Mobile Procurement:Mobile Procurement User Guide
Contents |
Introduction
Mobile procurement application provides a mobile GUI to create Purchase orders in a easy way using mobile devices.
Launching Mobile procurement
Openbravo Mobile procurement uses two GUIs: Mobile procurement GUI and the Openbravo back office. Both run in a web browser and both can be launched independently.
- The Openbravo back office GUI is simply launched by entering standard application URL in the web browser´s address bar: http://<IP_address>/openbravo.
- Openbravo Mobile procurement is also launched by entering a URL in the web browser. This URL is constructed using the following way http://<IP_address>/openbravo/web/org.openbravo.mobile.procurement/?terminal=<Mobile procurement configuration ID (Search Key)>.
Note. On iPad during Mobile Procurement login the browser will ask you "Increase Database Size? Do you want to allow [application] to use up to 50 MB of storage on your device?". VERY IMPORTANT: You need to approve this to be able to use the off-line capabilities of Mobile procurement.
Mobile procurement GUI overview
Ticket area
One half of the screen is occupied by the ticket area. Here all products that are added to the active purchase order are shown in a list view. It serves as a preview of the final purchase order.
Message area
The message area on the other side of the screen shows the time and date and informs the user about actions and events.
Numerical pad
The on-screen keypad is used by touch screen users to enter product codes, quantities and other numerical data.
Tabs
The tab buttons at the top of the screen give access to the four main Mobile procurement activities: scan, browse, search and edit. The first three activities are used to find and add products to a purchase order, the edit activity applies to the last or user-selected order line.
The top row of the screen shows system, terminal, client and user information.
Online status: conveys the connectivity status of the system. A green dot indicates that the system is online, a white circle indicates that the system is offline. Terminal: this is the name of the Mobile procurement configuration that the user is logged on to. Organization: this is the store. Tapping it reveals a menu that gives access to Client, Price List, Currency and Location information. User: the logged in user is shown. Tapping it reveals a menu that gives access to Profile and Logout. In Profile, the role, language and default user can be set.
GUI for smart phones
Openbravo Mobile Procurement has been designed to support small screens that usually mounts the smart phones. When this devices are used the GUI is divided in two columns.
Main Flows
Openbravo Mobile procurement supports the following main flows:
Scanning
Manual entry
Browsing
Searching
Editing
Parking and selecting pending tickets
Deleting a purchase order
Closing a purchase order and sending it to the ERP
When the ticket lines are completed, total price button should be clicked in order to close the purchase order and send it to the ERP. To do it just click in save button located above the keyboard.
Changing the Business Partner
While you are working online, the Business partner can be changed. It allows us to work with a different purchase price list (the one which is assigned to the selected business partner). To change it, just click in the Business partner button (It shows the name of the current Business Partner). This action display a popup where you can find and select the desired Business Partner. Finally a message will be shown warning about a context reload.
Security
This utility can be secured through a preference.
OBMPR_receipt.bp - Change Business Partner
Order weight control
Products have a weight and it is shown when browsing or searching them. Also in each order line, weight will be shown, product weight and total weight of the line.
Having enabled order weight control, we will get a message showing how much under/over-weight we have in the order. Blocking minimum or maximum weight limits, we won't be able to Save the purchase because payment tab will be disabled. In other hand, not blocking, we will be able to Save the purchase order but we will get a warning saving it.
Working with the back office
Openbravo Mobile procurement uses one single database that can be accessed via both front (e.g. Web POS) and back end (e.g. Openbravo 3) user interfaces. In this section you will be shown how users can take advantage of this architecture. First of all, all information in the back office is accurate in real-time as transactions are processed as they occur (an exception to this is when a connectivity outage occurs, which can cause delay). Secondly, the back office is web based (as is the front office) which allows remote and mobile users view store performance from anywhere. Here is an overview of the most important back office views and how to use them:
To navigate to the backOffice just display the context menu an select the option called backoffice. This action will open a new tab in your browser with the ERP. Your session settings will be maintained.
Purchase orders
This window gives a real-time view into the purchase transactions. By default purchase orders for all organizations are shown in the grid so the first thing you want to do is to filter the organization column for one or maybe a few specific stores. See the Column Filters section in the User Interface Introduction for Openbravo 3 for more detail on filtering. If you plan to use a certain view more often, you may want to save it. See the Saving Views documentation for more detail.
In the Lines child tab you can find the purchase order lines
Note that you need to refresh the grid using the Refresh button in the toolbar to see the incoming orders appear.
Errors while importing Procurement data
This window gives a real-time view into the errors importing data from Openbravo Mobile Procurement. In case of something is wrongly configured, you can get an error loading data in Openbravo ERP. In this window, you can find information about these errors.
- PO Status: Describes the status of the failed purchase order.
- PO json data: It is the JSON object sent from Openbravo Mobile Procurement.
- Error: The Java Exception which caused the error.
- Mobile Procurement Configuration Id: Which configuration was used to send the failed PO..
- Save again Button: After checking your configuration error and solving it, you can resend the data.
- Clear error Button: An error can be removed from the table by executing this process.