Archive for category: Frontpage Article

Once your AD FS configuration is done, you’ll need to update the SSOP identity with userPrincipalName for all of your users in Lawson Security.  IPA is a great tool for this task.

Some nodes that you’ll need include:

• System Command – get AD users
  • Run a powershell command to get the samAccountName and userPrincipalName from Active Directory
  • powershell “Get-ADUser -Filter * -SearchBase ‘<OU Path (i.e. OU=Users,DC=company,DC=org)>’ | Select-object SamAccountName,UserPrincipalName | ConvertTo-Csv -NoTypeInformation”
• Data Iterator to iterate through the results from the AD query
• Resource Query
  • Get User by querying on SSOP value
  • <?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″ standalone=”yes”?><TRANSACTION user=”[email protected]” method=”getRMQuery”><SERVICE><![CDATA[SSOP]]></SERVICE><SERVICEATTRS><SERVICEATTR><NAME><![CDATA[USER]]></NAME><VALUE><![CDATA[<!samAccountName>]]></VALUE></SERVICEATTR></SERVICEATTRS><OBJECT><![CDATA[People]]></OBJECT><ATTRIBUTES><ATTRIBUTE><![CDATA[ID]]></ATTRIBUTE></ATTRIBUTES><OUTPUTSERVICEATTRS/></TRANSACTION>
• Resource Update
  • Using the ID from your Resource Query, Update the SSOP service

After configuring LSF for AD FS, we encountered a 500 error after a login smoke test. The error was begin logged in SystemOut.log for our AppServer. The error message was:

[4/30/19 14:31:41:287 PDT] 000000e9 ServletWrappe E com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.servlet.ServletWrapper service Uncaught service() exception thrown by servlet SSOServlet: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org.bouncycastle.x509.extension.SubjectKeyIdentifierStructure

To troubleshoot this, we first regenerated and reloaded the ADFS Certificate to the LSF IdP Certificate in ssoconfig. This did not resolve the issue, so then we checked the java policy files. It turns out that the policy files were out-of-date. You need to update the policy files in JAVA_HOME and WebSphere. First, download the latest policy files from Oracle and IBM, and the BouncyCastle policy file from the BouncyCastle website.

To determine the directories which need the replacement files, first open a command line as administrator and type “where java”. This will show you where your main install of java is located. Go to this directory, then jre/lib/security and replace local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar. The BouncyCastle jar file will be located at jre/lib/ext. Matching files must also be stored in your WebSphere java home. To figure out where this directory structure will be, open SystemOut.log and scan for the last time the AppServer was started.  “Java Home” will be displayed there. The directory structure will be the same as your main java install.

Remember to backup/rename your old policy files and copy the new ones to these directories. You’ll have to stop your WebSphere services and kill all java processes before you can do this.

Since Infor Process Designer is an open-ended visual design tool, different users can achieve the same end goal but in many different ways. While the flow might technically “work”, this level of design freedom usually leads to processes that are not as efficient as they could potentially be.

Here are some tips to keep in mind as you design your next flow:

1. Use a MsgBuilder node instead of writing to file for each record

    
   
   By using a MsgBuilder node, we can append all found records to a String in memory. We can then call the string when we need to write the records. This is much faster than individually writing each line, each time through the FileAccess node.

2. Merge Assign Nodes
   
   This is a common mistake in many processes. There is no reason two Assign nodes would have to line up one after another in a flow. You can simply use one Assign node for all your variables/javascript. More nodes in your flow results in slower speeds so you should always try to use as few nodes as possible.
3. Remove Unnecessary Assign Nodes
   
   When a value is returned from a query or processing node, it is automatically assigned an internal variable name.

   In the screenshot above, we see the values pulled from my SQL query have already been automatically assigned a variable. Therefore, there would be no point in having an Assign node to set SQL ADDRESS to my custom variable <!ADDRESS>. It would be better to simply call <!SQLQuery1080_ADDRESS> when needed as the variable has already been created for me.

