Sage Mas90 Visual Integrator website custom EDI questions

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Hello this is my first post please bare with me.

I am in need of some Mapping or some sort of Key help for visual integrator. I am brand new to using VI, currently my coworker using VI to import customers into mas90 to create inital Sales Orders. Looking into ebusiness and seeing the price drop to just a 1/4 of the orignal price still not considering it for sometime. Therefore me and my programmer buddies are interested and have been trying for sometime to make a full website based around VI imports and exports. Basically we plant to create e-business clone or something close to it.. others like In-Sync and so forth. Creating all this without VI would seem to be impossible.. seeing some datas in blueshelldataguy was very confusing. Anyways, With VI it seems to have a Job List of many possiblilties and then parameters once thats picked. Where should I go from here to Understand more about VI and using it with a customized cms shopping cart on steroids ?

Thank you for all your help and time reading, message can be directed at Big Louie

p.s.
Also anyone who post questions or concerns I will start to help as much as i can.. I have about 8 years of exp in Mas90 modules + starship and rma add ons.

Peter

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Hello back, I had a live chat with some more expensive mas90 partners and was amazed! They can program as well as all the services our current resellers do. MTSI was the company. Anyways checked out knowledge sync, seems wonderful its can do all the alarms e-business does, but did you know it can also interface with a php website that dumps and pulls from iis? This is 3k software plus about $200/hr to install. Its 4k for 2 databases, 8k for unlimited, I think I will need 1-2 databases. Thank you so much big louie I would of never know about knowledge sync. How hard is it to throw IIS into the mix? Sounds to me that knowledge sync is powerful enough to be configured not even programed, but configured to the way the end users needs for reports/alarms and realtime order importing and customer profile talk to and from mas90?

Thanks again,

Peter

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Knowledge Sync vs Business Insights

I was told with iis knowledge sync can enable a php database to talk to mas 90 in this method. If thats true Knowledge sync would dominate insync, e-business, VI, BOI anything else, am i correct in thinking this?

 

[BigLouie]

Get with the people at Knowledge Sync and ask them.

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Yes E-business is 20k once you add the time to install the applets and the price of them. Still i am spinning in circles, E-business is a very weak website and is not what i want to do our company website it, html/php is the best for SEO and customer usage. Big Loui you have been a great deal of help, since knowledge sync cannot deal with a sync on 90 just alerts I went back to e-business and research the applets they make you pay for everything don't they! Well I guess i'll just VI out all info and make a website around manual outputting and get business insights to alert b/o and customers.. but i might be forced to get e-business to auto invoice and get the alerts but not use their clunky website and still use VI for php with e-business alerts and automation. Unless there is a cheap easy way to setup a php with mas90? No one seems to have any information on BOI doing this so that is doomed to faliure I believe. Any comments?

Peter

 

[BigLouie]

Well I guess i'll just VI out all info" - I hope you started right after the birth of the cosmos if you expect VI to finish anytime soon. VI is so slow in extracting records as to be almost a form of torture. You can use a lot of other ways that are better and faster. Peter, drop me a line at bglouie at sbcglobal.net

 

[SiriusBlackOp]

I would stay away from VI all together. It has proven very difficult and problematic for us thus far.

All in All, moving data in and out of MAS is slow because it is basically a flat file system. The MAS database doesn't work like SQL at all. There is an ODBC driver for it, but if you are pulling larger amounts of data or want to pull from 2 or more tables using Joins it is very slow. I've seen queries exceed 5 minutes on the LAN. No Joke.

So if I were you, I would use the new Business Objects were ever they are available to get data into MAS and use the ODBC driver for very-very small amounts of data to get data out. If you need large amounts of data on the web, I would think about using a separate MS-SQL or MySQL database for your web site and batch update the data from MAS using the ODBC driver only as often as needed. -- If the Business Objects are not available for the things you need to import into MAS, then stop the project and wait for them to be released.

Stay away from VI for things like services and web applications. Our experience has shown that it is not designed to be run in the background and unattended. It is labeled “Visual” Integrator for a reason, and I’m beginning to think that reason is because it runs much better when directly executed by a user within a user session who can "see" it run.

