How to Call an Application Engine Process from App Studio

Alright folks in my previous post I gave you an introduction to Application Engine.

We also created out first process and called HelloWorld...

Awesome let's now have a look at calling this process in App Studio.

Let's create a new report and call it App Engine Sample.

This is how my report looks. I thought I will go green :D

I have made the parameter 1 and 2 cells editable so that user can enter the values. You can do this by right clicking on the cell > Format Cells >  Protection Tab > remove the tick on Cells check box

I have also added a button to calculate the values and once calculated it should show the result next to the Answer text box.

Note : I have created a report variable to assign the result from the Application process.

Let's define an action on button.

For the action lets select Application Engine Process..

Select the HelloWorld version. ( I am selecting version 2 as this is my latest version)

Set the rv_Result to Action.Result.Text

Now let's set the input parameters.

Set the 2 cells in your report for Input 1 and 2 . In my case its E4 and E5.

Ok done and dusted. Finally make sure you drag and drop the report variable on to the Answer text box so that it automatically updates when we click on Calculate.

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

That's just the basics. You can look at the help in App Engine to have a look at the more complex use cases.

Hope this post helped you to get started with App Engine. I am working on more complex scenarios and will keep you posted with my findings soon.

Introduction to Application Engine for Infor BI

I was doing some research on Predictive Analytics recently and there are so many tools in the market which offers this functionality.

Then I thought about Infor BI. Well Infor doesn't have an analytics component inbuilt. At least that what i thought. And then I got to know about Application Engine Process Editor.

So what is Application Engine ??

This is Infor's definition

The Application Engine Process Editor is a tool that you need to define, verify, compile, test, and publish Application Engine processes. In principle, Application Engine processes are plain text files that contain the code written in the BI# programming language. The Application Engine Process Editor includes a text editor and supports the whole life cycle of a process.


Basically you can create custom programs using B# which is very similar to C# and these programs or processes can be called from Application Studio web services.

Let's see how we can do this later in the post.

Let's open up Application Engine and click on the log on button.

Connect to the repository where you will want to store the processes.

Let's go and create a new process...

When you click on the new option it opens up a new process editor shown above.

Copy the below code and paste it to the editor.

#define EngineVersion 4.0
#define RuntimeVersion 4.0

int HelloWorld(int a,int b)
@Description: "App Engine Addition";
@Category: "Place your process category here";
@Returns: "Returns an Integer";
@Parameter[a]: "Input Para 1";
@Parameter[b]: "Input Para 2";
{
    /* To use intellisense press Ctrl-Space and select a function from the list */
    /* To use autocompletion start typing the function. When the right function appears type the round opening bracket and select from a list of available signatures. */
    /* add your BI# code here */

    int number = a + b;
    WriteLocalFile("C:\\Files\\RnD\\Blog\\App Engine\\Test.txt", "a+b is : " + number);

    return number;
}

The first 2 lines defines the version of the Engine and the Run time. Use the default 2 lines which you get when you create a new process. The version I am using here might be different to what you have in your environment.

Next you have this line int HelloWorld(int a,int b)

This is the HelloWorld method which takes in 2 integer variables named a,b and outputs an integer variable.

@Description: "You need to describe the process here";
@Category: "Place your process category here";
@Returns: "Define the return type here";
@Parameter[a]: "Input Para 1";
@Parameter[b]: "Input Para 2";

If your method is using input parameters then it is mandatory that you define it using the @Parameter[] function used above. Depending on the number of input variables you have , you need to define @Parameter tags for each of the variables.

Next i add the 2 variables and assign it to a variable named number and I also write the value to a text file in my environment.

    int number = a + b;
    WriteLocalFile("C:\\Files\\Rnd\\Blog\\App Engine\\Test.txt", "a+b is : " + number);

    return number;

Finally I return the number variable to the program which called the process.

Now let's test our process............

Before you test it save the definition file so that you do not lose this code :).

Click on the Validate button to make sure the syntax is correct and once confirmed click on the Test Process button.

Enter values for a and b as shown below.....

Click on the run button ( Green button)

There you go, the process add up the 2 numbers and gives an result of 60. And it has also written the value to the Text file.

Let's publish this to the repository so that App studio can call this process.

Once published you can have a look at the processes by clicking on the load button.

Here I have 2 version of my HelloWorld Process. And depending on the details you have specified it will show up here.

In my next post I will explain how to call this process using Application Studio. Stay tuned geeks...