Simplifying Epicor BAQs and BPMs: How Epic One's Developer Mood Works

Purchasing wants every open PO line with the part, the supplier and the due date. You know exactly what the report should look like. What you don't know is whether the table is called PODetail or PODetl, which join keeps the company straight, and why the totals came out doubled the last time. So the request sits. If you're the person who builds in Epicor, that's a familiar kind of Tuesday. Epic One's Developer mood is built to shorten it, and it now covers a lot more than BAQs.

What the Developer mood does

Developer is a licensed add-on mood, marked New in the app, for the people who build in Epicor. You describe what you need in plain words. Epic One builds the BAQ (Business Activity Query), the Kinetic dashboard, the screen change or the menu item, tests it on your real data, and saves it when you're happy. It also backs your work up as an Epicor solution and moves it to another environment. You stay in one conversation instead of bouncing between the designers, a spreadsheet and a colleague's memory.

Design and test BAQs before anything is saved

Epic One reads each table's fields and types from Epicor's own data dictionary before it uses them, so it only uses names that really exist. Ask "What fields does PODetail have?" and you get the real list. A name that doesn't exist is refused, and you're shown the closest real ones.

You can design and test as long as you like. Epic One handles tables, joins (Company is matched for you), columns, calculated columns, totals (count, sum, min, max and average, with the other columns grouped), filters and sorting. The test runs with the test row limit removed, so you see the real row count and the first rows. A sample that looks fine at 100 rows can hide a join that multiplies lines at 40,000, and seeing the true count is how you catch doubled totals early.

Each test also shows a mapping preview: a table of the grid headings, the fields behind them, the joins and the filters. Epic One asks whether anything needs changing. You can rename headings or swap fields until it's right, and the headings you choose are the ones the grid shows in Epicor. Try "Call the cost column Unit Cost and drop the order date."

Saving as EO_ names, and what it never touches

When you say "Save it as OpenPOLines," the BAQ is saved as EO_OpenPOLines and shared with your company. It's saved exactly as tested, only on a Pilot or test environment for now, after an Approve card shows you what's about to happen, and then it's read back. To change one of your EO_ BAQs, describe the change. It's tested again and the same BAQ is updated in place.

The rules around this are strict on purpose. Every change happens on a Pilot or test environment only, carries the EO_ name, and goes through an Approve card. Epic One never changes a system BAQ or anyone else's, and it never deletes anything that isn't EO_.

Updatable BAQs, with reviewed code

Mark columns as editable and a BAQ becomes updatable. Saving changes in an updatable BAQ needs an update directive, which is the code that runs when someone saves a row. Epic One never writes that code itself. It installs one of the Epic One team's reviewed templates, with an Approve card, and can show, turn on, turn off or remove it. If no template fits what you need, Epic One says so and the Epic One team adds one.

One template is available now: move a receipt's warehouse or bin, for receipts that were bought for a sales order. Changing the warehouse or bin on the grid does one of three things, depending on the receipt. A buy-to-order receipt waiting in the material queue has its queued move redirected. Other stock is moved with an inventory transfer. A non-stock receipt has its receipt line changed. A row whose sales order release is closed, or a bin that doesn't exist, is refused.

Dashboards, screen changes, menus and tiles

Dashboards. Epic One builds a Kinetic dashboard with one grid per saved BAQ and the columns you choose. An updatable BAQ's grid gets its editable columns and an Update button, so people can make changes right on the grid.

Screen changes. You can rename, hide, make read-only or disable a field on an Epicor screen, or add a field to it. Epic One first lists the screen's pages and the fields on each one, so it only uses fields the screen really has. Changes are saved as a draft layer, and the standard screen is never touched. Look at the draft in Application Studio, then ask Epic One to publish it.

Menus and the home page. Add a menu item so people can open a dashboard or a changed screen. Add tiles to the Epicor home page (a menu item, a BAQ grid or a web page) and share that layout with a security group. Epic One only removes the tiles it added.

Solutions: back up and move your work

Epic One packs the things you choose into an Epicor solution named EO_. That can include BAQs, dashboards, Kinetic apps, menu items, directives, screen layers, functions, quick searches, user codes and BAQ reports. Each backup is kept in Epic One with a download link, and an updatable BAQ's directive travels inside the BAQ.

To move a backup to another environment, switch the environment chip to that environment and ask Epic One to install it. Before installing, it lists what the backup holds and which of those items are already there. It installs into your current company only, and items that already exist are left alone unless you say to replace them.

Method and data directives (BPMs)

Directives are the rules Epicor runs behind the scenes when a record is saved. Describe a rule in plain words and Epic One builds it from rule blocks. For the trigger, you can pick a field that changes to or from a value, a field that equals something, a field that is empty, or a record being added. For the action, it can set a field, stop the save, or show a message. Custom code is used only if blocks can't do it.

The same safety rules apply. Directives are named with an EO_ prefix and are Pilot only. Each one starts turned off. Epicor compiles the directive when it is turned on, and a compile error keeps it off, so a broken rule never goes live. You can list, show, turn off or delete your directives.

Here's an example: "When a project task status becomes Complete, set the completed date to today and percent complete to 100." Epic One builds that from a status-change trigger and two set-field actions, then shows you an Approve card before anything is saved.

Run, list, explain, export

You can run, list and explain your saved EO_ BAQs, dashboards, screens, menus and solutions. "Run EO_OpenPOLines" gives you the row count and the first rows, and "Show me how it's built" lists its tables, columns, joins and filters. For a whole list as a file, ask to export it to Excel.

A few things you can say

"Build a BAQ of open PO lines: PO number, order date, line, part, quantity, unit cost and line value, newest first." Epic One joins POHeader and PODetail, adds the calculated line value, filters to open lines, sorts, then tests it and shows the mapping preview, row count and first rows. Nothing is saved.

"Make a dashboard for EO_RcvToSO and put it on the Shipping/Receiving menu." You get a dashboard with the grid and an Update button, then an Approve card for the menu item.

"On Customer Entry, rename Territory to Sales Region and hide Fax." Epic One lists the screen's fields, then saves a draft layer after you approve. Ask it to publish once you've looked at it.

"Back up EO_RcvToSO with its dashboard and menu." Epic One finds the exact items, then an Approve card builds the solution, and you get a download link.

Setting it up

Your administrator adds the Developer module for your company under Fleet admin > Modules. Connect Epicor under Settings > Saved Credentials. Pick your Pilot or test environment in the system chip before saving anything. Then say "switch to developer mode." You can read the full description in the Developer section of the user guide.

Here's the takeaway. Pick one report or screen tweak somebody keeps asking you for and write it down in a sentence, the way you'd say it across the desk. That sentence is the starting prompt. If you'd like to see Developer on your own Epicor, get Epic One set up and tell us you want the Developer module.