Management Database
Table of Contents
The COBI.wms management database can be installed in on-premises or private cloud environments where you have direct access to the database server and can create your own databases on it. The management database allows you to centrally define and manage connections to SAP Business One databases, COBI.wms users and devices, and module permissions.
Creating the database
If you are using MS SQL Server, execute the contents of the following file in SQL Server Management Studio:
If using SAP HANA, instead execute the following in HANA Studio:
Company connections
You must define SAP Business One database connections by inserting rows into the “companies” table.
Usually, you only need to fill in the following columns:
Column | Type / Valid values | Description |
---|---|---|
CompanyID | Text | Unique identifier for this connection |
SQLDB | Text | Name of the SAP Business One database |
APIType | SL or IF | SL for Service Layer; IF for Integration Framework |
APIURL | Text | Service Layer URL or Integration Scenario Trigger-URL |
APIID | Text | For SL: same as SQLDB; For IF: Company ID in the IF SLD |
APIUsername | Text or NULL | For SL: SAP Business One username; For IF: NULL |
APIPassword | Text or NULL | For SL: SAP Business One password; For IF: NULL |
Tip: You can use the character sequence {host}
as part of the APIURL
value, to make the app use the same host name (or IP address) as that of the management database.
Tip: (only for Service Layer) If you want to enforce warehouse employees to use individual logins, you can leave the APIUsername
and APIPassword
fields NULL and only fill in the APIUser
and APIPass
fields in the Users table instead, as explained below in the section: Separate login per user
Note: If the ApiType
is SL
, then the SQLDB
column can be left empty, which will cause the app to use a pure Service Layer connection as if in a Cloud environment. However, this is strongly discouraged because a direct database connection offers significantly higher performance and stability. Therefore, the SQLDB
column should always be filled for all On-Premises installations.
See also: Architecture Overview
Example for adding a productive and a test connection for an on-premises environment, using unencrypted communication with Service Layer so it doesn't require a valid SSL Certificate:
INSERT INTO companies (companyId, sqlDb, apiType, apiUrl, apiId, apiUsername, apiPassword) VALUES ('01 - PROD', 'SBO_PROD', 'SL', 'http://{host}:50001/b1s/v2', 'SBO_PROD', 'manager', 'secret'); INSERT INTO companies (companyId, sqlDb, apiType, apiUrl, apiId, apiUsername, apiPassword) VALUES ('02 - TEST', 'SBO_TEST', 'SL', 'http://{host}:50001/b1s/v2', 'SBO_TEST', 'manager', 'secret');
Note: The examples above use http:
instead of https:
and the port number 50001 instead of 50000. This means that communication with Service Layer will be unencrypted, and the app will skip over the Load Balancer and directly access Node 1 of Service Layer.
If it's important for you to have encrypted communication with Service Layer, and/or you experience performance issues due to the Load Balancer being skipped, then you must ensure that a valid SSL Certificate is installed for Service Layer, and change the http
above to https
and the port number 50001 to 50000.
Optional columns
The following columns of the companies table should usually be left empty, i.e. NULL
or an empty text:
Column | Type / Valid values | Description |
---|---|---|
DBType | MSSQL or HANA | MSSQL for SQL Server, HANA for SAP HANA |
SQLHost | Text | Database server host name or IP address |
SQLPort | Text | Database server port number |
SQLUser | Text | Database login user (e.g. 'sa' or 'SYSTEM') |
SQLPass | Text | Database login password |
SQLDomain | Text | Domain SQL Server “trusted connection” |
HANAProxyHost | Text | HANA Proxy host name or IP address |
HANAProxyPort | Text | HANA Proxy port number |
Profile | Text | Code to enable a customer-specific profile |
PrintService | Text | Address of the COBI.wms Print Service |
The columns DBType
, SQLHost
, SQLUser
, and SQLPass
only need to be filled if the SAP Business One company database resides on a different database server than the one on which the management database is installed. I.e. you can redirect the app to a different server/database by filling these columns. The SQLPort
column only needs to be filled if the database server listens on a different port than the default (1433 for MS SQL Server, 30015 for SAP HANA).
