ABECAS Insight

For those of you who customize reports in Abecas Insight using the Report Builder interface, I have a couple of suggestions you may wish to use during the customization process.

First, I highly recommend that you do your customization in the Practice database. It is helpful to have a Practice database with current data, so you may wish to restore the Practice database from a recent backup of your live database, which will provide plenty of familiar, real world data for you to run your reports against.

Second, if you haven’t already done so, or have not done so recently, I suggest you visit the Argos Software Support Web Page to review the available topics relating to working in Report Builder.

The Support Web address is: http://support.abecas.com

After logging in to the site, click the Downloads link near the top of the page. There you will find a number of Webinars and How To files on various topics. There are currently four Webinars relating to Report Builder in Abecas Insight and fourteen ‘How To” documents.

In order to create a custom report, you will need to begin with one of the Standard Abecas formats for the type of report you want to create. Go to the report type that you want (Bill of Lading, for example) and select a Standard Format that approximates the report you want to create. Check to make sure that it contains the primary data fileds that you want and that the report can run against the level of data that you desire (Lot, Sublot, Serial Number, etc.). Select a limited range of data in the Range Selection dialog and run a Print Preview to compare the available formats. Even if there is only one Standard Format, you should run a preview against a limited selection of data as this data will display in your design preview as you work in Report Builder and a limited set of data (one or two pages) will enable each preview page to load quicker.

Bill of Lading Record Range Selector

Once you have decided upon the Standard format which you will use as your basis for your custom report, click the Customize button in the top line menu of the Record Range dialog and click the ‘Create New Report Format’ option. This will create a copy of the standard format you selected. You should give this report a name which will be meaningful to you and your users, e.g., ‘Bill of Lading for ABC Account’ and type the name of the original standard report format in the comments area of the naming dialog, along with any other comments you deem important. When you click OK, the Report Builder interface will launch and you can begin your customization.

Naming New Report

As you make changes, it is a good practice to save your changes regularly by clicking File, then Save. It is also a good idea to save you reports to a file folder where you can access them when you want to move them to your live database. On the support web page there are two ‘how to’ articles that will tell you how to Save an RTM and how to Import an RTM (the saved report template).

Doing your development in the Practice database will ensure that you do not effect the integrity of any data in the live database, so if you changes the stage of a transaction or generate an invoice or create additional test data, you will not negatively impact on-going operations. Also, your users will not be able to run your new format until you have completed it, tested it and loaded it into the live database.

The ability to save and import custom reports also gives you an opportunity to work with other users and exchange formats that you have developed should you choose. With other users, you can work cooperatively to develop custom reports and share your knowledge and results to the benefit of both users.

As you know, we maintain two versions of our software. Our ‘release version’ is stable and subject only to maintenance programming, not database modification or adding enhancements. Our programmers apply their main efforts to our ‘development version’. This version is where we enhance the software, add new features and perform custom programming. Our goal is for the development version to become our release version after 3 months. Insight releases will now occur at the start of each quarter.

Earlier this month, our 7.3 development version became our release version, with the new 7.4 created as our development version. Significant enhancements have been added to the release version 7.3 and we encourage you to update, as convenient. The release notes available under the Help option list the major changes in this version. We will also highlight some of these enhancements in our first newsletter.

In the past we were forced to work on release versions to an extent that was not desirable. The needs of some customers who were unable to upgrade to obtain required enhancements drove us to undertake enhancements in both the release and development versions simultaneously. This parallel development created an unmanageable demand on QA to prove capability in both systems. This experience has led us to implement a hard rule – all development will be restricted to the current development version only. The result of this for the vast majority of our users will be increased stability of the product and an enhanced user experience.

In recent months, Argos Software has comprehensively reviewed the service and support we deliver. This review included an extensive customer satisfaction survey to help us better understand your needs and how we can meet them. We are grateful to everyone who took the time to contribute comments and suggestions. Your detailed and thoughtful feedback is invaluable today and in planning for the future.

We recognize that installing our software is only the start of a long and close relationship between our companies. This relationship is the focus of our business and we are delighted that so many of you feel that the product meets your needs and that our staff is friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. Several customers reminded us of their strong loyalty to Argos Software and almost all indicated willingness to be a reference for potential future customers. We appreciate your support and are working to ensure that we earn that support every day.

