Process Server Administrator access.

Log into Rich Client and navigate to Start > Applications > Process Server Administrator > User Configuration > Tasks.

Click Actions > Create, or click the “new” button. Give the task a name, description, and select the inbasket you want the users of that task to have (default “Standard Inbasket”).

To add users to your task, you must first make sure the users exist in the user configuration. Navigate to Start > Applications > Process Server Administrator > User Configuration > Users. Search for your users that need the new task. If they do not exist, click the “new” button or Actions > Create to add them (they must be existing Landmark users).

On the Tasks screen, at the bottom left, Click Actions > Create to add users to the task. Search for your user, give them a start date of when you want the task to be effective, and an end date if the task is temporary for this user. Click “Filter Is Enabled” if you plan to use filters on this task. Select a notify option.

In your IPA process, you can add the tasks on the User Action node. This will determine who is notified (and who should take action) when that node is processed.

IP Designer Series – User Action Node – Action Subject

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One of the properties options for a User Action node is “Action Reason”. You can require that the approver enter a subject, reason code, and comment. Before you set up the User Action Node, you will want to create your Action Subject in Rich Client. It is important to note that the user creating Action Subjects must have a role with the GlobalUIConfigAccess_ST security class.

Once you have the proper security, log into Rich Client and switch to the data area for which you are creating the subject. Go to Start > Configure > Application. Select “DataArea”.

Click “Add Subject” and give your subject a name.

After you add your subject, you can add it as a Reason Subject on the actions for your User action Nodes.

IP Designer Error

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When trying to open IPDesigner, we ran into this error:

 

Opening the log reveals a java.lang.StackOverflowError:

 

This error was fixed by going to (C:\IPDesigner\ADTALEMPRD\workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.ui.workbench)
And removing workbench.xml. We opted to rename it to workbench_old.xml and when we restarted IPDesigner, it generated a new workbench.xml and started working correctly.

How to test your SOAP Web Service calls using Postman

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If you have worked with Web Services you can appreciate the ability to test your web service calls quickly and efficiently without a lot of programming. This is exactly what Postman was meant for. When you’re building SOAP service calls with IPA it can really make your life a lot easier if you have this particular skill and tool.
The secret sauce here is how you form the actual request. Just follow these steps:
  1. Set the method to POST
  2. Paste your URL in the “Enter request URL” field.
  3. Click the “Params” button and enter any parameters you may have. If you’re using IPA you probably don’t have any parameters to enter here and they’re all included in the body of your request.
  4. Click the Authorization tab and enter your authorization information. If you have user / password this is likely “Basic Authentication”
  5. Click the “Body” tab.
    • Select “raw”
    • From the drop-down on the right select “XML (text/xml)”
    • Paste your entire soap envelope into the body text area
  6. Click Send
That should do it. You’l be able to see the status code (200 OK as shown below) and the time it takes to make the call (570 ms below)
Then in the body of your response you can see what the request returns which is pretty great to see if you’re trying to get a feel for what you’re dealing with.

How to make an HTTP request from command line

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There are many instances where you are making HTTP(s) requests from within your code or IPA flow to a Web Service or alike but you cannot RDP to the server to make sure HTTP requests will actually work once they run there. It would also be really nice to see the response code and return message in case you’re doing something wrong. This is of course almost always the case with the Infor Cloud as you are not able to remote to the server and test your request on a browser. But luckily you still have access to LID or IPA. Turns out there is a clean and easy way to run a command from LID that will simulate the HTTP request and bring back the header and body information. One such way is by using PowerShell. The following powershell command retrieves the content of the Infor website for example:
powershell -c “Invoke-WebRequest -UseBasicParsing -Uri https://www.infor.com” | lashow
You can type that command on your LID command prompt  and you should see the response from Infor.com as shown below:
 
Notice: In the command below I have piped the output to lashow for easier viewing
Alternative, if you do not have access to LID, you can use and IPA flow System node to run the command, and subsequently write the output of the command to a file that you can then view.
This is how we determined an issue we were having with making calls to the ExpenseWire web service from Infor Cloud. The server could not create SSL/TLS secure channel to ExpenseWire via https and resulted in this error in LID:
This was especially useful because the IPA flow that was making the Web Service call was simply returning the message:
“Received fatal alert: handshake_failure Message=Could not send Message.”

