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.

UPDATED: Submitting ACA (Affordable Care Act) to IRS

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There is an easier method with additional options to Submit ACA to the IRS. We’ve posted articles in 2016 before, but here’s the latest walk through.

 

UPDATED: Submitting ACA (Affordable Care Act) to IRS.

Once you have done all your Infor work to create your files for submitting to IRS, the steps below will help you get your file submitted successfully. The final files are generated when you run the BN299.

Download the schema package from the IRS website: Schema Package – IRS

Follow instructions on validating the files generated from Infor. See attached KB from Infor View Attachment

Example of file names:

1094C_Request_XXXXX_YYYYMMDDXXXXXXXXXXZ.xml

1094C_Request_XXXXX_YYYYMMDDXXXXXXXXXXZ-Manifest.xml

An XML Reader Application is needed to validate the files. Altova XMLSpy application is a good program to use for this. Follow the steps in the above KB article to validate the files.

Once you make the changes that are noted in the XML Validator you will need to update the Checksum value in the Manifest.xml

Checksum verifies the integrity of the file. Windows has a pre-installed utility called CertUtil. HashAlgorithm choices: MD2 MD4 MD5 SHA1 SHA256 SHA384 SHA512. For our example, we are using SHA256 since our file generated with that from BN299.

From the command prompt:

  1. Browse to the location where your files
  2. Type CertUtil –hashfile <path to XML filename> <HashAlgorithm>
  3. Press Enter
  4. Example:

The generated hash value should be placed in the ChecksumAugmentationNum tag in the Manifest.xml (remove spaces)

You also will need to make sure the AttachmentByteSizeNum is correct. This can change when you make changes to the file.

See attached KB from Infor for details. View Attachment

  1. Locate the Forms XML File.
  2. Right click on the file, select Properties
  3. Locate the Manifest XML File.
  4. Right click and open using Wordpad
  5. Find <p4:AttachmentByteSizeNum> entry
  6. Replace the existing byte size entry with the byte size found in the Forms XML File properties.
    In this example: Change Manifest Size: 4522 to match Forms XML File size: 4598
  7. Save update

And we’re done!

Certificate chaining error

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During an LSF outage, we checked the latest logs and saw security_authen.log was updated. It showed a number of errors that a certificate was not trusted. We checked the trusted certificates and saw that the certificate and related certificates were all trusted. So why was the error returned?

Scroll further down the log list to ladb.log. You may see that there is a GEN failed message. Verify that the GEN database really is available by connecting to it directly with a database utility like SQL Studio. Then verify that the gen database connection info is correct in LAWDIR\gen\MICROSOFT. If you are using SERVICENAME to lookup the password, you may want to test commenting out the service name and including the id/password in the file and secure the file. Restart the server and test the portal.

 

SECURITY_AUTHEN.LOG

Caused by: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: The certificate issued by CN=PKIROOT-01-CA is not trusted; internal cause is:

java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Certificate chaining error

at com.ibm.security.cert.BasicChecker.<init>(BasicChecker.java:111)

at com.ibm.security.cert.PKIXCertPathValidatorImpl.engineValidate(PKIXCertPathValidatorImpl.java:199)

at java.security.cert.CertPathValidator.validate(CertPathValidator.java:278)

at com.ibm.jsse2.util.f.a(f.java:14)

… 68 more

Caused by: java.security.cert.CertPathValidatorException: Certificate chaining error

at com.ibm.security.cert.CertPathUtil.findIssuer(CertPathUtil.java:316)

at com.ibm.security.cert.BasicChecker.<init>(BasicChecker.java:108)

… 71 more

 

LADB.LOG
DBDataAreaFactory_1 Create of kind “GEN” failed.
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: com/lawson/rdtec
h/db/api/DBJni.jniTsDBConnect(I)Ljava/lang/Integer;
DBDataAreaFactory_1 Create of kind “GEN” failed.java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: com/lawson/rdtech/db/api/DBJni.jniTsDBConnect(I)Ljava/lang/Integer;

 

MICROSOFT
#LAWGATENAME=msfdb2000
DBSERVER=lawdbserver
DBNAME=LAWGEN
#SERVICENAME=DBGEN
LOGINNAME=lawson
PASSWORD=lkaj7fde#%&hdsw
SCHEMA=dbo
FILEGROUPS=FALSE
#DEBUG=TRUE

 

PORTAL

Modify column data type without dropping table

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“String or binary data would be truncated.”

