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Terry P
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6/16/2014 5:57 PM
    We were sold licenses to use LSO two years ago (Don't go there it's not pretty). I'm just now looking into implementing it. I had a short demo from an Infor Consultant. A couple of things I find out concern me and I'm not sure the benefit of implementing it is worth it. I'd like to confirm if they are true, or what other people with LSO did to overcome these issues.

    1. We have two groups of users in Portal 9.0.1. The majority of group 1 are "non-power" Lawson users (about 70% of our total users). They do not have the Search Bar available to them. Everything they can get to, they do via Portal bookmarks we've give them access to. I was told that LSO does not allow you to remove the search bar like you can via the role in the users RM record.
    2. Group 2 are primarily located in Finance and Human Resources (about 25 users). They have a search bar, but access is limited via security.
    3. I have a large number (50+) customized Portal forms and pages. They are not simple customizations, but rather complex processing using Javascripting code, some hundreds of lines long. All of these forms are the default form, so when someone enters PO20.1 in the search bar, they get the customized PO20.1 form.
    4. During our demo, when we entered PO20.1, it brought up the standard Lawson delivered PO20.1, not my custom version. I was told LSO does not support or run Design Studio modified forms. We have two options:
      1. Rewrite all our custom Design Studio forms using Javascript to Jscript.
      2. Create a shortcut to the Design Studio form, and disable access to the form through the search bar.

    ​Either of these solutions have problems. It would be a tremendous undertaking to learn a new programming language, and rewrite all our forms using Jscript. If so, we'd then have to maintain two sets of code for the same program. One for our non-LSO users using Design Studio, and another in Jscript for our LSO users. Then how do we train our users which form can they enter in via the search window, and which one via a bookmark. It would be a nightmare. All of this for in reality will be about 10 users. Not sure there is enough benefit for the amount of effort it would take.


    How have other LSO users with Design Studio forms handled this?
    John Henley
    Posts: 3353
    6/16/2014 6:26 PM
      Some thoughts...
      You are correct that custom logic in Design Studio forms doesn't translate over to other Lawson entry methods, include LSO and Excel Addins.
      The only *true* way to customize a form is to do it in the COBOL itself, which introduces other issues of course (talk about "learning a *NEW* language").
      The majority of the users would continue using Portal and not LSO anyway.

      You *can* launch Design Studio forms from LSO (i.e. via shortcuts), they just don't look like LSO forms...they retain the Portal look. So for those users who would benefit from transitioning from Portal to LSO for non-custom forms, I think it depends on how many of the custom forms are in each suite/functional area. You might be able to use the StartPad (I think that's the term) to create a launching point for those users' custom forms, and at least try one group that has a small number of custom forms.
      Thanks for using the LawsonGuru.com forums!
      John
      David Williams
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      Posts: 1127
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      6/16/2014 6:26 PM
        Smart Office would not be used by your HR only users - it should be restricted to "power users" and you do have to create links to your Design Studio modified forms if you want to continue to use them.
        David Williams
        Terry P
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        Posts: 234
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        6/16/2014 9:16 PM
          That's the problem as I understand it. If they put in say PO20.1 in the LSO search bar, it brings up the standard non-modified form. Power users don't use bookmarks or shortcuts, they just enter the form id and run with it. If we know pushed out to them icons with all the custom forms, then it sort of defeats the purpose of it. Plus they don't know which are custom and which are not. It's all done behind the curtain with smoke and mirrors!