Arrrggghhhh!!! (Business to Business Linking)

I have now installed two copies of Business on each of one PC. I have gone to external linking feature on the sibling PC and found the share on the parent server to be given a warning that one cannot connect to a Catalog database.

This is all very frustrating.

What am I missing or doing wrong I wonder?

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...&threadid=3080

[cdicken]

Do you get the message that "You are not allowed to link to a Catalog database. Please select another database"?

This is because you are trying to link to an ActinicCatalog.mdb database. This is not possible. What I said is that you can use the external linking feature to enable to installations of Actinic Business to link to the same separate Access database - i.e. you need to create new database containing all your products.

To do this quickly, simply copy the 'Products' table from your ActinicCatalog.mdb into a new Access database.

[m@rk.to]

Hi Chris,

Yes, this is the error.

This is where I get totally lost. I cannot see any documentation or user guide to talk me though what I am trying to achieve. If I were to create such a database by copying, surely that would be a static database at time of the copy and would not achieve what I wish to do.

In essence, plan #1.
Primary server machine running Business to do web design and upload changes. Secondary machine to process orders and download from site. Quite simple to achieve I see as described in Advanceted User Guide. However, problem is I wish to maintain the stock system and believe the way to achieve this is to link the two Business machines to one database, which I wish to be on the primary server. I assume that when orders are downloaded by PC2, it will amend the stock levels on the database on Server1 ready for the next upload.

If I were to make such a second database as a copy of the products table, will this be dynamic to achieve the aforementioned, or a static copy? I am very confused. I assume that ig a copy, then this would be static and would not achieve my goal.

Is there such documentation anywhere or a HOWTO?

If this is not possible, then we have plan #2. I have someone coming in today to talk about Sage as a potential option. This will enable me to span the order processing over multiple machines, but I am told I need to buy the networked edition of Sage Line 50 Financial Controller for one company and 2 Users (PCs I assume). The price starts with an RRP of £1965 for this product plus some £500+ for the compulsory annual support for a networked edition. Add the Actinc Sage link product with an RRP of £350 and probably some implementation consultancy and in total I can be looking at circa £4000.00 before I even consider the cost of change issues and staff training.

The problem is that albeit I perhaps see Sage as the way forward in the future, to invest £4000 right now seems a little unessesary should 'Plan 1' work. Indeed, will using Sage still allow me the stock management functions which I must maintain? I am sure I will find out in a few hours.

I am sorry to be a dumb pain on this one, but as always I am sure I'm missing something quite simple and once I see it, all will become clear.

Cheers,
Mark

[cdicken]

Option 1 will work as you need it to.

When you download an order on Machine 2, it will decrease the stock levels within the 'Catalogue' side of the application. These changes can get passed into an external database via external linking because you have set up the link on Machine 2 with the option to 'Enable Updates to External Data'.

Then on Machine 1 you set up a 'one-way' link - i.e. you do not enable updates to external data - it just pulls in the latest stock levels from the external database. Whenever you preview or upload, Actinic will refresh the connection to the external database and pull in the latest stock data - and then publish it to the Internet.

[m@rk.to]

Hi Chris,

Finally found the time to have a look at this. I seem to have done it all OK and we go live today. One question in respect to your last para....

Let's say I have a new line as a special product and have 20 of them. I create the new product with a stock level as #20 and upload to the server. On such a "one way link", how does machine #1 tell the Prodcut.mdb file that there is a new line with a stock level of 20 and to count down from there, if there is a "one way link"?

Cheers,
Mark

[cdicken]

When you add a new product into Product.mdb, it will pop into the 'Unallocated External Products' section on both the uploading machine and the downloading machine.

You need to drag them into the 'Online Catalogue' section of the store in order for the stock monitoring to kick in at both ends.

[m@rk.to]

I have a historic product online with a stock qrty of 8. I have placed a quasai order for one and downloaded it on PC #2. I have checked the stock quantiry on PC #1 and it is still 8.

[cdicken]

Have you enabled stock monitoring on that product on machine 2? Also ensure you have ticked 'Enable updates to external data' on that machine.

Also, it looks as if you cannot un-tick 'Catalog Maintenance' on machine 2 as this will stop product stock levels from being automatically changed as products are downloaded.

If you want to stop machine 2 accidentaly uploading, then remove the password from the FTP details of machine 2.

[m@rk.to]

Chris,

We have now tried Business on the two machines and have not really enjoyed the success we wanted. It is now quite apparent to me that Business is a single user, single machine application. I think the way forward is going to have to be Sage in the new year as we do not have the time right now to implement a new Sage system.

Question:

I now have two machines, the primary as web management and the secondary as order management. Both have snapshots. However, I now the order management PC holds the *web design* from 3 weeks ago and the web management pc holds the *orders* from three weeks ago. Thus, how does one take the orders from the order management snapshot and import them into the Business application on the web management PC without overwriting the web?

Can this be done easily? I can see one can achive this the order way round and then snapshot all onto the prmiary machone again, but is there a 'one stop' approahc?

Regards,
Mark

[Jan]

You can use my product replication tool to link one actinic database to another.

Limitiation at the moment is that you have to have large text fields less than 255 characters. We can get around this though.

See http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/Solutions.html for more details and http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/ReviewsProdRef1.html for a review.

Regards,