I recently started working with the Customization WYSIWIG GUI tools(e.g. drag and drop GUI elements). I was able to easily add a new epiLabel and epiTextbox and bind the text box to a DB field. First impression was seems like a nice tool, but then when I tried to reformat Part Tracker screen to match Part Entry(move around UI elements) I was very unimpressed with the tool.
Cut and paste doesn’t seem to work(cut made the UI element disappear but paste doesn’t seem to do anything), undo doesn’t seem to work(doesn’t undo the last change resulting in a lot of exiting out to start over when a mistake is made), and the user interface as to how to move a UI element seemed inconsistent(sometimes click and hold to move, other times click to select, then move, then click to select the new location).
Seeing as thought this was my first time using this tool I’m thinking maybe I’m doing something wrong, or is the tool just a little clunky? Is it possible to use Visual Studio or another tool as an alternative, assuming this tool is just a little clunky?
I’m no expert, but I’m working the day before Thanksgiving, so here we go.
Short answer, is yep, it really is that horrible. Went to an EUG meeting last year and asked a top Epicor employee about that, and I think he probably wasn’t saying much because:
Silver lining - Kinetic (10.2.600+, and especially 11.1.100) is MUCH better with this. Read up on “Epicor Application Studio”.
When I work on a form, I save often as I work because there’s that one time when you select a group instead of a textbox and you have a higher probability of solving X=1/0 than getting the form back to where it was.
You can get cut, copy, and paste to work reliably but it’s finicky. I find selecting elements from the tree and performing those functions from the dropdown menu seems to work best. Same for deleting elements. Working within the control tree seems to be most reliable for me.
Clunky does describe it well, but if you were plastic surgeried code for 20+ years you’d be clunky too
I like it. I use CTRL + Click to select elements, move them together, align them… copy / paste works a bit buggy…
If I add lets say 20 items to Order Entry… I would just export Order Tracker and Order Entry XML and just add them via XML to Tracker because I am picky about them both sharing the same x, y coords – even 1px off I dont like
Let’s be blunt and harsh about this; it is garbage
I’ve used Microsoft Access dev tools 15+ years ago that were far, far better than this.
Anything beyond a simple, bound textbox leads to worlds of pain.
Intellisense?? Not really
Code debugging - forget it (yes, I know you can use VS, but not everyone has access to this)
documentation?; ha ha ha
The underlying Infragistics control toolset one which the UI is based is a very old release and buggy. Plus you soon get the sense that Epicor hasn’t done a particulatly good job on the object inheritance. If you try and be clever and root through the Infragistics documentation don;t expect properties and methods to work always.
Epicor have effectively abandoned the C# client and and moved to the one based on JS objects run through a browser using a toolset from their ool friends at Progress. I suspect it is going to take several years to convert all the forms and give a decent development experience
One of the main problem with the GUI customisation is the Anchor. Recently I had to spent a whole night to redo a customisation when the anchor went out of whack. Please click in the link and vote on the Anchor issue.
On the bright side, I have notice Epicor has slowly improved the GUI customisation. It takes time for Epicor to make it better. In the mean time, try to keep the Customisation simple.
By the way, after I finish a customization I will go into Customization Maintenance and delete all of the AnchorHeight, AnchorWidth, AnchorTop, AnchorLeft properties. Not sure what they are for, but they never have been needed for my stuff.
Yes, every time I put a grid in, I make sure I get rid of those entries because it sometimes clobbers the grid when you save the customization and get back in.
