ActionWare PC Applications

Revised: 2007-07-02

 
 
ActionWare is an IBM iSeries based Contact and Activity Management product. It provides all functions needed to create and maintain a view of prospects and customers, from first contact, through the sales cycle, and subsequent customer support and follow-up.

Although ActionWare is primarily a host based product, it includes 3 optional PC applications that can be installed on each user's PC. These are known by the acronyms GUI, MSWI and PCL.

GUI is a Graphical User Interface that presents ActionWare in a graphical Window instead of in the standard 5250 host (green) screen.  This interface was developed using a product from Jacada (www.jacada.com ), and is separately licensable.

MSWI is Microsoft Word Interface.  This is a product that allows the user to create and edit single or multiple Microsoft Word documents with pre-filled data from the iSeries ActionWare database, and to store the documents in the customer folder on the iSeries.

PCL is PC Command Link.  This application is a pre-requisite for MSWI, it provides a communications channel that enables commands and data to be sent from the iSeries to the user's PC.

These PC products are distributed on the ActionWare installation CD along with the host product.  After doing a standard install or Upgrade of ActionWare on the iSeries, the installation folders for these PC products are located under the top level folder AW4. From the iSeries you can use command WRKFLR to verify this.  A second level folder is named PCAPPS.  Under that folder are the 3 installation folders named GUI, MSWI and PCL.  From the PC side, you can use Windows Explorer to navigate down the folder path starting with network Drive I: which will normally be mapped to folder AW4 on the iSeries.
 
The IBM product iSeries Access is a pre-requisite for the PCL and MSWI products, and must be configured and installed on each PC.  There is no similar pre-requisite for GUI.
 
Microsoft Word on the PC is a pre-requisite for MSWI and PCL.  All versions of Word from 2000 through 2007 are supported.
 
The ActionWare PC products are compatible with these versions of the Windows Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Professional, Home and MCE editions, and Vista Business and Ultimate editions.  Note that other Vista editions are not supported because IBM does not support the iSeries Access product on other editions, as documented on this IBM page: http://www-03.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/access/supportedos.html .
 
The current version of ActionWare is 6.30.
 
The GUI product is backward compatible with versions 6.30, 6.20, and 6.01.
 
The MSWI and PCL products are backward compatible with versions of ActionWare all the way back to version 6.00 Level 002.  This is all supported versions.
 
The most current versions of the ActionWare PC products can be (and should be) downloaded via the web from this page: http://www.actionware.com/DCustSrvc/Downloads/.   The downloaded files must be unzipped (where applicable) and stored in the locations described above.  This means you will need to overwrite the files already there.  It does not matter if the files in these 3 folders originate from the ActionWare distribution CD, or from a web download (recommended).  In either case you will have the following number of files in the distribution folders.  (The upper casing is for emphasis only, it is not required.)
 
I:\AW4\PCAPPS\GUI - 17 files - setup.exe is the installation file
I:\AW4\PCAPPS\MSWI - 6 files - setup.exe is the installation file
I:\AW4\PCAPPS\PCL - 1 file - a self-installing file 
 
There is no requirement that the installation of the PC products be performed from these network folders.  So long as all the files for an application are in the same folder, the installation will work.  You could, for example, copy the files to a temporary folder on a PC.  Our support desk has had some reports that one or more PC applications will not install from a network drive.  This is probably due to network configuration or a Windows permissions setting.  The easy workaround is to copy the entire PCAPPS structure from the network drive to a temporary drive on the PC's C:\ drive.
 
 

Installing GUI
 
Remember you will not be able to use the GUI application without purchasing a license. Contact ActionWare for details.
 
If installing on Vista, read the Additional Considerations before proceeding.
 
Navigate to the folder containing the GUI installation files, the default folder is I:\AW4\PCAPPS\GUI.  Double click on SETUP.EXE.  Follow the instructions on the screen.  Enter the user name and company when prompted.  Select the TCP/IP connection option.  Select the appropriate date format. Select to not enable Just In Time feature.  Select Finish.  When finished, go to Start --> All Programs, locate the application and copy a shortcut to the desktop.
 
The first time you run GUI, you will be prompted for the host name or IP address of your iSeries computer.
 
 
Additional considerations for installing GUI on Vista
 
It is assumed you will be installing this application using an Administrator profile.  In any case, it is recommended that instead of double-clicking on INSTALL.EXE that you right-click on it and select "Run as Administrator".
 
You will receive additional warnings at the beginning of the install process such as "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"  You need to reply Run.  You will also see "An unidentified program wants to access your computer."  You need to reply Allow.

 

Installing PCL
 
Ideally PCL should be installed before MSWI.
 
If installing on Vista, read the Additional Considerations before proceeding.
Navigate to the folder containing the PCL self-installing file, the default folder is I:\AW4\PCAPPS\PCL.  Double click on this file to begin the installation.  Follow the instructions on the screen.  When finished, go to Start > All Programs, locate the application and copy a shortcut to the desktop.
 
 
Additional considerations for installing PCL on Vista
 
It is assumed you will be installing this application using an Administrator profile.  In any case, it is recommended that instead of double-clicking on the self installing program that you right-click on it and select "Run as Administrator".
 
You will receive additional warnings at the beginning of the install process such as "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"  You need to reply Run.  You will also see "An unidentified program wants to access your computer."  You need to reply Allow.
 
When the installation is complete, Use Windows Explorer to navigate to folder AW400\AWPCL on the C: drive.  Locate program AW4PCFX.EXE.  Right click on it and select Properties.  Click on the Compatibility tab.  Check the last checkbox on the page to "Run this program as an administrator". 
 
 

Installing MSWI
 
If installing on Vista, read the Additional Considerations before proceeding. 

Navigate to the folder containing the MSWI installation files, the default folder is I:\AW4\PCAPPS\MSWI.  Double click on SETUP.EXE to begin the installation.  Follow the instructions on the screen.  There is no shortcut to copy to the desktop for this product.

Versions of Word 2002 and later give the user a warning dialog each time MSWI is used. The warning is that an application is about to run an SQL command. The user can choose to proceed. Documentation on how to eliminate this warning permanently can be found at this Microsoft site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/825765. This workaround requires a change to the registry. If you would like assistance in implementing this solution, please contact ActionWare Support.

 
 
Additional considerations for installing MSWI on Vista
 
It is assumed you will be installing this application using an Administrator profile.  In any case, it is recommended that instead of double-clicking on the self installing program that you right-click on it and select "Run as Administrator".
 
You will receive additional warnings at the beginning of the install process such as "The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"  You need to reply Run.  You will also see "An unidentified program wants to access your computer."  You need to reply "Allow".
 
The installation process appears to finish normally.  Then the following message appears: "This program might not have installed correctly".  You need to click on the button "Reinstall using recommended settings".  You will then get the message "Install completed successfully".
 
 

Still to come

• How to configure iSeries Access.
• What to do after installing each product.
• Combatability issues with other documentation.