The HANAProxyHost
column only needs to be filled if the HANA Proxy is not installed on the same server as the SAP HANA database itself. The HANAProxyPort
only needs to be filled if the HANA Proxy is configured to use a different port than the default value of 30075.
The Profile
column is used to enable customer-specific specializations in the app and should be left empty unless instructed.
The PrintService
column can be used to centrally define the address of the COBI.wms Print Service. If not defined here, it has to be set on each Android device in the Print Settings screen of COBI.wms. When using the standard port of the COBI.wms Print Service, you should only enter the host name or IP address in this column. When using a non-standard port number, you can specify it by entering the value HOST:PORT
in this column where HOST
is the host name or IP address and PORT
is the TCP port number.
Devices and Users
COBI.wms Devices
Devices will register themselves automatically when they connect to the management database.
Devices are assigned a numeric ID beginning from 1, which can be seen in the login screen of the app at the bottom right of the login button.
A device can be removed by using the removeDevice
procedure:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC removeDevice 1; -- SAP HANA CALL removeDevice(1);
COBI.wms Users
This section is optional; the app can also be used without adding COBI.wms users to the management database.
You may add COBI.wms users to more strictly control access to the app and monitor what was done by who. The “Username” and “Password” fields in the app will only appear if at least one COBI.wms user is defined.
To add COBI.wms users, use the addUser
procedure:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC addUser 'user1', 'password', NULL, NULL, 'Full Name'; -- SAP HANA CALL addUser('user1', 'password', NULL, NULL, 'Full Name');
The first parameter is the user ID that uniquely identifies the user and it is also the username for logging into the app. It could be a name like 'alice' or 'bob' that easily identifies an employee, or it could be a symbolic name like 'manager' or 'production1'.
The second parameter is the password. It cannot be NULL, but it can be an empty text (just ''
) to allow the user to log in without having to type anything into the Password field.
The third and fourth parameters are obsolete and should be NULL
.
The last parameter can be the full name, or a long description of the user, or it can be NULL
.
The password of a user can be reset with the resetPassword
procedure:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC resetPassword 'user1', 'new password'; -- SAP HANA CALL resetPassword('user1', 'new password');
Users can be removed with the removeUser
procedure:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC removeUser 'user1'; -- SAP HANA CALL removeUser('user1');
Separate login per user
You can specify a separate SAP Business One login for each COBI.wms user or device. This way, the Change Log in SAP Business One can correctly display which COBI.wms user or device booked or updated a document.
Specify the SAP Business One login for a COBI.wms user by executing the following SQL command on the Management Database:
UPDATE users SET apiUser = 'sbo_username', apiPass = 'sbo_password' WHERE userId = 'cobiwms_username';
If you don't use COBI.wms users, you can do the same for a device. Each device that connects to the database actually creates a special COBI.wms user called _deviceXXXX
(where XXXX
is the device ID), and you can set the login data for that special user.
For example, you could create SAP Business One users called wms0001
, wms0002
, etc., and then assign the login data of those to the corresponding COBI.wms device users such as _device0001
, _device0002
, and so on.
UPDATE users SET apiUser = 'wms0001', apiPass = 'password' WHERE userId = '_device0001'; UPDATE users SET apiUser = 'wms0002', apiPass = 'password' WHERE userId = '_device0002'; -- And so on...
Once you've updated the users
table with these commands, just restart the COBI.wms Android app and the change will take effect. You can make a test booking with the app and check the Change Log in SAP Business One to make sure that it worked.
WARNING: When you save the SAP Business One user's password in the apiPass
field as shown above, the password will be seen in plain text in the management database, just like the apiPassword
column of the companies
table. This should generally not be an issue because untrusted persons should not have access to your database server. However, if this poses an issue for you, see the next section.
