They have added a special view that lets you query the configurator data in a BAQ a lot easier (still need to use a pivot and know you control names) but its very slow so I can usually only work with a few months of data at a time
That’s an interesting option. How many fields (ish) do your configurators contain?
4 configurators 40 to 80 fields each. I also don’t use look up tables. UD fields on the back side of parts hold question answers. Filter by answer to determine assemblies required. Price of answer is also stored on backside with the answers. Also store related parts and quantities on the backside of parts. Use linq queries to return the values from ud methods based on selections. Makes adding things like new paint colors really easy, create the part define the ud fields also on part and it automatically show up in configurator. I have around 230 fields on the backside of part to store these values.
I had worked on a purchased and manufactured parts creation, shelved as I got to busy with other things. It would generate the part number and 90% of the description. The engineer or purchasing person would then enter the last 10% of the description so we would have consistency in how we name Items, and give them the correct part number prefixes.
(Memories flooding back…)
Before CPQ, the Product Configurator had to be able to run in Epicor eCommerce, which could be disconnected from the live instance. If the Product Configurator is only going to run from within Kinetic, this does open up the possibility to use the database.
Having components that could run in several configurators would be a HUGE improvement in maintainability.
AMEN! I have the exact same UDMethod for every configurator.
I had several UDMethods that I would use in multiple configurators, and dozens more that had the same structure, just a few different parameters, or with call outs to different Lookup tables. So when I had to make a change, I’d have to go into a dozen configurators and make the same change to the UDMethod code.
I ended up just building a Class Library to store most of the code. Then I’d add the .dll assembly to my methods, and just call the methods there to get the data I needed. It made maintaining and updating much easier.
I converted ours to something similar when we needed to integrate PartTrap with our configurators. A lot of the inputs weren’t directly linked to fields, so we needed to store those. We ended up taking values that we needed to be searchable and weren’t 1:1 linked with existing OrderDtl / QuoteDtl fields, and stuck most of the rest into a single UD field in JSON format.
Must be an on prem thing? I can’t even add references, much less custom DLLs
For what its’ worth…
I questioned a handful of reliable Epicor employees on just this point, and they responded emphatically “No, the Classic Config is not going away”.
Of course, we expect that to change just like everything else, and the change to Inspection processing is a bad omen, but I’m still hopeful. I can see why the Inspection processing side was changed to Kinetic - in order to lessen the overall Dev effort of bringing Classic PC to Kinetic PC. And I’m ever hopeful that calling functions becomes possible, but we’ll have to wait and see.
I’ve done the same. CPQ is pretty cool, but I can’t imagine them pushing an update that would require massive projects for everyone currently using classic PC any time soon.
Oh its there alright… Sometimes I would gaze at it longingly for a minutes on end as I thought about how it could solve all my problems.
That… is very unfortunate Is it just in the configurator windows? Can you still add custom libraries in your Epicor Functions?
Anything already on the server I think. @klincecum would know better than me
Nope, I can add the libraries epicor provides, no access to the externals folder.
So you have no way to even add the epicor libraries and services?
Well that’s completely useless for cloud, unless there is something we are missing, like a permission or something.
Anyone cloud using classic configurator and has that box enabled?
Pretty much. I’ve managed to do some things with processcaller and other hacks.
Could get all the BO’s if function runner can work via BAQ via process caller – hence why I was asking you about that
I don’t see anything in the help file saying it should be disabled, I wonder if I could import one that had references added
Again, memories - I seem to recall it was available in Server UD Methods but not Client UD Methods, since it might have to be converted to JavaScript for the eCommerce sites.