iPlanet Release Notes for SellerXpert 4.1 SP1


Last updated on 8/31/01

These release notes present information available at the release of SellerXpert 4.1 SP1.

Electronic versions of these release notes and other iPlanet documentation can be found at:

  • Customer web site: http://iplanetcustomers.com (call iPlanet Support for password)
  • Technical Support web site: http://www.iplanet.com/support/technical_resources/sellerxpert/
    • We recommend that you refer to the web site for the latest information prior to installing and setting up your software, and thereafter that you periodically view the most current release notes and manuals.


    This document contains the following sections:

    What's New in This Release

  • Support of Secure Data Transfer
  • Loading of Schema and Data Outside of Installer
  • Change in Selling Company Name and User Login for Sample Data
  • New Business Rules
  • DTD Changes
  • New Characters Supported for XML

    • Support of Secure Data Transfer

    For transfer of sensitive data such as credit card information or user passwords, SellerXpert can switch to a secure mode through a pre-configured secure server. The secure server uses SSL protocol (an industry-standard protocol) to transfer data, using SSL server certificates for Server Authentication.

    The present release also continues to supports non-secure mode. Configuration allows you to use secure mode, non-secure mode, or a combination.

    Loading of Schema and Data Outside of Installer

    This release allows you to create Oracle and LDAP schema and to load seed data outside of the installer. See the SellerXpert Installation Guide for more information.

    Change in Selling Company Name and User Login for Sample Data

    SellerXpert 4.1 SP1 ships with sample data. To use this sample data, you need a selling company name, system administrator user ID, and password. This information has been changed to the following: You must log in as the selling company administrator to approve catalog items.

    New Business Rules

    The following new transmission rules have been developed for SellerXpert 4.1 SP1:

    DTD Changes

    The following DTD changes have been made for SellerXpert 4.1 SP1:

         OBIXMLLibrary.dtd, OBIEXTRAXMLLibrary.dtd
         PostalAddress is added as an optional field in the Contact Information.
         PostalAddress is made up of AddressLine1, AddressLine2, AddressLine3, AddressLine4,
         AddressLine5, and AddressLine6. This field is only used in outbound 850 for BuyingParty
         and RequisitionParty contacts. These lines correspond to the six postal address lines that
         a user sees when editing postal address using the Admin interface.

         OBIXMLPurchaseOrder.dtd, OBIEXTRAXMLPurchaseOrder.dtd
         ShippingCost is added in the POHeader. This used to go to <charge> inside of
         <AllowanceOrCharge>. Now it is consistent with the presentation of ShippingCharge at the line
         level.

    New Characters Supported for XML

    Three special characters are now supported for XML files. These characters are the less than symbol (<), greater than symbol (>), and ampersand (&). For both inbound and outbound XML files:

         < should be replaced by: &lt;
         > should be replaced by: &gt;
         & should replaced by: &amp;

    It is the responsibility of the map or the supplier to do the replacement for inbound documents. For
    outbound documents, SellerXpert does the replacement.

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    Comparison of SellerXpert 2.6 to SellerXpert 4.1 and 4.1 SP1

    The following table summarizes the differences between the architecture of SellerXpert 2.6 and SellerXpert 4.1:
     
    SellerXpert 2.6 SellerXpert 4.1 and SP1---iPlanet Standards-based Architecture
    HTML templates Java Server Pages (JSPs) 
    Server-side JavaScript Servlets
    C++ business objects Java objects + EJBs business objects
    CORBA services Java services and all iAS extensions
    CORBA components  iAS/J2EE components
    CADIS catalog RDBMS-based catalog
    Legacy membership LDAP membership

    Documentation

    The SellerXpert 4.1 SP1 documentation set includes:
  • Release Notes --- Contains important information on the current release of SellerXpert. Read this document before working with the new release. New for this release.
  • SellerXpert Installation Guide --- Provides instructions for installing the SellerXpert product and its enabling software. This includes instructions for creating schema and loading seed data. It also includes information on configuring secure-mode and non-secure mode for data transfer. Revised for this release.
  • BuyerXpert/SellerXpert Concepts --- Describes the over-all functionality of BuyerXpert and SellerXpert. Read this document if you are unfamiliar with BuyerXpert and/or SellerXpert. Revised for this release.
  • BuyerXpert/SellerXpert Administrator's Guide --- Provides reference information and instructions on administering a fully installed BuyerXpert/SellerXpert system.
  • Admin interface Help --- Provides online guidelines and instructions for administering SellerXpert. Revised for this release.
  • User interface Help --- Provides online guidelines and instructions for using SellerXpert. Revised for this release.
  • Catalog interface Help --- Provides guidelines and instructions for managing catalogs.
    • Manuals for all iPlanet products can be found at the following web site:
    http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/
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    Installation Issues

