Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide September 2015 Document Version C
Version C of the Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide had been updated with editing changes.
Contents Preface... 1 About Cortex Business Solutions Inc.... 1 About This Guide... 1 About Cortex Gateway... 2 Document Exchange Through Cortex Gateway... 2 Requirements... 3 What s New... 3 If You Are Running an Earlier Version... 3 Cortex Gateway Administrator Tasks... 4 Installing Cortex Gateway... 5 Configuring Cortex Gateway... 6 Managing Document Sending and Receiving... 9 Scheduling Document Sending and Receiving... 9 Running Documents Sending and/or Receiving Manually... 11 Cortex Gateway Log... 12 Uninstalling Cortex Gateway... 13 Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Cortex Gateway... 14 Cortex Help Desk... 15 Call Help Desk... 15 Send Email... 15 Submit Your Inquiry Online... Error! Bookmark not defined. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide i
Preface About Cortex Business Solutions Inc. Cortex Business Solutions Inc. is an industry-leading service company that improves efficiencies, reduces costs and streamlines procurement and supply chain processes for its customers. Accessing the Cortex Trading Partner Network enhances the exchange of business critical documents, such as purchase orders, receipts and invoices resulting in improved cash flow management and business controls, while reducing the day s outstanding and administrative costs. Cortex is a low cost, low risk solution that can be implemented quickly by leveraging its customers existing business environment evolving business. Cortex products and services are non-intrusive and allow our customers the freedom to leverage and optimize their existing processes and information technology assets when it makes the best business sense for them. This approach improves the productivity, cash flow and profitability of our customers, while avoiding the risk and delays associated with large information technology or business processes re-engineering initiatives. For more information please visit our website at www.cortex.net. About This Guide This Administrator Guide is intended for IT personnel responsible for the installation, configuration and maintenance of Cortex Gateway. The Guide includes a brief overview of Cortex Gateway, outlines the Cortex Gateway Administrator s tasks and provides detailed instructions on each of them. Should any assistance be needed, the Guide also provides contact details of Cortex Help Desk. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 1
About Cortex Gateway About Cortex Gateway Cortex Gateway is one of the few ways to integrate with the Cortex network of trading partners for an electronic exchange of business documents with them. The integration has no effect on regular business processes in your company. Users responsible for the processing of business documents can continue to create and receive them in their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in exactly the same way as before. Cortex Gateway ensures that these documents are transmitted, in a secure electronic manner, to and from your ERP system and delivered to and from your trading partners, regardless of the software they are using. Document Exchange Through Cortex Gateway Cortex Gateway is a client-server application. Its client component, mainly referred to as Cortex Gateway, is located on a machine in your system. Once installed and configured, Cortex Gateway can perform two tasks: Sending outgoing documents to your trading partners Receiving incoming documents from your trading partners The following diagram shows in more detail the responsibilities of Cortex Gateway in the document exchange. Your System Document Exchange Through Cortex Gateway Cortex Trading Partners Network Archive 2 ERP system (for ex., SAP) Outgoing Documents Export Incoming Documents Import Outbound Inbound Acks 1 6 Cortex Gateway Client 3 Internet 5 Cortex Gateway Server 4 NOTE One instance of Cortex Gateway is required per each Client ID that you received from Cortex. Most trading partners use one Client ID. File Sending As a precondition to file sending, your company needs to ensure that outbound documents are exported from the ERP system to a certain format and placed, together with their attachments into a designated folder. The actual implementation of these processes is controlled by your company. Any other requirements that have been defined by your company and Cortex must be met as well. 2 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