As well as positive feedback, some of you shared concerns related to our product, support or company. In some cases, these concerns required immediate action on our part. We appreciate this feedback and are committed to correcting our shortfalls where they already exist, and making systemic changes to ensure long term improvement.

Service and support are critical issues for all of us. Day-to-day performance of the software is important and our reaction when something goes wrong or needs to be changed is a key element of customer satisfaction.

We acknowledge your candor and generosity in providing us with your frank appraisal of our successes, as well as our shortcomings, in admin/billing, communication, account management/sales, and support. This feedback has helped us to address the issues and we are progressively making improvements in each of these areas.

Many of you expressed a desire for improved communication about updates, new features, the direction of our company, Webinars and other resources as well as more direct involvement with Argos and other users. In response, we will introduce a quarterly newsletter starting next month, including tips and tricks, an improved website, and email advice about relevant updates and new products.

We are currently researching how best to implement your desire to communicate with other users through an online bulletin board or blog. This online forum was launched at the September Users Meeting to facilitate a community of best practice, allow knowledge sharing between customers and provide a valuable opportunity for us to learn more about how you use our software, and your additional needs. We will progressively review and improve the structure of the online forum based on your feedback.

In response to your comments, we are modifying the make-up of our account management/sales team to carefully match you with the most appropriate specialized account manager. Some of you have been, or soon will be, assigned to a new account manager dedicated to helping you get the most out of the software and your relationship with us.

Our Support team is our direct interface between your business and ours. It is also an area that received considerable comment and constructive criticism. We have implemented a number of changes to improve response times and support service. These changes are spearheaded by our Support Manager, Harvey Clement, who brings with him extensive experience in quality assurance, as well as excellent product and industry knowledge. We are also making changes in the way service requests are managed to ensure that you receive prompt solutions and ready access to the specialized staff who can best address your concerns.

Our webinars are positively regarded by those who have participated or accessed them from our web site. We will be working to improve the quality and variety of these valuable training tools and to better promote awareness of this resource. All of our webinars are catalogued and available on our support web site. This site may be accessed from our ‘Help’ option and webinars are available under ‘downloads’. If you do not have a log-in for our support site, please call our Support Team.

Some of you had specific suggestions about ways we could enhance our software to better meet your needs. These suggestions have been recorded for the support and programming teams. Some of the suggestions have already been implemented and others will be introduced over time. We are particularly focused on suggestions that would be beneficial to a large share of our users. Suggestions that are specific to a single user or a small group will continue to be handled as custom programming requests.

Again, thank you for your time, input and suggestions. If you have additional comments or suggestions you would like to make, please call Heather at 888-253-5353 or email her at heatherh@argosoftware.com

Customers from the Enterprise, Warehouse and Freight Management business areas attended the highly successful Argos Software Fall 2007 Users’ Conference. Workshop sessions were constructed around the theme of Business Process Management and explored ways that ABECAS Insight can enhance your business operations, now and in the future.

Company President Alan Thodey talked about the future of Argos Software and the ways that the product and the company are adapting to a changing environment. A recent survey of customers resulted in several new strategies to increase communication with customers, and between customers with similar interests.

A blog where Argos Software can post news, how-to documents, tips and tricks and other articles of interest has been published and will be regularly updated. You can find these articles at http://blog.abecasinsight.com.

A forum where users can post suggestions, comments, work-arounds and questions as well as sharing their success stories has also been established. The forum can be found at http://forums.abecasinsight.com and all users are encouraged to contribute to this resource to learn and share their knowledge about the system and to be part of an active community of Argos Software expertise.

Interactive sessions focused on exploring requirements for a future version of the software that is currently in development under the working title of “Version 9.” Changes to hardware and the Windows operating system demand some changes to the software as it is today and the new product will take advantage of additional capabilities in the Windows environment and SQL database management to deliver superior business results. Participants contributed their ideas about how they would like the new software to look and function.

Several participants found these interactive sessions particularly valuable. One attendee wrote on a feedback form: “I really enjoy and learn more from the interactive sessions.” As Argos Software staff gathered information about customer requirements for the new product, customers learned more about the future of the system. “V9 looks very promising,” one customer said.

Several workshop sessions focused on new functionality available in version 7.3, the current release version of ABECAS Insight. Training sessions on using the Task Agent to automate routine activities were popular with participants. Several attendees reported being eager to try out the Task Agent to lighten the load on users. This robust new feature has considerable potential to improve efficiency in the administration of your business.

