Aligned Solutions Consulting - Blog #IT

College Internship

Sat, 20 Feb 2016 22:16:46 -0500

The year 1999 was shaping up to be a very exciting year to be earning an IT degree. With Y2K looming only months away, many of my courses became quite exciting as many of our adjunct professors were explaining what it was all about and what the companies, they worked for were doing to address it. Unlike the media, the adjunct professors we had were actually in the weeds of the "crisis" and assured all of us students that in most cases changes were in the process of being implemented to avoid any issues. The only real concern would be anything that was being missed, but even then, the whole thing was more of an annoyance than a crisis. As students on the sidelines, we were kind of hoping for some type of disaster, just for the shear excitement and a potshot at our know-it-all professors. But as we all know now, they were right, it was nothing.

Another powerful lesson learned, drama is everywhere, and panicking accomplishes nothing. Aside from Y2K, the last year of the century was getting pretty exciting for me. Tom and Gary at Indiana Tech were able to secure a Web Development Internship for me at Indiana Tech. Along with Tom, I would be tasked with overhauling the university website. I also still took up work in Maintenance, the Cafeteria and now as a Lab Monitor in the evenings. Tom had done his homework and determined we would continue working on the same Unix Server, running Apache as the Web Server, PHP for scripting and MySQL for database services. We had started discussing site architecture and we came up with the idea of a database driven content design, separating the graphical elements from the content. This would allow us to independently develop the graphical template for the site. Our proof of concept was to move the Campus Staff Directory into a database that could be searched via our website.

My first task was to learn MySQL and construct a database to store the directory. At this point we had not employed any UI interface for MySQL, so I had the pleasure of learning MySQL at the command line. Now at the time, I didn't know it could be done any other way and it didn't really occur to me that it could be easier. I found that creating tables and inserting data via a command line really helped to me understand and appreciate the database layer of our design. After a while as I became proficient, we found phpMyAdmin, which fit perfectly into our PHP environment to manage our MySQL database. Once I had a database in place, Tom and I started digging into PHP so I could first display the directory data in HTML. Then we worked on the PHP to search via the website. Working through the database design and learning PHP and HTML took me most of the Fall and Spring Semester's. Between teaching classes and helping me get going with MySQL, PHP and HTML, Tom was exploring, tweaking and cleaning up the existing website. It still looked terrible but at least he was getting the content relevant, and we started to wireframe the to-be UX (user experience - it wasn't called that then, but that's what we were doing):

When summer break came around, we were both feeling pretty comfortable with our tools and I decided to stay on campus, take a few summer courses and bang out the new site in time to release it right before the 2000 Fall Semester. Around the same time the University was finishing up an 'identity' project where a new logo was established as well as official colors and font types. This really helped with providing a creative framework for working out the new site UX design. I don't remember much of the details that summer, just that it was fun evolving not only the site but our strategies for managing the site content. We developed dynamic templates that could be recalled (with PHP includes) and populated depending on where the visitor was on the site. It really was a plan that came together and ended up being better than I could have imagined. Considering where we came from, that we cobbled together our own tools (except Dreamweaver, which was the best) and strategies it was pretty amazing.

Looking back, I would argue we were right on the heels of the dynamic content trend that now is pretty standard in many of the website tools in use today. I wasn't aware of that what we were doing was so similar to what was developing as an unspoken standard or best practices in web development. Despite the fun, we actually delivered on time, and we hosted a presentation to the faculty and staff at the start of the Fall semester with a very optimistic response: In the 2000 Fall Semester we moved into the new dorm, and I started another campus job as the 3rd floor Resident Assistant (RA). Throughout the next two semesters and summer we continued to refine and extend the website functionality, incrementally improving it. It had quickly become my pride and joy and I wasn't looking forward to moving on in my IT career.

