Here's the deal with dashboards and MultiCompany:
- Dashboards (like most items in Vantage) are scoped to a single company. If you want to have a Dashboard on the menu that works in multiple companies, you'll need to export that Dashboard to the filesystem (without BAQs) and import it into every company where you want to run it.
The reason you don't want to include the BAQs is that the dashboard references the BAQ by name, which includes the Company prefix. You can't import/create a BAQ with a prefix different than the current company, *but* MultiCompany can. Which leads to...
- BAQs can be marked as Global. Global BAQs are copied from the source company to every other company that MultiCompany, via the External Company Maintenance program knows about. You have to define external company records from the source company to each target company, *and* from each target company back to the source company. You don't have to check any of the "items to send" boxes (Part, Customer, etc.) as the "send system data" option is assumed by default.
- Obviously you have to have MultiCompany setup properly: SonicMQ installed and working, an External System record via External System Maintenance configured for Sonic, and MultiCompany running at startup.
Here's my basic workflow with dashboards:
1. I create the BAQs in the first company where I'm starting. I mark them as shared and global.
2. I create the dashboard with the BAQs I just created. Once I'm happy I attach it to the menu.
3. I export the dashboard without BAQs, change companies, and import it to the target company. Since the BAQs exist in the target company, I can do the import without getting errors, and the dashboard works.
4. If I need to modify the BAQs, I do it in the "owning" company.
As an aside, our initial setup of MultiCompany missed the setup needed to support BAQ replication. We have a parent company (CORP), and two child companies for our primary divisions. We had MultiCompany setup to send data between the parent and two children, but did not have MultiCompany to send data between the two child companies. I had to remedy this problem before things started working properly, as in practice 80% of my dashboard/BAQ activity is in the child companies, and I wasn't seeing any of the queries get replicated between them even though I had them marked as Global. Once I fixed the External Company setup things started working again, although I did have to go back and re-mark-as-Global all of the BAQs that I wanted replicated between the child companies since they weren't sent initially.
Make sense?
-bws
--
Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix / Picometrix
    bspolarich@... ~ 734-864-5618 ~ www.advancedphotonix.com
-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Charles Carden
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:22 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] multi-company dashboard
I am not aware of a way to do this. Reason being is that the dashboard is linked to specific BAQs and those BAQs are company specific. The best way I know of is to export the Dashboard and BAQs (from Dashboard export) and then import them into the other company. This will allow you to rename the BAQs upon import.
If anyone else has any other ideas I would be glad to hear them.
Charles Carden
IT Manager
Manitex, Inc.
Georgetown, Texas
- Dashboards (like most items in Vantage) are scoped to a single company. If you want to have a Dashboard on the menu that works in multiple companies, you'll need to export that Dashboard to the filesystem (without BAQs) and import it into every company where you want to run it.
The reason you don't want to include the BAQs is that the dashboard references the BAQ by name, which includes the Company prefix. You can't import/create a BAQ with a prefix different than the current company, *but* MultiCompany can. Which leads to...
- BAQs can be marked as Global. Global BAQs are copied from the source company to every other company that MultiCompany, via the External Company Maintenance program knows about. You have to define external company records from the source company to each target company, *and* from each target company back to the source company. You don't have to check any of the "items to send" boxes (Part, Customer, etc.) as the "send system data" option is assumed by default.
- Obviously you have to have MultiCompany setup properly: SonicMQ installed and working, an External System record via External System Maintenance configured for Sonic, and MultiCompany running at startup.
Here's my basic workflow with dashboards:
1. I create the BAQs in the first company where I'm starting. I mark them as shared and global.
2. I create the dashboard with the BAQs I just created. Once I'm happy I attach it to the menu.
3. I export the dashboard without BAQs, change companies, and import it to the target company. Since the BAQs exist in the target company, I can do the import without getting errors, and the dashboard works.
4. If I need to modify the BAQs, I do it in the "owning" company.
As an aside, our initial setup of MultiCompany missed the setup needed to support BAQ replication. We have a parent company (CORP), and two child companies for our primary divisions. We had MultiCompany setup to send data between the parent and two children, but did not have MultiCompany to send data between the two child companies. I had to remedy this problem before things started working properly, as in practice 80% of my dashboard/BAQ activity is in the child companies, and I wasn't seeing any of the queries get replicated between them even though I had them marked as Global. Once I fixed the External Company setup things started working again, although I did have to go back and re-mark-as-Global all of the BAQs that I wanted replicated between the child companies since they weren't sent initially.
Make sense?
-bws
--
Brian W. Spolarich ~ Manager, Information Services ~ Advanced Photonix / Picometrix
    bspolarich@... ~ 734-864-5618 ~ www.advancedphotonix.com
-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Charles Carden
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 11:22 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] multi-company dashboard
I am not aware of a way to do this. Reason being is that the dashboard is linked to specific BAQs and those BAQs are company specific. The best way I know of is to export the Dashboard and BAQs (from Dashboard export) and then import them into the other company. This will allow you to rename the BAQs upon import.
If anyone else has any other ideas I would be glad to hear them.
Charles Carden
IT Manager
Manitex, Inc.
Georgetown, Texas
----- Original Message -----
From: leann_37
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 5:27 PM
Subject: [Vantage] multi-company dashboard
All,
A multi-comapny question. How do you make a dashboard available across multiple companies? We've embedded a pricing dashboard in the ATP form, but it only works in the company in which it was created.
Thanks in advnance!
- leAnn
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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