About Cortex Gateway The following steps describe the process of file sending to your trading partners through Cortex Gateway. 1 Cortex Gateway polls the designated outbound folder. 2 If there are any files there, Cortex Gateway copies all the files, both exported documents and attachments, to the designated archive folder. 3 Cortex Gateway moves all the files from the outbound folder to Cortex Gateway Server. 4 Cortex Gateway Server authenticates the connection and passes them for further processing and delivery to your trading partners. File Receiving Requirements What s New 5 Cortex Gateway polls Cortex Gateway Server for files received from your trading partners. 6 Cortex Gateway moves all the files, including documents attachments, from Cortex Gateway Server to designated locations. To complete the receiving of documents, the files have to be imported from the designated locations into the ERP system. The file import is controlled by your company. Depending on your business requirements, you may be using Cortex Gateway for both sending and receiving documents or for one of the tasks only. For example, if you only submit invoices but do not receive any documents in response, it is sufficient to use the sending functionality of Cortex Gateway only. If you submit documents and receive acknowledgements for each submitted document, then you require both sending and receiving capabilities of Cortex Gateway. For more details on file sending and receiving, refer to Managing Document Sending and Receiving on page 9. Cortex Gateway can be installed on both Window and Unix operating systems. It is a selfcontained application that does not require any prerequisites. Version 2.0 of Cortex Gateway includes the following changes in the application s functionality and capabilities: Cortex Gateway only sends and receives documents. Any other tasks, performed by earlier versions of Cortex Gateway, are handled by other software components of Cortex. The limitations on the attachment file size and the number of attachments per document have been removed. The transmission of any number of attachments of any size is now supported. NOTE The actual file size and number of attachments that you can send or receive may be limited by the software capabilities at your trading partner s end. If You Are Running an Earlier Version If you are running an earlier version of Cortex Gateway, it is mandatory to upgrade to Cortex Gateway 2.0. For more details, refer to Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Cortex Gateway on page 14. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 3
Cortex Gateway Administrator Tasks Cortex Gateway Administrator Tasks As a Cortex Gateway Administrator, you are responsible for the following tasks: If you have not been using Cortex Gateway before: 1 Installing Cortex Gateway, as described on page 5. 2 Configuring Cortex Gateway, as described on page 6. NOTE As part of the Cortex Gateway configuration, you create a set of folders with which Cortex Gateway works. You maintain full control over the folders and assigning your internal user permissions to them. 3 Managing document sending and receiving, as described on page 9. NOTE While Cortex Gateway ensures document sending and receiving, your company and/or ERP users are responsible for performing any complementary steps of these processes: For document sending: exporting business documents created in an ERP system and placing them in their attachments in the designated folder. For document receiving: importing files from a designated location into their ERP system. For more information on document sending and receiving, refer to Document Exchange Through Cortex Gateway on page 2. 4 If needed, uninstalling Cortex Gateway, as described on page 13. If you are running an earlier version of Cortex Gateway: Performing the upgrade, as described on page 14. 4 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Installing Cortex Gateway Installing Cortex Gateway The installation implies downloading the Cortex Gateway files and saving them on a machine in your system. To install Cortex Gateway: 1 Browse to the Cortex Updates and Downloads site: http://www.cortex.net/about/support/desktop-users/downloads-installation To access the site, provide the following credentials: username vendor, password cortex. 2 Download the relevant version of Cortex Gateway either for Windows, or Unix. 3 In the File Download window, click Open and then extract the content of the ZIP (or TGZ) file to the folder from which you want to run Cortex Gateway. 4 Once done, proceed to configuring Cortex Gateway, as described in Configuring Cortex Gateway on page 6. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 5
Configuring Cortex Gateway Configuring Cortex Gateway Cortex Gateway is configured through its configuration file. The main configuration parameters include the Cortex Gateway Server address and folder names, with which Cortex Gateway works in your system. Once configured, Cortex Gateway Client will be able to successfully communicate with the Cortex Gateway Server, and transfer documents through it, while working with a set of configured folders. The configuration is required for both new installations and upgrades. If needed, you can change the Cortex Gateway configuration at a later time. NOTE When configuring Cortex Gateway, have your Cortex username and password handy. You will need to provide these details in the configuration files to ensure Cortex Gateway authentication on the Cortex Gateway Server. To configure Cortex Gateway: 1 On your computer, select Start >Run, type in cmd and click OK. A command prompt window opens. 2 In the command prompt window, change the directory to the location where you saved Cortex Gateway file, as follows: type in cd, then enter the pathname of the location and press Enter. 3 Run gateway.bat_c. The Cortex Gateway configuration parameters are displayed. 