How to Secure a User’s Lawson Report Writer Access

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Common Problem: User XXXXXX does not have update authority for folder XXXXX

This is an error you may run into when a user doesn’t have report writer permissions to add to a folder.

To resolve this, follow the example below:

 

This will take you to RW03.1 (you can also go directly to RW03.1 if you know the user class name)

 

Once you have the user class selected, set FC to A, add your users ID, set flags and press change. If list is full, press Page Down key.

Using Lawson and Big Data to Improve outcomes and reduce Employee Attrition

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During this 50 minute webinar, hear from Big Data experts how your Lawson (and other data) can be used to improve outcomes and reduce employee attrition. The webinar will cover other big data related topics as well and there will be industry examples to suit all audiences. Some of the topics covered include:

What is Big Data?
    + How does it differ from BI?
    + How does it apply to your Lawson data?
    + What is possible? Examples and use cases
    + How and where to begin?

 

Account Generation List

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In Requisition Center, we are seeing an error next to the item we are ordering.  Hovering over the exclamation icon, we see the message:  “Error – 70500 is not included in account generation list”  How can we resolve this? 

In the item master, IC11.1, the account on the item is 6400.  If you go to GL20.1, you can inquire on the accounting unit 70500 and then click on the Accounts button for GL20.2.  Paging down will take you to account 6400.  There is an “Exists” column that shows No.  If you mark the line for add and change the accounting unit, the account will be changed to Exists Yes.  You should then be able to continue with the requisition without the error message. 

 

RQC

 

IC11.1

 

GL20.2

Rich Client Dev vs Prod Appearance

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When using Infor Cloud, the landmark rich client looks the same in dev as it does in prod. How can I easily recognize the difference between them?

Mistakes can happen when you are frequently changing between a development and production environment. It is easier to tell the difference between the environments when the productlines are installed with different names (dev and prod for example). If your environments use the same names, you can change the appearance in the rich client to help make it more obvious which environment you are using. From the Rich Client, click Start – Settings. Then select a different Theme color for the dev productline (green for example) and add DEV to the Display Name field. The other productlines on the dev system can also be selected and changed to green. Each of the productlines on the prod system can be changed to another color while also changing the Display Name to include PROD.

Lawson Managed Service – On Premise (On-Prem)

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We traditionally think of managed service as a hosted solution. But what about all the applications that must stay in-house? Depending on the industry there are state or federal regulations and compliance matters to consider when deciding where and how to host your application. Your PCI data for example must stay confined to a very specific set of parameters well defined by Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information and has specific requirements for how and where you can host your data and applications that can get access to that data. You can’t just hire any managed service provider to host all your applications. One option is to host the application and data On-Prem but partner with a managed service provider who can manage and maintain it for you.

Managing an enterprise application boils down to a few major areas of concern:

  • Application Server Hardware or VM Hardware
  • Networking Equipment (Routers, Switches, etc.)
  • Operating System (Windows, UNIX, Linux)
  • The application itself
  • The Database
  • File Storage
  • The users

Typically, managed service providers would handle all of the above and send you a monthly bill for using the application which mainly boils down to owning a SaaS application. However in the On-Prem scenario the only part the MSP is responsible for is the application. That means that the organization is still in charge of everything but the application itself. This is the most common managed service scenario for most of our clients at Nogalis. The client manages the hardware and network, the OS patching, the Database Administration, and Nogalis takes care of the application and the users.

There are several factors that determine the success of an on-prem MSP engagement:

  • Remote access setup from the provider to the application and related servers.
  • A web-based ticket/issue tracking system that’s accessible by bother parties (i.e. ServiceNow)
  • A single point of contact on the client side that can take ownership of the relationship with the MSP. This ensures direct and efficient communication between both parties.
  • A client coordinator on the MSP side to facilitate projects and ongoing communication.
  • Dedicated MSP resources that are assigned to the client. Avoid providers who cannot commit a specific resource as having dedicated resources can make the biggest difference in the quality of work delivered.
  • Availability of a fast and reliable teleconferencing and screensharing service such as WebEx.
  • Weekly status meetings to discuss upcoming change control items and upcoming client needs.
  • Detailed breakdown of time spent on delivering services down to the 15-minute increment.