Feedback from participants in the conference was positive and encouraging. One customer described feeling confident about the software’s ability to “handle our business needs now and in future.” Another user summed up by saying: “I like the direction I see the company going.”

Argos Software staff and customers who attended the Fall 2007 Users’ Conference mingled informally at a social outing on the Sunday before the conference. Participants had the opportunity to take part in either a friendly golf day with Argos staffers, Rex Von Nothdurft and John McPherson, or a tour of Yosemite National Park with Programming Director, Dave Yost.

The Argos Software Yosemite bus tour stopped for photo opportunities and walks at several of the major sights in the National Park. Attendees chatted and formed new friendships while Dave Yost pointed out points of interest along the way.

Members of the group shared a picnic lunch at a spectacular rest stop on the Yosemite Valley floor. The view of the mountains looming all around combined with a morning’s exercise in the fresh air to make the sandwiches even more delicious.

After a large lunch of turkey sandwiches and amazing scenery, the Yosemite Tour team walked to the lower Yosemite Falls and posed for group photographs. The poses may seem rather contrived, but the smiles are all natural.

ABECAS Insight Server can be installed on a machine running SQL Server 2005 64 Bit. The following steps are necessary during this operation:

1. Install the .NET Framework 2.0 and all security updates for the framework on your Windows Server 2003 64 Bit or (for testing purposes) Windows XP Professional 64 Bit machine.

2. Install SQL Server 2005 64 Bit (any edition) and Service Pack 2 for that product.

3. Open the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration Tool from the SQL Server 2005 folder in the Start Menu and click the Surface Area Configuration for Features link at the bottom of the page.

4. Highlight the CLR Integration node and check Enable CLR integration.

5. Create a folder named AI64 on your C: drive.

6. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. You can also access this information by opening the System applet in the Control Panel. Click on the Advanced tab and click the Environment Variables button.

7. When the Environment Variables dialog is open, highlight the Path variable in the System Variables list box and click the Edit button.

8. Add C:\AI64 to your path using a semicolon, as shown.

9. Download the ABECAS Insight 64 Bit Support package here. Unzip the files from this package into your C:\AI64 directory. The package includes the following:

NTWDBLIB.DLL (DB Library) - This file is necessary for the operation of ABECAS Insight on any operating system.

Argos.SqlXpLib.dll - The C# assembly required by ABECAS Insight on 64 Bit SQL Server.

Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_1.sql - Script required for installation of the C# assembly.

Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_2.sql - Script required for installation of the C# assembly.

10. Install ABECAS Insight 7.3 or higher.

11. Open the SQL Server Management Studio as SA and connect to your local SQL Server 64 Bit installation. Click File -> Open -> File… on the menu or CTRL+O on your keyboard to open a file. Browse to the location of Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_1.sql and open it. Click the Execute toolbar button or F5 on your keyboard to run the script.

note: This script will run against the MASTER database- Do not alter the script so that it runs against another database. The path in the script refers to the C:\AI64 folder. You will have to change this part of the script if you have chosen another location for your 64 Bit support files.

12. Open Custom_Script_For_Sql_Server_64bit_PART_2.sql and change your current database to ABECAS_CS, or another ABECAS Insight database. You must run this script once in every ABECAS Insight database on your SQL Server other than ABECAS_SHIP. Click the Execute toolbar button or F5 on your keyboard to run the script.

You must follow these steps in order to ensure that the ABECAS Insight Server will function properly. In addition, you must perform steps 11 and 12 after any update to your ABECAS Insight system, as the setup program does not yet fully support 64 Bit installation.

Most users employ the default ABECAS Insight database, ABECAS_CS. In certain cases, you may want to create one or more additional ABECAS Insight databases:

• An additional database is needed for training or testing
• Two databases require very different user security
• Discrete business entities can be separated for maximum performance

In these cases, you can use the database version control program, UPDATEDB, to create a new, empty database.

Login to your ABECAS Insight Server. Click on the START button, select the RUN option, and type the following command into the RUN dialog and click the OK button:

X:\ABECASCS\SCRIPTS\DATABASE\UPDATEDB /C /DABECAS_NEW

In this case, X: is the drive where ABECAS Insight is installed and ABECAS_NEW is the desired name for the new database.

note: There is a space before each forward slash. There are no other spaces in the command.

