1. Infor Factory Track Framework Overview
Michael Huston

2. About the presenter 1999 – 2003 Symix/Frontstep – Columbus, OH
SyteCentre ERP Consultant
Mongoose, SQL, Crystal Reports
2003 – 2007 Godlan – Warren, MI
AutoCentre Developer
SyteLine Technical Services
2007 – 2011 Pacejet Logistics – Columbus, OH
Pacejet Implementation Manager & Consultant
2011 – present Infor
Software Engineer in CloudSuite Business/Industrial with emphasis on technology

3. Objectives Explore Infor Factory Track’s Mongoose Framework
Purpose & Benefits
Mongoose architecture & implementation model
Extension options
Introduce Factory Track use cases to be explored

4. From Infor’s website…..

5. From Infor’s website…..

6. From Infor’s website…Features at a glance
Modern user experience: A holistic approach to user experience that results in happier users and greater efficiency for your organization
Packaged integrations: Flexible connections to Infor solutions via Infor ION
Device readiness: Automatically publishes for both browser and mobile interfaces
Industry content packs: Faster deployment with ERP and micro-vertical accelerator kits

7. From Infor’s website…Features at a glance
Deployment flexibility: Cloud-based and hybrid deployments are available

8. Factory Track How do we achieve those?
Outstanding functionality plus its framework…

9. Exploring Infor Mongoose Framework
Defined
Relational database rapid application development platform
Purpose
Create feature rich applications while minimizing time and program code required

10. Infor Mongoose Framework Features
• Technology
SQL Server 2012; Visual Studio 2010 – VB.NET, C#
A single developer experience
Develop and test in the same integrated environment. Core forms and wizards let you define Intelligent Data Objects (IDOs) that represent your business logic and application events (AES) without programming. A simple click turns Infor Mongoose into a powerful WYSIWYG form development tool.
• Software development life cycle
Version control, development, test, preproduction, production environments and synchronization tools help you manage and organize the entire software development life cycle and deployments.
• Form templates
Mongoose provides for a consistent user experience across the application.

11. Infor Mongoose Framework Features
• Prebuilt common objects
Mongoose has, built into it, UI components, validations, standard events, messages, menus, variable support, scripting APIs, user-defined fields, and more.
Internationalization
Mongoose provides easy translation of string literals based on the end user’s default language, and the ability for end users to switch languages “on the fly” without restarting the application.
• Security
Security is provided at user, role, and site-based levels for all forms and IDOs.
• Licensing
System and end users can be assigned licensing on a variety of modules.
Documents and notes management
A virtually unlimited number of notes and documents can be attached to any data.

12. Infor Mongoose Framework Features
• Data and process replication
Mongoose supports customer policy for both transactional and asynchronous XML options for sites in both your local intranet and across the Internet.
Easy and powerful integration with other software
Exchange information with other software using Infor ION, Web services, XML, or another application’s Web UI embedded in a form.
• Background task execution
You can schedule various tasks, such as report outputs and notifications, running stored procedures, and other tasks to run automatically in the background.
• Reporting interfaces
Mongoose includes a number of prebuilt report options, as well as a set of templates for creating your own reports.

13. Infor Mongoose Framework Features
Customer extensibility
The same powerful integrated development environment is available to end users of Mongoose-built applications to extend and adapt them. More importantly, all the changes are preserved during upgrades easily, using synchronization tools.
Source control support
Mongoose integrates with Microsoft Visual Source Safe, Microsoft Team Foundation Server and Apache Subversion for the purpose of maintaining metadata change histories and source version control.
More information is available from Mongoose Portal
Source: Infor Mongoose 9.0 Guide to Technology.pdf

14. Infor Mongoose Framework History
1996: developed for a new ERP app
: sold as a software development tool under the name Mongoose, with dozens of apps built and sold on it
2001: version 4, major changes for the SyteLine 7 project
2008: version 6, complete rewrite for SyteLine 8, with virtual IDOs, app event system, replace C++/COM w/ C#
2010: version 7, web rendering
2012: version 8, multiple device types, improved ION integration
2013: version 9, multi-site single database, WPF
Adopted by: Infor Factory Track; CloudSuite Business/Industrial; Visual Quality; Service Management and offered as PAAS

15. Framework Architecture
Forms Database
Forms (screens, pages)
Menus
User Interface
Objects Database
IDO – intelligent data object
IDO Property
IDO Method
Mid-Tier Business Logic
Application Database
Schema – tables, views
User Data – configuration info
Application Data

16. Tiered Architecture

17. Metadata driven development
Application behavior or appearance stored in rows and columns in databases
User Interface
Forms database – screen/page appearance
Mid Tier
Objects database – IDO definition
Business Processes – application event system (AES)
Objects database – Events, Handlers, Actions
Intelligent Data Objects (IDOs)
Serve as the primary data source of user interface
Coupled with Properties and Methods to expose and process relational data
Within CloudSuite, IDOs are bundled SQL statements structured to retrieve, update, and delete data

18. Benefits of Metadata Model
“Source code” is contained in tables – minimal compiling
Many changes can be done in place without forcing users to exit system
Changes are almost immediate
Upgrades become a matter of managing data rather than compiled files
Available Mongoose tools to manage layers
FormSync
FormControl
AppMetaSync/Transport

19. Extending Factory Track using Mongoose…..
Consider it an art and not an exact science
Multiple methods to achieve similar results
Many developers stick with what has worked in the past
SQL developers tend to modify backend
.NET developers tend to modify mid-tier or UI

20. Extending Factory Track…..
What’s best?
Consider the following questions:
Does the modification adhere to licensing?
Is it upgradeable?
Is it documented?
Can metadata tools easily port it from one environment to another?
Can it live in one tier and not span backend, middleware, or UI layers?

21. What can be extended/personalized?
Schema
UDFs - User-Defined Fields (Mongoose)
UETs - User Extended Tables (Mongoose)
New tables & columns (SQL Management Studio/Mongoose)
Mongoose Forms
Form components (labels, font, color, position)
Event Handlers
Form script
Intelligent Data Objects (IDOs)
Properties – bound, derived
Methods – stored procedure/hand-coded

22. What can be extended/personalized?
Business Logic
Application Event System (AES)
Custom Event Handlers with unique Event Actions coupled to standard Framework events or custom Events (SessionOnLogin, IdoOnInvoke, IdoOnItemUpdate, …)
Event Actions include
Load Ido Collection, Update Collection, Call Ido Method, Notify, Prompt, Set Values, Branch, Finish, Fail, …
Custom Assemblies
Hand-coded .NET methods

23. Personalization In Action….
Use Cases to be explored during Factory Track/Mongoose discussion
Forms Personalization
Explore Mongoose form editing ScopeTypes to modify standard form definition to adjust fonts, color, position
Display Alternative Data
Personalize standard form to display alternate item description
Custom Transaction
Implement new Inventory Transfer transaction ‘Transfer to Quarantine’

24. References Mongoose Guide To Application Event System
(requires Infor VPN)
Guide To Application Event System
SyteLine 9.0 (select version 9.0)
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