Smart Office 10.2 hotfix 17 resolves JScript not working on Windows 10

Infor have recently released hotfix 17 for Smart Office 10.2.  This resolves a number of bugs including the issue with JScripts not working on Windows 10 machines :).

The fix doesn't appear to have been back-ported yet to earlier versions of Smart Office - so M3 7.1 customers with Windows 10 are still unable to run JScripts.

Smart Office Hotfix 17 is available via CCSS.

Windows 10 patch MS16-072 / 3163622 / 3163018 can break Smart Office *WORKAROUND*

A couple of months ago I logged an issue with Xtreme regarding Smart Office client being unable to communicate with the Smart Office server.  This has become a more significant issue with the Windows 10 anniversary edition also breaking JScripts running within Smart Office.

Today I have received a suggested workaround from Infor now to resolve the issue of windows updates stopping Smart Office loading.  I've tried this on a couple of sites and it appears to address the issue.  The workaround is:

1. Download IIS Crypto 2.0 from Nartac.
2. Install this on the PC
3. In IIS Crypto 2.0 on the Cipher Suite tab (1), untick the TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_CBC_SHA Cipher (2) then click Apply (3):

4. Reboot the PC.

Smart Office should now load correctly.  I've tested this against multiple sites and multiple versions of Smart Office and all the Smart Office instances that were not working now do work.

Unfortunately this does not resolve the JScript issue :(

Windows 10 Anniversary edition stops JScripts from loading in Smart Office

The Windows 10 Anniversary update has just rolled out and with it has come more problems for Infor's Smart Office.

When using a panel that has a JScript attached to it, the JScript does not load and an error message is logged within the Smart Office log e.g.

5/05/2016 9:29:30 PM ERROR MForms.Render.RenderEngine.PostRender Failed to run scripts
System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\aibwfam0.dll' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'file:///C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\aibwfam0.dll'

Infor don't have a resolution to this yet, much like the problem with the Microsoft patch that on certain configurations broke Smart Office altogether, the current recommendation from IRD is to not install the Anniversary update.

Simple event-driven automations with Event hub and MEC - overview

At Inforum 2016 this year I presented a simple pattern we'd developed across multiple projects to automate and apply business rules when transactions occur in the M3 business engine.

Historically we have used JScripts to achieve this within Smart Office, but a number of factors have driven us away from this approach.  These include:

• the increased maturity of the H5 client;
• the inclusion of the H5 enterprise features within the foundation client as of Infor Xi;
• an increasing diversity of data input mechanisms across our customer base (M3WM, custom applications, data feeds from PLCs etc.); and 
• the problems inherent to applying business rules at the UI level that could be bypassed by users.

While JScripts still have their place, for set and forget application of business rules along the lines of "if this then that", there are better approaches now available.

We first investigated Infor's Ming.le a couple of years back, but when we started looking into Ming.le our assessment was that it was not mature enough to meet out needs.  Note that this has now changed, we have used Ming.le on a few projects and we are very excited by the possibilities offered by Ming.le within the Infor Xi stack.

Nonetheless, while at the time we were not convinced that Ming.le was appropriate for our needs, the technology underpinning Ming.le was of interest.  Specifically Event hub which monitors all transactions within M3 and allowed us to capture:

• Start and stop of M3 programs including batch programs;
• Create, Update and Delete transactions on M3 tables; and
• Current and Prior values of records in M3 tables.

Many, if not most, of the processes we wished to automate occur when one of the transactions above occurs.  For example we wanted to:

• Notify upstream planners for supply chain order connected orders when requested delivery date on CO, MO, PO line changes;
• Update customer agreement / bulk order when quote changed;
• Reclassify, move, or write off balance ID when goods were received into a location;
• Load payment when a POS sale is invoiced;
• Write to a log when a M3 program is started;
• Export planned orders when the MRP run completed.

What we found was that Event hub existed within the M3 ecosystem as shown below:

Event hub is one of the technologies underpinning the M3 ION BODs and is responsible for creating the initiator message, much like a MBM, that instructs MEC to create the BOD and pass to ION for action.

One of the great things about Event hub is that it is available in all M3 10.1+ installations that have the business engine on the Grid.  So for sites that are on the Grid, but don't yet have ION, we can still leverage the functionality that Infor has delivered to support ION to build automations as described here.

The pattern we developed for creating a simple automation has three main parts:

1. Create the Event hub subscription;
2. Create the MEC subscription to Event hub; and
3. Build the automation in MEC.

Over the next few days I'll detail how each of these steps work and how, with minimal MEC skills, simple event-driven automations can be built.

Inforum 2016

Inforum 2016 in New York was a great opportunity to meet colleagues and friends, learn what's coming in the new versions of the Infor product suite, hear from thought leaders in a number of areas and enjoy the Maroon 5 concert :)

Windows 10 patch MS16-072 / 3163622 / 3163018 can break Smart Office

Microsoft released patch MS16-072 / 3163622 / 3163018 for Windows 10 this week and it's causing communications issues between some Smart Office clients and servers:

Looking at the server installation point - https is inaccessible from Internet Explorer and Edge, while it works fine from Chrome:

The Microsoft fix is impacting other areas of infrastructure as well.  The immediate workaround is to uninstall KB 3163622 / 3163018 from affected PCs until either Microsoft resolves the issue or Infor provides an official mitigation.  It also appears that there may be group policy changes that can be made to address this, but I haven't tested these yet:

"MS16-072 changes the security context with which user group policies are retrieved. This by-design behavior change protects customers' computers from a security vulnerability. Before MS16-072 is installed, user group policies were retrieved by using the user's security context. After MS16-072 is installed, user group policies are retrieved by using the machines security context. This issue is applicable for the following KB articles:
3159398 MS16-072: Description of the security update for Group Policy: June 14, 2016
3163017 Cumulative update for Windows 10: June 14, 2016
3163018 Cumulative update for Windows 10 Version 1511 and Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 4: June 14, 2016
3163016 Cumulative Update for Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5: June 14 2016
Symptoms
All user Group Policy, including those that have been security filtered on user accounts or security groups, or both, may fail to apply on domain joined computers.
Cause
This issue may occur if the Group Policy Object is missing the Read permissions for the Authenticated Users group or if you are using security filtering and are missing Read permissions for the domain computers group.
Resolution
To resolve this issue, use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC.MSC) and follow one of the following steps:
Add the Authenticated Users group with Read Permissions on the Group Policy Object (GPO).
If you are using security filtering, add the Domain Computers group with read permission."