Data Validation and Logging in TransPost

Validation

TransPost does a lot of validation before submitting data to AccountRight.

Card, Item and Account details are retrieved from MYOB as required to verify that they exists and are valid and also to obtain all the appropriate default values. Any errors identified will be logged and the transaction will not be submitted. Other data, such as Job number, Sales Person, Shipping Method is checked but, if not valid, a warning is logged and the import proceeds without that data.

Output Files

TransPost writes a number of files to record what has and has not been imported. They are:
  • The master log, containing a record for each file processed
  • The daily log file, containing a log of events, errors and warnings
  • An Import log for each file processed, containing the data actually imported
  • Unprocessed Data file containing just that part of an input file that failed to be imported
  • Errors log, which only appears when there are errors which have prevented an import from processing (new in version 3.3.2)

The Daily Log

The daily log contains 4 levels of message. All are recorded in the log file and, depending on the 'Show:' option, may be displayed on the Import tab in TransPost. Import completion summary For each line reported this reports the number transactions successfully imported. it is always displayed. Errors these may be errors detected by TransPost which have caused the transaction not to be submitted because essential data is missing or invalid.

Also there may be errors returned by AccountRight which have caused the import to be rejected. The logging message will show this as 'MYOB error' or 'MYOB ODBC error'

When importing into AccountRight Live you may get Communication Errors. For Online files they can idicate a range of issues from lack of Internet connectivity to failure to communicate with the Myob file repository. They can also occur when accessing server or local files and can indicate problems with the Add-on connector or, for the AccountRight Live Server Edition, may indicate network issues or a failure of the MYOB AccountRight API Service. Generally Communication Errors indicate either networking failures or failures at the MYOB end rather than an error within TransPost. Warnings

Warnings indicate that an import has been completed but some data has been possibly been ignored or misinterpreted. TransPost will provide warnings for invalid values that are ignored, e.g. invalid salesperson, job code or tax code. Further warnings come from MYOB and can indicate that such things as a comment or m

warnings are not displayed if the 'Show:' option 'Errors only' is selected but they are still recorded in the log file and will appear if the 'Show:' option is changed. Event details Each time the program starts and every import is recorded but only displayed in the log if the logging 'Show:' option is 'All'.

Miscellaneous information Log records are added for a variety of other reasons. There is a record for each transaction successfully imported and for each transaction rejected because it is already in AccountRight.

A record is also added to the log when a mapping is changed.

Import Logs

There is an Import Log corresponding to each import in which any data was successfully imported. It contains a record for each line of data imported containing the actual values used. On occasions this may not be exactly the same as what was supplied with the input data. TransPost may :
  • Add defaults derived from data in MYOB (See Defaults in TransPost)
  • Add defaults specified in the mapping
  • Clear currency codes off field mapped as monetary amounts (e.g. "AUD 205.30" becomes "205.30"
  • Clear amounts off field mapped as currency code so "AUD 205.30" becomes "AUD" (AR classic versions only)
  • Format fields with specific formating requirements e.g. add a missing "-" in the middle of a BSB number
  • Round amounts presented with three decimal digits to two (AR version 19 occasionally errors when passed monetary amounts to more than 2 digits)
  • Calculate missing values such as GST
  • Discard invalid values (there will be warnings in the log)

Unprocessed Data

Whenever records are rejected for import, whether that occurs because TransPost detected the error or the import failed in AccountRight, the relevant data lines are copied directly from the input file, as is, into an Unprocessed Data file.

This file will have the same headings, if any, and the exact same format as the input data. It is intended to be imported, after correcting errors, using the same mapping as it is a copy of the input file with data already in MYOB, both imported and pre-existing, filtered out.

Note that when transactions are rejected because they are already in AccountRight they are not logged in Unprocessed Data but a message is enterend on the daily log.

Import Errors file

For those of you who use the TransPost Service successfully the rare error can be hard to spot. To save reading all the daily logs, we have introduced a new Import Errors file that appears in the Log folder only when an error occurs which prevents data from being imported. You can find it via the Explore Logs button. If the file does not exist, relax, all is going well, when it appears attention is required.

Version 3.3.2

In version 3.3.2 there have been a number of changes to validation and error messages.
  • Some error messages have been modified to provide a better description of the problems they report

  • If an error or warning relates to a specific line in the input data the line number will be shown in the Source column of the log

  • When there is a validation error in an item in a multi-line transaction, the remaining lines are validated and further errors may be reported before the transaction is rejected.

    This enables corrections to be made to big multi-line sales or purchases to be made all at once rather than one by one.

Logging Line Errors

We have added line numbers to the data source column in the regular log so you can tell exactly which line in your data caused a particular error. Errors for specific line items are logged with the line number within the transaction. When there is a line error, the new versions now check the rest of the lines before rejecting the transaction so that all line errors are logged on the first import attempt.