Hello: We would like to go from MultiTennant Hosted to Epicor Government so we can be ITAR compliant.
Our customers are asking for 2D barcodes on the packing slip (not just the labels).
I am wondering if anyone out there on any Epicor hosted SaaS has been able to use a 2D Barcode with SSRS on anything other than a label? i.e. Pack slip, Sales Order, etc.
DaveO
Mr. Mark: Interesting - is that 3of9 or UCC128? any idea what symbology is being used?
DaveO
Mr. Mark: I see it now it’s Code 128.
It appears this solution may require a DLL on the server?
Has anyone convinced Epicor to install a DLL on their SaaS SSRS Server?
DaveO
Hello Mr. O,
The beauty is that it doesn’t matter where the server is or who runs it. You just need to pass the parameters in your SSRS report on the web request. The server just needs to be available to Azure wherever it is. It can be a service you pay for or you can take the .dll and write a serverless function (Azure Functions or AWS Lambda) and make it callable from there. That’s up to you.
Mr. Mark: Thanks for the suggestion.
I had a discussion with the SaaS “guys” and they said they would NOT allow references to services from their SSRS Servers - claiming security concerns.
Since the SSRS is rendered at the Epicor Server, I do not have any access or control.
DaveO
Interesting. Did Matt give a workable solution to the 2D Barcode problem or are they claiming that it’s just not possible to do in the Public Cloud?
They are suggesting using Bartender or Crystal Reports.
We are currently using both - but we would like to get rid of all the Crystal Reports.
The Bartender solution does not work for documents like Job Traveler, or Packing slip where we need to use DataMatrix (2D)
We are looking at moving to Epicor Govt Cloud - however, I have to wonder about the expense and trouble of doing that and still NOT being able to use SSRS with our Job Traveler and Packing Slips.
As I mentioned this issue has come up in the past (maybe a year ago) and i was hoping by now that we would NOT be the only ones asking for 2D barcodes, or maybe someone has another way of getting this done (using SSRS).
DaveO
I guess you can generate the barcode ahead of time and save it in the FileStore and then use SSRS to extract it in SSRS. Create an Image Category called Barcodes and a subcategory named 2D or something like that. Upload the image and link that imageID (which I would recommend being the job number or the shipper ID) to a UD field in JobHead/ShipHead then link it in the RDD. You should be able to automate the Image upload in a customization. It’s more secure and you don’t have to buy BT. It will cost the Epicor SaaS for the disc space but you’re not paying extra for that. 
I guess I understand not allowing remote services. That is how M365 works too. We had DocStar in the cloud and couldn’t connect with Epicor ERP (or vice versa) because of CORS so they don’t even trust their own products. At least they’re consistent!
Mr. Mark: Interesting concept - Seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for something that is quickly becoming ubiquitous.
Thank you for the suggestion - very creative. Where and how to create the Barcode is the technical trick.
Customer is getting frustrated with limitations that should have been resolved by now.
If Epicor every truly drops Crystal we would have no choice but to pay a bucket of money to make this work or explore ALL other options.
Thanks for the feedback, i was truly hoping someone else might have gotten this done.
Maybe if i send Matt some Halloween candy he would be willing to install a font for me 
DaveO
Hi Dave,
Just wondering and do not know much about the ITAR Cloud levels of access, but could you do Baq exports of xml to some local mapping or independent location for your reports and including data for 2D codes and render locally in your local network? There are lots of 2D rendering options/engines available for you to use locally if you can circumvent and get the report data locally, if the only issue is the restrictions of access and doing the rendering on Epicor’s Cloud.
Just wondering out loud.
Mr. Henry: Thank you for the suggestion. Yes that would be possible.
We are doing that right now by using Crystal Reports. Epicor creates and XML file that is downloaded to our client and we have an IDAutomation Font installed on the clients that lets us print our DataMatrix and UCC128 symbologies.
One issue with that is that we cannot use APR when the report type is Crystal Reports.
Also, we would like to stop installing the Crystal Client on all our PC’s. Soon we will be using tablets and phones to access Epicor and the Crystal solution is more of a band aide.
Our ultimate goal is to use the native Epicor selected solution SSRS.
Thanks again for the creative suggestion.
DaveO