Happy End of Summer - Beginning of Fall From Kore Technologies!

Welcome to the "End of Summer" 2006 Edition of News From the Kore.  We hope you enjoy this issue. Back issues are available on the News menu of our Web site.

• Inside Kore

• Product News

• Kore in the Community - American Cancer Society Walks

• Kore is Hiring

• Tech Tip: How to Properly Register a DataFlo Account

• Ask Kore - Q & A

• Paul's Corner

• IBM UniData & UniVerse News

• Bif Turbo: Space Hero - He's Back!

• Kore Holiday Schedule

By Keith Lambert  -- Ok I know, Summer is officially over and Fall has begun. But it's been so busy here at Kore and the Summer went by just a little too fast, so it's time to catch up with the "Summer" newsletter. What's been keeping us so busy you ask? Well, the demand for MultiValue expertise and professional services has been very high lately because when our clients' businesses are doing well, it tends to create new projects for us. Additionally, there continues to be strong interest in MultiValue to MS SQL Server integration and data warehousing as companies look for new ways to access their data and provide better reporting and business intelligence solutions, especially when consolidating data from multiple sources or accounts. On the new technology front, SQL Server 2005 appears to be getting more widely adopted over SQL Server 2000, and Microsoft .NET 2.0 is the way to go if you are building Web applications.

With this in mind, R&D has been very busy improving our MultiValue integration products (Kourier Integrator and SQL Accelerator) and our SQL-based Web solutions (Kommerce Server). See the Product News section below for all the highlights. If you have any questions or if Kore can be of service to you, please contact us.

New Face at Kore!

Kore Technologies welcomes Terry Smith to the Kore Team. Terry is a very experienced software professional and brings to Kore over 7 years of Web development experience. "I'm excited about joining Kore. It's a great company that provides an environment where I'll be able to grow and use my experience to help our clients and improve our products," said Terry. Read full article>>>

KommerceServer Products

KommerceServer 4.5 is released for Limited Customer Availability. There are many improvements to the product framework and cXML Web Services are now supported.

Architecture

• The KommerceServer framework is fully compliant with Microsoft .NET Version 2.0 as of Release 4.5.

  • This provides the foundation to develop and take full advantage of rich Web User Interface controls using AJAX.

  • Watch for new releases of our current Web solutions and new Web applications using the KommerceServer framework.

• A new navigational tool bar (picture at right) is now available to choose as an option in the menu system. It provides more dynamic menus, with indented, hierarchical views making it easier to access the various features of KommerceServer.

cXML Web Service Support

KommeceServer now supports Web Services, fully secure using SSL and compliant with cXML (Commerce XML) standards. New Web Services will be provided as separately purchased add-ons for Kore's Web Solutions. The following Web Services are currently available.

• Inbound Purchase Order (webStoreFront) - Provides the capability for your customers to send their purchase orders directly to a Web service without requiring the order to be re-keyed into your on-line storefront. Inbound Purchase Orders are converted into a KommerceServer sales order and then loaded into your ERP back office application.

  • Embedded XML Authentication to access the e-commerce Web site.

  • Translation of customer part numbers into internal part numbers.

  • Price discrepancy checking and exceptions.

  • Scheduled delivery to request date validation.

  • Optional delivery of PO Acknowledgement to your customer’s hosted Web service if available.

• Order Status (webPortal) -  Provides the capability to check order status on-line. This is ideal for integration into your customers planning system for on-demand updates of schedule changes that may impact down stream orders in the supply chain.  Note: If the Inbound Purchase Order is used, the order status contains exception messages for part, price, and delivery discrepancies.

By Paul Trebbien --   Wow, end of September already, is everyone ready for Fall and Winter? We had an unusual summer this year as it started off hot and humid in Spring and did not let up until a couple of weeks ago – we’re usually hot and pretty dry. It’s been one of those Summers where I really did not get much done as it just did not cool off much. It was too hot to do much work in my shop but I did manage a few cars and trucks, a couple of picture frames, some boxes, and a little progress on my flip top table.

On the "work front"’, yes I’d better mention work, I have been very busy this year as we have had many clients take advantage of Kore's expanded Support offerings (my bread and butter). We've received quite a few compliments too, with remarks like “we are very impressed with the fast response and solutions…”. Also, Kore has been holding a lot of on-site training classes lately, which are a big success with customers. So, if you need assistance or training, please give us a call and we’d be very happy to help.

As I mentioned in our Spring newsletter, I wanted to talk a little about the San Diego Fine Woodworkers Association (SDWFA) which is "my club" and its efforts in the community. As you know, I make cars and trucks for my club but that’s really just the tip of it. Every year, our Toy Program donates over 3,000 cars, trucks, planes, and other toys to children in shelters, hospitals, and charitable organizations. Also, each year our Cutout Program delivers thousands of animals, pumpkins, pilgrims, stars, flowers, and memory boxes to children in hospitals so they can color and paint them – helps them pass the time. Also, SDFWA sponsors the "Design in Wood" show at the San Diego County fair each year with contests for woodworkers, demonstrations, and a 1800’s Cabinet Shop (and yes, we use only hand tools). One of the goals of our cabinet shop is to build chairs for children. Every year for the last 25 years we’ve built over 50 chairs during the fair and all of them have been given away to charitable organizations. This year, I worked on seats for the chairs, it’s very humbling and yet exhilarating to make things with simple tools and your hands. Note, the SDFWA celebrated their 25th anniversary in the September meeting and we invited Roy Underhill, the WoodWright, to entertain us – boy, what a good show! Interesting and really funny.

