The first, and most important, step to using the Release Manager in TALLYS is to set up your FTP Server. As Weatherford will be hosting their own FTP Server, we will simply provide some direction as to what folder structure and logins TALLYS is expecting to see.
There are two types of logins, one login will be used by TALLYS which is running on the DC computer and the other logins will be used by the Weatherford agents to upload their batches.
DC Level Login
Once your FTP Server is up and running it is necessary for you to create a folder which will be the receptacle for the FTP batches being sent by the agent yards. In this example we will call the folder 'Tallys'. The DC level login would need to be created with a DC specific username and password whereby login would take the user directly to this 'Tallys' folder. This is the login that your DC installation of Tallys will use to import the information from the users.
Agent Level Login
Each Agent who will be sending batches to the DC will require their own separate login to the FTP server which will take them to their own folder. For example, if one of your agent yards has a yard number '17085' you will want to create a subfolder below your 'Tallys' folder which is named '17085' as shown below.
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Once the agent specific folder is created, the next step will be to create a login for that agent yard. There should be one login per agent yard and the login should take the user directly to the folder created for their yard. For example, if you create a login for yard 17085 you could make the FTP login username “17085” with the login pointing to the Tallys\17085 folder.
Once you have one agent folder set up including an FTP login which is directly mapped to the folder it will be necessary to repeat this process for all the agent yards you wish to use the Release Manager. Once you have created all of the FTP folders your folder structure should look something like this:
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When setting up a new agent yard to begin sending batches it is important that you provide them with your ftp address, their username and their password.
Setting up Weatherford Preferences
TALLYS uses preference records 780 and 785 to store information pertinent to the Weatherford FTP Batching system. The following steps should be followed in order to set up your TALLYS program to properly retrieve Weatherford batches from the FTP Server. Once setup, you should not need to change this information unless your FTP Server administrator changes the server settings.
1. Ensure you have you DC level login User Name and Password as created in the “Setting up your FTP Server” step above.
2. Log into TALLYS as a manager.
3. From the TALLYS main menu click 'File' then 'Preferences…'.
4. Scroll down the list until you find '780 Weatherford Login Setup' and open the preference.
5. In the 'User Name' and 'Password' fields enter the FTP user name and password from step 1 above.
6. In the 'IP Address' field enter the FTP server IP Address of your FTP Server.
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7. Click 'Save' in the lower left corner of Preference 780 and return to the preference list screen.
8. Locate '785 Weatherford Files Setup' and open the preference.
9. In the 'Weatherford Write Path' field, type '/Write/' exactly as shown below.
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10. In the 'Weatherford Read Path' field, type '/Read/' exactly as shown below.
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11. Click the button next to 'Local Temporary Folder' in order to browse your hard drive. Select a valid folder on your PC which will be used as a temporary storage location for the Weatherford FTP uploads and downloads.
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12. Click 'Save' in the lower left corner of Preference 785 and return to the preference list screen.
13. Locate '615 Weatherford No' and open the preference.
14. In the 'Owner Stock Point' field, enter the Branch/Agent ID for the DC. The Distribution Center's Branch/Agent ID must be 17061 in order for the TALLYS DC specific functionality to work correctly. No agent yard should be given this Branch/Agent ID as it is reserved for the DC.
15. Ensure the 'Owner Record No.' field contains the Owner ID of your DC Owner record.
16. The last field on this form does not apply to the DC installation of TALLYS and can be left blank.
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17. Once the above fields in preference 615 are set, save the settings and exit the preferences.
Setting Up A New Agent Yard
For each agent yard that will be sending information to the DC it is necessary to set up an Owner record for them. This will facilitate the import of their batches and allow Tallys to link the shipments and equipment information up with each yard. Prior to importing and setup data or batches from a yard, the owner record for this yard must be created.
1. From the TALLYS main menu click the „New Owner‟ button. You will be presented with the Owner input form.
2. In the header of the Owner input form highlight the Owner No. which was automatically assigned by TALLYS and replace it with the agent yard number. For this example we will use the agent yard number '17079'.
3. In the name field of the Owner input form please enter a meaningful name for this yard. You can complete all or none of the owner contact information fields as you see fit.
4. In the 'Manufacturer Distrib.' field please ensure that you enter the agent yard number as well ('17079'). This is a very important step in the functionality of the FTP batching process. Please ensure that this field is blank on any Owner records which are not being used for the FTP batching. The following will give you a visual representation of how to set up the Owner record.
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Please create a new owner record for each agent yard which will be sending information back to the DC using the steps above.
Importing the Equipment Information From an Agent Yard
Before beginning to receive batches from the Agent Yards it is necessary for you to receive a copy of their Weatherford equipment list. When you wish to setup the equipment items please communicate with the Agent Yard and ask them to export the necessary information. In order to do so they can follow the steps outlined under the heading “Exporting Your Weatherford Equipment Information” in their TALLYS tech note. Once you have confirmed that the agent yard has exported their equipment information successfully you can follow the steps below to import the information into your DC installation of TALLYS.
1. From the TALLYS main menu click 'Tools' then 'Execute Command'.
2. In the 'Command:' field type 'batch_Wea_Equip_Read' as shown below and click 'OK'.
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3. You will next be prompted to enter the agent yard number for which you wish to import data for. In this example we will use agent yard number '17079' as that is the owner record we set up in the previous step.
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4. You will see a progress window on your screen which details what steps TALLYS is completing. Once the window closes your transmission is complete.
5. The next step is to open the Equipment list screen to confirm you have received the equipment items for yard 17079.
Please note: In order to maintain commonality amongst equipment item numbers without accidentally duplicating numbers the 'Our Part No.' field on the imported equipment will have the agent yard number and an underscore added to the agent yard‟s part number as a prefix. For example, if agent yard 17079 has an item with an 'Our Part No.' set to '619' when you import this item into your DC installation of TALLYS the 'Our Part No.' will be modified to be '17079_619' (as shown below). When discussing this part number with the agent yard, please be aware that they will only see the 'Our Part No.' as '619'
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Receiving FTP Batches
The frequency at which the agent yards should send batches to the DC will be determined by you. The recommended schedule is to have the agent yards submit their batches at the end of each day and for you to read the FTP Batches the following morning.
1. In order to ensure that the necessary files are not locked, please back both your main and inquiry window to the main menu prior to continuing with the following steps.
2. From the main menu, go to 'Tools' then 'Read Weatherford'. Please note that this menu option is only available to the DC installation of TALLYS.
3. This method will run through all the owner records which have the 'Manufacturer Distrib.' field set check the corresponding folder on the FTP site and import any files which are present. Once the progress window closes the shipments and equipment quantities have been imported. You can now go to your shipment list screen to view the shipments.
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