Flex Identification

Flex identifications

Using FlexIDs makes it possible to combine a number of fields (the FlexID field plus a maximum of six fields, here called lines) to create one id. These lines and the FlexID can be dynamically labeled using the flex identification task and the design time defined constant ids. The FlexIDs will appear as radio buttons in the client GUI.

Today the only available flex implementation is for Items. A flex implementation enabling of any kind can of course be created.

Figure 26 shows the ItemMaster table. The ItemFlexId column holds the FlexID value (see Table 20). ItemKey1 to ItemKey6 holds the different line values that are created and associated with the different FlexIDs. They all, together with the in this context not important Enterprise column, form the unique identification of an ItemMaster table record.

Figure 26 ItemMaster table

An example of an item related table is the ItemWarehouse table:

Figure 27 ItemWarehouse table

In Figure 27 we can see that a record in the ItemWarehouse table is uniquely identified by the same keys as in the ItemMaster table plus the Warehouse column. This is of course a simple example of a regular relational database key handling, but it might hopefully somewhat clarify the workings of the flexid related columns as unique identifiers.

Flex Id:s are created and defined using the Flex identifications task.

The Flex identifications task is located in System Administration -> Master Data in the Navigator tree as shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28 The Flex Identifications task

Selecting the System status task will take you to the System status main portlet as below.

Figure 29 The Flex Identifications main portlet

Table 19 Flex implementation fields and button

Table FlexID fields

Table Flex identification buttons

Flex identification – By example

In this example we will create two different FlexIDs; MyRawMaterial (MRM)and MyFinishedItems (MFI). Each FlexID will have a number of different lines. We will also create a few items belonging to each FlexID.

1. First confirm the choice of Flex Implementation type by choosing Item and pressing the OK button as below:

Right click the FlexID segment and choose Create as below:

Name the FlexID (here MyRawMaterial, called MRM). Choose the appropriate Metadata ID (here CAAPPS) and the desired Constant id (here item.type.RM). The display order indicates in which order (from left to right) the radio buttons should appear when you have several FlexIDs. Press the Create button. Note that the Metadata ID and the Constant id are only for labeling purposes.

The result of the line creation is shown below. The label is a result of the chosen Constant Id:

In the picture below you can see that a second FlexID (MyFinishedItems, MFI) has been created where the display order is “2” and the constant id is “item.type.RM”.

To commit the creation of the two FlexIDs, press the Update button as below:

The next step of the example is to create six lines that are associated with the MFI FlexID.

1. Right click the MFI FlexID and choose Lines:

Right click the lower segment and choose Create:

Configure as below:

Five more lines are created where position is from 2 to 6 and Constant Id is from item.type.FM.2 to item.type.FM.6.

The result when looking at the MFI FlexID and the created/associated lines is as below:

Now it is easy to in the same way create a number of lines associated to the MyRawMaterial (MRM) FlexID (the Constant Ids should be item.type.RM.x). The desired should look as below:

At this point we have created two FlexIDs; MRM and MFI. MFI has six associated lines and MRM has only four.

The result of this can be studied in the two following pictures (create view operating on the ItemMaster table).

First of all notice the display order of the FlexID radio buttons where Raw Materials (MRM) is to the left of the Finished items (MFI):

When the Raw Materials radio button is chosen four key fields (lines) are visible; Item, Quality, Color and Form. When the Finished items radio button is chosen (see below), the six fields (lines) created earlier are visible.

Notice that the other columns, like name and description etc, in the view are unchanged.

It is very important to understand that when creating an item as a Raw Material, that item won’t be visible when looking at Finished items and vice versa.