Hi,

I've inherited some Baan code and I'm having trouble finding learning resources on it.

The code is using COM calls to instantiate an object and calling ParseExecFunction. This I understand fine (I'm a c++/c# developer normally)

The strings being passed to ParseExecFunction look like this:

dllName = ottstpapihand
functionCall = stpapi.put.field("sessionname","fieldname","data")
functionCall = stpapi.insert("sessionname",1,"errmessage1")

Now I can tweak the existing code, modify the sessions, fields and data, but I'm looking for more information about what other functions are available with the "stpapi" thing. And what does the "ottstpapihand" dll string that is being used mean?

No one where I am seems to know much about Baan. The IT department refer to it as "Baan 5", but I can't seem to get out of them exactly what version that means. We currently get contractors in whenever we need to change anything, any getting any information out of them is hard.

I've got an app on my PC called "Infor BECS" which I can use to create the connection and get the automation class name I can call from my code.

I've tried reading the manual at http://www.baanboard.com/programmers_manual_baanerp, but it doesn't seem to have any listing of these "put.fields" methods that this code is using.

What I'm looking for really is a reference guide. I've tried searching but I keep drawing a blank. I don't want to waste anyone's time by asking you explaining stuff to me in detail or anything, I'm just after some resources I can read to help me learn things myself. If anyone can help even by just telling me what this API is called, or can suggest what edition of Baan this is so I can search for the right keywords I would be very grateful.

Can anyone help? Thanks.

[Edit: I've just found this - http://www.baanboard.com/baanboard/s...ead.php?t=7251 which might help me, but if anyone has any more information I'd be happy to hear it]

Please check this url

http://www.baanboard.com/baanboard/s...ead.php?t=7251

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Thanks & Regards,
Manish

The stpapi.* functions are part of the Application Function Server. The thread you mention contains some version of the AFS documentation. That might work for you.

However, you should really contact Infor Support for the latest version of the AFS documentation for your specific software version.

Hello,

AFS is not supported any more so there will be no new documents.

Peter

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Peter J Campbell

@Peter Campbell: From where did you get that information? According to my well-informed sources, AFS is not encouraged (if you can call DALs that is preferred), but it is still officially supported. So documentation can still be obtained from Infor.

Thanks for all the info guys. I really appreciate it. I've managed to understand what's going on now and do what I needed to do.

If AFS is no longer encouraged, can someone point me at some documentation for what I should be doing instead. I can't change all the existing stuff, but I can always consider changing for new work.

The information is from Infor porting set release notes.

AFS was part of Open World 2.2 & 2.3 after 2.5 it is not used for Open World any more and was depreciated.

It looks, from some of the cases, that they are still doing some support.

In infor LN calls to DLLs and DALs should be used instead of AFS.

This is a much better programing method as you can then get the error messages back from the dal hook errors etc which you do not get with AFS.

The latest document I found is "Developer's Guide for Application Function Server" U8627A US from 2006

Hope this helps

Peter

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Peter J Campbell

Thanks Peter,

You said "In infor LN calls to DLLs and DALs should be used instead of AFS." Can you suggest any links to some basic documentation on getting started with this, and perhaps some API reference documents.

I literally have nothing to go on at the moment. What are the DLL names for example? Are they COM DLLs that I call? What about the DAL? How do I call that from my code?

(We are currently using Baan 5, but the IT department are talking about moving to LN by the end of this year)

Hello,

DLLs are baan libraries in program scripts / libraries.

You need to look in the program source to see which ones are being used.

DALs are libraries attached to tables and are called when the table is updated.

You can find some information in the program guide or the tools help in baan.

Regards

Peter

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Peter J Campbell