Can default ship date be changed from ASAP?

[mystifying]

When entering an order in Order Entry, the default for ship date is "A.S.A.P.". This is causing some problems in our shipping dept, as ASAP has always meant to us (before Macola) to be ...well, ASAP! Is there a way to change this A.S.A.P. from popping up every time and something such as "Standard" replace it? It would be cool if ASAP would still be an option ...just not by default for every order, as we primarily use ship dates for special circumstances, such as blanket orders, etc.

Thanks,
Stacy

 

[Rob7]

Hi Stacy,
This field is actually a masked date field and will not allow anything except a "number" to be input. Except when no date is entered, then the native code allows for A.S.A.P to be the default entry from native Macola code. I tried to change it in designer but the native code overrode the default I put in. Then I tried with Flexibility and I was able to get a date to drop in, but not the word "Standard". I could write a little piece of Flex code to put in a date that would be a standard number of days out, but you would need to own the Flex module. Hope this helps.

Rob

 

[mystifying]

Quite honestly ...I don't know what the "Flex module" is (which I guess likely means I don't have it). I am not hooked on the term "Standard" just anyhting but ASAP (or something similar) would be great. What we ideally would like is one week out, but it sounds like we would need to buy Flex to do this then, correct? Can you explain Flex a little to me? It may be useful for other things we are wanting to do also.

Thanks,
Stacy

 

[Rob7]

Stacy,
Flexibility is another module that can be purchased from your reseller. What it is basiclly is Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)and it runs "behind" the Macola screens. The programs that are written in VBA are tiggered by events on the Macola screen, such as tabbing off of a field or having the cursor land in a particular field. With this, I can have very simple or very complex things happen in Macola without changes to the native code. You will not have to worry about updates, service packes, etc. because the logic runs beside Macola code, not instead of it. If you have other questions, just ask.

I hope this helps,

Rob

 

[Rob7]

Did you get this resolved? Just curious.

Rob

Cytec Corporation
rbrown@cyteccorp.com

 

[mystifying]

No, I haven't. But I have been looking into Flexibility some. It may be useful for some other issues we haven't gotten to yet as well. I know so little about Visual Basic so I am trying to learn a little of the concept so I can understand how/ where it can be applied. Do you by chance know how expensive it is to add? Thanks for your help!!

Stacy

 

[Rob7]

Cost will depend on the number of users that you have. It is sold like the rest of Macola modules, on a peruser basis with annual maint.

Just to give you an idea of possible use of Flexibility, I have a client that adds an average of about 400 new part numbers per day. They are a manufacturing facility so each of these part numbers have to be added in the item master, item location, bill of material and in the product routing file. Using Flexibilty, we automated this process.

Rob

Cytec Corporation
rbrown@cyteccorp.com

 

[mystifying]

Is it as expensive as some of the other modules? We have 10 users currently, but will be upgrading to 15 very soon.

One of the things we hope it might help with is we have two locations that aren't 100% related. We want to be able to transfer certain information from one company to another without duplicate entry. We have looked in to importing and exporting on the SQL side rather than in Macola itself. That is one of the things this may be helpful with. I wasn't even aware of the Flexibility module.

Quite honestly, we haven't been happy with our decision to go with Macola now that we are using it one a daily basis. I think with some customizing and getting some Crystal Reports created that are a little more personalized to our needs, things will be better. Plus, our reseller has been good for many things, but I don't think he is the most forward thinking kind of guy (he's semi-retired) so some of the features we are looking for may be there, we just aren't aware or familiar enough with them to know how they can help us with the big picture.

 

[dgillz]

Flexibility can write to multiple databases as you suggest. Also, with Crystal reports, almost any report is possible, I rarely fail with Crystal. The few times when what is wanted is not doable with crystal, you can combine crystal and VB or use VB as a stand alone solution.

The retail for Flexibility for 15 users is $2000.

Flexibility is an event based, VBA tool. Imagine an even such as loss of focus of the customer number field. At that point Macola populates many fields in the OE order header, but using this "event" and Flex, you can do a lot more. Many people like to have Flex call a VB executeable as they are less restricted in a fully VB environment.

I am not a programmer so abaldwin, rob7 and vbajock can help you out here on the technical side of this more than I can. I can tell you I have seen some way cool things happen with VB and Flexibility.



Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports

http://www.trianglepartners.com

dgilsdorf@trianglepartners.com

 

[Rob7]

dgillz is right about the price, and it would be a pretty routine piece of programming to pull information from multiple databases into the Macoal database. You may also want to look at extending Macola to the other sites. This can be done a number of ways. Since Macola supports multiple locations, it is built for multi-location use.

Getting the information in is one thing but the real value in having the information is getting it back out in a way that is meaningful for you. Crystal is a great tool for this but the real challenge to using Crystal is knowing where the data is. So, being familiar with the database is important. A number of us in this forum have been writing Crystal reports from Macola data (and others) for years so we can help you there. Like dgillz indicated there are also a number of us who have written lots of VBA code for Macola users.

