Many clients are ready to switch away, need MS RMS SDK

Nathan, if you don't mind me asking what kind of integration are you looking to do?

Mark

"Nathan Bell" wrote:

Certaintly!

One client in particular is a non-profit that uses a MS SQL database w/ an Access front-end to keep track of their customers, donors and members. They also have a custom PHP-MySQL e-commerce site. They hope to use RMS to track all of their transactions in their brick-and-mortor store front.

Three databases: [MySQL] Web orders and web customers [MS SQL 2000] Member/Customer/Donor database [RMS] POS order database

They have a lot of custom software built on top of their non-POS databases and (because of budget constraints, among other reasons) changing them is not an practical option. We need to synchronize the DBs in the following manner:

[changes in this db] -> [need to be propogated to this db] Inserts/updates to the Member DB -> POS customer table POS inserts/updates to customer table -> Member DB Inserts to customers and orders in Ecommerce DB -> POS sales/customers

They have some pretty unique requirements on what kind of updates need to be pushed to each database and which fields need to be updated. The add-ons we've tried have been clunky, cumbersome, and insufficiently flexible. Directly querying the POS database crashes RMS, which isn't too surprising. We're ready to roll our own add-on, but I can't find documentation or an SDK anywhere on MS's site.

The client was sold MS RMS a year ago by a certified dealer and were told they wouldn't have to do anything to integrate RMS with their current systems (yeah right). He then skipped town a month later and was never heard from again. I've inherited the project.

They are not currently with a certified RMS dealer and feel generally soured by the whole process. They've contacted Microsoft support a few times (though admittedly I don't know the specifics) and have found no help there.

"Mark" wrote:

I suspect that you won't find what you're looking for in the SDK as imho the RMS lacks polish. Anything remotely complex would require you to go direct to the database in a lot of cases. Just attach the SQL Profiler to the server to see what sort of queries RMS uses to insert/update/delete for the areas your interested in. Although this may well put you off the product even further as it tends to send what in my mind is an excessive amount of SQL to do the task at hand.

Ian

Understood, but I may find a 'good enough' solution if I had access to documentation to the Add-on API. Right now I have absolutely nothing to work with. This is the first Microsoft application I've encountered where it seems the SDK is under lock and key and accessable to only resellers (since when are resellers, IT support staff and a third party developer the same thing?). I'm used to the Windows, Office, Server, SQL world of Microsoft where developer tools are easily accessable to anyone who wants them: and I can tell you that Microsoft profits immensly because of that.

What happened with RMS? Why does it seem so developer-adverse?

More to the point, does the SDK cost money? If it does it can't possibly cost much more than these add-ons that don't do what my clients need anyway. Do I need to contact a reseller? How do I do that? I can find no information about this anywhere on the Dynamics site. Maybe I'm too dense to find it. :) Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Microsoft, what are our options?

Desperate and frustrated, Nathan

"Mark" wrote:

I belive finding a good partner near you might be a good step ahead.

Regards, Jas> Understood, but I may find a 'good enough' solution if I had access to

Hi Nathan,

There is no SDK per say, only a customization guide that is helpful but is certainly not comprehensive when it comes to RMS development. Much of what needs to be know to effectively develop complex customization comes from much research and experience.

We have developed many intense customizations for particular client needs and have worked with other RMS partners on these endeavors with great success. A few odd balls we've done are;

-Worked with a Fortune 500 client to cut about 25% of manager out and insert a tool more suitable to their processes and store/warehouse network

-Developed an e-commerce integration for an online grocery store where you would buy a generic item on the web site and it would be substituted for the actual item in the warehouse (hard to explain). This included wireless hand held devices for order processing with these substitutions, delivery management (things like the orders were processed in the order that they needed to be packed in the delivery vehicle, etc), BIN tracking, and a bunch of other neat tools. This customer doesn't even have a storefront! Totally web based company.

-Developing kiosks that allow customer to build their items in the store which will eventually be integrated to their e-commerce site

The list goes on...

We'd be glad to talk with you if you'd be interested in working together. If so, drop me an email at snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAMrite.us

Thanks!

Nathan, it may be possible for you to complete this integration using linked servers and triggers. (see:

. Linked servers allow you to perform queries on remote servers.Basically it would work as follows: I am assuming that you have three database servers RMS, MSSQL2000 and MySQL On RMS create two linked servers, 1 to MSSQL and another to MYSQL using MySQL?s ODBC provider. ON MSSQL200 create a single linked server to RMS. Create an Insert/update trigger on member table db (MSSQL200) that takes inserted data and inserts it into the RMS DB. Create an Insert/Update trigger on RMS customer db to insert data into the MSSQL member db. To get data from MySQL, you would need to query the data from the MySQL db table periodically. You could also skip using a linked server and have MySQL export new data to CSV and then import the data into the RMS db using a scheduled task or cron jobs. Also, if the RMS db and Member db reside on the same server, you do not need the linked server connecting the two. Sounds complicated but is not that bad. The only thing is that for updates, you will need a way to identify existing customers in either db, maybe using exact match fname and lname or by common customer id or something like that.