What’s New in QAD’s .NET UI?Browse Updates, Guide Me, and more!

Stacy Elwood, BravePointMWUG September 2010

Agenda

IntroductionBrief Overview

– New features in Browses– Guide Me– Message Box

The ‘Gory’ Details– How to enable & setup QAD Guide Me– How to enable/disable QAD Message Box

Other new features Questions and AnswersNext Steps

Brief Overview: Challenges

“Do more, with less”

“I need a quick report”

“What am I supposed to enter in this screen?”

Internal Communication – Streamlining the process

Brief Overview: New Tools to Help

“Do more, with less”– New Comparative Browse Search Criteria

makes exception reporting easier“I need a quick report”

– Export Browses directly to a formatted report

“What am I supposed to enter in this screen?”– “Guide Me” puts Field Help at your

fingertipsInternal Communication – Streamlining the process

– QAD Inbox & Workflow

What’s New in Browses?

Search Criteria– Compare to other fields

• System automatically determines which fields are the same data type

– Relative Date Formats (released in .NET 2.8)• Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, This Month, This Quarter, etc.

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Search Criteria Examples:– Sales/Customer Service

• Price < Cost• Due Date > Required Date• Qty Shipped > Qty Invoiced

– Accounts Payable• Expected Date > Due Date• Qty Received <> Qty Invoiced• Due Date = Today

– Production• Qty Complete < Qty Ordered• Actual Run Time > Standard Run Time• Due Date < Today

– Accounts Receivable• Qty Shipped <> Qty Invoiced• Amount Paid < Amount Due

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Actions / Export options – Export to CSV

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Actions / Export options – Report* * Note: Requires Report Engine (QAD 2009 +

above or retrofit)

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Actions / Export options – Report (ctd)

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Actions / Export options – Report (ctd) (Summaries)

What’s New in Browses? (c’td)

Actions / Export options – Report (ctd) (Summaries)

QAD “Guide Me”

Displays Field Help as a Tool Tip (includes custom field help)

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Set Browse Criteria, Choose

Workflow

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Choose Recipient(s)

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Write a new message

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Send– Workflow – Recipient gets New Message

Notification when they log in

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Open Inbox

QAD Message Inbox & Workflow

New Message Box (c’td)– Workflow – Click on Browse hyperlink– Workflow – Browse opens with criteria

selected

The ‘Gory’ Details

How to enable QAD “Guide Me”

How to disable QAD Messages (or any plug-in)

How to enable QAD Guide Me

Guide Me plug-in is disabled by defaultNote: As of this presentation, the Guide Me plug-in may require some manual intervention for use with QAD Standard Edition, since by default the properties are not in the client-session.xml file.

Affected parameters:– guideMe.Enabled - Enables or disables Guide Me feature. – guideMe.Debug - Displays unresolved tokens and enables

browser context menu. Default: False– guideMe.ShowDelay - Delay in milliseconds before the

ToolTip is displayed. Default: 500– guideMe.HideDelay - Delay in milliseconds before the

ToolTip is hidden. A value of zero indicates the ToolTip is not hidden until the mouse leaves the control region. Default: 0.

– guideMe.Animation - Enables and disables tooltip animation affects. When set to true, this ensures that the Guide Me screen is displayed gradually on the screen, instead of immediately displaying and disappearing. Default: true

How to enable QAD Guide Me (c’td)

All users: Edit the client-session.xml fileCertain users: Add a parameter to the shortcut path on each client – (guideme.enabled:true)

How to disable QAD Message Inbox

New QAD Messaging enabled by default for QAD 2010 SE (eB2.1 SP10+) and QAD 2010

EE

Edit client-bootstrap.xml– <!-- A plugin deployed on the client that should not be

initialized. Multiple plugins may be disabled by repeating this configuration. [plugin key] (bootstrap only)-->

– <!-- for eB2.1 SP10+ no change is needed below -->– <disable>qad.plugin.messaging2</disable>

Note: For releases prior to QAD 2010, refer to the .NET UI 2.9.1 Release Bulletin for how to enable or disable the QAD Messaging or other relevant plug-ins.

Other New Features:

Restrict Configurable Screens by Domain– By default, Configured Screens set up in one domain

are available and applied to all domains.– Restrict access to templates for each environment by

setting the configByDomain parameter in setting.dat in the <QAD>/com/<UI>/mfgpro directory

Configurable Screens Report (36.20.10.17)

– Lists all programs/screens with configured templates– Details include which security groups run the

template as well as what has been changed

Other New Features: (c’td)

Multiple Attachment Areas– Allows you to attach documents to multiple fields and/or

frames inside a function, instead of just one

Quick Search (released in .NET 2.8)– Enables a search across multiple fields and multiple

browses. – Examples:

• Search for a Customer PO in both Sales Order Browse and Invoice History Browse at the same time

• Search for a description in both pt_desc1 and pt_desc2

QADSH Shell URL command line– Enables a command line to allow reports to be run in a

similar way to running browses.

Questions?

Next Steps… The More You Know…

.NET UI 2.9.1 is compatible with eB2.1 SP4 and above, both Standard Edition & Enterprise Edition

.NET UI is available free of charge if you’re current on QAD Maintenance

.NET UI can run simultaneously with CHAR and GUI sessions

To install a new version of .NET UI in a test environment, install Tomcat in a new directory and use a different port than the production environment!

Thank You!Stacy Elwood

selwood@bravepoint.com