As we kick off a new year, enjoy these Tips & Tricks. You can view more on the Tips & Tricks page on LawsonGuru.com.   And, remember to share your tips. Send them to mailto:letter-tips@lawsonguru.com. I'll be back next month with a great new issue!

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You want to use dynamic parameters--fed from a database--with your Crystal Report, which is published in LBI.  However, when the report is viewed, the LBI parameter page just uses static text boxes:

You can remove the LBI-generated parameter page so that you can use the Crystal parameter pages, which lets you use dynamic and/or cascading parameters.  In Report Administration, Click on the ‘Customize Report Parameters’ for your report:

Select on the parameter(s) defined on your report, and click the ‘Delete’ button:

Now when you view the report, you are utilizing the Crystal parameter page, which can include dynamic and/or cascading parameters:

I get an error ("Windows cannot find "\bin\javaw") when opening up ProcessFlow Administrator, Scheduler, etc. on the Windows machine.

If you get this error when opening up ProcessFlow Administrator, Scheduler, etc. on the Windows machine:

 

Make sure you have system variables, LAW_JAVA_HOME & LAW81_JAVA_HOME, pointing to the JDK installed on your Windows machine:

 

Also, use DOS 8.3 Naming Convention, not Windows Long File Names.

Often when you do a full Lawson recompile (i.e. via cobcmp), there are some programs which don't compile due to contention within GEN, compiler issues, etc. All it usually takes to fix them is to simply resubmit them on the compile queue. You do this using the qcompile command, which submits individual programs to be compiled.

The problem is knowing which programs need to be re-submitted. This is based on the existence of the .err file in the xxsrc directory. I used to just re-submit these by hand, but quickly figured out it's a real waste of time. So I wrote a script:

cd $LAWDIR/prod
for src in `ls -d *src`
   do
   for pgm in `ls $src/*.err`
      do
         qcompile PROD `echo $src | cut -c 1-2` `basename $pgm .err`
   done
done

It's not perfect, as it doesn't differentiate if the .err is really associated with the program itself, the screen/form (i.e. BL20.scr.err). Nor does it figure out that user exits need the -u switch. But it does take care of 95% of the re-compiles. The rest I can take care of by hand.

The Second Decade Of Offshore Outsourcing: Where We're Headed

- QUOTE OF THE ISSUE –

“Television is where you watch
people in your living room that
you would not want near your house.”
-- Groucho Marx

Execs now prefer to call it 'globalization.' Whatever the name, it's gaining steam and bringing new risks and requiring new strategies.
Information Week, November 5, 2007
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202801448

4 Reasons Why Tech Consultants Get Sacked

The biggest sins: Promising what can't be delivered and not closing the loop in client communications. To do either is to invite calamity.
Baseline Magazine, October 17, 2007
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,2201044,00.asp

Workday Gets to Work

It's still difficult to start a conversation about Workday without referencing PeopleSoft and Oracle and the sequence of events that brought the latter two companies crashing together.
eWeek, November 26, 2007
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2220310,00.asp

What Makes A CIO Effective?

There's consensus among CXOs, IT staff, line-of-business managers, and CIO themselves, and it boils down to three words: alignment, process, innovation.
Information Week, December 10, 2007
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204701895

Printing in 3D

Printing a cocktail snack from your desktop? WSJ.com's Andy Jordan explores how that is possible with a cheaper form of 3D printing.
Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2007
http://online.wsj.com/public/page/8_0006.html?bcpid=86195573&bclid=86272812&bctid=1328213802