In the summer of 2001, Indiana Tech's Extended Studies Division (ESD, now known as CPS - College of Professional Studies) double downed on their marketing efforts and as a result hired their own publications specialist which was supposed to handle all publication streams print and web. This was my first experience with training someone else to use a tool I had built and become pretty good at. I hadn't realized how proficient I had become with our toolsets until I had to train someone who had no experience with them. I was asked to hand over a large section of the site and train them how to use the templates, style sheets and HTML so they could update their content and keep it fresh. It was shaping up to be pretty frustrating as I continued to find pages where the style guide was not being followed. Much of that summer was spent trying to equip this person to take care of the site on their own and it didn't seem like I was making much headway, I just couldn't seem to get through. I was becoming concerned about my ability to communicate. I couldn't decide if the incompetence was with me or them. Perhaps I should change my degree to Computer Science and become a code monkey in the closet instead of a business degree in the area of management with Computer Information Systems...

Next: Part-Time College

Getting Started: the 80's

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:42:47 -0500

I got started in IT back in middle school. The technology portrayed in Star Trek TNG really grabbed my attention and gave me a vision of what is possible. My friend Bob and I both had access to computers at home (Intel 286 based PCs) and at school (Apple II). We really weren't impressed with the text-based UI and quickly discovered QBasic and started writing our own UI's. Bob really pulled off some really cool stuff and put together what we called "BOSS" (Basic Operating System Screen). He was able to emulate some of the Windows 3.1 features although it ran on top of DOS. It included cool things like mouse controls, Screen Savers, etc. I really wanted to figure out how to make the LCARS UI portrayed in Star Trek TNG practical and got as far as emulating the visuals in QBasic. I remember staying up late hacking away at QBasic working out the details of the UI.

As I entered Jr. High and High School, I got involved in other extracurricular activities and got a part time job, so I ended up not spending much time with code and instead just tried to stay current with how computer technologies were changing and what was coming next. During this time, my family got online for the first time with the 56k dial up modem technology and I started exploring how webpages were generated with HTML.

As a High School Junior, I decided to pursue IT as a career and applied to Indiana Technical Institute and Indiana Institute of Technology (inadvertently on my SAT). I was accepted to both schools, but IIT (Indiana Tech) had dorms and I wanted to be able to network with other students, so Indiana Tech won out. It was a good thing decision too, because later I learned that transferring their credits to other schools would have been quite difficult.

Next: Diving In: College

How To Export and Import Epicor Personalization's

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:42:47 -0500

Epicor provides the ability for users to personalize their program screens to add or simplify functionality. In addition, users can export their personalization's as either a backup or to share with others. Others can then import the personalization file and adopt that personalization. Please note that personalization importing OVERWRITES any existing personalization's that users may have had previously. Importing replaces, it does not append.

1. Export: Open the personalized Epicor program

Open the personalized Epicor program from the main menu. This would be done under the user account that has the personalization that needs to be exported.

2. Select "Personalization" from the Tools menu

3. Select the "Export" Button

The Control Properties window will open, click on the Export button.

4. Select a Location to Save the Personalization File

A Save As window will open. Select where you would like to save the file, preferably a shared network location so others will be able to import the Personalization later. You may change the File Name if you'd like. Select the Save button.

5. Exit Personalization Mode

The Personalization is now saved, and you may exit Personalization Mode by clicking on the OK button in the Control Properties window.

6. Import

Login to Epicor as the user who would like to import the saved personalization. Open the personalized Epicor program from the main menu.

7. Select "Personalization" from the Tools menu

8. Select the "Import" Button

The Control Properties window will open, click on the Import button.

9. Select the Personalization file

Find and select the personalization file that was previously exported and saved. Click on the Open button.

10. Apply the Personalization

Click on the OK button in the Control Properties window to apply and exit Personalization mode. Please note that personalization importing OVERWRITES any existing personalization's that user may have had previously. Importing replaces, it does not append.

If you found this post helpful, be sure to like, share and comment.

Interested in how you and your users can use personalization's to improve the user experience and improve data entry? Personalization's are just one piece of the many Epicor puzzle pieces that can be used to align your business with your software!

Contact me and let's get something scheduled!

Epicor 10 BAQs: Running Totals and More!

