Note
This article is for users with Microsoft Business Central (BC), versions 16 or older. If you have a more recent version of BC, please refer to our article on installing the AGR Data Integrator
Overview
To get orders that are created, reviewed, adjusted and confirmed in AGR sent into BC, an extension needs to be installed in your BC environment. This article is intended to serve as a guide through the installation process.
Installation Guide
1. Import objects
To install the order transfer extension, click on the .app file linked below and upload it into your BC environment.
A list of the imported objects can be seen in the table below.
Type | ID | Name | Version List |
Table | 50040 | AGR Setup | AGR1.0 |
Table | 50042 | AGR Import Item | AGR1.0 |
Table | 50043 | AGR Log | AGR1.0 |
Codeunit | 50040 | AGR Synchr.Start | AGR1.0 |
Codeunit | 50041 | AGR Synchr.TestImport | AGR1.0 |
Codeunit | 50042 | AGR Synchr.Import | AGR1.0 |
Codeunit | 50043 | AGR Carry Out Req Message | AGR1.0 |
Page | 50040 | AGR Setup | AGR1.0 |
Page | 50042 | AGR Import Lines | AGR1.0 |
Page | 50043 | AGR Log | AGR1.0 |
Page | 50044 | AGR Import Log | AGR1.0 |
Menusuite Placement
The interface should be set up within the Purchase Department in any of the Add-on X Menusuites. Adding the AGR Setup Page is sufficient, but we recommend adding the AGR Log and AGR Import Log as well.
2. AGR - BC interface setup
You will need to populate the AGR Setup page with the correct data to connect to AGR's SQL database with the orders. Each record comes with some default values, as shown in the table below, that can be changed as needed.
Field name | Description | Default value |
SQL Server | Server Name of where the AGR SQL Database is located. Used to connect to AGR. Provided by AGR. | N/A |
SQL Database | Database Name of the AGR SQL Database. Used to connect to AGR. Provided by AGR. | N/A |
SQL User Id | ID of a user that can connect to the AGR SQL Server and Database. Used to connect to AGR. Provided by AGR. | N/A |
SQL Password | Password for User defined in field SQL User ID. Used to connect to AGR. Provided by AGR. | N/A |
SQL Connection Timeout | Number of seconds before the SQL Server connection will timeout. Used to connect to AGR | 610 |
Req. Worksh. Template Name | Defines the Requisition Worksheet Journal used when importing lines from AGR | N/A |
Req. Worksh. Jrnl. Batch Name | Defines the Requisition Worksheet Batch used when importing lines from AGR | N/A |
Enable Log Cleanup | Enables Log Cleanup which will delete entries based on value in field Keep History for | Yes |
Keep History For | If Log Cleanup is enables, this fields defines what values are deleted from the AGR Log | 1 Week |
Last Cleanup | Defines when the Log Cleanup was last done. Not editable | Today |
See below for and example of the AGR setup.
When the AGR Setup is finished, you can use Test AGR Connection on the ACTIONS tab to verify that the connection information is correct.
3. Manual order pull test
Orders can be pulled into BC either automatically or manually. When first setting up the interface, we recommend testing manual pulls before setting up automatic jobs to retrieve orders at a set frequency.
Manual pulls can be done from the AGR Setup page by pressing Retrieve AGR Lines in the HOME tab. This will connect to the AGR database and pull orders that have been reviewed and confirmed in AGR and are ready to be imported into BC.
The order import process goes through three steps:
Orders are imported from AGR into the AGR Import Lines page in BC.
AGR Import Lines are imported into a Requisition Worksheet.
The Requisition Worksheet is processed and Purchase Orders are created.
If the orders can‘t be pulled into BC for some reason, the AGR Import Items page will open with all lines that were retrieved from the database, regardless of whehter they have errors in them.
Warning
The AGR Import Lines only holds information from the LAST connection. All lines with errors will continue to be imported into BC if they are not dealt with. If the interface is able to process lines fully, then the lines will only remain in AGR Import Lines until the next connection is made with the AGR Server.
The AGR Import Lines page has the following fields.
Field | Description |
ID | Rownumber in import |
orderItemNo | Item No. from AGR |
orderToLocation | To-Location from AGR |
orderFromLocation | From-Location from AGR |
orderQty | Quantity from AGR |
orderEstDelivDate | Estimated Delivery Date from AGR |
orderType | Type of order from AGR |
orderId | AGR Order ID |
Worksheet Template Name | Worksheet Template Name from AGR Setup in BC |
Journal Batch Name | Journal Batch Name from AGR Setup in BC |
Error Message | If marked, this field indicates that the line was not processed due to an error. |
Messages | This field is only filled out if the line was not imported due to an error. The error message can either originate from within the AGR interface in BC or is a standard error message from BC. |
Error Type | This field is only filled out if the line was not imported due to an error. The value indicates when the error happened.
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Common issues, causing errors in the order transfer include:
The AGR Order Supplier, [Vendor Name], does not exist as a Vendor or a Location.
Check the vendor card to see that the vendor can be found in BC.
Check that the vendor card is open.
Check that the vendor card is not marked as blocked or blocked for purchasing.
The Req. Worksheet is empty.
Connection to SQL was not successful.
Make sure that there are values in the AGR Setup page, as described earlier in this article.
If the AGR Import Lines does not open after processing, there were either no errors on the import or there was nothing to import.
Every time that BC connects to AGR to import orders, it creates a log entry to keep track of the communication. After the import has finished the entry shows how many errors happened during the import.
4. Job queue setup
When the AGR Setup and manual testing are finished, a job queue can be created to fetch AGR Orders automatically. Assuming a Job Queue and Job Queue Categoryexit, a Job Queue entry can be created similar to the image below. The Job Queue Entry should run Codeunit AGR Synchr. Start (ID 50040). The recommended setting is to set the time interval to 5 minutes. This can be changed dependung on other Job Queue Entries running in the system.
Codeunit 333 Req. Wksh. -Make Order needs to be changed for the job queue functionality to work. Every variable of type window needs to be handled, only triggering it if AGR fetching of orders happens from a BC client. To handle this use the command IF GUIALLOWED THEN. See pictures of required changes below.
