Web Services

Epicor ERP 9
1

I really don’t much about Web Services.

We have an Engineer that started to use them and it using up all our licenses

Is this correct?

I am the Epicor Administrator and this Engineer has just gone off and created these webservices to:
1.) He feels it is too hard to update Job Comments through job entry - so he created a web page so 2 people don’t to enter them in through a web page
2.) Print labels for jobs with the job number, revision and part number
3.) An RMA digest - where he uses a dashboard I created - RMA Whiteboard - I guess our 1 RMA guy didn’t even know this dashboard exists and was waiting for this automated report

Oh and much more -

Does anyone have experience with Web Services and why it would use up so many licenses?

2

I don’t think your engineer should just up and write some programs. Odds are he isn’t doing it correctly. Depending on how he is instanciating the “web services” he could be failing to release the license back when he is done.
Seems to me this needs to be nipped in the bud, get him some professional training before he gets adventurous again of your company is going to allow this. Hopefully he isn’t bypassing the business logic or creating other gremlins.
Is he using WCF services or WSE ? Or is he instanciating the business objects?

-Jose

3

I will find out what he is using

He wrote a webapp to access the session and it gives users the ability to delete sessions - since the flag for multiple session was set to false.

Does this make sense?

I just don’t like it - seems like a bandaid

4

Seems like the whole thing is a giant bandaid

5

Haha - this guy sounds like me. Don’t fire the poor sap - he’s taking some initiative. If I didn’t do all that stupid stuff up front I wouldn’t know anything - with that said, I was in a test environment.

I would also say that unless a webservice is specifically needed, he could easily give a custom (simplified) solution within E10 and avoid chewing up licenses.

4 Likes
6

Also, you can purchase Web Service licenses that are cheaper than a full office license. These don’t run out, they just slow down after too many uses.

Mark W.

2 Likes
7

Thank you all for your input!

8

FYI on the Web Service slow down aspect.
Some Epicor licenses support a ‘penalty box’ on license over use. This is for a subset of the licenses such as the Web Services license.
When a new license is being acquired, we test for availability. If available, the call proceeds immediately. If there are too many licenses in use, the call is placed in the ‘penalty box’.
Once in the penalty box, how the call is handled varies in E9 and E10.
In E9 you are locked out for the fixed 20 seconds.
In E10 we check every second to see if a license freed up. If so, we let the call proceed at that point.
If no licenses are freed up after 20 seconds, the call is allowed to proceed even if the you are now using ‘51 of 50 licenses’.

I think the approach was dreamed up in Minneapolis decades ago so insert hockey thinking about penalty boxes.
Go to the penalty box when bad.
Other team scores a goal, you get out immediately (license is freed).
After your penalty ends, you are allowed back on the ice (20 seconds is elapsed).

2 Likes
9

“You do that, you go to the box, you know. Two minutes, by yourself, you know and you feel shame, you know. And then you get free.”

~ Denis Lemieux,
Charlestown Chiefs’ Goalie

3 Likes
10

Jose, why do you think the whole thing is a giant bandaid? Have you ever had to write a program to delete sessions when using Web Services?

11

From your description it just seems like it is something that was thrown together by your engineer without really looking at the issue… He didn’t like the way something worked so he threw something together to make it “better” but its just a band-aide that’s what I meant.

12

Thank you