Sage 100

I have a client where more than 75% of inventory descriptions are extended. I would like to modify the Item lookup ALE to show extended descriptions if they exist, else the standard description. If I choose extended description, those without display as ** not on file **. It appears that calculated fields are for numerics only so no if - then option there.

I would think you have to display both columns. If you suppress the column where there is no extended description, then you suppress items with 30 characters or less. I would be interested if you find a solution here.

I am displaying both columns waiting on a better solution but between the item ID and both descriptions, it's looking pretty crowded.

Work around: You could run a VI job that creates new records in CI_ExtendedDescription for the current ""non extended description"" items. Of course when future new items are created the user will need to ensure that descriptions are greater than 30 characters (pad to the right with blanks when necessary).

I had this request before and handled it like this: * Created UDF_FULL_DESCRIPTION in CI_Item with length of 250 (enough for them) * For all existing recs, created a one time script to populate UDF with either the Extended Description or regular description depending on whether Ext Desc key existed. I presume this could've been substituted with a V/I import that did the same. * For new items, in Inventory Maint, created a script that populates UDF with either Ext Desc or regular desc upon Accept button click. Now on the lookup they only needed 1 desc field that is UDF_FULL_DESCRIPTION

Alnoor, your suggestion addresses other Crystal issues as well. I've had to add logic to just about every SO, PO, and IM report and form to make sure the extended description displays when appropriate. Your way, I just use the UDF and I'm done. Could you share the script that populates the UDF in Inventory Maintenance?

Another idea so you can do this without scripting to update the UDF_FULL_DESCRIPTION is to setup a VI job export chained to a VI import and set a batch file up to run from the task scheduler.