How to inform external system that the event occured in Baan (for example Production Order has been created or released). I know that Baan's Tools Exchange is able to create a flat file that can be read by external system. This way of integration seems not to be flexible because it works directly on Baan's table(s). Please let me know your opinion about different types of communication. Thanks in advance.

Could you please elaborate what you want to do exatcly? You can do anything from Baan for e.g. We call a XML API to export package when a packing slip is printed in Baan. You will need to customize the script and call external program .
The choices are endless and imagination is the limit
Arvind

Hi,
We want to connect MES system asynchronously with Baan. MES has its own database. One of the components of MES is responsible for communication with external systems (ERPs like BAAN or SAP R/3) and is able to read data from XML, Flat Files etc in order to put it in its database.
Exchange seems to be very good for that purpose because it can create files basing on audit. Files generated will contain only created or changed data - perfect. But I have also some doubts since it is working straight on Baan tables.

We are able to change MES to read other format of data coming from Baan - this is not a problem. We are also able to change MES to read data from other sources (like files, WebService etc). The problem is we want to find a solution that does not require coding in Baan (or requires minimum coding) so it will be standard way of communication with BaaN ERP.

The other thing is opposite communication: MES->BaaN. MES is supposed to report that some events occured. Since MES is written in .Net we are
considering OLE or BOI communication. Upload to BaaN seems to be simplier.

Let me know your comments.

Thanks.

Hi,
If you can take exchange data only based on changed then that is the simplest and easiest way to do it. In this option you limited the wya you would get the o/p and incorporating business logic. Your other option would be to generate XML files through BOIs. Of course this will require Baan coding, but that is true for MES-> Baan also. But in order to make a robust integration, I think you will need to do some coding in Baan.


Arvind