In this article series by Bayu Cahya Pamungkas, author of ADempiere 3.4 ERP Solutions, we will learn:

• How to establish a connection to a specific ADempiere server
• The standard format of an ADempiere screen
• Application preferences
• How to perform tasks

Read Exploring ADempiere Client and Performing Tasks: Part 1 here.

Maintaining a log of data changes

The system will show the history of our data changes only if we have already activated the Maintain Change Log feature. There are two ways of activating this feature:

• Role-based: This feature can be set up in the Role, which is associated with the user, upon login to the ADempiere client. To activate this auditing feature, navigate to the Menu | System Admin | General Rules | Security | Role window. Set the active tab to Role, and select your targeted role. Find and select the Maintain Change Log checkbox, as shown in the following screenshot:
  

  

• Table based: You can activate this feature based on the Table. The Table is a place where you save information in your databases. Activate this feature by logging in with the System user ID and System Administrator as the role. Open the Menu | Application Dictionary | Table and Column window. Find your table, and select the Maintain Change Log checkbox

Standard window fields

When you enter or view information in part C of the ADempiere window, there will be a couple of standard fields available.

Client and Organization fields

ADempiere has a feature to set up both multi-client and multi-organizational transactions. You can set up as many clients and organizations as you need. We will discuss how to set up clients and organizations later.

To segregate information, the Client and Organization fields are used to save both the client (or company) and the organization (or division) information in each ADempiere information or data.

The following screenshot shows us an example of the client and organization fields in the Business Partner window:

Active checkbox fields

Within certain windows, there is another standard field available. This is known as the Active checkbox. Generally, this checkbox should be available in a window that is used to enter some data that is being repeatedly used within applications as references (something similar to master data).

Some examples of windows that contain Active checkboxes are Warehouse,Business Partner, Price List, and so on. Although this master data will not to be used in your further transactions, you are advised to not remove or delete this information for data integrity purposes. Instead, mark these information records as inactive by deselecting the Active checkbox.

Performing tasks

The ADempiere window has editing features, similar to other applications that run on operating systems such as Linux and Microsoft Windows. However, it has several additional features that are unique to ADempiere itself.

Data management

Take a look at the main menu (part A) and toolbar (part B) area of your window. A list of icons related to data and record management is as follows:

Data navigation

While working with the ADempiere client, you need to navigate to and take a detailed look at your records. You can use the following list of icons in the toolbar (part B) section of your window. A description of this list of icons is as follows:

Other tasks

Other than the standard tasks that are available in the ADempiere window, a list of other tasks that can be performed in the ADempiere window is as follows:

Design, configure, and implement a robust enterprise resource planning system in your organization using ADempiere Successfully implement ADempiere—an open source, company-wide ERP solution—to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business Master data management and centralize the functions of various business departments in an advanced ERP system Efficiently manage business documents such as purchase/sales orders, material receipts/shipments, and invoices Best-practices for customizing and extending your own high-performance solutions Extend and customize ADempiere to meet your business needs Written in a clear and practical manner, this book follows a realistic case-study example enabling you to learn about ADempiere fundamentals and best practices along the way  http://www.packtpub.com/adempiere-3-4-erp-solutions/book

More on Lookup records

You could find lookup records in each of the ADempiere windows. For your reference, take a look at the Purchase Order lookup records. Open your Menu | Requisition-to-Invoice | Purchase Order window, and click on the Lookup Record button.

With this window, we are able to perform a search for records by only using the Document No and Description fields. However, you could perform a search for another information using the Advanced tab of lookup records. With this feature, you can perform a search by choosing any available column or field, setting theoperator, and entering your selection criteria in the Query Value column, as shown in the following screenshot:

Setting additional search criteria

Is it possible to add an additional column or field to the standard Lookup Record search?

With this procedure, we can add the Order Reference of a Purchase Order as a standard Lookup Record.

Log in as the user System and with the password System. Set the role to System Administrator, client to System, organization to *, and keep the warehouse value blank.

Next time, if we need to "log in to System", then we will follow this procedure.

You will be directed to the Navigation Bar, which contains parts of the Application Dictionary, as shown in the following screenshot:

Click on the Table and Column menu. When the system displays a Lookup Record window, type C_Order in the field DB Table Name, and press Enter. Now we are in the Table and Column Order window, with C_Order as our value on the DB Table Name field. In this window, you can perform the following tasks:

• Go to the Column tab, and find Order Reference in the Name field.
• If we are in the Grid Mode, click on the Grid Toggle button to show detailed information.
• Find and select the Selection Column checkbox, as shown in the following screenshot:
  

  

• Save your changes.

