BizTalk Load - Strange Behaviour with File Size

After upgrading to a new instance of BizTalk Server (2006 to 2010), strange behaviour was seen with a customised Voucher load. All of the records were imported into 3e, but certain internal 3e Object Code operations were not being performed to amend the imported data. This only happened when the imported flat file was greater than a particular size (32,218 Bytes in this case).

Following advice from this article, I changed the value of the Large Message Size in the BizTalk Group Settings from 100KB to 315KB.

This solves the problem. It seems message fragmentation caused by an insufficient message size threw errors which eventually led to the Process in 3e not executing methods further downstream.

See this msdn blog post for further information.

2.6 - Blank Fields in Report Headers

After upgrading to 3e 2.6 (from 2.5 CP12 in this case), field values in the headers of customised reports are no longer displayed. The report below is displayed with filed values in 2.5 but after upgrading, Client Name, Matter Name, Matter Number and an unlabelled Key Word field have missing values.

The issue is resolved by moving the fields into the group sections, rather than the header. In most cases this can be done without drastically altering the displayed layout:

In this case the Key Word field, Client Name, Matter Name and Matter Number have been moved into the Matter grouping section and Currency Code moved to the Currency grouping section.

This new behaviour is welcome as having grouped values in the header is bad practice. The values displayed in 2.5 headers could be any of the distinct values that are returned from the grouping. It was not usually noticed in 2.5 as the reports are normally viewed for specific Matters, Clients etc. where grouped values are the same for each returned record.

Change the Instance Web Page Title

To change 3e's web page title, change the value of the PageTitle key in the WebUI config file <func directory>\Inetpub\WebUI\Web.config.

Text and variables can be used, including:

• [User] (displays current user name)
• [Version] (3e instance version)
• [WebServer] (name of the that served up the current page)
• [Title] (name of the 3e object being displayed; Dashboard, Report, Process, etc.)
• [DBServer] (name of the SQL server hosting the current database)
• [DBCatalog] (name of the current database)

Examples:
<add key="PageTitle" value="3E TRIAL [Version]" />

<add key="PageTitle" value="[WebServer] [User] [Title] [DBServer] [DBCatalog] [Version]" />

Elite User Conference 2012

Elite User Conference 2012

ARIA Resort & Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89158

June 26-28, 2012

Conference Schedule

BizTalk Server and Transaction Service Config

The configuration settings file used to set up BizTalk server to 3e instance communication can be found here by default: <Program Files of BizTalk Server>\Microsoft BizTalk Server\EAI\EAI.Biztalk.Config (i.e. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft BizTalk Server\EAI\EAI.Biztalk.Config).

A particularly useful value is contained in the <Cobra> node. This holds the transaction service URL that BizTalk uses to integrate with the 3e instance. Connection credentials are also stored here.

...
<Cobra>
 <WebServiceUri location="http://TE_3E_SERVER/TE_3E_INSTANCE/WebUI/TransactionService.asmx" />
 <DefaultUser userName="BizTalkUser" password="*encrypted password*" domain="NetworkDomain" />
</Cobra>
...

Dashboard Edits Not Saving

When editing a dashboard, for changes to save correctly the WebUI site must have a config WorkingMode value set to "Production" (rather than "AppDevelopment").

Otherwise after saving a dashboard the page refreshes to its previous state and any edits are lost.

To change the setting, open the config file: [INSTANCE_DIRECTORY]\Inetpub\WebUI\Web.config and change
<add key="WorkingMode" value="AppDevelopment" />
to
<add key="WorkingMode" value="Production" />.

Current Instance URL

To return the URL of the currently running instance, from a code page use:

Me.ConfigMgr.GetApplicationURLBase()

Returning, for example: http://server01/instance01/webui

Project Rename Produces Duplicate

In the IDE, right clicking on the Project node in the Project pane gives an option to "Rename Project ID".

Renaming a Project in the 3e IDE

On the face of it, renaming the Project seems to work as expected. However, if the IDE is refreshed (or closed and reopened), both a Project with the old name and a Project with the new name now exist. This can be seen by pressing the Open... button at the top of the Project pane.

To workaround this, best practice when renaming Projects would be to:

1. Rename the Project.
2. Save the Project.
3. Refresh the IDE (Refresh button next to Logout).
4. Open the Project with the old name.
5. Delete the Project with the old name.
6. Open the Project with the new name.

This avoids a build up of unnecessary, renamed Projects.

Exception Raising

The standard method of raising exceptions in 3e is to display them in the top Exception panel - the panel shared with other item lists such as the Worklist.

Exception raised in Proforma Generation Process

To raise an exception in this way, the Exception property of the Process's underlying Object must be set to an instance of the NxApplicationException class. For example, from within the Object:
Me.Exception = New NxApplicationException(New Guid("430e4f35-2834-46ea-b031-b718054c7f62"))

Or from a Process:
Me.ProfMaster.ProformaCollection(0).Exception = New NxApplicationException(New Guid("430e4f35-2834-46ea-b031-b718054c7f62"))

The GUID value is set to the Id of a Message that describes the error.
To remove the Exception, set the Exception property to null:
Me.Exception = Nothing

BillSum Table Rebuild

The BillSum table is a snapshot of all billing information per Timekeeper and Matter. It is effectively a non-live amalgamation of the Timecard, Costcard and Chargecard tables. It is updated periodically but can become out of date and inaccurate due to various errors in the system.

To rebuild the BillSum table take the following steps, courtesy of Weronika Kozlowska, Application Support Consultant at Elite Thomson Reuters UK:

1. Go to Notification task Manager > select the BillsumMsgQueue task > tick the 'Disable' option and release

2. Go to the Build Billsum Tables process > tick all 4 month / period options > Background > Release

3. After a while, go to Notification Task and Log viewer and click the 'View Background Tasks' button you will see your process initally with a 'Running' status > periodically check whether the status changes to 'Complete' (It might take a few hours)

4. Once the task is complete, go back to Notification task Manager > select the BillsumMsgQueue task un-tick the 'Disable' option and release.

If you have a period of the day/week when no billing information (time, costs, charges) is ever captured, late at night or early morning for example, the Build Billsum Tables can be scheduled to run automatically via the Notification Task Manager process. The BillsumMsgQueue task need not be disabled first if you are confident no billing information will be captured during the run time. Note that the Build Billsum Tables task can take several hours to run.