Avoiding plaintext passwords in the database
Normally, the password of an SAP Business One user has to be specified either in the apiPassword
column of the companies
table, or in the apiPass
column of the users
table.
(Technical details: It makes no sense to encrypt these columns, because the key to decrypt them would need to be deployed as part of the app, such that anyone could access it by analyzing the Android app. We cannot store a hashed value either, because the app needs to forward the plaintext password to Service Layer when logging in to SAP Business One.)
To avoid this issue, the following strategy can be used:
- Leave the
apiPassword
andapiPass
columns in the database empty - Create COBI.wms users with the same username and password as SAP Business One users
When you enter a username & password in the COBI.wms login screen, the app first uses these to perform a COBI.wms user login. It then tries to find a username & password for Service Layer by checking the apiPassword
and apiPass
columns mentioned above. However, if these columns are empty, the app will simply take the username & password that were entered for the COBI.wms user login, and try to use these for the Service Layer login as well. So, if the username & password of the COBI.wms user is the same as an SAP Business One user, it will work.
(Technical details: The password of a COBI.wms user is not stored in plaintext in the database, only a secure hash value of it is stored, since it doesn't need to be forwarded anywhere.)
License management
Licensing model
Every parallel access to COBI.wms requires a license. For example, if a maximum of 3 people will use COBI.wms at the same time, you will need 3 licenses. However, whether you want to license devices or users is up to you.
You could assign your licenses to three devices, so anyone can use those devices with or without a COBI.wms user. Or you could assign your licenses to three COBI.wms users, so those users can use COBI.wms on any number of Android devices by using their login. You can also mix the two models. For example, you could assign licenses to two devices so anyone can use them, and assign a third license to a user so that user can use any Android device to log in.
Importing licenses
Import licenses simply by executing INSERT statements:
-- Change LICENSE_1, LICENSE_2 etc. to the actual license, keep the apostrophes. INSERT INTO licenses (license) VALUES ('LICENSE_1'); INSERT INTO licenses (license) VALUES ('LICENSE_2'); INSERT INTO licenses (license) VALUES ('LICENSE_3');
The licenses table also has an optional notes
column which you can use for notes about the license. For example, if you have both regular COBI.wms licenses as well as COBI.ppc licenses in the same database, you can differentiate them through these notes. Or, when importing test licenses that are only valid for a limited time, you can enter this as a note. Examples:
INSERT INTO licenses (license, notes) VALUES ('LICENSE_1', 'WMS'); INSERT INTO licenses (license, notes) VALUES ('LICENSE_2', 'PPC'); INSERT INTO licenses (license, notes) VALUES ('LICENSE_3', 'PPC, valid until November 2023');
Assigning licenses
Bulk-editing the LICENSES table
The information of which user or device a license is assigned to is found directly in the LICENSES table of the management database. If you want to make a large number of changes, it might be easiest to directly modify this table.
For example, in MS SQL Server Management Studio, you can right-click on the Devices table and select “Edit top 200 rows” and directly edit the “UserID” or “DeviceID” column of each license. (For each license, only one of the columns can be filled, the other must be NULL.)
Using stored procedures
To assign licenses to devices and/or users, you can also use the assignDeviceLicense
and assignUserLicense
procedures. These will automatically check whether you have any free (unassigned) licenses and use one of them:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC assignDeviceLicense 1; -- Give a free license to Device 1 -- or EXEC assignUserLicense 'user1'; -- Give a free license to User 'user1' -- SAP HANA CALL assignDeviceLicense(1); -- Give a free license to Device 1 -- or CALL assignUserLicense('user1'); -- Give a free license to User 'user1'
For revoking licenses, you can use the revokeDeviceLicense
and revokeUserLicense
procedures. This will free up the license that is currently used by a given user or device, so you can then assign it to another user or device:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC revokeDeviceLicense 1; -- Take away the license of Device 1 -- or EXEC revokeUserLicense 'user1'; -- Take away the license of User 'user1' -- SAP HANA CALL revokeDeviceLicense(1); -- Take away the license of Device 1 -- or CALL revokeUserLicense('user1'); -- Take away the license of User 'user1'
Permission management
All modules of the app are enabled by default for all devices and users, and have to be blocked explicitly if you want to change this.
