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Interface Tables apcinvoice & apcdistrib

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Wanda Schaaf
Basic Member
Posts: 12
Basic Member
9/10/2008 2:12 PM

    I am new to the Lawson environment and need to write an interface from an outside system into the Lawson invoice tables. (i.e. apcinvoice and apcdistrib). Before I get to deep into the procedure I am writing, I want to know this question:  Does Lawson allow us (IT Developers) to directly insert into the interface tables using a procedure (sql server) instead of using the importdb tool?  I have asked lawson support this question, but am still waiting for an answer. 

    I am automating our invoice interface to run at night without any manual interventions.  (using process flow).

    Any information on this topic would be helpful.

    Wanda

    John Henley
    Posts: 3353
    9/10/2008 8:14 PM
      You can write directly to the database, provided you adhere to all of the Lawson rules, like no nulls, proper "empty" dates, etc.
      Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
      John
      Sam Simpson
      Veteran Member
      Posts: 239
      Veteran Member
      9/11/2008 1:38 PM
        A good practice really is to validate your input before writing to the database staging files like APCINVOICE, APCDISTRIB, APCATTACH etc then you call AP520 to upload the records into Lawson tables. Usually you use importdb if your input to AP520 is a csv file or impexp if it is a sequential fixed format file. Here's an example on how we do AP interface files in Lawson table in 803:

        1. We have a shared directory where files from various sources are dropped. This can be a flat
        sequential or csv files.
        2. Use ScanFileClient to watch for those files if present then calls a BCI procedure that...
        3. Flat file is vaidated by Mercator data mapping. This will produce a sequential fixed length files
        such as APCINVOICE, APCDISTRIB and APCATTACH.
        4. The procedure will call a script that send emails to users that the files are ready and they
        can now ready to run AP520.

        For LSF9 BCI procedures are replaced by ProcessFlow with Integrator modules.