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Forum to discuss writing script in Architect plugins for SalesLogix & general SalesLogix customization topics (for Windows client only). View the code of conduct for posting guidelines.
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automating a Literature Request
Posted: 16 Sep 09 10:29 AM
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i am going start a new customization that will automate Literature Requests ... in our case Warranty Contracts for Car Dealers. When a dealer reaches x number of contracts of a particular type of warranty contract sold, I want the system to generate a new literature request for that dealer to send them 10 more of those contracts.
Right now you manually enter a literature request under the menu tab schedule and it pops up the literature request from. To get started on my project ...where is that form to be found in the architect so i can look at the script and get a better idea on how to plan my customization? |
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Re: automating a Literature Request
Posted: 17 Sep 09 4:54 AM
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Lit request is one of the really old features that is mostly hard coded, so your best bet is to reverse engineer it by just watching what gets inserted into the tables via SLXProfiler, and looking at the tables afterwards. After you have a few requests in the system, go back and complete the requests each possible way and note how the tables are modified. (You'll need that info later).
You are going to need to create Literature request records, along with the literature request items. Your cover letter needs to be set up in advance (make sure it's available to everyone). If you are hard coding most of this, it should not be too bad.
I did a drip marketing system for a customer built around lit request using Knowledge Sync a few years ago. Here are the problems to anticipate:
1. cover letter not available to the user running literature fullfillment - this often happens when the letter is revised after you have lit requests in the system. This is because the request uses the "released" version of the template - and it reasigns that ID when you do a new release. You are going to want to somehow track what the base plugin of your letter is in case you need to have a utility to reconnect the dots. (That could be a separate KSync/TaskCentre job that looks for invalid plugin ids).
2. Oops factor. Printer jams. Cover letter gets lost. User selects wrong option in lit fullfillment (easy to do). There is no way to reset the lit request through the interface. You'll have to build something to flip the status back. I wound up just doing a datagrid with group headers and then creating a right mouse button option to reset status. It was quick and dirty. You probably want to do something nicer with filters, etc... to make it easier to handle the Oops factor.
Just a last word of advice - make sure you test each component as the user who is going to be using the system. That is where the release issue will make itself known.
ws |
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Re: automating a Literature Request
Posted: 17 Sep 09 6:51 AM
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I agree with Walter, the Literature Request can be hard to customize.
I have indeed used the functionality myself in a couple of projects over the years, and had to reverse engineer it, and then sometimes ended up having to build my own UI around it to make it work as per my requirements.
Based on what you are stating your requirements are, it seems as if you want to automate the Creation of the Literature requests, do you also want to automate the Fullfilment?
If all you are going to be doing is automating the Creation of the Requests, then it seems to be a simpler task.
What you need to have is some way to monitor the count of Contracts. Was your idea to have someone run this process manually each day, or were you going to automate it (e.g. KnowledgeSync, SQL Job)?
Regardless, creating the Literature Request is the easier part as you just have to understand what data to populate on the Tables. |
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Re: automating a Literature Request
Posted: 17 Sep 09 9:13 AM
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The cover letter is already in place. We have been fulfilling these requests manually. The Mailing department does the fulfillment to create the mailing.
A dealer will call in requests for more contracts of a certain type, Dealer Relations department will manually create the request and the mailing department will check the group and do the mailing for that week.
The only process to be automated is to add to the Literature Request. For the mailing department nothing will change.
My plan is to create a table that will track number of contracts of each type sold by dealer. At the point of entry of a new contract in the system that table will be updated.
When a particular contract reaches a predetermined count it will generate an insert into the LitRequest table and whatever other table that needs to be populated.
Anyhow thats the plan
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Re: automating a Literature Request
Posted: 17 Sep 09 9:58 AM
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That is what I had understood of your initial post.
To generate your literature requests, you need to track (using SLX Profiler and/or viewing existing data) how the records are created on the DB, but basically there is 2 tables to populate: LitRequest and LitRequestItems.
Now, once you are able to programatically create the Requests, then you will need to evaluate how to Automate it.
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