IP Designer Series – Lawson Transaction Node

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The Lawson Transaction Node can be used to add/edit/delete records in Lawson forms using AGS calls.

After you drag the node to your process, you can enter the AGS call manually, import it, or select “Build” in the properties to open a wizard.  In the Wizard, select all your system values.  When you are selecting the fields to update, also be sure to include all the key fields so that Lawson can find your record.  The field values can be hard-coded, or you can use variables.  Once you’re done building your call, click Finish, and the AGS call will be displayed in the properties window.

IP Designer Series – Resource Update Node

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The Resource Update node is used to add/edit/delete resources in Lawson Security (Resource Manager).  This node is extremely useful for automating onboarding and offboarding.

In the properties of the node, click “Build” to build your resource update action.

Select your action and the type of object you are updating (People or Thing).  The selection criteria and the updated values can be IPA variables.

After you click “OK” on the build, you will be able to see what is being updated in the properties window.

LBI Ancestors Error

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If your LBI instance is installed with Crystal Report Application Server 2011, you may see a recurring error in your LBI WebSphere logs, referencing “JSONOBject[“ancestors”] is not a JSONArray”.

This is a known defect in CRAS 2011, and will be resolved with an update to CRAS 2011 SP4.  You can safely ignore this error, or you can configure the logger to ignore it.  To configure the logger to ignore the error, add the following to the LBI_HOME\Reporting Services….\erswar-x.x.war\WEB-INF\classes\log4j.xml:

<!– Workaround to supress com.businessobjects.report.web.json.JSONException: JSONObject [“ancestors”] is not a JSONArray. error–>

<logger name=”com.businessobjects.report.web”>

<level value=”FATAL”/>

</logger>

 

Then, restart WebSphere and verify that the errors are no longer being logged.

 

ADFS Login Failed in Rich Client

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If you are logging into Rich Client and getting a “login failed error”, check the security_authen.log file located on the Landmark server at LASYSDIR/security_authen.log.  If this file contains the error “ADFS login failed. The call to ADFS Login page was not successful”, you can configure your Rich Client installation to use an ADFS login.

These steps can be performed in the LPA Web App, or you can get to Rich Client using the command line utility.  To do this, log into the Landmark server as the Lawson user.  Open a Landmark command window, and type the command “canvas64 gen”.  This task is performed in the GEN data area.

In the search window, type “IRC” and select “IRC Install Specifications.”

The default specifications for Rich Client 64 should look something like this:

Modify the specifications to:

  1. -s
  2. $specfile.href.url$:$specfile.version$
  3. -iw
  4. -m
  5. $com.lawson.url.protocol$://$com.lawson.url.host$:$com.lawson.url.port$
  6. <your data area>
  7. -q
  8. $com.lawson.url.protocol$://$com.lawson.url.host$:$com.lawson.url.port$

Download Rich Client again, and you will be presented with a new style of login page:

Document Express error 52 – Bad file name or number

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You may be running Document Express with Lawson and Citrix Storefront and encountering this error. Before you jump to conclusions that this issue is related to Lawson or Citrix security, check these steps below.

 

The user is likely experiencing this error when trying to import invoices into Document express.

  1. Make sure that all application related access is set in MHC.
  2. Verify the user has Active Directory access to the import routine folder on the server where the invoices are loaded in from Lawson.
  3. Lastly, verify the user has access to the import routine directly from Windows folder explorer. This path can be found in the import routine itself in document express.
  4. Copy the import routine path, paste it into Windows folder explorer to verify access.

Conclusion: When the user imports the invoice in doc express, it downloads the file locally and opens it. Verify both channels are open for the user.

Certificate Error When Loading Rich Client

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If you launch Rich Client and get a certificate error (particularly after a new Landmark install or update), here are the steps to update your IRC certificate.

Here is a sample error message that you might receive before you are even presented with a login screen:

You can resolve this issue either in the LPA web administration tool, or you can log into your IPA server as the lawson user, open a Landmark command window, and type the command “canvas64 gen”.  These tasks are performed in the GEN data area.

In the search box, type “IRC” and select “IRC Trusted Certificates”

Go to Actions > Create

Add the certificate by file.  Browse to a previously exported certificate (Base 64 cer format) and click the save button.  The certificate details will be displayed if the certificate is valid.

Database File Space Issues That Manifest in IPA Errors

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We recently noticed some strange behavior in IPA. All of our work units were stuck in “Ready” status, and the few Work Units that actually had errors indicated a java heap space issue. Some of the work units weren’t showing that a log was being created. We were also getting a generic error when uploading IPA processes.

It did seem like there was some kind of space or memory error. A reboot of the server didn’t address the issue. We were investigating and just happened to look at the command line window that opens up with IP Designer. That was the only place where saw a useful error message. It indicated that the database file had run out of space.

The resolution was to increase the “Maxsize” property on the IPA database file. In SQL Server, this is in the Database properties, Files tab.

