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Technical Details

An introduction the technical aspects of TradePoint, how it is installed, what it contains and how it integrates with ERP systems such as Dynamics NAV.

TradePoint lets you manage pages and files in a quick, efficient and logical way with the possibility to base security on NT-Security (windows accounts).

Elements of an installation

A TradePoint installation consists of several elements:

ScriptServer components

This is a set of DLLs which are used for accessing the storage and constructing the powerful script environment of ScriptServer.

Content in a SQL database

All scripts and web pages are stored in a MS SQL database. This allows ScriptServer to load them as objects and enrich them with properties and methods and automatically apply the security model to them.

Some other things

A ScriptServer site store its settings in Registry, has a regular IIS website and keeps files and images on disc.

Requirements

Operative

Windows 2003 server, Windows 2000 server
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 & 2005 or 2005 express

Browser

Mozilla Firefox 1.04 or later
Internet explorer 5.0 or later on PC for users
Internet explorer 5.5 or later on PC for administrators and editors

MS Dynamics NAV

The Dynamics NAV Integration module is developed and tested in: MS Dynamics NAV 3.70 and later
Navision Application Server (NAS)

Installation Procedure

TradePoint installs extremely easily and in most cases you have site up-and-running in a couple of hours, fully integrated with MS Dynamics, executing your customized code units.

ScriptServer websites require the ScriptServer components to be able to run. These are quickly installed.

The actual TradePoint website is installed and set up through an easy-to-follow installer, which installs and configures the database, creates IIS websites, configure language support, etc. You can run this installer multiple times to set up several websites.

When the site is in place you need to install the ERP components, in the case of Dynamics NAV you simply import the certified granules and then mark the items you wish to display on your site.

The next step is to configure the ERP connection, in most cases it involves setting up Message Queues and with the help of our configuration tools this is achieved very quickly.

Finally you point your web browser to your new TradePoint website, and finalize the set-up by configuring how your site should handle customers, what item fields to display, what payment methods you accept, etc.

That is basically it! You now have a complete e-commerce solution up and running, integrating real time with your ERP system. The next steps are to customize your TradePoint to ensure your branding is retained and that your business processes and workflows are conducted on the web as you require.

Integration with MS Dynamics

TradePoint communicates with MS Dynamics using Message Queues. This is currently the preferred way of communication and is also very effective when it comes to scaling.

An imperative philosophy of TradePoint is to keep all business logic in the ERP system and to protect all previous and future investments made when customizing the ERP system. No calculations are made in TradePoint as all business logic is executed in the ERP system!

This firm belief in keeping the systems apart is all about making the perfect integration as when you modify the ERP system, the TradePoint website is instantly using your new code or configuration. Simply put, TradePoint adapts to your ways, not the other way around.

This means that your Dynamics consultants does not have to learn a new way of programming or working, they do not have to re-create the business logic for a replicated environment, they just need to keep doing what they have always done when working in Dynamics.

The communication layer of TradePoint provides web developers with an extremely pragmatic and easy-to-use way of communicating with the ERP system. TradePoint uses familiar concepts like ADO-record sets when returning data. This allows for quick development and makes ERP integration as easy as working with a SQL based storage.

Network Topologies

Since TradePoint runs on MS IIS and communicates using Message Queues, you have a broad and well-known way of installing it. This article discusses some different network topologies you can utilize when setting up TradePoint and also provides some information on how to scale for a heavy workload.