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faq:e4473_integration_with_system_five

E4473 Integration with System Five

Applicable only for Gun Retailers not for Gun Manufacturers

Prerequisites

On the “server” machine the following will need to be installed:

1. Pervasive SQL Database version 10 or greater.
2. System Five installed and connected to the dataset.
3. System Five Application Server and the System Five Document Server installed.
They are both part of the S5AppServerSetup.exe install package.
They should all be installed in three separate folders.
4. Connection to a printer.
5. Google Chrome must be installed on the machines that will access the Web App.

System Five Settings

Setup Wizard Settings

1. Under Invoice Setup → Invoice Options 2 → Option 69 – Select a SubType on Invoices must be checked to on.
2. Recommended: If they are doing work orders or estimates, under Invoice Setup → Invoice Options 2 → Options 54 and 55 should be checked to on.

Setup Tools Settings

1. Under Printing Options → Invoice Setup → Sub Types Tab – Enter in two new invoice sub types: Completed E4473 and Requires E4473. (The actual letter doesn’t matter, but for this document we used ‘C’ and ‘R’).

E4473 Settings

1. In the Setup Wizard, click on Miscellaneous and then Firearms E4473 Seller Info.
a. Use Check Use E4473.
b. Enter in the Trade/Corporate information.
c. Enter in as many Federal Firearms License numbers as needed.
d. Enter in the Invoice sub type letter for ‘Requires E4473’ and ‘E4473 Complete’.

Inventory Settings

1. Each inventory item that requires the E4473 will need to be flagged as such. This only needs to be done on the inventory item (not on each individual unit). The checkbox is found on the Extras tab: ‘Requires Form E4473’. This will only appear if the E4473 Settings are complete.

Unit Settings

1. The following information is REQUIRED for each gun sold in the E4473 application: Manufacturer and/or Importer, Type, Model, Serial Number and Caliber/Gauge. The serial number will be pulled from the invoice. To reduce some of the entry in the E4473 form for the seller, these values are set on the Unit Edit form. When you select the unit type as “G Firearm” the following text boxes are available: Serial #, Manufacturer, Model, Type and Caliber.

Type must match one from the following list (all others will be ignored):

  • Combination Gun
  • Derringer
  • Destructive Device
  • Flare Gun
  • Frame
  • Machine Gun
  • Pistol
  • Receiver
  • Revolver
  • Rifle
  • Shotgun
  • Silencer
  • Tear Gas Launcher
  • Unknown Type
  • Any Other Weapon

There is no field for Importer however. To get the Importer click on the Extra Info tab and click the Define Headings button. Add “IMPORTER” as a heading – must match the spelling. This will define the header for all units. Then type the Importer into the free form comment for that unit. These fields will all be pushed to the E4473 app.

Data Loading

The ‘Requires Form E4473’ and the Free Form Comments can be data loaded into System Five. Under the Data Load → Part Load

1. Select Import from File → select your file. Click next.
2. The Requires E4473 is a Y/N column and if you right click on the column header it can be found under Special option.
3. The Free Form Comments are somewhat trickier, the Free Form headers (as noted above) will need to be set up beforehand. This may take a bit of trial and error if other free form headers are set up, but you need to select the correct free form comment number that corresponds to the header. (It is not a great system.)

System Five Application Server Settings

The S5 Application Server requires a DSN to the database in order to connect. However it is NOT the same DSN that System Five uses. There is one subtle but critical difference.

1. Open Pervasive Control Center.
2. Under the Engines – right click on the local database engine (most likely it is the same name as the computer it resides on).


3. From the pop up menu, select New → Database.
4. In the New Database form, give the database a name. I suggest using the name for the already existing System Five dataset with the added suffix “V2”. Browser to the location of the dataset. Click the Long metadata (V2 metadata) option. This is the critical step.


If you forget to check this box during the creation of the DSN, You CAN NOT go back and fix it. YOU MUST delete and re-create that DSN with the Long Metadata option enabled. Also I would not recommend re-using the same name, even after deleting it. Give it a new name (put a dash in it or -new or something along those lines).

5. Close PCC.
6. Run the S5 AppServer for the first time. Click on the General Settings tab.
7. Click on the Add Database button.
8. Select the DSN that you just set up. Click Test to check that the connection works. Click Connect.
9. Click on the new entry in the database list and click the Start Database button. It will ask you to log into System Five.
10. Click on the Server Connections tab. Make sure Mobile Listening Port has a value – the default is 212. Click the Start Web Services button (or Stop then Start). If an error box is displayed saying the port is in use (which is possible that another program might be using that port) choose another port number (higher the better – like 19000 or 20000).
11. In the IP address and Port of the Document Server, set the IP address to ‘localhost’ and the port to 1100.
12. The Legacy Session Timeout is how long a session will be held in the AppServer before it is cleaned up. When the Session is cleaned up, the user would have to log in again. For AppServers that connect to our POS Mobile Android app, we usually set the timeout to 20 minutes or so. For this Web Application however, we don’t want to keep prompting the user to log in. So set it to 480 minutes (8 hours). This means they would log in in the morning and that would be it as long as they do not close the browser.



13. Close, restart and log into the AppServer to make sure all the settings are saved.
14. The S5 Application Server MUST be running at all times for this Web Application to work.

System Five Document Server Settings

1. The Document Server is an optional install option of the S5AppServer.
2. Start the Document Server located inside the bin folder/ S5DocumentServer folder and check that the port number matches the port number for the Document Server in the Application Server.
Click Start.
3. The Document Server & Application Server MUST be running at all times for the Web Application to work.

