It seems Batch Create and Batch Update for a Custom field in line items in Sales Invoices does not to work. The fields stay empty after Batch Create and Batch Update although Excel file had data.
This text did appear on some records in Excel column “Lines.CustomFields” when Copied to Excel if it helps…
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.Guid,System.String]
you would get better responses if you post screenshots of the issue, also explaining what the actual content of the custom fields are and where you have created them.
When Batch Update is done for sales invoices and copied to Excel, Tracking codes come through, see red border, that is the codes in column Lines.TrackingCode in Excel can be converted to the correct transaction codes which works fine.
But the the corresponding sales invoice doesn’t come through as expected for the Tags Custom Field in lines, that is some error code in column Lines.CustomFields, see yellow field.
@VACUUMDOG yes its a good point to test as such as there is no feedback from anybody else in the forum… I had noticed this “Null” thing and thought this was part of some bug rather than the reason.
This perceived bug is happening in W10 Desktop, v19.10.14 the latest, and if a new business added then this Null is reproduced again, although the business being empty besides one Sales Invoice record. When Sales Invoices for this business is Batch Updated, Column “Lines.CustomFields” in Excel is showing “System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2[System.Guid,System.String]” for the input into this field where one would expect the 32 char code.
Also if same is done for Purchase Invoice - Line the same Null thing comes up.
Also using the demo business “Northwind” then the bug is reproduced again.
@VACUUMDOG your point is this should be different this path, like this is not reproduced in your computer, that is if you have desktop version and Windows 10 ?
It’s only an input field in the Sales Invoice form and not related/linked with some more setup to anything at all as I see it and although I turn on all 36 modules in a new business but still the bug was reproduced.
@VACUUMDOG I am not quite following when you say its related to update process but can you please refer to which update process that could be ?
@VACUUMDOG aren’t you using the Sales Invoice custom field ? I am talking about Sales Invoice - Line custom field which is not the same. If so, if you try the Sales Invoice - Line, do you reproduce the bug for this Null thing and for Batch Update ?
Did some more testing in W10, using latest Desktop version 19.10.14, and all of the following has this Null bug, no matter which business. Other types of custom fields don’t seem to have this bug
Sales Invoice - Line
Credit Note - Line
Sales Quote - Line
Sales Order - Line
Goods Receipt - Line
Purchase Invoice - Line
Cannot get the NULL thing happening. I don’t use Batch Updates etc., but I gave it a shot in my businesses and Northwind demo and cannot recreate it.
Try downloading and re-installing the program.
EDIT: There definitely seems to be something wrong with your program/database. You appear to be missing fields in the edit as well
@tor, I finally had some time to look into this. Indeed, when line-item custom fields are used, copying to the clipboard during the Batch Update process results in the content you showed in your second screen shot of post #3 on the spreadsheet. But, the program correctly remembers and applies content of those line item custom fields.
I can only conclude that it functions as designed, apparently through a different process than standard custom fields that return a UUID. This explains why line-item custom fields must be entered on a different form. I do not know what this different process is or why it is used. This is one more challenge to using batch operations. Hopefully, this will also be easier when the promised use of plain text in place of UUID’s is rolled out. Before you ask, no, I do not know when that will be. No schedule has ever been mentioned.
ok @tut we know then atleast where this stands and this broken process for custom line fields is not only related to my setup.
then as you say this custom line field can be entered manually from within Manager and Manager holds on to such data although it is taken back and forth through a batch update process and that is good as nobody wants to loose their input data. Still such data can not be extracted to Excel in detail in any meaningful way it seems, like with custom reports. It is although possible to get overview in “Sales Invoice Totals by Custom Field” report but the records can not be copied to Excel as said before.
Yes it will be super if plain text keys are rolled out, as it will not only help to simplify Batch processes with regards to Excel but also solve this custom line field issue. IMO Batch Update/Create is a very powerful feature in Manager which makes all accounting/data work so much easier and makes Manager very modern. I actually managed to create a Excel file with multi-line and UUIDs lookups which works with Batch Create but such Excel file is rather horrendous to manage unless you know Excel very well, so everything to simplify that would be great. IMO once you get the taste of multi-line Batch Create powers you will never return to one-line Bank Rules
The 128 bit number can be mapped to a human readable string which can be used by the software instead however for that 2 way translation to work, the human readable string must also be unique.
If you look where UUID is currently used this is not currently a program requirement. Implementing it means
restricting those field with plain text UUID presentations to only accept unique values,
inform the user when they try to enter a value which the program has already used (even if it is inactive or obsolete) and
remove all current duplicate values.
The consequence of these requirement will make normal program operation more complex / confusing for the benefit of the few technical users who occasionally do batch operations.
UUID functionality could however be readily enhanced.
The human readable form could be append it to the fixed length UUID string when exporting but ignored when importing.
An export UUID mapping option could be added.
But widespread replacement of UUID with one of the fields pointed to by the UUID may well make Manger worse for the majority of users.