4. Remote File Access
   When the Infor Lawson business applications and ProcessFlow are on the same server, file access is blazing fast since all the files are local. However, when IPA is on a separate server, the process slows down since the flow must now access the file across the network and not locally.

   To mitigate this issue, make sure file access is done as efficiently as possible. Perhaps reach out to those in charge of network IT to see about reducing network lag.

5. Upload the Process with Logging Off
   Process logging can negatively affect performance. Unless you are troubleshooting a problem, processes should be uploaded with Log Level: No debug
   
   

1. Performance degradation? Forms slow to load?
   Try following these steps:
   • Click the Settings Gear Icon on the top right of your ServiceNow screen, next to your name. Then, navigate to the Forms tab.
   
   
   • Changing the Related list loading from “With the Form” to “After Form Loads” for a slight improvement in performance. Changing to “On-Demand” can result in significant performance gains as this would change it so that records get loaded only upon click.

2. Change the form view to a cleaner tabbed format versus the normal lengthy vertical layout.
   From the same Forms tab in System Settings (refer to tip #1), we can turn on Tabbed forms to change to this view.
   

   BEFORE:
   
   AFTER:
   
   

3. Using asterisks (*) and double asterisks (**) for Reference fields.
   In ServiceNow, searching for a record in a reference field will automatically use a “STARTSWITH” query.

   This can cause some difficulties when trying to search for records.
   

   The solution is to use an asterisk before typing in the search term. This will change the query to a “CONTAINS” search which makes searching for records a lot easier.
   

   Also, you can also use double asterisks (**) to quickly return the first (up to) 15 records in the table.
   

4. ServiceNow Keyboard Shortcuts.
   
5. Quickly add attachments by simply dragging file to “Work notes” area.

   Attaching files by clicking the paperclip icon and then browsing for the file is a slow process. You can
   simply drag and drop the file you want to attach into the Work notes box.

   

For those who spend a large part of their day behind a screen, keyboard shortcuts are great and the time saved by using these shortcuts definitely accrues over time. You are losing precious seconds of productivity every time you lift your hand off the keyboard to use the mouse instead. Effectively using keyboard shortcuts can cut that wasted time down.

Most of us are already familiar with the most common keyboard shorts such as cut/copy/paste/undo/redo (ctrl+x/c/v/z/y).

At one point or another, we all have probably seen some type of chart online that shows all the possible keyboard shortcuts. This list is a bit daunting to take in at once and difficult to commit to memory unless you actually sit down and make it a point to memorize all the shortcuts. Even then, I find that it quickly fades from memory if not put to regular use.

Therefore I wanted to create this short list of keyboard shortcuts that I actually use in my daily work:

1. Windows key + Arrow direction key – Snaps app window to left/right side/corner of screen
   

   Examples:
   Windows key + Left arrow direction key – left side
   

   
   Windows key + Right arrow direction key – right side
   

   
   Windows key + Left arrow direction key then Windows key + Up arrow direction key – left upper corner
   

   Windows key + Left arrow direction key then Windows key + Down arrow direction key – left lower corner
   

   Windows key + Up arrow direction key – Maximize window
   Windows key + Down arrow direction key – Minimize window

   The most common use case for me is when I want to compare two similar files. For example, sometimes I pull up an erroring work unit log on the left side and a normal, functioning log on the right to compare the two and see where the path diverges. There are also times that I will compare an old backup file to a new modified one to visualize the changes.
   

2. Windows key + E – Opens File Explorer
3. Windows key + M – Minimizes all windows (useful for quickly accessing desktop shortcuts)
   Windows key + Shift + M – Restores all minimized windows
   Windows key + Comma – Temporarily peek at the desktop
4. Windows key + S – Opens Windows search.
   Simply start typing the program/file name after pressing Windows key + S. Useful for opening programs/files quickly.
5. Ctrl + Shift + V – Paste as plain text. I use this at least a couple of times a day. This is especially useful when composing emails with copied snippets from other sources.Ctrl + V:
   

   
   Ctrl + Shift + V: