Acinic utility custom design

[sandymra]

Hello!
I don't know if this is a right forum to ask this question. I have developed independant utility that manages acintic orders. I needed different layout than catalog and i spent some time figuring out database structure and trying to make application that would work.
As utility is very easy to use, i had several requests from other people to sell them utlity, but i am worried for legal issues. I would maybe upload it on internet and try to sell it, but i wouldn't like to have any problems with actinic. Can anybody suggest me if that is legal?
Application is in Access and it just uses tables from actiniccatalog.mdb.
Thank you for your replies.

[bentleybloke]

I don't see why it should be a problem (depending on what it actually does). There are a number of companies that specialise in add-ons for actinic which interact with the database - mole-end.biz, codepath.co.uk, teclan.co.uk.

I'd be interested to know what your utility actually does.

[sandymra]

Hello bentleybloke.Thank you for your reply.
I also think there shouldn't be problem and i know that many companies also develop utilities for actinic, but maybe they have some kind of approval from actinic to distribute application. I just guess, i can't be sure.

With my utility you can view all orders as well as order details. There is an option similar like in catalog to complete order (print invoice,mark invoice as printed, send email and move order to section completed). It does all apart from downloading, but if user is using v10, and keeps actinic catalog opened on one computer with option to automatically check for new orders, then other computers in network will see new orders.

What is advantage of this utility is that you can use it on multiple computers, and with very easy configuration. It just needs actiniccatalog.mdb on shared folder, and ability of other computers to access it.

I am in phase of doing final changes and testings and i think by the end of the week, i could have first version. If you are interested i could PM to you some version to check.

[Duncan Rounding]

Sounds interesting. A few questions...
How does it handle multi-user record locking in Access?
Does it allow full order management, can you update items in an order?
Can you enter new orders?
What benefits does it have over Business Plus Multiuser?

[Jan]

You don't need to have Actinic's approval to distrubute plugins for Actinic but I would recommend that you contact them so that you can discuss becoming an approved partner. They can be very helpful.

If you do sell your application you need to have watertight licensing terms and conditions and you need to get people to agree to these when they buy the product (don't trust people to be nice because if their store dies and they are using your app they may well choose to blame you).

I would also recommend getting insurance (professional indemnity insurance at least) if you don't already have it.

Just out of interest, why did you write your own tool rather than using the ones that already exist? There are at least three that do very similar things to yours.

[sandymra]

Thank you for your replies.They are very useful and i will definitely follow your recommendations.

I will reply to each of you:
drounding

How does it handle multi-user record locking in Access?

I have client that uses utility o 5 computers plus running catalog on one machine and it works without problems. The technique i use is to link tables to actiniccatalog.mdb and then updating data by sing recordsets that lock just record that is being updated. Then it does not lock all table, just the record being edited.

Does it allow full order management, can you update items in an order?

For now, not all order items can be updated, but there is option to add adjustment. In the future, depending of requirements i could add more options.

Can you enter new orders?

Not for now, but maybe in future.

Jan
Just out of interest, why did you write your own tool rather than using the ones that already exist? There are at least three that do very similar things to yours.

Sincerely, i am Access and Visual Basic software developer. I had a client who asked me to make him personalized utility to manage actinic.He told me that existing ones are difficult to configure (one stop order processing) and that he needed something more simple. Instead of having many options in other applications that he doesn't need, he wanted the ones he needs. He also suggested me that i could try to sell it cause he thinks other people might find it helpful as he did.So i have decided to give it a try.

[bentleybloke]

Please PM me.

[AndyBorrett]

We would be interested in testing your product too if you would like to send some details

[sandymra]

If there are people who are interested to test my product they can contact me at:
srmliveact@hotmail.com

I will be more than happy to receive your request.