Channelid - what is it for? why is it there?

Epicor ERP 10
1

I’m trying to add parts to Salesforce and want to have a link back to the Epicor Part Detail. I have the URL from the config to display part details. One of the query parameters is “channelid”.

It doesn’t seem to do anything, but it has to be there. If I take it out of the url, then I get a blank Epicor screen. If I set it to a random number - it works. If I set it to a guid - it works. If I set it to a single letter - it works.

So the question is, what is it and why does it need to be present?

2

Below is from KB0121721 from EpicCare:

ChannelID = When creating a Share Link, you will note that a randomly generated GUID is supplied for the ChannellD. At the time this KB was created, Development has stated that the GUID for ChannelID is not a requirement and it has no bearing on security. If creating a template for a dynamic URL to a form, it is acceptable to use a zero “0” as the value for the ChannelID parameter. It’s possible in a future release that the ChannelD parameter will no longer be a part of the direct link URL. Using the URL example above, the following URL will also be acceptable (note channelid=0)

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3

Thank you sir.

4

On 11.2.200.11and it seems I need a valid channelID for some links and not others.

eg ChannelID=0 works jumping to case entry:

https://myServer/myEnv/apps/erp/home/#/view/CRGO6200/Erp.UI.HelpDeskEntry?channelid=0&layerNames=CW_CASE_ENTRY2&company=KNZ&site=MfgSys&pageId=HelpDeskForm&pageChanged=true&KeyFields.HDCaseNum=30019

But doesn’t when jumping to project entry:
https://myServer/myEnv/apps/erp/home/#/view/PJGO1040/Erp.UI.ProjectEntry?channelid=0&useBroadcast=1&layerNames=CWTest,CW_MACHINEOWNER&company=KNZ&site=MfgSys&KeyFields.Revision=1&pageId=Details&pageChanged=true&KeyFields.ProjectID=152

Just loads a blank screen, if I put a guid from another tab in ther it works:

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image1488×311 23.4 KB

More epicor mysteries.

5

I am not totally sure, but I believe that this is only important to link two tabs in the browser together… for the publish/subscribe (but I could be wrong). This allows you to right click on one item (part number) and open the part screen, and then those two screens are linked. The part on the second screen will change. My theory is that the channel is how we keep these two linked together.

ADDITIONAL INFO ADDED:
CONFIRMED my Theory… the Channel ID is how we keep two publish/subscribe screens linked… we make each one unique so as to not cause unknown behaviour. WE have tried it set to zero, and it works, and have not seen anything if you do so, but you can/should set a unique value… even if just a random number when creating a new deep link.

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6

Thanks Tim, one of our developers was looking at it through the chrome debugger and saw websockets in use, so guess its something to do with that, as you describe.

7
@timshuwy - Are there any plans to release a Kinetic App Studio User Guide? It'd be great to have this sort of stuff documented, along with basic how-to examples. It's necessary, if Epicor wants to get more adoption from legacy customers.

It should cover similar situations are the Ice Tools & Ice Customization User Guides. Sure, Kinetic is still in flux, but at least it’d be something ‘official’.

Update - Thanks @Mark_Wonsil! I missed that. Usually I download everything there is on the new version when we set up the test environment. Guess I’ve got some light reading to do!

8

2022.2 has one on EpicWeb (around 475 pages)

https://epicweb.epicor.com/doc/Docs/Kinetic_ApplicationStudioUserGuide_2022.2.pdf

1 Like