I think we are finally on the cusp of getting VI to work ok for import... but it has been very painful and we are on our third or forth design for data import via VI. In hind sight, maybe we should have waited for the Business Objects we needed even when we were told by people in the know that VI could easily do the job.

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

I should switch to Great Plains by microsoft... Bummers having a php website that is doing good sales and wanting to make more of these websites meanwhile trying to automate this into mas90 the dos based confusing database system. All and all my frustation would be eliminated if i changed to Great Plains i am thinking, for now i will just bite the bullet and invests in e-business and gobarcode. With VI we can import sales orders and it will give us errors on a few that are missing data or have weird characters, I suppose a manual hybrid for now. 8 years ago i should of invested my time and money into Great Plains, Oops!

 

[SiriusBlackOp]

Great Plains is not all it's cracked up to be either. It has it's downfalls as well, but it is easier to get data into and back out of.

If all you are trying to do is automatically enter sales orders into MAS, then seriously... Use the Business Objects.

I'm not positive, but I thought that the SO Object was available and the PO (purchase orders) Object was still not done, but I could have that backwards.


Is the site in question the HomeHarvest.com site in your name? That looks like it's written in Perl or C, not php. If that is the case, then I should think you would be able to use the Business Objects in that code.

See this site:

http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2000/12/begperl5.html

Also, I hate to hit people up in here, but if you have a big warehouse where you are taking and fulfilling a lot of Sales Orders, then you may want to take a look at our topShelf-2.0 WMS software suite. Especially if you move to Great Plains!! Our software is well integrated with that package. Basically, it puts a wireless scanner into the hands of your warehouse personnel and allows them to receive POs, put away the products, Pick Orders(Single or Wave Pick) and Ship with the recorded tracking number. All POs and SOs get automatically received and shipped in Great Plains. It also does Kitting and helps in cycle counting and reporting. It greatly reduces data entry and speeds your whole process. The system works... and we have a number of customers. My company’s like is below and we have some online demos that you can watch there. Just FYI, and you can disregard if you want.


Senior Software Developer

http://www.scoutsft.com

 

[ajax2]

HomeHarvest,

I am doing the same thing you are attempting to do. Maybe we should talk some. For the same reasons mentioned early-on in this thread I chose not to go with E-business manager. I will be doing the VI "pull" from an SQL server. I know that to automate the pull will be a challenge but I dont think impossible.

Just wondering, since we are working on the same things and facing the same challenges it might be beneficial to talk. Feel free to contact me (ajax2cle@yahoo.com.)

 

[BigLouie]

With the BOI you can get data into AP, AR, GL, SO without having to use VI. For purchase order and inventory transactions you have to use VI.

For pulling data from MAS it is best to use Access or SQL. DSD sells an application that will replicate your MAS data into SQL on a regularly set schedule.

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Hey maybe it was EDI...
"What you are suggesting is not, in and of itself, EDI. It may electronically bring orders into Mas200, but EDI is a very specific set of standards, imposed by the trading partner, on you the supplier.

So if you are being pressured to use EDI, make sure that it really is EDI and not simply an import of orders.

Look up EDI in wikipedia for a good explanation of it. " -dgillz

Dgillz Read this...

Founded in 1993, eBridge Software is the leading provider of powerful accounting application integration solutions for the small-to medium-sized business (SMB) market. A leader in the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integration business, eBridge Software provides seamless bi-directional electronic business data integration between back-office accounting systems and mission critical business systems such as customer relational management solutions, Web storefront solutions, procurement solutions, logistics and warehouse solutions, and professional service solutions. For more information visit

http://www.ebridgesoft.com

Anyways Storefront.net will dance with Mas90 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EBM / E-business mas90 just got owned, and it is edi talents i reside with.
I found my asp/php website solution !!!!!!!! 16k fully loaded and ready to roar or 7k if you think you are a programmer and can do some web services ) good luck with mas confusion err 90.. all n all Storefront.net is the best for website for mas90 period.

