Sample documentation of the AMSampleTask extension

Following is recommended documentation to be provided with any custom task extension. It provides all of the details necessary to maintain the task extension code and use the extension with the Task Server.

Name: AMSampleTask Customer Information update.

File: AMSampleTask.dll

Version:  1.0

Task.Submit parameters:

Type (ProgID):  AMSampleTask.SetCustomerInfo

FSObject:  The document that will be updated

StartAt:  Not used

Automatic (re)scheduling (aka RunAgain):   Not implemented

Description:

This task extension can be used to update Meridian Enterprise properties with information from an external database. It can be used without any Visual Basic customization (user interface extensions). It demonstrates a solution for synchronization from an external database that can be used from any Meridian Enterprise client, including Web Access.

Its functionality is two-fold.

1. Update a Meridian Enterprise lookup list with the table Customer Names found in an external database. It checks the Modified file attribute of the database file to determine whether an update is required.
2. Updates the Customer Information properties for the selected document.

When a new document is created, the user should select a Customer Name value from the wizard. The task uses the selected name to find the customer record in the database.

For an existing document, the customer information may have changed in the database (including the name). If the name cannot be resolved, the task will use the ID field from the Customer table to update the properties.

Dependencies:

This task extension uses Microsoft ActiveX Data Object (ADO) version 2.5 or higher.

In the CustomerProperties.bas module, the following information must be set correctly:

• The path to the customer database (MDB file)
• The name of the customer database table
• The names of the database fields

This task assumes that the following Meridian Enterprise properties exist in the vault.

• CustomerID
  
• CustomerName
  
• Address
• AccountNumber
  
• City
  
• Zipcode

The source code of this task is available as a programming example.

A vault configuration is available to demonstrate the usage of this task extension.

A customer database is provided with the sample.

Named Parameters:

• LookupName: The name of the Meridian Enterprise lookup list that will contain the customer names.
• CustomerName: The customer name that the user selected from the lookup list.
• CustomerID: The value that was set previously by this task.

The value of either CustomerName or CustomerID must be available in the database to find the correct customer information.