    Requirements for SellerXpert 4.1 SP1
    Solaris 2.6 or 2.8
    Netscape Navigator 4.7 or Internet Explorer 5.0
    iPlanet Web Server (iWS), Version 4.1 SP7
    iPlanet Application Server (iAS), Version 6.0 SP2
    iPlanet Directory Server, Version 4.12
    iPlanet Portal Server, Version 3.0 SP2
    Oracle Server Database 8.1.6  Standard or Enterprise Edition with InterMedia Search Engine
    Oracle Client Server 8.1.6 (if SellerXpert is not installed on the same machine)
    Actuate e.Report Server, Version 4.1

     
    Recommended for SellerXpert 4.1 SP1
    ECXpert 3.5

    Patches may be required for some of the supporting software. Before installation, it is important to check the release notes for the supporting software to see if patches are required and how to get them. Documentation for iPlanet products can be found at the following web site:

         http://docs.iplanet.com/docs/manuals/

    Installation instructions are contained in the SellerXpert Installation Guide.

    How to Report Problems

    If you have problems with your SellerXpert system, contact iPlanet customer support using one of the following mechanisms: So that we can best assist you in resolving problems, please have the following information available when you contact support: Return to Top of Page

    Limitations

    There are some mapping issues between EDI and XML that result from the SellerXpert design for inbound and outbound documents. The affected element is FirstName. For outbound documents, when mapping from XML to EDI: Please map accordingly.

    Known Problems

    This section describes the known problems in SellerXpert 4.1 SP1.

    522864 Certain roles are missing during rule calls.

         The quantity_conv_table rule does not use product as a role.
         The freight_term_default rule does not use payment_subtype as a role.
         The freight_term_list rule does not use payment_subtype as a role.
         The currency_rate_freeze_model rule does not use seller_company as a role.
         The pricing_model does not use seller_company and product as a role when creating a copy of a
         requisition.
         The CONTRACT_ADMIN rule does not consider the SELLER_COMPANY and PRODUCT
         as a role.
         Example 1: QUANTITY_CONVERSION_TABLE rule does not use product as a role.
         QUANTITY_CONVERSION_TABLE rule has SELLER_COMPANY and PRODUCT as two
         roles, but it does not use PRODUCT for its evaluation. For example, there are two rules defined
         for the SELLER_COMPANY, “iplanetdemo.com.” The first rule instance is defined for all products and
         has a value of “general 1.” The second rule instance is defined for products having the product code
         “113355” and has a value of “Test.” In this case, the rule evaluation will result in “Test,” because it
         is the most recent, regardless of what the product is.

         Example 2: FREIGHT_TERM_DEFAULT rule does not use payment_subtype as a role.
         FREIGHT_TERM_DEFAULT rule has PAYMENT_SUBTYPE, SHIPPING_METHOD,
         USER_CREATED_FOR and SELLER_COMPANY as roles, but it does not use
         PAYMENT_SUBTYPE for its evaluation. For example, if SHIPPING_METHOD is “UPS – 2
         Day,” SELLER_COMPANY is “iplanetdemo.com,” and USER_CREATED_FOR is “bunny1,”
         there are two FREIGHT_TERM_DEFAULT rules instances defined. One rule instance is defined
         for PAYMENT_SUBTYPE “Visa” with FREIGHT_TERM value “Visa Freight Term,” and it's
         the most recent. The second rule instance is defined for PAYMENT_SUBTYPE
         “MasterCard” with FREIGHT_TERM value “MasterCard Freight Term.” In this case, even though
         the PAYMENT_SUBTYPE is “MasterCard,” the FREIGHT_TERM_DEFAULT rule evaluation will
         result in “Visa Freight Term,” because it is the most recent.

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    526787 Meaningless text displays when running reports for the first time.

    Meaningless text displays when you run reports for the first time in a SellerXpert instance, that is, the first time you click the Run Report button in your Reports page. This happens only for Netscape 4.7 running on the Windows NT platform.

    Solution:  Reload the HTML page.

    528841  Unable to create large catalog views or edit normal ones.

    Once catalog data is loaded into the system, catalog views need to be created with the Catalog Manager for the catalog items to be viewable by the users.  The largest catalog view that has been successfully created is 300,000 items in a single view.

    Solution: For larger catalogs, create separate views with less than 300,000 items in each view.