4 Define each of the parameters by entering its number, providing the value, and pressing Enter. 6 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Configuring Cortex Gateway For each parameter, a brief explanation is displayed in the cmd window. For your convenience, all the parameters and their values are also described in the following table. No. Parameter Name Value 1 Doc Exchange Server In this field, enter the URL of the document exchange server as follows: https://ebutilities.electrobusiness.com/gatewayse rvice/webservice.svc 2 Username Enter the username provided by Cortex. 3 Password Enter the password provided by Cortex. You will be prompted twice. The next parameters define folders to be used by Cortex Gateway for various purposes. The same rule applies to all folder names: If a folder is in the same folder as Cortex Gateway files, provide the relative path name. If the folder is stored in any other location, provide an absolute path name. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Cortex Gateway, consider using the same folders. That would ensure a seamless upgrade with no or minimal impact on regular work routines of the ERP system users. For more details on upgrades, refer to Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Cortex Gateway on page 14. 4 Outbound Folder Enter the name of the folder where you want to place the documents to be sent to your trading partners. 5 Inbound Folder Enter the name of the folder where you want to receive the documents from your trading partners. 6 Log Folder Enter the name of the folder for storing the Cortex Gateway log file. 7 Archive Folder Enter the name of the folder where copies of all outgoing documents will be automatically saved. 8 Acknowledgements Folder This folder is reserved for receiving acknowledgements from your trading partners. (The acknowledgment file extension includes the ack ending.) Currently, this folder is not in use, and all incoming documents, including acknowledgements, are stored in the designated Inbound folder, described above (configuration parameter 5). However, you need to define the name of this folder to be able to save the configuration file. 5 Once you defined all the parameters, enter c and press Enter to create the folders. 6 Enter s and press Enter to save the configuration file. NOTE You can save the file only if all the configuration parameters have been defined. 7 Once done, proceed to Managing Document Sending and Receiving on page 9 to learn about your next steps. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 7
Configuring Cortex Gateway If a change to any of the configuration parameters is needed (for example, you want to change the location of a folder used by Cortex Gateway), you can edit the Cortex Gateway configuration file. To edit the Cortex Gateway configuration file: 1 Repeat steps 1 to 3 of the previous procedure. The current configuration parameters of Cortex Gateway are displayed in the cmd window. 2 Enter the parameter name, provide its value, and press Enter. Refer to the table above for detailed explanations on each of the configuration parameters. 3 Enter s and press Enter to save the configuration file. 8 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Managing Document Sending and Receiving Managing Document Sending and Receiving Once you configured Cortex Gateway, it is ready to send and receive your documents. For each of these two functions, Cortex Gateway executes a special command send or receive, respectively. The commands are stored in the same folder where you placed downloaded Cortex Gateway files. The send command is gateway.bat st (on Windows) or gateway.kst st (on Unix). The receive command is gateway.bat gt (on Windows) or gateway.kst gt (on Unix). One of your responsibilities is to manage the execution of these commands. You can setup their automatic execution by scheduling them, or run them manually on demand. NOTE Though Cortex Gateway supports both file sending and receiving, you may be using one function only. In that case, you need to schedule (or run manually) the relevant command only. For example, if you use Cortex Gateway for sending documents only and do not receive any documents through it, you need to schedule (or run manually) the send command only. Scheduling Document Sending and Receiving Scheduling is the easiest way to maintain document sending and receiving. Use Scheduled Tasks on Windows or a cron job on Unix to schedule the execution of both commands. You can schedule them to run periodically, or have them automatically executed by other software. Below are some recommendations regarding the scheduling of the send and receive commands: Run the send and receive commands at reasonable time intervals. For example: 15 min intervals for large volumes of data 1 hour interval for medium size companies Once a day for smaller companies Avoid executing the commands too often, as that may create an excessive load on your network. If at all possible, run the commands at random intervals. Ideally, set the send and receive command to run at different times. That further distributes the load on your network. The following example explains how to schedule the send command on Windows. Other commands are scheduled similarly. To schedule document sending: 1 On your computer, open Control Panel>Scheduled Tasks> Add Scheduled Task. The Scheduled Task Wizard opens. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 9