UPDATEDB will ask you for the SA password and create the database.

Next, you should create a database alias so that your ABECAS Insight users can access your new database.

1. Right-click on the Blue A tray icon and select SETTINGS -> GENERAL.
2. Click on the SERVER tab on the left-hand toolbar.
3. Click on the DATABASE icon on the left-hand toolbar.
4. Click the ADD button on the right-hand side of the dialog.
5. Enter the ALIAS name. This must start with “ABECAS_” and will, in most cases, be the same as the database name. The database name is automatically filled in for you when you enter the ALIAS name.
6. Select your desired ALIAS parameters- I typically turn on the 300 record limit to avoid accidentally pulling back unmanageably large results.
7. Select OK on all dialogs.
8. Restart the ABECAS Insight Server 2.0 service.

It is important to remember that you must update all your ABECAS Insight databases when you upgrade your ABECAS Insight installation. When you install your next update, do the following:

1. Click on the CUSTOM checkbox to configure your installation.
2. Click on the SERVER component in the custom dialog.
3. Click DETAILS to access server configuration options.
4. Click on the UPDATE MULTIPLE DATABASES checkbox.
5. SELECT OK and NEXT to proceed with the installation.

UPDATEDB will now display a list of databases during installation. You might want to run the installation program immediately after creating your new database so that you do not forget this vital step.

note: Certain ABECAS Insight programs, such as the ED (EDI) Module, will require special consideration in multi-database environments.

It is always preferable to install ABECAS Insight and the SQL Server 2000 data files on your largest physical drive or partition. Users often install SQL Server 2000 using the default configuration, which installs all SQL Server databases on the C: drive.

If you are low on disk space on your C: drive, you can move the system databases without reinstalling SQL Server. The system database that experiences the most size fluctuation is TEMPDB. This is where all cursors, temp tables, and other temporary objects are stored. TEMPDB is also one of the easiest SQL Server system databases to move.

You will use the Query Analyzer to move the TEMPDB database. Make sure that there are no active connections to the SQL Server. Open the Query analyzer and run the following queries:

note: Your desired drive is represented by X:

use master

go

Alter database tempdb modify file (name = tempdev, filename = ‘X:\MSSQL\DATA\tempdb.mdf’)

go

Alter database tempdb modify file (name = templog, filename = ‘X:\MSSQL\DATA\templog.ldf’)

The target folder must already exist. I have chosen X:\MSSQL\DATA, but you can alter the text between the single quotes to suit your needs. If you have created additional files or filegroups in TEMPDB, you’ll have to handle those as well.

You must restart the SQL Server for this change to take effect. You must also delete the old TEMPDB files, as they are not automatically cleaned up. By default, the TEMPDB files are located here:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\DATA\tempdb.mdf
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\DATA\templog.ldf

As always, you should make sure that you have a good backup before changing the configuration of your SQL Server.

It is sometimes necessary to stop or start all three ABECAS Insight server components at the same time. The ABECAS Insight tray icon programs ask for confirmation before shutting down any services. However, you can quickly restart all three services using a CMD (Windows Command) file.

Login to your ABECAS Insight Server machine as an administrator. Open NOTEPAD and create a file on your C: drive called AIRESTART.CMD

note: You will have to use the Save As command and change the Save As Type drop-down list to All Files in order to ensure the proper file name.

Enter the following lines into AIRESTART.CMD:

net stop “abecas insight server 3.0″
net stop “abecas insight server 1.0″
net stop “abecas insight server 2.0″
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 10000 >NUL
net start “abecas insight server 2.0″
net start “abecas insight server 1.0″
net start “abecas insight server 3.0″

note: The use of PING is a rather inelegant way make the system wait for 10 seconds before restarting ABServer 2.0.

Save your changes to the AIRESTART.CMD file and place a shortcut to the file on your server’s desktop. You can adapt the commands in this file to create a shortcut that only stops the services, or even use the built-in Windows scheduling facilities to automate the process.

You should never perform this function while there are active connections. This will unload the services without warning and drop all existing connections. ABECAS Insight clients, ABComm, EDI, XM, and Event Scheduler programs may behave unpredictably and will eventually lose connection to the SQL Server