This is a common error if you’re trying to update a field with more data than it allows, e.g. trying to update a char(30) field with a 50 character string.

 

If you try to modify the column data type you’ll get a new error:

“The changes you made require the following tables to be dropped and re-created”. This might be an inconvenience for you.

Easy fix:  Go to Tools >> Options >> Select Designer and Uncheck >> “Prevent saving changes that require table re-creation”

 

And you’re DONE!  Modify the data type and run your update query.

How to Fix Lawson Backoffice Publish Issue

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How to Fix Lawson Backoffice Publish Issue

This is a simple fix but sometimes hard to determine even if you’ve reviewed the Infor documentation.

So first lets make sure your FTP settings are setup correctly:

Lets assume you already published your report in LBI, for us we are doing CU201 for testing:

We run the job again so it will publish automatically via backoffice:

Problem:

The broadcast.csv and published.csv shows the CU201 report being transferred but the Instance is NOT being created.

Solution:

Give your Lawson Backoffice user write/read access to the LSF %LAWDIR% directory as well as FTP access to \Lawsonprod_Apps which most have setup already.

Results:

You should now see the instance created when you run the same CU201 job:

Bad File Status

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We noticed our jobs are failing after refreshing our productline. The job log is showing a bad file status error.   

This particular error was caused by windows permissions not being inherited.  Even though the owner of the applications directory was correct, it was not the owner of the files and folders underneath it. This was resolved by setting the owner in the advanced security settings of the folder properties and running icacls to reset permissions on the files.

——————————————————————————–

User: domain\lawson                     Job: PR140           Queue: **********

——————————————————————————–

BEGIN:  Job Submitted:  Wed Feb 14 09:22:06 2018

Step  1:  PR140 Started. . . . . .:  Wed Feb 14 09:22:06 2018

Token Command. . . . . .:  C:\LSFDEV\law\dev\obj\PR140.gnt

Executable Command . . .:  C:\COBOL\bin64\run.exe C:\LSFDEV\law\dev\obj\PR140.gnt dev NT00000004 PR140 1

Process ID . . . . . . .:  4008

Running as Account . . .:  domain\lawson              

Program Messages:

** Creating .prt and .dtl files

Bad File Status 3 7 On File PRPAYRPTEN-FILE

Elapsed Time . . . . . .:  00:00:00

ERROR:    Stopped On Exit 1.

Elapsed Time:  00:00:01

END:    Job Ended:  Wed Feb 14 09:22:07 2018

Creating a better Employee Self-Service Screen in v10

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Many v10 Employee Self-Service (ESS) users don’t particularly like the bookmarks bar compared to v9.

A simple fix for this is to make simple modifications to the ESS portal role.

To make this portal role truly a employee self-service screen, limit it further as shown below:

Make sure you also set your product line in options and enable it.  Here are the option settings we use:

Once done, this is what your ESS only users will see:

There is much more to play with here and it is not limited to ESS only, but this is a simple modification.  Enjoy!

How Can I Personalize a Form?

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From the Landmark Rich Client, forms can be changed under Options – Personalize in the menu.  Fields on a form can be renamed or changed in color or style.  They can be hidden, marked as display only, or as required.  In this example, the field “Last Employment ID Assigned” is highlighted in bold red with a shortened name.   Once Personalize is selected, Form Personalization shows Actions and Fields at the top.  Actions will allow restrictions for a specific condition.  In this case, click on the “Last Employment ID Assigned” and then click Fields in the upper right.  Select the Label tab to change the style, color, and text.  Once the changes are made, the window is closed and the Form Personalization is Saved in the upper right.  The changes are then seen immediately without restarting the client.  To undo the changes, return to Options – Personalize in the menu, and click Reset in the upper right.

Why is PR299 failing?

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PR299 may not be creating the EFW2 file from a security violation.  The job log can provide more details.  The log in this example shows that it is trying to use cnvtape to create the EFW2 file.  Cnvtape may not be in a security class or even defined in the environment.  Tokendef can be used to add the utility to the list of environment executables in security.  Once the token is available, a rule to grant all access to cnvtape can be added to a  security class like AllENVAccess.  Ensure the class is on a role for the user running the job.  After adding this permission, the PR299 can run to completion.

 

Job log

 

tokendef

 

Security Administrator