Managing Document Sending and Receiving 2 Click Next. The following window is displayed. 3 Click Browse and browse to the location where you saved Cortex Gateway files (for example, C:\Cortex Gateway). 4 Select gateway_st.bat and click Open. The following window opens. 5 If you wish, enter another name for the task (for example, Sending Documents). 6 Select the frequency of the task, for example, Daily. 7 Click Next and follows the wizard to set up the exact start time for the task and its other properties. 8 Once done, click Finished. 10 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Managing Document Sending and Receiving Running Documents Sending and/or Receiving Manually You can run the send or receive command at any time. The following example shows how to run the send command on Windows. All other manual runs of these commands are done similarly. To run the send command manually: 1 On your computer, open the command prompt window as follows: select Start >Run, type in cmd and click OK. A command prompt window opens. 2 In the command prompt window, change the directory to the Cortex Gateway installation location, as follows: type cd, then enter the installation folder s pathname and press Enter. 3 Run gateway_st.bat. The documents are sent, and the results of the command execution are displayed in the cmd window. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 11
Cortex Gateway Log Cortex Gateway Log To provide you with detailed information on the file transfer, Cortex Gateway logs all its events. The log file, named cgateway.log, is created in the log folder that you defined while configuring Cortex Gateway. For more details, refer to Configuring Cortex Gateway on page 6. Once the log file reaches its maximum size of 10485760 bytes, it is moved to the configured archive folder and renamed to gateway.log.old. When the new log file reaches the maximum size again, the archived log file is overwritten, so there should never be more than 2MB of Cortex Gateway log files in your system. The log includes information on all successful document transfers as well as on errors. The main purpose of logging the errors is providing you with more details on the Cortex Gateway events. In addition to being logged, all the errors are tracked and proactively addressed by Cortex. For troubleshooting and assistant with Cortex Gateway, contact Cortex Customer Support, as described in Cortex Help Desk on page 15. 12 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Uninstalling Cortex Gateway Uninstalling Cortex Gateway If you do not need to use Cortex Gateway, you can uninstall it. Uninstalling is also part of the Cortex Gateway upgrade to a newer version. To uninstall Cortex Gateway: 1 Delete any scheduled tasks or cron jobs that have been created for Cortex Gateway. 2 Delete Cortex Gateway files from its installation location. NOTE Cortex Gateway was working with a set of folders that were specifically configured for it. You maintain the full control over the folders. Decide how the folders should be handled and act accordingly. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 13
Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Cortex Gateway Upgrading from Earlier Versions of Cortex Gateway All users who are currently running an earlier version of Cortex Desktop must upgrade to Cortex Gateway 2.0. To upgrade to Cortex Gateway 2.0: 1 Delete any schedules tasks or cron jobs that have been created for Cortex Gateway. 2 Delete the Cortex Gateway application files. NOTE There is no need delete folders that Cortex Gateway was using until now. You can configure the new version of Cortex Gateway to work with the same folders. 3 Install the latest version of Cortex Gateway, as described on page 5. 4 Configure Cortex Gateway, as described on page 6. 5 Set up document sending and receiving, as described on page 9. 14 Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide
Cortex Help Desk Cortex Help Desk For any questions regarding Cortex Gateway 2.0, contact Cortex Customer Support on the phone, by email or online. Call Help Desk Call our Help Desk at 1-866-716-6272. Choose: Option 1 for Customer Support and General Business Calls Option 2 for Order Desk (to subscribe, or make changes to your subscription) Option 3 for Accounting (to make a payment, change your billing details, or inquire about your Cortex invoice) Hours of Operation: Application monitoring provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Customer Support is operational from 6:00 AM MT/8:00 AM ET to 6:00 PM MT/8:00 PM ET, Monday through Friday. o Excluding Canadian statutory holidays If you reach voicemail, please leave a detailed message with the following: Your full name Your company name Your phone number A detailed description of the reason for your call Send Email A Customer Service Representative will return your call within the same business day. support@cortex.net for Help Desk, Technical Support, user advice. Cortex Gateway 2.0 Administrator Guide 15