Sat, 06 Feb 2016 21:42:47 -0500

Have you ever found yourself in need a BAQ or Dashboard with one or more running totals or perhaps running totals over different ranges or rows and just didn't know how to do it - or worse, were told it wasn't possible? With Epicor 10 running on a MS SQL database, BAQs are much more powerful and most of the time you have the entire MS SQL feature set to work with. Unfortunately, most Epicor administrators and power users are used to the previous Progress database and are not familiar with the many MS SQL options.

In this post, I'm going to go over a quick and useful way to get various running totals in your BAQ results. When working with the Epicor 10 BAQ Designer, you have to create a calculated field to access many of the Functions needed to get to the data you need. One of the first things I noticed when I first used the Epicor 10 BAQ Designer was that the Functions list looked very much like it did in Epicor 9 and many of the more advanced functions were not available. I suspect this is because of two major reasons:

1. To keep the BAQ Functions list familiar to prior Epicor users.

2. To curb the improper use or 'testing' of new and unfamiliar functions.

These are very good reasons but if you are familiar with MS T-SQL or are running into perceived limitations with the BAQ Designer, you should know that most of the other SQL functions will work in the BAQ designer, you just need to manually enter them. Usually, if you need an Aggregate Sum(), Avg(), Count(), you would be doing these functions across the fields that you mark for Group By, but what if you need something more complex? Like multiple groups, or multiple aggregates over different groups? You may have tried using another subquery or Epicor's Summary table, and this may or may not have worked for you. That is when the OVER() clause comes in.

The OVER() clause provides a way to perform various functions over different sets of data in different ways. Instead of providing a technical guide to the OVER() clause, I will leave that to Microsoft. Instead, I will provide a few examples: Say you want a dashboard that will show the total Qty Shipped each day with a monthly running total and a monthly Daily Average. This example should demonstrate how various functions can be mixed on the data set and still function independently.

Add a criteria where TranType = STK-CUS.

You should also add a date range, start with the last 3 months, where TranDate >= Current Date - 3 Months.

Select the Display Fields and add the TranDate to the Display Columns list and enable Group By.

Select the Sort Order tab and add TranDate and change the sort to descending by double clicking on the sort indicator icon.

Back on the Column Select tab, click on the Calculated Field Editor button.

Here create four calculated fields:

1. Daily Sum - the sum of TranQty per day, per the Group By set earlier:

1. Field Name: DailySum

2. Data Type: Decimal

3. Label: Daily

4. Calculation: SUM(PartTran.TranQty)

3. Monthly Running Total: Here is where we will use the OVER() clause with the Sum() function to get the monthly running total:

Field Name: MonthlyRT

Data Type: Decimal

Label Monthly Running Total

Calculation: SUM( DailySum ) OVER(PARTITION BY TheMonth ORDER BY PartTran.TranDate)

PARTITION BY TheMonth says that we want the sum to be over each month and the ORDER BY says that we want the running total to be ordered by the Transaction date.

4. Monthly Running Average: Similar to the sum, but instead we want to know what our daily shipping qty average is.

Field Name: MonthlyAvg

Data Type: Decimal

Label Monthly Daily Avg

Calculation: AVG( DailySum ) OVER(PARTITION BY TheMonth ORDER BY PartTran.TranDate)

6. Select the Analyze tab. Next, click on the Analyzebutton located in the lower left corner and ensure that the Syntax is OK to make sure we entered everything correctly.

As we can see, we get exactly what we were looking for - all with a single table query that runs quick. This feature offers numerous applications. You may have thought of some already, or perhaps there are existing BAQs you could benefit with this powerful SQL clause.

When you are asked to build a BAQ for a dashboard or BAQ Search, it may seem complex and at first it may seem complex, but the more familiar you are with the available functions, the easier it becomes. Here are a few ideas on where the Over() clause can be used:

Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly Shipping Metrics
Released Job Material demand by part ordered by Material Req Date
Daily, Weekly Monthly & Yearly Sales Metrics (by customer, salesman, territory, etc)
Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly Job Resource production qty.
Part Transaction count by User or Employee ID

Post any ideas you have in the comments!

If you need help implementing this or other Epicor solutions, contact me, I'd love to help you get more out of Epicor! Be sure to like, share and comment!