Upload Wizard Intended Use and Limitations

The Upload Wizard was designed to allow expert Infor Lawson users to move relatively small quantities of data into the Infor Lawson system. It does not replace traditional batch uploading tools or online processing using the Infor Lawson Applications. Some Infor Lawson forms use business logic that is incompatible with the Upload Wizard, and uploads to these forms always fail. Some uploads, such as those involving hidden fields, have complex requirements and fail if those requirements are not met. If you use the Upload Wizard without a thorough understanding of the features, functionality, and limitations of the tool, you risk damage to your business data.

Before you use the Upload Wizard, read and understand the following prerequisites and limitations.

  • The Upload Wizard is intended for expert Infor Lawson users who have a thorough understanding of Infor Lawson form fields and buttons and how Infor Lawson data is structured. To use the Upload Wizard, you should be able to read and understand .scr files.

  • The Upload Wizard is not intended to move large amounts of data. Doing so could seriously degrade system performance.

    Typically, the wizard should be used for a small number of records (typically, not more than several hundred). Infor Lawson applications provide numerous batch programs for loading large amounts of data. Examples of batch programs that can be used for uploading are listed in the section below. Examples of batch uploading programs

  • You can only run one Excel application at a time. The Upload Wizard only uploads data from the active worksheet. Starting with the April 2024 release, you are now able to upload data from multiple worksheets of a single Excel workbook into one Infor Lawson form.

  • The Upload Wizard does not work with every Infor Lawson form. For example, if you attempt upload data to any Infor Lawson form that requires the user to perform an Inquire before doing an Add function code, you receive an upload failure message.

  • The Upload Wizard cannot perform some Infor Lawson transactions. For example, you cannot use the Upload feature to do a Release function code or any other function code operation that requires an Inquire first.

  • When you use the Upload Wizard to change data in Infor Lawson, take proper steps to validate the changes you made. The query logic does some basic checking to ensure that you have key and required fields and that data is in the appropriate format for the field you mapped to. However, it is the responsibility of the Upload Wizard user to ensure that the correct data is uploaded and that no unintended changes are introduced into Infor Lawson records. Improper use of the Upload Wizard can cause damage to your data.

  • The data you can access with the Upload Wizard is defined by your security setup. If you don't have access to field data through an Infor Lawson form, you are not able to add or change that data with the Upload Wizard.

  • When you use the Upload Wizard to add or change data in the Infor Lawson database, each record goes through an online transaction to check data integrity. Therefore, adding large numbers of records using the Upload Wizard is slower than using batch add tools that copy records directly to the database.

Note: If you anticipate that a field on a form will be updated as a result of an update to the form you are uploading to, verify that the field being changed is actually updated. This is necessary because Upload Wizard only sends data to the form it is mapping.

In some situations involving updated data on other forms you may need to use hidden fields. See "Working with Hidden Fields".

Examples of batch uploading programs

To prevent system degradation, use these and other similar programs, to upload large numbers of records (more than 500).

This table shows examples from the Financials application suite (Accounts Payable, General Ledger, Purchase Order and so on):

Your application documentation contains detailed information about batch programs that can be used.

Online programs Batch programs
AP10 AP510
AP20 AP520, MA540
CB50 CB500
CB80 CB500
GL65 GL165
GL70 GL170
PO13 PO813
PO25 PO536
PR39 PR539
PR30 PR530
PR14 PR514
HR11 HR511