I am in the process of creating a session to do a massive update of the Baan calendar, by setting dates and times according to specific rules.

I have a sample form that I have layed out. Studying it will make it apparent that with the form, we can almost accomodate everything but statuary holidays.

I have attached the form to this posting. I hope it is legible I will also email a text file with the layout, if the following is not clear.

What I would like is constructive criticism of the form. Also, in reviewing the attached document, note that between the [ ] I would like check boxes, but with the baan restriction on form width, I find difficulty to implement this. Any suggestions for improvement before I develop same would be appreciated. I already have a version that works with the days of the week.


Leslie

Leslie,

I think you forgot to attach the form or document.


Mark

I will reattach the file calendar2.cln. It is actually a text file.

I did click on browse, and then saw it was attached before I sent the message. I will upload it again tomorrow as I am not at the office at this minute.

Patience. It is worth looking at.

Leslie

I would like some feedback about the attached document.

Regards

Leslie

I think your proposed solution must be for Baan ERP. I am using BaaN IVc4, and the calendar is separate from the job: one or more jobs will reference a calendar to determine when next to run.

I am working on a similar project, a way to update the calendar more easily than typing in date and time. Here's a screen print of my form (hint: align the pipe symbol (|) on left to get layout correct, but not very pretty since tabs are ignored:

+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Update Job Calendar Company: 001 |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Company : 001 Conwed Plastics
| Calendar: DAYNIG
| Update existing records?: Yes
|
| Date From 09-30-2002 To 09-30-2003
| | Day Activate? Time
| Sunday : Yes 06:00
| Monday : Yes 19:00
| Tuesday : Yes 19:00
| Wednesday: Yes 19:00
| Thursday : Yes 19:00
| Friday : Yes 19:00
| Saturday : Yes 17:00
|

This input allows me to select a range of dates to create (and, optionally, update) for a calendar. Most jobs run at the same time, but this allows easy input to variance. Jobs could run M - F for one date range, but then S - Th for another.

I don't know if this is a comment on your ideas as much as a different slant on a similar problem. If you see any room for collaboration, let me know.

My first attempt at a calendar was implemented as a session based on layout1.
That calendar allowed us to do exactly what you are doing, but even further.

It allowed us to put in several job runs per day, or to remove job start times, both activities between two dates.

I am open to further feedback and collaboration.

Regards

Leslie

Now that I've reviewed your form layouts and thought some more about your ideas, I appreciate them more. It seems your Form3 is very elaborate and powerful; like you say, you can do almost anything with it as far as setting up dates. Even for holidays: the user can just de-select that date so the job would not run, if applicable.

At our shop currently, we have only a few calendars set up. Several jobs share the same calendar, meaning they all start at the same time and only go as fast as the one that uses the most resources. I was thinking of adding more calendars, and that was the impetus for my update program, since BaaN does not give a mass update program. Many of our jobs run without a calendar; they just run every 6 or 8 hours or whatever. But I can see advantages in setting up a calendar for a job in a 1:1 relationship; with a calendar mass update program, it's feasible.

As far as the checkmarks, instead you could use just one character field that occurs 31 times. A user could put in "X" for running, blank for not running. Maybe not as nice looking as a checkbox but at least the layout would be possible.

How far along are you in developing this session? You said you already have in production the Form1 approach. If possible, I'd like to join the effort. Is there something I could do to help develop this for the IVc4 environment?

Hi Dsoner.

I am most happy to have participation in the Calendar management session.

I have form1 coded and a working session, and I could, if there is a disclaimer for litigation, make it available to all. It is a good jumping off point for form3.

I was wondering if anyone had a set of dates for holidays. My lotus organizer software had a listing of the major international holidays, and I think that a separate session to manage holidays would be useful.

Leslie

I certainly would be interested in having the session form and script. You might want to find out what type of disclaimer you would need from Conwed Plastics. I'll confer with my supervisor and let you know what we're comfortable with.

Just an idea: deliver only the session, form and session script, without the compiled object. Put a "bug" in the script so it would not compile (something benign and easily spotted). Then, in the session script, have statement about reviewing and testing the code before using it, and disclaimer. That way, a recipient of this would at least need to review, fix, and compile the code before it would work; therefore, the code was different that how you delivered it, and therefore you're off the hook for litigation.

I'd be able to spend a little time working on a Form3 implementation. Form1 would give us about 80 - 90% of what we at Conwed would need, so there would not be a big incentive for Form3 from here, at least for awhile.

As for holidays, I think it would be a lot of work to implement. At our company, we have 3 locations: Belgium, Georgia, and Minnesota. Each sets its own holiday schedule. In addition, the Operations group sets their holidays different than the Administration/Sales groups. So, all of a sudden, I have at least 6 different holiday schedules. I would need some mechanism to link a job (or even steps in a job!!) to specific holdiay schedule. One solution would be to customize the job calendar schedule, which we are loath to do. Another alternative would be to create a custom table that would link the job calendar table to the custom holdiay calendar table. Since the number of users for this function is quite small within a company, and the data entry is minimal (especially for Form3), the operator can review holidays for their company and then de-select (or move back or forward). At least, that's my vote.

The moderator of this section has the appropriate text that I can install into the session script. If he accepts to send it to me, and if I create a zip file with it embedded into the program script, I will do the upload (or email) to you.

I created a new module within the tu package. The module is "utl" for utilities and the new session was created under it. You may wish to install the stuff elsewhere.

Leslie

lsatenstein@yahoo.com

Folks,

Please look in the Code & Utilities forum for a template
http://www.baanboard.com/baanboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=479

The licence is based on BSD licence. It will absolve you of all responsibility without introducing bugs :). Please do not post Baan binaries. Look at the BaanXL thread for an idea of what a post of software sharing would look like.