    531340  Negotiated price column is not displayed in the SellerXpert User interface.

    Negotiated price fails to display in the SellerXpert User interface when a time-consuming search is being done (from the SellerXpert User interface) and simultaneously (without any time lag) the Catalog Manager starts browsing before the SellerXpert User interface search shows a result.

    Solution: Set up independent instances of the iPlanet Application Server (iAS) for SellerXpert and Catalog Manager. That is, install SellerXpert on iAS "A" and use it for front-end users only, then install SellerXpert in iAS "B" and use that one for Catalog Manager tasks only.

    533277  Order:CalcTaxFailed error occurs.

    Occasionally the Order:CalcTaxFailed error occurs when submitting or viewing a requisition. Usually this happens when there is no corresponding tax rule.

    Solution: Verify that there is a tax rule for adjustments that are taxable.

    539122 Clock error occurs.

    If you are in daylight savings time, the follow error may occur: 
    WARNING: Database and app server clock are off by -3599319
milliseconds, and the threshold is 600000...
    Solution: This is just a warning message, and does not adversely affect SellerXpert functionality.
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    539624 Receiving tolerance rules don't work if the current user is not ALL.

    One of the roles used for evaluating the RECEIVING_TOLERANCE rule is user_current. When the rule is evaluated, user_current has an incorrect value when the price model is PriceList.

    Solution:

    1. Set the user_current to ALL instead of to a specific user when defining the rule value for RECEIVING_TOLERANCE.
    2. If #1 is not an acceptable solution:
    For example, when working with Mercury Enterprises data, a user logs in as bunny15. However, when the rule was evaluated, bunny11 was the user. The solution is to set the rule for both of these users.

    547093 Too many digits are required to display a particular currency.

    Currencies that do not have entries in the <ias_root>/seller/seller/config/repository.ntv file do not display correctly if there are too many digits for the display field.

    Solution: Copy an existing section, such as NLG, and change the name for the currency so that it looks similar to this:

         "FRFFmt" NTV {
         "datatype" Str "Double",
         "separator" Str ",",
         "decimal_point" Str ".",
         "decimal_places" Int "3",
         "trailing_zeros" Bool "true",
         "grouping" Int "3",
         "negative_sign" Str "-",
         "positive_sign" Str "",
         "sign_precedes" Bool "true",
         },

         Modify the values as needed for that currency.

    547097 Price appears wrong when there are more than two decimal places.

    When a converted unit price has more than two decimal places, the resulting price seems to be incorrect because the number is rounded to the user-display precision preference. The reason it appears wrong is because quantity * (converted unit price) is not equal to converted (unit price * quantity). According to the European Commission, converted (unit price * quantity) is the correct methodology.
    Solution: The computation is actually correct.
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    547953 A performance problem occurs when browsing a catalog.

     To improve performance in catalog browsing/pricing, we have removed the PRODUCT role in the pricing model rule. However, the PRODUCT role still exists in the Admin graphical interface. As a consequence, if you defines the value for the role called PRODUCT as anything other than ALL, the role cannot take effect in pricing computations.

    Solution: For existing rules and any new pricing model rules, set the value for PRODUCT to ALL.

    549805 The line adjustment using line.pricing_quantity for each is not correct.

    This type of adjustment is an accumulation lookup type of adjustment. The problem occurs because the program does not handle "greater than or equal to." The ranges for the lookup entries must be in this format: 
    0 < source <= number_1
              number_1 < source <= number_2
                   .
                   .
                   .
              number_i < source <= number_i+1
              number_n < source *


         Solution: Do not use "greater than or equal to."

    549820  An extra $ sign is displayed at the Edit page of the Ship-to location for an inbound OBI order.

    This problem only occurs if you edit the address. The data shows in the Street field as:
    addressline1 $ addressline2 $ addressline3 $ addressline4
    Initially the data is correct in the database and is displayed correctly.  However, the data in the database can be corrupted if the delimiters ( $ ) are disrupted.

    Solution: Be careful to keep the delimiters ( $ ) intact when updating the address.

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    Solution: There is no workaround at this time.
     

    555473 A deleted user ID cannot be re-used.

    For both B2B and B2C registration, if a user ID that was in use at one time is deleted, the user ID cannot be re-used.

    Solution: There is no workaround at this time.

    556426 Using the Back button causes an exception for deleted orders.

    After you delete an order, if you use the browser Back button to reach the screen containing the original order,
    SellerXpert produces an exception.

    Soluton: Don't use the browser back button for deleted orders.

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    iPlanet SellerXpert 4.1 SP1
    Copyright © 2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Some preexisting portions
    Copyright © 2001 Netscape Communications Corp. All rights reserved.