It really depends on what you want the solution to provide and then take a strategic look at the things that are available from Macola to get you where you want to be.

Rob

Cytec Corporation
rbrown@cyteccorp.com

 

[MacolaHelp]

Rob & vbajock: do you use knowledgesync at all? They say they can do this mulitple database file update on a schedule driven or event based basis & I am considering it for a couple of my sites. Ideas about their respective pro/cons with Flex? Might a site need both Flex & KnowledgeSync? From talking with their office last week, it sounded as if they have the VBA piece neatly done & requires no user interaction to fire off the event or task. It seems like Flex might be better deployed to manage activities that require user interaction & this tool could do some of the automated tasks?? Just looking for ideas . .

 

[Rob7]

This might be helpful. I know of a couple of places in my client list that would probably benefilt from this because they still have alot of information in far flung spreadsheet form. The determining factor would be the type of information, its relevence to Macola specificly and the data bases they have available to work with. Again, I think whatever solution is brought, it fits within the overall strategy.

Rob

Cytec Corporation
rbrown@cyteccorp.com

 

[maccrystal]

Maybe we need to re-focus on the original question.
The Ship date in MS SQL is an integer field, it must be 0 or a number. I do not believe you are going to insert a text field here of any type. "ASAP" is actual entered as a numeric 0 in the field. The code prints the word ASAP when it encounters the 0 value. The line records are populated with the date the order was keyed. Never really understood why they did not just use the order date as the default. It's been done this way since V4, maybe earlier, why change now.

OE Entry retreives the A.S.A.P from the message file. In SQL you could change the text to reflect your term, but would need to be managed as updates are applied. If memory serves, the legacy reports are using hard coded messages, so the Picklist...etc... will still show ASAP.

If you are using the ICR reports, you could substitute the word "Standard" for "ASAP" in the formula when the Acknowledgement, pack slip, pick ticket or invoice is printed.

 

[MacolaHelp]

In pervasive (haven't tested sql as yet), message 365 can be changed from A.S.A.P. to Standard in OE. Then, in form designer, you can change the header A.S.A.P. literal to Standard as well so the forms print with standard as the ship date. Doing so, however, would mean all orders without a specific date keyed to ship would be Standard & A.S.A.P. would no longer be available unless you used a particular date to mean something & converted the ship date field in Crystal into a plain english value through a formula.

 

[mystifying]

Thanks for the reply ...I was enjoying learning from the direction the thread had gone, but am glad to hear about another possible avenue to solve our problem.

The explanation about the 0 value leads me to another question. Can the default value be changed to another number then rather than 0, which leads to ASAP? Or is that one of those things that sounds simple, but really is very complicated?

As far as the pick tickets, we do use the Crystal tickets ...and that is primarily where this problem comes in to play. I can ask the guy here that writes our reports if he can change it. Is it hard to do?

I guess really the easiest thing would be to get our Order Entry dept. to enter the orders right to begin with, but I know from experience that is something easier said than done. Its been stated and stated to them to not use ASAP unless it is truly an ASAP, but they are not the quickest at catching on to new procedures.

Thanks for the reply!!

 

[mystifying]

This is great! My previous reply was to Maccrystal ...I just saw MacolaHelp's reply.

If that message can be changed to something else ...that may be the way we want to go. Then everything can be keyed in as "standard" (or whatever), and then the rush orders can have todays date.

Of course, like I said, all of this would be moot if the OE dept wasn't so darn stubborn! ;-)

 

[MacolaHelp]

Yes, you can default in a date in YYYYMMDD format if you own screen designer. It works in 7.6.100a & I tested the pick ticket printing & it prints correctly on that form. You could test that & see if you can maintain the Standard or ASAP, but since ASAP is displayed when the date is bypassed, if you default in another date, I suspect you will lose that ASAP (or Standard if you prefer) option. I've got to run, so let us know the outcome.

 

[maccrystal]

You can change the formula below.

// Formula for @Shipdatelit Original (formula comment)
beforereadingrecords;
if MACOLADefaultFileExists ({@DefaultFileName}) THEN
if MACOLADefaultFileValue ({@DefaultFileName},"Literals" ,"ShipDateLit&quot > "" then
MACOLADefaultFileValue ({@DefaultFileName},"Literals" ,"ShipDateLit&quot
Else
"A.S.A.P."
Else
"A.S.A.P."

New Formula Below:
// Formula for @Shipdatelit Original (formula comment)
beforereadingrecords;
if MACOLADefaultFileExists ({@DefaultFileName}) THEN
if MACOLADefaultFileValue ({@DefaultFileName},"Literals" ,"ShipDateLit&quot > "" then
MACOLADefaultFileValue ({@DefaultFileName},"Literals" ,"ShipDateLit&quot
Else
// "A.S.A.P."
"Standard"
Else
// "A.S.A.P."
"Standard"