Until next time please remember, "Great Service to your Customer is always rewarded".

Images Copyright © 2006 Andy Blanchard. All rights reserved

As part of Kore's continuing mission to support our community, on October 22nd we will be sponsoring and participating in the American Cancer Society's 9th annual San Diego Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 2006 walk.  Last year there were over 12,000 walkers and $850,000 raised and we hope to do our part this year to make it bigger and better.

We will be walking with our friends, family, and co-workers through San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park on a 3.5 mile trek as we raise funds and awareness for breast cancer.

We will be team KoreTech (of course) and if you would like to make a secure, online donation to help us reach our goal of $5,000 go here, then click on the Support KoreTech! link above the goal meter. Look for an update on the success of this event in our next newsletter. 

Last Month, Paul Trebbien walked in the ACS's Relay for Life event held in Lemon Grove, CA. This is a fun-filled overnight team event designed to celebrate survivorship and raise money for research and American Cancer Society programs. During the event, teams of people gather at schools, fairgrounds, or parks and take turns walking or running laps.

Paul's Wife and Sister were part of the organizing committee while Paul's setup the team's fund raising booth. Paul's Mother was honored as a Surviving Cancer Victim. Paul's team took turns marching around the track for 24 hours, and although this was a very small event, over $17,000 was raised for Cancer Research!

Kore is currently looking for an experienced  Web Developer who has developed database-driven Web applications with dynamic or active web content using: C#, Java, JavaScript, and XML or XSLT. Please check our Careers page for more information and contact us if you know someone who might be interested. We always prefer to hire from a personal referral.

How to properly register a DataFlo Account so *INSTALL recognizes it.  When a new account is loaded or created for DataFlo, *INSTALL should be run as it will check the account for the requirements (depending on Account Type) and make sure everything is set up and registered correctly.

The most common reason why an account is not registered correctly is that the account was copied from one machine to another (or from a CD), and *INSTALL (setup) has not been run on the current machine.

You will notice this when you run *INSTALL on a User Type account during a DataFlo Upgrade or new account creation, and the Software Account lists do not display the desired Baseline or Custom Software account, or the Global Account (usually DW-GLOBAL) is not displayed. 

To find out how to fix this, read the full Tech Tip>>

Recent Tech Tips you might have missed:

Printing from Multiple Trays on an HP2400 LaserJet

Fixing the "Cannot Update without Workfile..." Message 

Do you have a question on how something works in one of Kore's products or in DataFlo? Ask Kore by sending us an e-mail and the experts will answer it and we'll post some of best questions here too.

Question: With Kourier Integrator for U2, how do I automatically stamp each record with a date and time to show when it was loaded into my data warehouse?

Answer: This is a very common question and easily done. All you need to do is create a new line in the Export Specification for Field ID "0" and enter this in the Conversion field, including quotes: "{@DATETIME}". Don't forget to create a SQL datetime type column in your SQL database before running the export.

Question: When exporting data from multiple accounts to SQL Server using Kourier Integrator for U2, what's the easiest way to include a unique code on each record exported to identify the source of the data?

Answer: First, make sure you have a column defined in your SQL Server tables to store this code (e.g., SiteID). Next, add a new property to your Integration Definition (e.g., SQL) called SITE_ID within each account you are exporting data from and enter a Value such as 01, 02, etc. to identify each account.

Then add a row to each Export Specification to lookup the code as follows: Field ID =  0 , Column Heading = SiteID, Conversion = "{$INT:SQL.SITE_ID}" and Format = 2L. The conversion formula simply looks up the value of SITE_ID Property in the SQL Integration Definition. This value will then be added to the exported data.

Question: How do you create a DataFlo Printer Definition Setup Command in order to change the font size, page size, etc.?

Answer: You need to create a hexadecimal string that represents the escape characters that contain all the parameters for the printer setup command. You can do this manually if you have the printer manual, a lot of patience, and understand hexadecimal.

You could also use the PCL Escape Sequence Wizard, which is an inexpensive utility available from Kore that takes a few parameters such as: Job, Page, and Font settings and it will automatically create the escape sequence string for you. It saves a lot of time.

Question: We were trying to search vendors in DataFlo by Remit Name (in MAP-01) and we get this message: "[TS043] The 59 index has an invalid status code of NOT BUILT." What does this mean and how do I fix it?

Answer: This message is telling you that the Preview index is corrupted and needs to be rebuilt. There are two ways to do this, both run the same process but first has the screen front end. 

(1) Use Build On-Line Search Indexes (SYS-U-14) typically found in the SYS-U-00 and DEV-U-00 menus. (2) Go to TCL and enter: "PV.BUILDINDEX VENDOR *"  

2006 is rapidly coming to an end!
The Kore Offices are scheduled to be closed on the upcoming holidays so that we can spend time with our family and friends.

• Thursday November 23 and Friday November 24 - Thanksgiving Weekend
• Monday December 25 and Tuesday December 26 - Christmas Weekend

Kore is happy to provide holiday services or support if needed. Please call us in advance at 866-700-KORE (5673). We will publish our 2007 holiday schedule in the next newsletter.

To learn more about Kore Technologies or any of the products and services mentioned in this newsletter, please visit our Web site, call us at 866-763-KORE (5673), or send an e-mail to sales@koretech.com.

If you have any questions or comments about our newsletter, please send an email to kore_newsletter@koretech.com. 
We want your feedback.

 © Copyright 2006 Kore Technologies.
All rights reserved • Various trademarks held by their respective owners
Kore Technologies | 9323 Chesapeake Drive, Suite D | San Diego, CA 92123