Infor Support Ending for Internet Explorer

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As of October 31, 2020, Infor is no longer going to support Internet Explorer as a browser for accessing Lawson applications. According to Microsoft, the end of life for IE will coincide with the end of life for Windows 10, so this is not a notice for the end of life for IE. This just means that any future Infor patches will not be developed to function with Internet Explorer.

 

Lawson has been stable in Chrome since the later releases of version 9. It is also supported on Microsoft Edge Chromium and Firefox. There are some things you will want to consider before moving to a different browser:

Impacted Applications

  • Infor Lawson System Foundation (LSF) 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Landmark Technology Runtime 10.1.1.X and 11 releases
  • Lawson for Infor Ming.le 10.0.X.0 and 10.1.X releases
  • Infor Lawson for Ming.le Content Lawson applications 10.0.X release
  • Infor Lawson Requisition Center 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Lawson Smart Reconciliation 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Lawson Procurement Card Self-Service 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Employee and Manager Self-Service 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Lawson Contextual Applications 10.0.X.0 release
  • Infor Lawson Mobile Supply Chain Management (MSCM) 11.X release
  • Infor Lawson Point of Use (POU) 11.X release
  • Infor Lawson Business Intelligence (LBI) 10.X.0.0 release
  • Infor Business Intelligence for Lawson (IBI) 10.X.0.0 release
  • All Infor Human Capital Management (HCM) products, including Infor Global Human Resources (GHR) and Infor Talent Management 10.1, 10.2 and 11 releases.
  • Infor CloudSuite Financials & Supply Management (CSF) 11 release

Design Studio

  • Design Studio 10 (the application) is going to continue to be supported in Internet Explorer
  • Design Studio forms might need some updates to make them compatible with a different browser. Design Studio relies heavily on JavaScript, and some of the syntax is browser-dependent.  Make sure you test all of your design studio forms before having users switch browsers.

MSCM

  • MSCM 10 is not compatible with Chrome. Infor will continue to support Internet Explorer with MSCM 10 installations until the end-of-life for MSCM 10.X.
  • MSCM 11.X (base, POU, and SIM) is compatible with Chrome, and it is recommended that you get to v11 as soon as possible! Contact us if you need help upgrading.

Recommendations

  • Switching browsers should be pretty seamless. Just have your users spend a week performing their daily tasks in your organization’s chosen browser, and log any issues that arise.  If they hit a wall, they can always move to IE until a workaround is provided.
  • Upgrade MSCM! If you own licensing for MSCM, the update should already be available to you.

 

As always, check the Infor Lawson compatibility matrix to get the latest information in application compatibility.

Securing a website using IIS

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If your organization has custom websites that need to be secured quickly and easily, you can use the IIS internal authentication and authorization rules.

First make sure that your host server is set up to utilize Windows Authentication.  In Roles and Features  > Server Roles > Web Server (IIS) > Security, install “Windows Authentication”.

Once Windows Authentication is installed, select your site in IIS and select “Authentication”

Set Windows Authentication to enabled

Go back to your website, and select “Authorization Rules”

From here, you can give access to individual users or Active Directory groups.  The users will be presented with a Microsoft credentials dialog, and they will log in with their Windows credentials.

 

 

 

Backing up the AD FS internal databases on Microsoft Server 2012

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If AD FS is configured to use the Windows Internal Database (WID) server, there are a couple of ways to maintain the databases created in the install.  They can be maintained using command-line sql or SQL Server Management Studio.  The AD FS configuration databases are called AdfsArtifactStore and AdfsConfiguration.

Not that both of these methods need to be performed on the server where AD FS is configured.

 

Command-line SQL

Log into the AD FS server using the service account under which AD FS was configured.

To prepare the server to run SQLCMD.exe, you will need to install the Native Client, ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server, and the Command Line Utilities for SQL Server 2012.  These can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website.

Once these utilities are installed, create two “.sql” files using a text editor, one for the artifact database and one for the configuration database.  The following text should be placed in the sql file (update with the appropriate names and file paths).  The database names are AdfsArtifactStore and AdfsConfiguration.

BACKUP DATABASE [database name] TO DISK = “backup-path/backup-file.BAK” WITH NOFORMAT, INIT, NAME = “Artifact – Full Database Backup”, SKIP, NOREWIND, NOUNLOAD,STATS = 10

GO

Next, run the sqlcmd to execute a SQL script (provide the name of the script you created in the step above).

sqlcmd.exe -S \\.\pipe\MICROSOFT##WID\tsql\query -i sql-script-path\sql-script-filename.sql

 

SQL Server Management Studio

The WID server can also be accessed using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).  Note that SSMS must be installed on the server where AD FS is configured in order to be able to connect.

Log into the AD FS server using the service account under which AD FS was configured.  Run SSMS as administrator.  Connect to the server \\.\pipe\MICROSOFT##WID\tsql\query, and use Windows Authentication to connect.

The AD FS configuration databases are AdfsArtifactStore and AdfsConfiguration.  As long as you logged into SSMS as administrator, you should have admin rights on these databases to perform backups, run queries, etc.