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When using IPDesigner to create a .csv file, we ran into four issues with the file output:

1. Problem: Certain dates appear as ######## and certain numbers convert to scientific notation.
   Solution: Select entire page (ctrl + a) and click Home tab -> Format -> AutoFit Column Width
   
   
2. Problem: Some numbers remain in scientific notation (ex: 1E+12) even after AutoFit Column Width
   Solution: In the FileAccess node, wrap the SQL query variable with quotation marks and put a “=” before it.
   (For example, <!SQLQuery2650_USER_FIELD1> would become =“<!SQLQuery2650_USER_FIELD1>”)
   

   
   

3. Problem: Strings with commas get split at the comma in a csv file.
   Example in file: The value “Anchin, Block, & Anchin” is getting split into 3 columns as the flow is interpreting the commas as separators.

   Solution: In the FileAccess node, wrap the SQL query variable with quotation marks to include the commas as part of the string.
   
   

4. Problem: Certain number values lose their zeroes at the front when written to csv format.
   Example in file: The values in column C should be 001, 002, etc. instead of 1,2.

   Solution: In the FileAccess node, wrap the SQL query variable with quotation marks and put a “=” before it.
   (For example, <!SQLQuery2650_USER_FIELD3> would become =“<!SQLQuery2650_USER_FIELD3>”)
   

   
   

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Most of customers have by now switched over to a Windows / SQL server environment, but we still have several customers who have stayed on Oracle for their Database needs. This mostly stems from having the Oracle skill set in-house as there is really no other advantage to staying on Oracle once you have moved over to Windows.

Often when there are troubles with connecting to the application, it is relevant to test the connection the database from the server itself. Of course there are several ways to do this, but test fastest way is to do so directly from the command prompt in LID as it doesn’t require any additional setup or software. But it is easy to forget how this is done so we decided to write this quick article to document this very simple syntax.

The utility we’re going to use is called sqlplus and it should already installed on your LSF application server. Simply login to the server using LID and on the command prompt type in the following command:

sqlplus <username>/<password>@dbserverName

If you have the correct username and password, and the server is responding, you will get a SQL> prompt on which you can run any query you want. Here’s an example:

However if you type in the incorrect username:

And finally, if you have the incorrect server name or the server is not responding, the prompt will be suspended for several seconds and you will see the following message:

A few small notes about using sqlplus:

• Be sure to use a semicolon to end your statements. Otherwise the application doesn’t know when to run your query.
• Make sure the environment variable %ORACLE_HOME% is set correctly. ($ORACLE_HOME on Unix):

• To exit sqlplus user the “quit” command
• The SQL buffer contains the last statement you ran, and you can run the previous query again by simply typing “RUN”  and hitting enter.
• User the LIST command to see a list of your most recently executed SQL commands.
• “HELP INDEX” shows a list of possible commands
• To launch a sql script simply put the “@” symbol in front of the file name and execute it. like: @script.sql or even @/path/to/script.sql

• You can have a multi-line sql statement.

• The “SHOW USER” command prints the name of the Oracle user you’re logged in as
• The “SHOW ALL” command prints all the current settings to the screen.

WHER ARE MY COMMENTS?!  Many Lawson screens have comment buttons that open a drill-around screen with different comment types.  If you have ever wished to query these comments for reporting or other user interfaces, you may have noticed that they are difficult to find.  Infor has “hidden” them in tables with the “L_H” prefix.  The naming convention is “L_HXXX” where “XXX” is the prefix of the table that feeds screen where you add the comments.  For instance, Requisition Header comments can be found in “L_HRQH”.  And APINVOICE comments can be found in “L_HAPI”.  Join the comments to your main record using the “L_INDEX” column.

I hope this tidbit has saved you some time!!

MSCM uses a Quartz scheduler to bring transactions from Lawson into the MSCM database.  Sometimes on of these events will crash and cause the entire scheduler to crash.  If you notice that details are not making it into MSCM from Lawson, here are some troubleshooting steps:

1. Check the mscm_server.log located at <WAS_HOME>\profiles\<appserver>\logs
2. Search for the word “outbound” and start looking for error messages such as “AbortRecoveryException” around the outbound scheduler informational messages.
3. If you see an aborted recovery, check the EVENT_HEADER and EVENT_DETAIL tables in your database for threads that may be hung (they might have a relatively old HH timestamp or create/last modified date)
4. If you suspect any threads may be hung, one way to bypass them would be to se the RETRY_COUNT to 99 in the EVENT_HEADER and EVENT_DETAIL tables for that EVENT_HEADER_ID. Then restart MSCM and watch to see if your items start coming over into MSCM.

Before you can assign work to users in the User Action node, you will need to create the appropriate tasks and add users to those tasks.

*Before you perform this process, you will require Process Server Administrator access.

Log into Rich Client and navigate to Start > Applications > Process Server Administrator > User Configuration > Tasks.

Click Actions > Create, or click the “new” button. Give the task a name, description, and select the inbasket you want the users of that task to have (default “Standard Inbasket”).

To add users to your task, you must first make sure the users exist in the user configuration. Navigate to Start > Applications > Process Server Administrator > User Configuration > Users. Search for your users that need the new task. If they do not exist, click the “new” button or Actions > Create to add them (they must be existing Landmark users).

On the Tasks screen, at the bottom left, Click Actions > Create to add users to the task. Search for your user, give them a start date of when you want the task to be effective, and an end date if the task is temporary for this user. Click “Filter Is Enabled” if you plan to use filters on this task. Select a notify option.

In your IPA process, you can add the tasks on the User Action node. This will determine who is notified (and who should take action) when that node is processed.