The settings for users take precedence over the settings for devices. For example, you could block a number of modules for a certain device, but if a user logs in on that device who is explicitly given permissions for those modules, then the user can use those modules anyway. Conversely, if a number of modules are explicitly blocked for a user, then no matter what device the user logs in to, those modules will not be available to that user.
You can effectively block usage of the app without COBI.wms user login, by blocking all modules for all devices, and then giving permissions to the users. (This can also be done by leaving the apiUsername
and apiPassword
fields in the Companies table empty, and only setting them for individual users.)
To allow/block modules for devices/users, use the setDevicePermission
and setUserPermission
procedures:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC setDevicePermission 1, 'MODULE_ID', 0; -- Device 1 has MODULE_ID disabled EXEC setUserPermission 'user1', 'MODULE_ID', 1; -- But user1 has it enabled so she/he can use it anyway -- SAP HANA CALL setDevicePermission(1, 'MODULE_ID', 0); -- Device 1 has MODULE_ID disabled CALL setUserPermission('user1', 'MODULE_ID', 1); -- But user1 has it enabled so she/he can use it anyway
The first parameter is the device or user ID, the second is a module ID, and the third parameter is the allow/block status. 1 means allow, 0 means block. So in the above example, the module “MODULE_ID” is blocked for device 1, but explicitly allowed for the user 'user1'.
Following is the list of module IDs:
IGN
: Plus bookingIGE
: Minus bookingWTR
: Inventory transferPDN
: ReceiptPKL
: PickingDLN
: DeliveryRPD
: Purchase returnRDN
: Sales returnIPE
: Issue for productionIPN
: Receipt from productionPRQ
: Purchase requestPOR
: Purchase orderITM
: Wares listINC
: Inventory countingWTQ
: Inventory transfer requestPRINT
: Label printing
For your convenience, here is a template for calling the setUserPermission
procedure once for every module, which you can copy & paste into SQL Server Management Studio or HANA Studio:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'IGN', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'IGE', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'WTR', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'PDN', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'PKL', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'DLN', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'RPD', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'RDN', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'IPE', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'IPN', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'PRQ', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'POR', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'ITM', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'INC', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'WTQ', 1; EXEC setUserPermission 'username', 'PRINT', 1; -- SAP HANA CALL setUserPermission('username', 'IGN', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'IGE', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'WTR', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'PDN', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'PKL', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'DLN', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'RPD', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'RDN', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'IPE', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'IPN', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'PRQ', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'POR', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'ITM', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'INC', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'WTQ', 1); CALL setUserPermission('username', 'PRINT', 1);
Just change username
to the actual username via search & replace in Notepad or the like, and switch the 1 to a 0 for the modules to disable.
Here's the same for devices:
-- MS SQL Server EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'IGN', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'IGE', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'WTR', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'PDN', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'PKL', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'DLN', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'RPD', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'RDN', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'IPE', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'IPN', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'PRQ', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'POR', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'ITM', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'INC', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'WTQ', 1; EXEC setDevicePermission deviceID, 'PRINT', 1; -- SAP HANA CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'IGN', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'IGE', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'WTR', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'PDN', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'PKL', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'DLN', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'RPD', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'RDN', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'IPE', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'IPN', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'PRQ', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'POR', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'ITM', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'INC', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'WTQ', 1); CALL setDevicePermission(deviceID, 'PRINT', 1);
Change deviceID
to the correct device ID number via search & replace, and switch the 1 at the end to a 0 for the modules to disable.