Integration with 3rd party apps

Legacy Contributor

We were initially looking into ION for integration Optiva PLM and IDM with 3rd party apps, specifically JDE E1.  However, we were recently informed by Infor that we should be looking at the Optiva Native XML instead of the ION BODs.  Unfortunately, they couldn't provide us much information on the Native XML.  Has anybody gone down this route before?  What was the approach you settled on?  Does anybody have any information on the Native XML?

Thanks,
Wes

s-neubauer

Hi Wes,

 

We went with the native XML approach as recommended by our Optiva consultant.  We had some consultants at one time working on a BOD connection with M3, but it's been 4 years and still not working.  Possibly never will.  We have been told it does work with some version, just not exactly sure which version the sales person was referring to.  From what I've seen, there's a potential for a lot of custom code that needs to be written and possibly why they recommend the native XML approach.

 

Anyway, the XML gets imported through the Optiva XML Listener that is installed on our Optiva server.  It runs as a service and scans specific folders on the file system for input (might be possible to use database tables as well).  You should be able to find a guide on xtreme named "Infor Optiva XML Listener Guide" that may contains more details about how it works and how to configure.

 

For the structure of the XML, I don't know that there is a guide.  However, what we did with the help of our Optiva consultant was export items and formulas that already existed in our system to an XML format.  You can do this using the Administer->XML Export option in Optiva.  You may need to setup an XMLEXPORT file location (Configure->File Location) first if it doesn't already exist.

 

Once exported, we looked at the XML created by Optiva and then recreated a barebones version of the same format in our environment.  I've done this using XML serialization from C# and SQL Server queries (FOR XML).  Once the XML is created, we just place the XML files in the input directory that the Optiva XML Listener is scanning and the changes get imported.  There are options you can configure for import using Administer->XML Import that controls how the data is imported (i.e. either overwrite existing or merge changes).  The manual XML Import option is also a good way to test your XML is valid.  In our environment, the import code was setup as AUTOIMPORT (one may already exist in your environment as well under Administer->XML Import).

 

Just know that if you go the XML Listener route, I'm not sure if there's a way to get good feedback on failures or even the import has finished (unless you watch the folders with your own process).  Log files are created during import and the imported XML files get moved to other directories when finished (the Success folder means everything worked correctly, the Error folder means something didn't work but unfortunately could mean 1 of 1000 failed to import).  The log file will give you the line number of the item that failed and identifying code usually.

 

This approach has been running nightly for us for 4 years without too many problems.

 

Hope this helps in some way.