The ATF’s Version of the E4473 App

The US Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco Bureau (or ATF) created a little Java app that prompts the buyer and seller for information relevant to a gun purchase and generates the Adobe PDF form that is then printed and stored by the gun store.

It can be downloaded at: https://www.atf.gov/content/firearms/firearms-industry/applications-eform-4473

1. You will need to know the IP address of the machine that is running the S5 Application Server. To find out, click the Start Button and enter ‘cmd’ in the ‘Search programs and files’ box. When the command window opens type ‘ipconfig’ and press enter. Under the ‘Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection’ section find ‘Link-local IPv6 Address’ and make note of this number.

2. Open up Google Chrome on the machines that will be using the web application. (Note: this application may or may not work with other browsers. Chrome is the recommended browser). This may or may not be the server with the Application Server running on it. This will have to be done for each and every machine that may run the web application.

3. In Chrome type: http://IP Address:Port/E4473Form. For example, if the IP address of the App Server machine is 172.16.10.7 and the Mobile Listening Port on the App Server was set to 212 then the address you would type into the browser would be http://172.16.10.7:212/E4473Form. Bookmark this page. (You can also copy the bookmark to the desktop for ease of use).

4. Repeat Step 3 but replace E4473Form with E4473Buyer.

5. Repeat Step 3 but replace E4473Form with E4473Seller.

6. Note: the app will bounce you to the E4473Login – but once you log in, the app will return you to the web page you came from.

7. To log into the AppServer you will need to fill in the login information:

a. Terminal Name: This is something that has been fully developed in the new framework yet. Each terminal should be given a unique Terminal Name – for now just use ‘Terminal’ plus the terminal number.

b. User name and password: any valid user name and password combo in System Five.

c. Terminal: the terminal number of the machine.

d. Department: use 0 for non-departmentalized datasets.

e. Serial Number: the System Five serial number of the user.

f. DSN: the same DSN that the AppServer is using.

g. Click Login to verify the connection. Once you log in, the information will be remembered by the Application (with the exception of the User Name and password).

h. You will remain logged into the Web Application as long as you do not close the browser window and the Legacy Session doesn’t time out.

Using the E4473 Web Application and System Five

Create the invoice in System Five.

1. Create a new invoice. Make sure to select the Requires E4473 Sub Type. If you do not select this Sub Type, the Invoice will not be recognized by the Web App.

2. Add an item that requires the E4473 form. Select the serial number for the item. If you do not select the serial number then they will have to manually enter it in the Web App.
3. Any items that are added to the invoice that do not require the E4473 will be ignored by the Web App.
4. It works with layers.
5. Recommended that the first and last name of the buyer at the minimum be entered into System Five.
6. Enter any other information you need, take a payment, etc…
7. Save the invoice and close it in System Five. This is important.

Buyer and Seller Mode

There are two “modes” of the Web App. The first mode is Buyer-Seller mode where the App basically functions in two parts: Buyer and Seller. The E4473Buyer bookmark brings up the Buyer portion of the Web App and the E4473Seller bookmark brings up the Seller portion of the Web App. The idea being that these parts would be most likely completed on separate devices or machines.

Ideally the following steps would be done first thing in the morning by the seller:
1. On the machine(s) or device(s) where the buyer(s) will enter in their information, the seller double clicks the E4473Buyer bookmark and logs in.
2. On the machine(s) or device(s) where the seller(s) will enter in their information, the seller double clicks the E4473Seller bookmark and logs in.
3. Note: as long as the browser window is not closed and the Legacy Session does not time out, they will remain logged in.
4. Note: The Seller part cannot be started until the Buyer portion is complete.

Once the invoice is saved in System Five, the buyer is ready begin the E4473Buyer process. The buyer would then start the entry process into the Web App (assuming the seller had opened the E4473Buyer page in Google Chrome and logged in already). The buyer will now select their invoice with their name on it (assuming that that information was entered into System Five). The buyer will be walked through a series of steps and they will have to enter in the required information. Once complete, the buyer will be asked to confirm the information they entered. Once they confirmed, this information is stored in the AppServer’s memory. It will remain there until the AppServer is restarted. At any point the buyer can preview the final PDF by clicking the preview button.
At this point, the seller would be able to start the E4473Seller process. The seller would select the appropriate invoice which loads the invoice information and the buyer E4473 information. The seller would then by walked through a series of steps that would where they enter in the necessary information. If they are using the Free Form Headers and serial numbers, some of the information will be filled in automatically. Once complete, the seller will be asked to confirm the information and the final PDFs will be generated, attached to invoice in System Five and displayed to the seller. They can be printed from here or from System Five. The invoice’s Sub type is then flipped to the Completed E4473 sub type (so they no longer show up in the invoice list).

Form Mode

Form Mode works much the same way that Buyer-Seller mode does, however it will go from the beginning of the buyer process to the end of the seller process in one browser window. You can use this by using the E4473Form bookmark.

A Few Tips

1. Never use the browsers back or forward buttons. If you reload the page you will lose all data that was entered. Use the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom of the page.
2. Do not close the browser window. If you do you will have to log in again. The final page in whichever mode has a button at the button “Return to Start”. This will bring the web app back to the beginning for the next user.
3. In the event an invoice has more than five E4473 items on it, an overflow PDF is created. When the seller finishes his entry both PDFs are displayed to the user. However, the second PDF page is viewed as a “pop-up” window, so you may need to enable pop-ups for our web site.



4. The PDFs are stored in the System Five database – attached to the invoice, however they are also stored with the DocumentServer. The PDFs can be found in the E4473 folder under the S5DocumentServer directory.

faq/e4473_integration_with_system_five.txt · Last modified: 2015/03/17 13:23 (9 years ago) by aschumph