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

I will check into DSD !!!!!!!!! Good post big l, i have not made my mind up on storefront.net but just good to have a home now! I believe there might might be a better solution. Ajax2 hit me at affordable

http://www at

gmail for outside of tektips talk if you need. Right now we VI in sales orders no problem but it require a person to do it each day, SiriusBlackOp thank you for your help and words on Great Plains, we are getting a system called goBarcode for Mas90 that will do what you described in the warehouse we will use it for shipping and receieve and stock checking with portal palms in the warehouse i will report back how it works, we desided against scanco and for gobarcode for many reasons. With realtime order entry and more customer service options we sought out Storefront.net Its just to freaking hard to talk to mas90 but i must check into BOI i am still lame minded on this. BOI it is... thanks again everyone thank you

 

[SiriusBlackOp]

If I were you, I would spend the extra 9k and get it ready to go. I'm assuming that the 9k is for the web services that integrates with MAS... If that's the case spend the 9k or else you will end up right back at your "MAS Confusion".

It sure would have been nice to not also have had to integrate POs with MAS... That way we could have been able to use the BOIs... That would have made integration with MAS a cake walk.

What made you change your mind on your current store front? Previously you made it sound like you were not at all in the market for a new storefront and that you wanted to stick with php. You totally pulled a 180 here. LOL!


Senior Software Developer

http://www.scoutsft.com

 

[BigLouie]

Just did a search on Storefront.Net and this is what I found:

We had Storefront.net do a design for us as well. Very attractive design, but the implementation was poor. I could probably write a chapter on all that went wrong (and all of the babysitting I had to do). Yes, they do have a 'We don't give a ****' attitude - I thought it was me being overly cynical.

I'm now paying $1000 to have someone help me do some optimization (the homepage had 280+K of data). The menu system they did 'custom' (and charge an extra $375) was nothing more than mm_menu (public domain code) and then not even closely optimized (Two .js files that totaled nearly 90K - a first pass 'quickie' optimization on one of the files brought it down from 58K to 24K. What was funny is that I talked to the head of the design department and she told me that the difference between the 58K and 24K 'was negligible in the big scheme of things'!! I could barely contain my laughter.

 

[SiriusBlackOp]

LOL!!! I had some serious suspicions about their integrations, but they have a SAGE logo on their site like they are a partner or something.

Senior Software Developer

http://www.scoutsft.com

 

[ebizsalman]

Hello all,

We have created POs, Items and Vendors with the help of Visual Integrator Import Jobs.
We are calling job from command line not inside from MAS90. Now the problem that we are facing is that when a job is executed for creating PO in MAS90, if the job fails to create PO in MAS90 due to some invalid data. Does MAS90 saves any log file from where we can retrieve these errors information as it shows if we run job from MAS90.
We have found a log file in the VI folder which contains some type of log of a job but its language is not understandable.

Please recommend how we can capture the failure of a job.
Waiting for ur help.

 

[HomeharvestDotcom]

Hey back,

I am still looking into a php solution SiriusBlackOp, I had the understanding storefront would be able to put into asp, Asp is bother/sisters with php so i could take it from there, and besides ASP rocks compared to some fake database EBM site. I am looking to start a new website and if it works good i will convert current site but that is ran by someone who would need great confidence of the "new way".

Do you have VI for mas90 or just VI? We get a "Do you want to see job log?" Besides that we cannot find the log file. But we don't need to that Do you want to see job log is fine it tells us errors maybe a weird character or something rejected by mas90. I hope that helps.

"What made you change your mind on your current store front?" I would do anything to get an asp or php website from mas90 that is as good/better with SEO then a html page. Shouldn't be that hard i figured, sorry for 180 pulling just shopping around. I am now onto IRIS they are custom programmers and might be able to do the website and the palm portable computers under one front. Very happy I call them monday to discuss.

The horror story doesn't scary me with storefront, if you want horror stories search for EBM, i understand he paid for options that should of been included but Big Loui did he in the end get a website that was under 100k front page with connection to mas90 in useable database format for SEO? also 50k to 20k is not a big deal it might be for some industries like hosting websites for SEO but i'll take a 50k index anyday. But js and jsp does frighten me.

