Lawson Environment Overview
As a major component of Lawson technology, a Lawson Environment provides functionality that supports Lawson applications. It interfaces the Lawson applications and relational databases, and provides administrative, database development, and program development utilities.
Major components of a Lawson Environment include the following:
Product Line
A product line is the highest level grouping of applications in a Lawson Environment. The product line contains the source code and executable programs for the applications, the files for rendering the online forms for the Lawson Interface Desktop and Lawson Portal, the help files for the online forms, and files indicating where the application data is stored.
Data Areas and Data IDs
Each product line includes at least one data area. It can have multiple data areas and each data area can be divided into data IDs. Data areas and data IDs represent the locations of your application data. The actual data is stored in the database, but the data areas and data IDs define where the data is for the product line.
System Code (Application)
A system code is a two-letter code that represents a Lawson application and helps to organize the programs that perform similar business processes. For example, GL represents the General Ledger application, and Chart of Accounts Listing (GL200) is a program within the General Ledger application.
Application Programs
You use application programs to perform specific tasks, such as updating records, maintaining data, and running reports. You access the programs through online forms (for online programs) and batch parameter forms (for batch update and report programs). Each form has an alphanumeric form ID, such as GL00.1 or HR211. For more information on form IDs, see Lawson Administration: Server Setup and Maintenance.
Environment Programs and Utilities
A Lawson Environment includes many programs or utilities needed to administer your system. For example, there are server programs that provide major functionality (such as the Lawson Application Server and the Lawson Database Server), tools for developing and compiling programs, and utility programs for copying programs and data, setting up security, working with databases, and editing configuration files. On UNIX and Windows, you run some of these from a command line that you can access through the Lawson Interface Desktop. Other utilities include character-based forms or screens that you can access through the Lawson Interface Desktop.
User Forms
You can define user forms in order to run user-developed programs or shell scripts within a Lawson Environment. The user forms have a unique identifier so that you can run them from the LID command line (on UNIX and Windows) or include them on a menu within the Lawson Environment.