Edge Agent After 2026.1

Kinetic ERP
21

I’m glad there are three paths, because the Edge Agent has had issues for us, at least we always have A way. Print Preview works the best, and I’m assuming that’s why our TMS (FreightPOP) only allows Previews, because it always works.

Printer Icon - This is what we have issues with the most. Local Edge agent is installed, but documents will regularly have delivery issues (it has come in spurts over the past year and half). Currently we are in a dip where it takes an extended period of time for a document to be printed physically to a printer using this method. I have created EpicCare cases and the response was basically ‘it takes longer to use the local edge agent, use print preview or network print instead’, see below:

CS0005254773
"What we are observing is that, while Epicor SaaS sends a successful response (HTTP 200) for print requests, the printable report content is not always available immediately when the Edge Agent retrieves it. When this happens, the Edge Agent automatically retries the request until valid report data is returned. This retry behavior can lead to delayed printing, even though the transaction itself completes promptly.

This issue is specific to Local Printing mode, which relies on the immediate availability of the report payload before sending the job to the local printer. In contrast, Network Print mode does not experience this delay because it follows a different print execution path that is more adaptable to timing differences in report generation. It is important to note that this is not a problem with the printer, the Windows spooler, or a defect in the Edge Agent.

The issue is related to server-side report byte availability timing, where Epicor SaaS acknowledges the request (200 OK), but the printable payload is not immediately available or valid. The Edge Agent continues to retry until it eventually succeeds, which results in noticeable delays.

Your suspicion about an empty or unusable payload is indeed correct. "

That’s not to mention the question we have now, how do you install with no client?

Our shipping users do not want to Preview the Packing Slips every shipment, they want to just send them and move on. This option works the best for them, but has been spotty over the past year in reliability.

Network Printing: This seems to also be reliable, although somewhat complex to get first setup. Currently running into an issue where we have to have manually check or uncheck ‘Landscape’ depending on the report type (Landscape unchecked if it is a Packing Slip, portrait document, or Landscape checked if it is a Pick List, landscape document). This does not happen when using Print Preview or Local Print.

Lots of weird stuff.

22

Same issue with our Shipping users. Out testing did not see network printing any faster than local edge agent. :man_shrugging: :man_facepalming:

23

Just an idea, but there is at least one method that will generate an SSRS Report and returns the generated report bytes directly (no SubmitToAgent and wait for the refresh event to pick up the generated bytes). Edge agent uses it for the SSRS Design and Render functionality (so the report must have been “Generate for Design’d” first)

(Ice.BO.SsrsReportDesignSvc/UploadAndRenderDesign)

I use this method in my Dev Tools dashboard and the latency between calling the method and the rendered .pdf being visible in browser is usually around 5 seconds or less.

I wonder if there’s another method floating around that allows instantaneous report byte delivery.

24

On a normal day that would be the same for us, but for some reason within the last month (kinda since the last update…), our Shipping users have stated that they have to wait 10-15 minutes for the print job to complete. I’ve seen System Monitor logs for some up to 17 minutes. Using the Network Printer yields ‘normal’ results.

EpicCare’s response was to use Network Printing LOL. I will create another case soon as it has not improved over the past few days even after uninstall/reinstalling edge agents everywhere (client, server, etc.).

25

Come to find out, you can just skip pointing the Edge Agent to the Client config paths and manually type the site URL. At least for the Network Edge Agent.

Installed on our new terminal server in multi user mode and seems to work well. Local printers show up for multiple users, access to network share attachments. Opening the few classic menu items we have remaining brings up the following error:

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image446×170 18.7 KB

26

@timshuwy Crystal Report printing was only just put into the Edge Agent in 2025 to allow us to print from the Web and I hope that sticks around for the foreseeable future as this allowed us to move to Kinetic.

27

Crystal drops the XML to a SMB share so I don’t think it will support the cloud version?

28

Our tentative plan is that once BoldReports is fully in place, we will announce the full future retirement of all Crystal and SSRS support. Since both of those products are being retired by their corporate ownership as well, this should be expected. we cannot continue to support a product that is no longer supported by their owners. ( :safe_harbor: Safe Harbor Statement goes here :safe_harbor: )

29

Epicor may be ending support for Crystal Reports but SAP isn’t. They have plans for SAP Crystal Reports version 2027 and 2029. With support through at least 2031. Current version (2025) is supported until 2027.

I wouldn’t recommend anyone use CR reports in Kinetic especially once Bold Reports is out. But, if you’re using Crystal Reports elsewhere in your business, it’s still supported. And will be for a while.

30

@timshuwy Is there anything you can spoil us with plans about Bartender? We love BarTender its a great labeling software, is the plan to continue to integrate, but perhaps instead of dropping a .dat file, use the BarTender API, or is the plan that Syncfusion can also handle Labels?

31

you using the bartender API or you have a file integration running?

32

We do all 3:

  1. BarTender API
  2. Drop Files
  3. Write Directly ZPL to Printer (Specialized Printer, didn’t want to consume a license)
33

makes sense.

34

same

35

Crystal is still supported? Seems to be working fine in 2025.2 so I don’t understand why support should be removed in 2026+. There is no development needed on Epicor’s part, just don’t take it away. Please.

36

That’s what I don’t quite understand. The edge agent has the ability to run the runtime needed, right? I mean we are running in browser, right now, no client installed, just the crystal runtime, and it’s working fine.

37

Just don’t want Epicor to take it away and then later say, well we didn’t know anybody still wanted it. Whoever needs to hear this, we still want it. And its not true that its not supported.

38

My understanding from last year when we looked at QuickShip is that it uses CR (one of a couple of reasons we opted not to go forward with it) and it was explained to us that it does this because P21 is still running on Crystal. I have less than 0 experience with P21 so I’ve no idea if that is correct or continues to be correct but given that statement as well as the future direction of transitioning to Bold, I am curious if that is only for Kinetic or if that is the intended move for all of Epicor’s product lines?

39

Quick Ship still uses Crystal Reports as of version 2025.2. Hopefully it moves to Bold Reports when Kinetic does. I’m not sure what P21 running CR has to do with QS using Crystal.
Other than it’s significantly easier than SSRS. And QS (formerly Insite Software) was likely using CR when Epicor purchased it.

I wouldn’t not use QS just because the reports are Crystal. It’s a good tool.

40

the plan is to move everything (including QuickShip over. Kinetic’s use of Crystal was originally deprecated over 12 years ago, but we brought the ability for our legacy customers to still use it… SAP announced the end of support for the version that is semi-compatible with our processes, and we have no plans to update our crystal interface. This is why we are going to BoldReports.