Product and Service News

Those of you I’ve worked with have probably heard of my son, the Baseball Player.  During our Little League years, he has always been the smallest kid on every team and usually one of the better players.  One year, in Winter League, we were able to arrange for Ben to try playing in the next division up – the big kids, all older and a foot or two taller (yes, two!).  When Ben saw those kids, he did not want to play, not at all.  After talking with him, we agreed that he would play that day, but if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t have to play anymore with this team.  Ben met the coach who asked him what positions he liked and then Ben was on the bench.  Well, after a couple of innings, the coach tells Ben to take the mound, and one of the big kids steps into the batters box.  Ben pitches the first few pitches in the dirt, but the kid swings at every one of them and strikes out.  The next batter stands up to bat and receives a pitch in the dirt.  He swings, too.  The opposing manager yells, “Don’t swing at those. The pitcher can’t reach the plate – move up.”  So the batter moves up, and here comes another pitch in the dirt a little further away, and he swings again.  The other manager keeps yelling at his kids to move up and not swing at pitches in the dirt, but they just can’t help it.  The side strikes out.

When Ben came into the dugout, we asked him why he threw every pitch into the dirt.  Ben said with a big, big smile, “They kept swinging at them.”  I guess it doesn’t matter that you’re not as big as the next guy, as long as you play smart!

Programmers, did you know that the Accounting group would prefer the ability to output all of their reports to MS Excel?  This is fairly simple for most reports using DataFlo’s Report Manager if the output is an Info/Access statement (see the July Newsletter Tech Tip).  Now, after last month’s column, can anyone guess what we should do for those reports whose output is generated by a basic program?  Time’s up!  I would say, let’s rewrite the report.  We can select the correct records, use a basic subroutine to calculate the data placing it into the TWF file, and then we can use an info/access statement which makes exporting the report to MS Excel fairly simple.  What if there is a Summary/Detail choice?  In your Calculation subroutine, either generate Summary or Detail records for your TWF file.  I really love doing these, so if you have one you’d like help on, just give me a call and we can take care of it.  I’m very reasonable – and so are our rates.

Is there anything I can help you with?  I say that a lot because I like to work with people.  If you’ve worked with me before, I certainly hope we had some fun while fixing the bad data, learning how the Preview ‘Screen Painter’ works, or designing a game plan for running your Year End.  If we haven’t worked together in a while, please give me a call!  I am at 858/678-0030, 6am to 3pm Pacific Time.

Please remember, “Great Service to your Customers is Always Rewarded”.

Paul’s Questions and Answers

My “Paul’s Corner” seems to have generated a few questions which I am happy to answer.  The first is more personal in nature, and the rest address questions people had on the TWF Preview work files I mentioned in our August Newsletter.  (A word of warning though, the TWF questions go into murky depths of programming inside Preview!)  I’ll try to answer any questions you send me in upcoming newsletters.

Question:  Why did you leave Epicor (DataWorks) after 16 years?

Answer:  Well, it certainly wasn’t because I didn’t like DataFlo Tech Support!  Actually, I left on good terms and still have lots of friends there.  As to why, the motivations are largely personal.  I really like the fact that Kore is a small company, a team, just like DataWorks was when I started in 1986.  But the main reason is that Kore is composed of my old friends, the people who were my mentors, my buddies, my bosses, and my treasured colleagues at DataWorks.  These are the people who taught me, humored me, and answered my questions – the people who I traveled with, played softball with, worried about DataWork’s future with, and partied with. A homecoming?  No, another exciting adventure.  As to Epicor, I wish them only the best.

Question:  I cannot find any documentation for the TWF files.  Are they remnants of old D-PRO or what?

Question:  Since the file name is dynamic (TWF001 - TWF999), how do I specify which > file name to use in the report manager report specification?

Answer:  You need to use the RM.SETRPTREC subroutine in the Before List coding to ‘change’ the name of the DATA file.  Generally, the statement “CALL RM.SETRPTREC(RPT.LIST.DATA.FILE,TWF.FILE)” will do the trick, where RPT.LIST.DATA.FILE is the property and the TWF.FILE variable defines the name of the current TWF File.  Also, when the EXPORT option is chosen we found it necessary to include a USING clause when setting the Data filename, something like “TWF.FILE USING DICT SOD”, and, in this example you would need to set the Display dictionary to SOD again using RM.SETRPTREC (the Report Manager Property is RPT.LIST.DICT.FILE).

Question:  If I want to use this TWF file to build temporary data for another > application, not SOLI related, I won’t be able to use the SOD dictionary.  Would I create dictionary items in VOC or create a new file and dictionary > for my application?  (Specifically I’m thinking of reports out of WO-BOO with quantities and costs summarized by part number and operation type).

Answer:  I would not use the VOC file.  I would make sure that the data in the temporary file is located in the same attributes as that data is stored in the source data file, so I could use the dictionary of the source data file.  For example, since order quantities are stored in attribute 29 of he WO-BOO file, put them in attribute 29 of the records you put into the TWF file.  If you cannot use the same format then I would probably put those ‘new’ dict items in another file, possibly the REPORTS file as currently it is only used for report screens and elements .

Upcoming Events October 7, 2002 – Southeastern Region Epicor User Group Meeting Kore will be presenting “Building your e-Commerce Roadmap”, an informative presentation outlining a methodology and structure for developing a strategic approach to e-Commerce. Contact Maryanne Hazen at mhazen@beckwithelectric.com. November 10-13, 2002 – Perspectives 2002 Kore will also be presenting “Integration for the Mid-Market”, a presentation that will describe the solutions and tradeoffs available for integration at price points far below the multi-million dollar offerings that are common in Tier One solutions. Kore will also be participating in the vendor area, providing an overview of our integration, Web and optimization products. See perspectives.epicor.com