Interfaces

Interfaces enable you to import data from, and export data, to other systems, including web viewer, with the required adjustments such as data aggregation and time bucketizing. For example:

• An ASCII Communication Toolkit interface that reads customer orders from an ASCII file and converts the customer orders to orders in Infor Production Scheduling.
• An ODBC Communication Toolkit interface that reads new product data from an ERP application.

You can run interfaces manually, however, most users set groups of interfaces to run at predefined time or time interval.

The interface module is optional and enabled with the license. You can use this menu command, if you have the ASCII Communication Toolkit or the ODBC Communication Toolkit. There are standard interfaces for orders, decoupled process batches and inventory points, among others, however, you can also use the standard interface to create customized interfaces.

These tabs are displayed on the Interface Entry window:

• General: Allows you to specify the generic information about the interfaces.
• Sharing: Allows you to define the users who can access the interface.
• Setup: This tab is enabled, only if you select the Infor ERP Adage-Delivery or Production entities with a type of ASCII or if you select the Planning Board entity for publishing data.
• Entity tab for ASCII: Allows you to select the attributes that you required to link to columns in a text file or in a database and define the attribute formats. Once linked, a default format and column are set. You can define the number of rows and how the data appears in the file you are using. These can be changed. Instead of getting a string that holds the exact format settings, an example is provided. For ASCII, the value, if not an interfaced mechanism, is an expression. This expression can be a value or an expression that results in a valid value of the correct type for the attribute. These expressions are checked upon execution. If the resulting value is not appropriate, the value is set to the proper null-value for the type of the attribute.
• Entity tab for ODBC: Allows you to select the attributes that you want to link to columns in a text file or in a database.
• Format tab for ASCII: Describes the source or destination of the information for/from the interface.
• Format tab for ODBC: Allows you to specify the data required to connect to a database and create an interface if using ODBC.
• Options: Includes options to create, update and compare interfaces and allows you to specify import options.
• Parameters: This tab is displayed, if the Bucketizer, Inventory level, or Resource utilization export entity has been selected. You can specify settings that are only applicable to the Bucketizer, Inventory level, or Resource utilization export entity.