Creating Storage Areas for the Masses || Quick Guide to Adding Custom Storage Areas to Sage X3

4 minute read time.

      Hello readers, today’s topic is about adding additional store volumes for Sage X3. The subject here is where you want to add stuff like UNC paths or shared drives / folders to a specific Sage X3 environment. This is not about just creating a new folder in the Endpoint folder for an endpoint. There is not a lot to it really, but it does require you to hard-code some information. You will have to make sure not use IP addresses or any other sort of information that might change over time. The best thing to use is FQDN or Server names that will remain the same even after upgrade or updates. Most people will do this so they can have a unified directories for all access like a File Server. I have seen a lot of clients do this for print to file docs and have them stored on a File Servicer shared drive that they link to Sage X3. You should be able to do this with the following steps below.

 

Before you begin; make sure you have the proper credentials available. You will need a Network Administrator account with Local Administrator access and the Administrator (AKA ADMIN) login for Sage X3. You will also need your shared drives / folders ready to be accessed. The shared folders will need to include the additional Windows Profile access for the Sage X3 Windows profile used for the installation and configuration of Sage X3. Most Business Partners and Implementors will use an account like SageRT or SageX3 as the main Windows profile for installing and configuring. Make note of those accounts and make sure that if you log in the application server that user has access to the shared drives / folders you wish to add to the storage volumes. You will also need a Text Editor application. I prefer to use Notepad++ but you may use whatever application you are comfortable with.

Side Note: That creating these additional custom volumes, they will be available to all endpoints. Also, if you have multiple runtimes (as you will see) you will have to do this for each additional runtime server installed.

Here are the steps below, I tried to simply as much as possible.

First, Locate the …\runtime\cfg directory.  Inside this directory there is a file called configRuntime.json. You will need to modify this file, but first, make a copy of the file so you have a backup. Because you might mess it up and break the runtime.

 

After you have made a copy of the configRuntime.json to a safe place, edit the original file.  If you just use regular Notepad, it won’t show you the proper carriage returns, and it’ll just look like a big mess.

Next, copy the  that’s highlighted below (being sure to include the comma) and paste it back, being careful not to break the format structure.

Example:

      {

        "path": "D:\\Sage\\X3ERPV12\\Database\\trace",

        "extensions": ["*"],

        "writable": true

      },

 

Now you will have two identical sections.  Note I chose the section that has the “*” because that means it’ll allow you to access any file in the path of your choice. Note, if you want to restrict the volume to specific file types you can change the * to the name of the types like “pdf” or “doc”. Just make sure to use a comma “,” to separate the types.

 

Now we can modify the path.  If this is a local drive (like my example I am going to use), the C:\ drive, and assuming you made a folder on the root of the C:\ drive called MyNewFolder, this is how you would edit it.  Make a note of the double backslashes.  This is required.

{

    "path": "C:\\MyNewFolder",

        "writable": true,

        "extensions": ["*"]

},

X3 Storage s do not work for mapped drives; however, the better method is to use a UNC path anytime it involves the network.  A UNC path is existing regardless if a drive is mapped or not on any computer or any Windows profile, so you don’t need to mess around with mapping drives for this method to work.  Edit the configRuntime.json file this way.

{

    "path": "\\\\x3update9addons\\SharedFolderName",

            "writable": true,

            "extensions": ["*"]

},

 

It should look something like this below.  Make a note that in this config file UNC paths require four (4) backslashes at the very beginning (2 backslashes won’t work and 3 won’t work either).   Also, don’t forget to add two slashes before any folder name.  So, let’s say I created a folder in the C:\ drive called C:\SharedFolderName and I shared out this folder, and my server’s computer name is x3update9addons, this is how I would edit the config file:

            

Once you made the changes you want, go ahead and save the file.  If you made a typo, when you start X3, you will see an error message referencing this file, so you’ll know right away.

Next, we need go into Sage X3 and create the area locations in the X3 Storage Area function. This is for the system to know they are there. You will want to navigate to Usage, Usage, X3 Storage Areas. Once there, click new volume, edit the Root to reference the UNC path, but as a real UNC path with only the required backslashes and not extra backslashes as shown below in the screenshot. Don’t forget to click save when you are done.

Lastly, let’s go ahead and test it by clicking the File list on the right list. It should now show any files that exist in the folder.  In this case, I created a simple text document.

And there you have it.. You have a new way to add your own UNC or file shared folders to X3 for users to access.

 

Until next time,