Each software component that is developed or customized with BAAN IV Tools must be coded according to the Baan standards. A standard coding system is laid down by Baan for each software component. This chapter describes the coding of all major software components and how they are made uniquely identifiable by means of the language and the package VRC to which they belong.
The coding system combined with the Baan software directory structure provides a consistent means to store and administrate the various software components by package VRC and module codes.
Each software component must be uniquely identifiable. For this purpose, they are named by means of a standard coding system in which the package VRC is also accounted for.
Coding of package VRCs
Every development or customization effort with BAAN IV Tools takes place within a certain package VRC which stands for Version Release Customer extension. In fact, a package VRC is a certain version of a software package.
The BAAN IV application can contain more than one version of the same package. For example, a package VRC containing the standard software of a package and a package VRC containing the customizations for that package.
If a new package VRC is created, it is derived from a previous VRC. To avoid duplication of software, the new VRC only contains those software components which have changed compared to previous VRCs.
In Figure , the upper VRC is a standard VRC of BAAN IV Common, release a. This VRC contains the standard BAAN IV software which is delivered at the moment of installation. The code of a standard VRC contains no customer-specific extension.
The second VRC is an example of a VRC which contains the customer’s own customizations. This VRC only contains the changes regarding the previous VRC. The version field is extended with the character O, which stands for the customer’s own customizations. The maximum length of the customer extension is four characters. It can be filled with, for example, a two character abbreviation of the customer’s name, followed by a sequence number.
The version field can only be extended with one of the following characters:
L Localizations. This type of VRC contains customizations for a certain country.
B Branch-specific customizations. This type of VRC contains customizations for a certain line of business.
C Customer-specific customization. This type of VRC contains customizations, ordered by the customer and developed by a dealer or partner.
O Own customizations. This type of VRC contains customizations developed by the customer.
General codes
General codes are included in the coding of software components. Certain characters are used to specify the general codes to be able to refer to them when the coding of the separate software components is described. For example, mmm which stands for module code and consists of three positions.
Following, a description of the general codes and there possible values is given.
kk - package code
Package codes are defined by Baan in such a way that they indicate the software’s function. Existing packages are:
tc BAAN IV Common
td BAAN IV Distribution
tg BAAN IV Organizer
tf BAAN IV Finance
ti BAAN IV Manufacturing
tp BAAN IV Project
tr BAAN IV Transportation
ts BAAN IV Service
tu BAAN IV Utilities
tt BAAN IV Tools
mmm - module code
The module code indicates the functions within a package and always consists of three characters in lowercase. Since BAAN IV consists of a large amount of modules, only a few example are used to illustrate the coding of modules, namely:
itm Item Control
sls Sales Control
pur Purchase Control
inv Inventory Control
gld General Ledger
f - function code
The function code indicates the type of action performed by the software components in which the function code is incorporated. The following values are used:
1 maintain
2 process
3 (reserved)
4 print
5 display
6 (reserved)
7 graph
8 auxiliary
9 convert
p - process type
The process type indicates whether the software components in which the process type is incorporated is a main process or a subprocess. The following values are used:
m main process
s subprocess
hhh - customization type
The customization type indicates the type of modification that is made on a standard software component. However, for standard software or modifications derived from standard software, the customization type is left blank or given 000 as a value. For newly-developed modifications, the first two positions should be 00 while the last position should contain one of the following values:
o own development by customer
c customization by dealer
l localization
j junior (compact version)
d dealer-specific version
b business-specific version
h - short customization type
In some cases it suffices to only use one of the customization type characters (o, c, l, j, d, b) in the final position of the customization type. For standard software the customization type is omitted.
s - submodule code
The submodule code is used to indicate the type of modification. For newly-developed modifications, one of the following characters is used:
o own development by customer
c customization by dealer
l localization
j junior (compact version)
d dealer-specific version
b business-specific version
Newly-developed modifications are not derived from an existing standard software component but are entirely new.
Related Posts:
