Copyright: Copyright © American Micro Innovations, Inc.


API
The purchase order information is transmitted to Techdata in an EDI 850 format.  Refer to Techdata's API.PDF document for descriptions of the required data.


Bill To Vendor

Creating a Purchase Order in the Main Course starts out the same as in previous versions.  You must select a vendor from whom you are ordering.  After the initial selection of a vendor you will be prompted for another vendor, this is the Bill To Vendor.  To distinguish the two, the first vendor selected is termed the Order From Vendor.  If the Order From Vendor record has the Bill To Vendor field filled in then it will be used as the default Bill To Vendor.  Specifying a Bill To Vendor is optional and if you do not then the Purchase Order will work exactly the same as in previous versions of Main Course.  To create a PO with no Bill To Vendor, either leave it blank or if a default is filled in press the Escape key.

If you do specify a Bill To vendor then that vendor will be used for two things relating to the PO.  First, if the vendor's record has an entry in the FlrPln/Bill To field then it will be used on the PO when it is transmitted to Techdata.  Second, the Main Course Bill To Vendor will be used when any receiving information for the PO is posted to Accounts Payable.

This change makes it easier to deal with financing your inventory purchases.  All of the purchase order records will reference the actual vendor that shipped your order and all of the A/P records will reference the finance company that sends you an invoice.


Contents
Techdata API Interface for Main Course

Overview

Getting Started

Using the Interface

Trouble Shooting


Currency
Enter the currency used for all purchases from Techdata.  The only choices are US and Canadian Dollars.


Getting Started
Techdata API Interface for Main Course

Overview

Getting Started

Requirements

Setup

Using the Interface

Trouble Shooting


Overview

The Techdata API Interface for Main Course was developed in cooperation with Techdata.  It allows you to access pricing and availability from Techdata for your specific location based on whatever pricing structure you have negotiated with Techdata.  In addition you will be able to transmit Purchase Orders direct to Techdata without reentering them into another system.

Communications for the interface are done via a Virtual Private Network or VPN connection across the public Internet to Techdata's API system.  Techdata provides the instructions for establishing and verifying this connection as well as an application to manage the communications on your system so that your workstations can all share the same connection.  The amount of data exchanged is relatively small so that even a dial-up Internet connection should be sufficient to handle several workstations.

All A.M.I. applications communicate with Techdata in the same way.  The file polling option of the TD Integration API is used to allow data to be passed back and forth through files placed in a common directory.


PO Header

Purchase Order Header

After selecting the Order From and Bill To vendors the normal Purchase Order Header screen is displayed.  There are two new fields on this screen.  First the Bill To vendor is displayed next to the prompt "Billing To Vendor".  Second the Techdata Whse field has been added after the normal Main Course warehouse field.  This field is only present if the Order From vendor has been designated as an Techdata vendor in the setup screen, the default value is also set from the information entered there.  If the Main Course warehouse selected has an entry in the TD Wh field then that will be used.  This entry can be overridden and can be left blank.  It will be used as the default for line items similar to the Main Course warehouse.  The one exception is that changing the value on the header does not change the value on all line items.  It must be changed for each individual line item.

Several other fields from the Header screen are used when data is transmitted to Techdata.  The S.O. / Invoice # field will automatically be filled in with Techdata's order number.  The Purchase by field is used in the Information Contact.field of the PER segment.  The Allow Partial Shipment field is used to set the Shipping Type field in the CSH segment.

The Ship Code - Init. field is used for the Carrier Code field of the TD5 segment.  The normal pop-up list of Shipping Codes will include the valid choice for Techdata as well as your standard choices.  The entries which are valid for Techdata will have "TD" in the Vendor column.


PO Lines

Purchase Order Line Items

The line item screen has only one new field relating to the Techdata API.  The TD Wh field has been added to allow you to entre the Techdata  warehouse.  The value entered on the Purchase Order Header screen will be used as a default for the line items.  A valid Techdata warehouse code must be entered in this field.  You can also check the price and availability for a line item by using the key combination Alt-T.


PO Review

Purchase Order Review Screen

Once you have completed a purchase order in the Main Course the review screen above is displayed.  In order to transmit the PO just entered to Techdata you need only select the option 'X'.  The PO will then be sent in its entirety via the TD Integration API.  One new item is displayed here for Techdata POs.  The TD Status field has two possible values, Not Sent and Transmitted.  In addition, the existing SO/Inv # field will be updated with Techdata's order number.

Once the purchase order has been transmitted to Techdata there is no way to automatically modify it on Techdata's system.  Any changes must be called in to your Sales Representative.  This includes cancelling the purchase order.


Pricing

Pricing and Availability

The standard product list search has been modified to include access to price and availability information from Techdata'sIntegration API system.  From either the Electronic Catalogue or Main Course product list you can use the hot-key Alt-T to access price and availability.  You may also use the "View" menu and select "Techdata Availability".  This function is available in any module with access to the product list search.