Next time, when you are in the Purchase Order window, you will be able to look up the records based on the Order Reference field.

More examples on the use of Zoom Across

My Manager told Rossy "Hi Rossy, could you help me check the status of our order to Patio Fun, Inc.. Has it already been delivered or not?"

Rossy is your Warehouse Manager, isn't she? To answer the Manager's question, using the existing GardenWorld sample company data, she can perform the following tasks:

Based on these tasks, Rossy should be able to answer the Manager's question.

Field context menu

When working with the ADempiere window, there will be a menu, which will help us while we are working in each field. There will be three options: Zoom, ReQuery, and Value Preference. For our example, after opening the Purchase Order window, point your mouse at the Warehouse field, and right-click in the field. The system will show a menu similar to the one shown in the following screenshot:

Zoom

Data that is repeatedly used in an ADempiere window (such as, Customer, Vendor, Currency information, and so on) will be registered as master data. Some example of master data that can be set up are: Warehouse, Business Partner, Product, Bank,Cash book, and so on. With this best practice, we just set the information once and you can re-use the existing data as references.

This menu will be active or available only if the field has a link to the master or reference data. The purpose of this feature is to show you the detailed information of the selected information in the field.

In the previous screenshot, Warehouse is an example of the field where you can browse for detailed information on HQ Warehouse. Click on Zoom in thisinformation. The system will open the Warehouse window, which contains the detailed information of the HQ Warehouse.

Although this feature works for the Warehouse field, it is also applicable to all fields that have links to the master data. Try it out yourself to see how it works for the Business Partner, Organization, and Price List fields in the Purchase Order window.

ReQuery

Similar to Zoom, this menu will be active or available only if the fields have a link to master data. The purpose of this menu is to get the latest information from databases for the field on which we open the context menu.

Previously, the Warehouse option listed only the HQ Warehouse. In case, at the same time, there was additional HQ warehouse information being entered by another user, this new information is not available as an option. To get the latest warehouse information, just click on the ReQuery menu.

Value preference

This menu is available for all kinds of fields. The purpose of this menu is to set up a default value when working with an ADempiere document. We can set a value and make it a default value that can be configured to all or a specific organization, all or a specific user and/or all or a specific window.

For example, open a Purchase Order window and point your mouse to the Price List field, and then pick Purchase from the list. We can make Purchase values a default value by right-clicking and selecting the Value Preference menu, and then selecting the Organization checkbox, User/Contact checkbox, and Window checkbox, as shown in the following screenshot:

With this set up, the next time this specific user opens the Purchase Order window and uses the HQ as its organization, the default value for the Price List field would be Purchase.

If you deselect the Organization and User/Contact checkbox as your value preference, then when all of the users connected to the ADempiere client, using any Organization, open this Purchase Order window, the default value for the Price List field will be Purchase.

Summary

In this article, you have learnt the basics of the ADempiere Web Start client, and have learnt how to perform common tasks.

Working with the default ADempiere installation, you were provided with a predefined user ID and password. There were two types of users that could be used (Client and System). During your testing phase, you might have more than one ADempiere server running. You can access your specific ADempiere server by changing your server connection.

Next, you saw the basics of the ADempiere client. There is a list of menus available, and you have learnt the meaning of each menu icon. You can easily search your menu using the Menu Lookup feature. You learnt that you could create a shortcut for the menus that you use and how to access this menu. We saw the standard layout of the ADempiere window, and explained the six parts that the window is comprised of. In each ADempiere window, we saw the standard fields such as the Client, Organization, and Active checkboxes.

We looked at how to perform some common tasks. These tasks included data management, data navigation, printing, and the lookup of records. Finally, we introduced the field context menu feature, including Zoom, ReQuery, and Value Preference.

Design, configure, and implement a robust enterprise resource planning system in your organization using ADempiere Successfully implement ADempiere—an open source, company-wide ERP solution—to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business Master data management and centralize the functions of various business departments in an advanced ERP system Efficiently manage business documents such as purchase/sales orders, material receipts/shipments, and invoices Best-practices for customizing and extending your own high-performance solutions Extend and customize ADempiere to meet your business needs Written in a clear and practical manner, this book follows a realistic case-study example enabling you to learn about ADempiere fundamentals and best practices along the way  http://www.packtpub.com/adempiere-3-4-erp-solutions/book

About the Author

Bayu Cahya Pamungkas has an experience of working in various financial and manufacturing industries. He is currently employed as a functional consultant on both financial and manufacturing domains for a leading proprietary ERP. He also works on implementation of project management software for apparel industries. With his experience and background, he established his own consulting company and implements ADempiere for customers around the world. You can reach him on his blog at http://sistematika.web.id.