"LOL!!! I had some serious suspicions about their integrations, but they have a SAGE logo on their site like they are a partner or something."
Hmm I believe they can do this though, I live chatted with them for some time and any shopping cart or integration will have its pros and cons, but can you honestly tell me its worse then EBM or custom programming?! At the end of the day i have great web sales and would pay for out of the box but sage is so .. whats the right word.. they don't understand the needs of their customers for website integration they are losing the battle against great plains.

All i know is i'm scared, of mas 90 maintance and of useless add-ons that won't suit us properly. All i know is EBM now comes with 2 applets for free so its $4500 they did infact come down, before that charged for any add on applets. Still not best option for mas90 web desires.

So "If you have good VB programmers then I would use the BOI and VB as you could push the orders into MAS in real time when accept on the web." That is better then storefront or iris ? and cheaper? but what if the VB programmer cries and gives up on BOI and VB.. i am not seing anyone in google search who use either with mas90, doesn't seem poplar?

Thank you everyone for your time and efforts, I will give you a cool quote...

"Heaven the kings mountain view, heaven the wild dream come true......... but i would wish it all away" - Tool

 

[SiriusBlackOp]

HomeharvestDotcom,

We have now completed one integration with MAS using VI... but we are not going to do it aging until Sage finishes their PO BOI. Probably one to two years away. It was just too painful to use VI.

That being said, we are looking right now at building a StoreFront web application written in ASP.NET. We do integrate with GreatPlains... and, being that we can use the MAS SO BOI right now and it is all that the StoreFront application needs, we could integrate the storefront with MAS.

Digging a little deeper for a quick second, the architecture that we are looking at is one that would additionally work with our topShelf 2.0 WMS (warehouse management software). It would be built to work by itself as well, but here is the thing... We would then have the whole package for you. Especially if you moved to GP.

If you had GP, Scout's topShelf 2.0, and Scout's future StoreFront application then the StoreFront would create the Sales Order in GP, that Sales Order then flows into topShelf from GP, Your Warehouse Order Pickers using topShelf handheld devices pick the new order, ship it, and record the Tracking Number. Then an ASN (Advanced Shipping Notice) email gets sent from topShelf to the customer (and/or internally if desired), then the Sales Order Receipt Information gets sent back into GP from topShelf. And the cycle is complete!!!

Now we can do that much today with MAS as well... but where Sage is letting us down is in the Purchase Orders. I'll explain, topShelf is also capable of receiving Purchase Orders because it is a WMS. So if you had GP, when a PO gets placed into GP that transaction flows into topShelf. This allows your employees using the handheld devices to receive the goods at the dock against the PO so that you instantly know if you have been short/over shipped and it moves that PO Receipt data back into GP. Easy Huh?

Also, topShelf and the future StoreFront would be hosted by Us... so you don't even have to worry about servers, backups and a bunch of application installations. The only thing installed at your site is our integration service which is just a Windows Service.

Now, just try to tell me that this isn't just the coolest system EVER! I think you should talk to us.


If you wanted to stay with MAS, that is fine as long as you realize that topShelf wouldn't be a very useful tool until Sage gets their PO BOI finished. But if you moved to GP, we can do some very cool things for you. Bottom line, if you want a WMS package in the future you should look at us, and if you want a StoreFront and WMS, why not talk to us now while you could have some influence in the design?

This is a ball park estimate, but we could probably put the storefront application together (design, build, test) in under 6 weeks. Especially if we knew we already had a customer waiting in the wings.

If you want to see some movie demo's of our topShelf WMS you can go here:

http://www.scoutsft.com/topShelf_Demos.aspx

Senior Software Developer

http://www.scoutsft.com

 

[BigLouie]

Home Harvest go visit

http://www.massageking.com/

This is a web site using MAS and their EBM.

 

[dfeller]

You wrote: "All i know is EBM now comes with 2 applets for free so its $4500 they did infact come down"

That is not true. There is the main EBM for $3,000 then the 3 applets for $1,000 each -- .order, .store, and .inquiry.

If you get EBM and 2 applets, you get a "bundle price" of $4,500.

Dawn