The pricing an availability display will show Techdata's part number followed by the description from their system.  Your cost and the retail price are shown along with the total available at all Techdata warehouses.  Follwoing this information is a table of availabilities by warehouse location.  Any negative numbers indicate backordered quantities.  The warehouse information lists the city instead of warehouse codes.


Purchase Orders
Techdata API Interface for Main Course

Overview

Getting Started

Using the Interface

Pricing and Availability

Warehouse Maintenance

Vendor Records

Purchase Orders

Bill To Vendor

Header Screen

Line Items Screen

Review Screen

Trouble Shooting


Requirements

A.M.I. Applications

The only requirements for any of the A.M.I. Applications is that the update that was received from A.M.I. is installed and that the TD Integration API is properly installed and running on one of the workstations or servers on your network.

TD Integration API

Requirements and instructions for installing and setting up this application are provided by Techdata.  Please refer to their documentation.


Setup

The following are images of the setup screen for the Main Course and for the TD Integration API.  Details for any field in the Main Course setup can be obtained by clicking on that field.  In the Techdata Integration API Settings dialog, under the Input Options tab you must choose the File Polling option.  The Polling directory in Main Course and the Directory to Poll in the TD Integration API setup screen must be set to the same directory.


Shipping Address
Enter your shipping address for non drop-ship orders to Techdata.  All purchase orders without a drop-ship address will be transmitted to Techdata with this shipping address.


Shipping Method
Enter a valid Techdata shipping method to be used as a default for new purchase orders.  The document API.DBF provided by Techdata contains a list of valid codes.  As a convenience this list was also added to your Main Course Shipping Codes list when the TD API Integration update was installed.


Timeout
The timeout value is in seconds and can be in the range from 1 to 999.  Response time is generally good and a value of 10-30 seconds will probably be sufficient.  If your Purchase Orders sometimes have more than about 25 lines or you have more than 25 users, you may have to increase this value.


Trouble Shooting

Most error messages returned by the Techdata Integration API system are self explanatory.  Common problems are bad part numbers and missing information.  The following list gives some possible reasons for less common errors.

Timeout waiting for response from Techdata

This error could indicate that the TD Integration API program is not running or is getting errors.


Using the Interface
Techdata API Interface for Main Course

Overview

Getting Started

Using the Interface

Pricing and Availability

Warehouse Maintenance

Vendor Records

Purchase Orders

Trouble Shooting


Vendor Maintenance

The Main Course Vendor Information records have two new fields added, FlrPln/Bill To and Bill To Vendor.  The FlrPln/Bill To field holds your Techdata Floor Plan Account number to use when this vendor is selected on an Techdata purchase order.  If a separate Bill To Vendor is selected on a purchase order then any FlrPln/Bill To entry for that vendor will be used in preference to the entry on the Order From Vendor.  This field may be left blank.

The Bill To Vendor field is used as the default Bill To Vendor when this vendor is selected as the Order From Vendor on a purchase order.  This field may be left blank in which case the default used on a purchase order will be blank.


Vendors
Enter a list of vendor Id's whose Purchase Orders can be transmitted to Techdata.  Any Purchase Order created using one of the vendor Id's listed will display the special fields for Techdata and give you the option of transmitting to Techdata.


Warehouse Maintenance

If your Main Course system is running in multi-warehouse mode then the Warehouse List Maintenance screen will include a new field for the Techdata warehouse ID (TD Wh).  This new field may be left blank in which case the default from the setup screen is used.  If you enter a value here then it will be used in place of the default whenever you select this warehouse on a Purchase Order.  This only applies to selecting the warehouse on the Purchase Order Header screen.


polling directory
The polling directory should be set to a common directory which is accessible to all Main Course users.  It must be entered as a complete path name with an ending backslash (\).  This directory must be created outside of Main Course before using the interface.  Nothing else needs to be done except to create the directory, it will be used to exchange information between the Main Course and the TD Integration API program.  The directory must also be entered into the TD Integration API setup screen illustrated below.


warehouse
This must be a valid 2 character Techdata warehouse code.  A list of valid values can be found in the document API.PDF which is provided by Techdata, it has been reproduced here for your convenience.  This value will be used as a default for new Purchase Orders if the Main Course warehouse code selected does not have a default assigned or if you are not using the Main Course in multi-warehouse mode.


warehouse codes

Techdata Warehouse Codes

U.S.

Code	Location
A1	Miami, FL
A2	Suwannee, GA
A3	Swedesboro, NJ
A4	South Bend, IN
A5	Ft. Worth, TX
A6	Fontana, CA
A8	Raleigh, NC
AC	Houston, TX
Canada

Code	Location
A1	Toronto, ON
A2	Vancouver, BC
A3	Orbitor, ON