HELP - Need information on developing my own OE/Invoicing program

[accdev]

Hi all,

I've been charged with the, so far, very unpleasant task of implementing a customized Order Entry/Invoicing module for AccPac. Worse, the documentation supplied by AccPac with their SDK has been less than helpful and possibly very out of date. Due to the complexity of the process, time contraints, and existing code it looks like I have to link this program to AccPac via its COM object model (or perhaps XAPI). My question is this, what should be the steps that an AccPac Order Entry and Invoicing module should do to keep AccPac happy and all the data in order? From what I gather from the documentation and from instructions from my superiors it seams all I need to do is post the invoices (maybe the orders to???) back to AccPac. Probably to AR. Can anyone help me with some information on how I can do this? Thanks for any help.

 

[zemp]

This can be accomplished using the ACCPAC xAPI (and probably the COMAPI as well, however I have only used the xAPI). The xAPI uses the ACCPAC views and their business logic to ensure data integrity. If you are planning to create an app that is separate from ACCPAC then you will also need an available IAP user licence.

You can use ACCPAC macros to get an idea of the code that will be required. They will need some tweaking which is not too difficult. You will probably need to follow the following steps,

1. Set required defaults from ACCPAC. Using a finder so that all required fields are populated.
2. Enter the infpormation into your app.
3. make any adjustments necessary to export the information to ACCPAC. Such as adding the defaults to a record.
4. Export the information into the ACCPAC views.

Search this forum for some of my ealier posts to get more information on the xAPI and how to create an ACCPAC session. When you are stuck just post again.

Take Care,

zemp

"Show me someone with both feet on the ground and I will show you someone who can't put their pants on."

 

[accdev]

> 1. Set required defaults from ACCPAC. Using a finder so that all required fields are populated.

I've seen mention of the finder in the docs, could you tell me where it is located and what it does?

> 2. Enter the infpormation into your app.
> 3. make any adjustments necessary to export the
> information to ACCPAC. Such as adding the defaults to a
> record.
> 4. Export the information into the ACCPAC views.

Ok. I'm going to try and export a dummy invoice batch. Is there more than just one view I need to consider?

> Search this forum for some of my ealier posts to get more
> information on the xAPI and how to create an ACCPAC
> session. When you are stuck just post again.

This part I've already figured out. My program can get a company list, login a user, and sets up a session.

Also, while I think I know the answer to this I want to ask just in case. Can AccPac generate the unique invoice number for me? Right now, I'm figuring I have to set the invoice number to 0 and call init; at least that is my assumtion from a post I saw about generating batch numbers. Am I wrong.

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

[zemp]

First off you can add the finder control through VB IDE. Go to Projects-References and add arefernece to the ACCPAC Finder 1.0 dll. Or you can open ACCPAC and got to Menu-edit and select the BAS.avb macro. It has a finder class and finder form that you can pretty much copy into your VB program. You will also find code on how to use it there.

The number of views and which views to use will depend on where and what you are exporting. AR,OE, etc. To find which views are being used open ACCPAC and record a macro for where you want to put the information. (ie enter an dummy or example). When you stop recording you will see which views and fields were used and therefore needed.

I believe that ACCPAC will generate a unique invoice number for you. I have always created a userdefined invoice numbering system and exported that into ACCPAC. It may depend on the view and how their ACCPAC is setup.

Take Care,

zemp

"Show me someone with both feet on the ground and I will show you someone who can't put their pants on."