Printing with Terminal Services

[mystifying]

We have a remote manufacturing location we are getting set up to access Macola via Terminal Services. Everything is working just fine, with the exception of printing in Macola. We can print outside of Macola just fine. I tried the utility for testing printing under tools, but with no luck. Any suggestions?

 

[mystifying]

Nevermind my post ...I realized it was due to sp3 from Microsoft. We are now accessing Macola directly, rather than a networked drive, until the patch comes out.

 

[chadt]

Question....are you running Citrix over Terminal Services? Also are you on NT4 or 2000. We started to run Macola through Citrix on Win2000 but had lots of "179 Load Erros"....wondering what you are running.

Thanks
Chad

 

[mystifying]

Hi Chad,

We are using Win2000 Server in Application mode (not Citrix). We had a few bumps along the way (i.e. the printing problem due to sp3 and a problem with Crystal Reports that has now been corrected also), but nothing too bad. Are the errors you receiving while doing particular functions? If you have a few details, I can let you know if it was one of the problems we had to sort through too or not. Good luck!

Stacy

 

[chadt]

There errors would just pop up in any module that was running....we have since taken macola off citrix. We where told that the underlying cobol code would time out when writing back to our MSSQL server. I think it is just a macola bug as we have tried many patches and reg. hacks. Have you seen Macola ES yet?

 

[mystifying]

Thats a bummer ...they haven't given you anything more to go on? Have you tried searching their customer portal on their website? It seems there was something there on 179 errors, but I don't remember for certain.

I haven't seen ES yet, but would like to check it out when I get the time. It sounds like it is going in a more interesting direction.

 

[chadt]

Macola other solution was to downgrade our server to NT4.....i know...what a great solution.

I can tell you lots about ES as we have been choosen as a Beta site. I can tell you they are far away from having a general release out. The code is extreamly buggy right now (build 301)....the only good thing I can say is they created an ODBC connection for reporting so you wont have to change everything on the accounting side.....I don't know if you have heard but the accounting side is really what is different from 7.6...there is no longer ARCUSFIL and APVENFIL tables....except through the ODBC connection though.

Another thing...be prepared from Hardware upgrades for ES.....the Install is something like 700MB and its more bloated then you can imagine.

 

[mystifying]

Yikes! And I thought Microsoft was bad for bloating. Our server isn't real outdated yet, but it is overused. I'm glad we are with 7.6 for the time being ...I don't think our system could handle that. Hopefully we (and ES) will be ready for it in about a year or so. Good luck with the errors, I agree, downgraded isn't exactly reasonable.

Stacy

 

[dgillz]

Chadt is correct in that Macola ES is a "fat client" installation. Having said that many of programs that are run by users every day such as MS Excel and MS Word are fat client installations themselves -- that is, they run from the local C:\ drive and not the network.

There is nothing inherently bad about this setup, in fact it has an advantage of being able to do a lot more at the workstation level, with many program functions - i.e. opening a Macola window - that have no network traffic associated with it. Remember that the window itself, and the program to open it, are now on the c:\ drive of your machine, and require little to no network resources to open. This is a "Fat Client".

In terms of the customers and vendors, Chadt is also correct, they are now all in one table, the CICMPY table, and you can use the SQL views APVENFIL and ARCUSFIL to view the raw data, write crystal reports, etc.

If any one has Macola ES info or questions, please let me know. I have a beta site in Pensacola that is going live on Monday the 20th. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated. Software Sales, Training and Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[chadt]

Are they a conversion or a fresh site that you are making go-live. I can't imagine any company would do a conversion yet as the conversion is porr at best and the chart of accounts wizard does not work properly....also what are they going to be using? Just accounting or full manufacturing?

We did a conversion of our data a few weeks ago (i belive build 298) and it was horrible.

Also the fat client is way bloated...even compared to Word or any MS office product for that matter....dont get me wrong the new VB front ends look great but they are missing lots of functionality and are still really buggy......also whats with the screen resolution (ie. 1024x768)??? without the option to resize to 800x600??

Anyways let me know how it goes with your site? Who from macola is giving your training if I can ask?

 

[dgillz]

On training, Pablo Alvarez is doing the accounting side, and I am doing the distribution side. They purchased accounting and distribution modules and manufacture with POP.

This is a new sale, they were never on Macola 7.6. This is the perfect site to do an ES implementation: The person that made the decision to purchase Macola was actually a reference site for another Macola reseller for years in the Houston area; it is only a 5 user site, and in reality there are only 2 users so the training is very manageable; and finally the same decision maker who knew Macola 7.6 very well has virtually no experience with the financial side of the product, so she is not disappointed with the changes there.

On the resolution you can make your resolution 800x600 and it works, it does however give you a warning message. Macola could not tell me why the message came up, but it lets you performs transactions.

On the COA Wizard, I have done this about 4 times and never had a problem. What is wrong with this piece of code?

I have been using ES at home, for admittedly a small operation, all I do is invoice clients and do cash receipts and write checks and keep the books. However I have been using ES for 4+ months and I occasionally get an error, but nothing I cannot live with. My data conversion was very ugly, so I cleaned it up manually. I was actually quite please with the data conversion for 7.6 to ES compared to the first 6 to 7.5 data conversion I did years ago. Different perspective I guess.

Where are you located? Who is your Macola reseller? What modules and number of users? Just curious. Software Sales, Training and Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[chadt]

"On the resolution you can make your resolution 800x600 and it works, it does however give you a warning message. Macola could not tell me why the message came up, but it lets you performs transactions."

Except that buttons get dropped off the screen when you do this.

See our data conversion consists of 5GB of data...that probably why it never goes smoothly.

We use all modules except MRP and Payroll and we have 30+ users across 3 states.....needless to say we may drop out from being a beta site as we dont feel the code will be ready for another 6 months. I can see where a fresh site would not really be a problem but anyone doing a conversion should be very scared about their business.

Most problems we have encountered have been on Exacts piece of code (Accounting)

 

[chadt]

One more thing...too bad Rajit is no longer with Macola as im sure they would be closer to being done.

my2cents