November 25, 2003

SPC 2004: SMALL INVESTMENT, HUGE RETURN
For the small investment you make towards SPC 2004—in actual costs and time away from your business—the benefits you gain will be huge.

Once again, we're bringing the SPC to you. Choose from four locations and in two days, learn about the technologies that will unleash the power of your applications, get an insider's view of Synergex's future plans for Synergy/DE, discover powerful and efficient ways to develop and deploy your applications, and get valuable insight from networking with your peers.

Did you know that our most successful customers regularly attend the SPC?

“My goals were elaborately met…I feel like I now have a good idea of recent, current, and future development. I particularly enjoyed learning about new features from the people who are actually in the process of developing them. I guess you can't get any more authoritative than that. It's also great to have a chance to ask questions one-on-one. I left the conference with a lot of great, up-to-date information. There's really no excuse not to go, given the low overhead of the traveling 2-day conference.”

Dave Overbeck, Synergy Developer
Turn-Key Distribution
SPC 2003 Attendee

See what other customers have said about the SPC:

SPC 2004. Can you afford not to go? Register today.

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dabs.com LAUNCHES NEW SYNERGY/DE xfServerPlus-POWERED WEB SITE
Note: Attend SPC 2004, and get a behind-the-scenes look at this customer's entire online ordering process as you learn about Web site design considerations and xfServerPlus integration. Register today.

BOLTON, England and GOLD RIVER, Calif., Nov. 24, 2003 -- dabs.com, the United Kingdom’s leading Internet retailer of IT and technology products recently reengineered their Web site with Synergy/DE xfServerPlus, and is now processing £18 million ($30.6 million) of orders per month on the site. The new Web site dramatically reduces order processing time, offering users a much-enhanced shopping experience.

To read the entire press release, visit the Synergex Web site.

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SUPPORT TECH TIP: "FILE NOT FOUND" ERROR WHEN DEBUGGING xfSERVERPLUS ROUTINES USING TELNET METHOD

Q: I'm using the new Telnet method of remote debugging with my xfServerPlus routines. When I use the OPENELB command in the debugger, I get a "File not found" error. For the ELB specification, I'm using the logical as defined in the xfpl.ini file. What's wrong? Why can't the ELB be found?

A: When specifying the ELB to be opened, use the full path to the ELB rather than the logical.

The problem is that when xfServerPlus (xfpl.dbr) first opens in the debugger, it's at the very beginning of the program. At this point, the xfpl.ini file has not yet been read, so xfServerPlus doesn't know about the logicals you defined. As a result, xfServerPlus looks for the file in the current working directory. (If, by chance, there's a different version of the ELB in the working directory, it will be opened when you used the OPENELB command, and you'll then be debugging the wrong routine.)

If you will be debugging routines in more than one ELB, you'll have to use the full path only on the first OPENELB. After you set a breakpoint in one of the routines in that ELB and type GO, xfServerPlus will execute and will read the xfpl.ini file. The next time you do an OPENELB, xfServerPlus will know about the logicals.

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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS SYNERGY/DE NOW? SERVING THE BAKING INDUSTRY.

After a successful career in Hollywood as a cameraman for "The Cosby Show" and other television hits, Mike Dinsmore returned with his wife Brenda to his native Reading, Pennsylvania, to start the Take 2 Bagel Bakery & Cafe. In keeping with the name, Dinsmore hung signed photos of stars he worked with and coined the bakery's slogan, "Lox . . . Camera . . . Action!"

When it came time for Dinsmore to select an ingredients supplier, he first consulted the local business yellow pages. Among the companies listed under “Bakery Supplies” was Lentz Milling Co., located in Reading, near Dinsmore's shop in suburban Wyomissing. "I figured it would be best to go with someone in my backyard and called them," Dinsmore recalls.

That was two years ago. Today, Dinsmore is thinking seriously about expansion. And he credits Lentz for providing the industry insight and dependable service he has needed to avoid "retakes" during his start-up.

With more than 3,000 customer locations in 9 states, Lentz has been serving the bakery industry for over sixty years. They use Synergy/DE-based applications to run just about every facet of their business—from accounting and payroll, to inventory distribution, to managing their own fleet of trucks and trailers.

"We use a Synergy/DE-based scheduling application to coordinate driver log hours and union specifications according to each day’s delivery requirements,” says Ed Lentz, president of Lentz Milling. “This system helps us greatly increase our accuracy in forecasting the time required on a given day for our drivers to complete any of our 180 to 250 deliveries. We'll never be able to anticipate and avoid all traffic jams, but this gives us a fighting chance to meet our delivery windows."

Currently using Synergy/DE 7.5, Lentz plans to upgrade to 8.1 in the near future so they can take advantage of new technology such as Web services and XML. “We have been with Synergy/DE since the beginning,” states Lentz IT Director, Faye Miller. “We are excited about the new possibilities available to our applications and our business.”

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FIND OUT EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT SYNERGY/DE WEB SOLUTIONS—ALL IN ONE PLACE! LEARN ABOUT THIS AND THE OTHER SYNERGY/DE MICROSITES AVAILABLE TO YOU ON THE SYNERGEX WEB SITE
Each of the Synergy/DE microsites, which are located within the Synergex Web site, include detailed information about a particular product, technology, or service that is relevant to Synergy/DE customers. Microsites contain customer testimonials, feature descriptions, tips and tricks, and more. The Synergy/DE Resource Center houses the following microsites:

• Synergy/DE Web Solutions.
• Synergy/DE, XML, and Web Services: Uniting Your Digital World
• Professional Series Workbench
• xfODBC for Data Access
• Synergex Professional Services Group (PSG)

To get to the Synergy/DE microsites, start from the Synergex home page. Then log into the Resource Center. Under the “Synergy/DE Microsites” heading, you will see links to all of the Synergy/DE microsites. A link to the “Synergy/DE Microsites” page is also listed under the “Resource Center” menu in the left navigation bar.

(Not yet on Synergy/DE HelpDesk Support? Take a tour of the Resource Center as our guest. Just click on the "Synergy/DE Guest User?" link in the upper right corner of the Synergy/DE
Solutions page of the Synergex Web site. As a guest user, you will be able to tour some of the areas of the Resource Center and discover all of the resources that are
available with a HelpDesk subscription.)

Need more information about accessing the Resource Center? Visit the "Synergex Resource Center FAQs" Web page.

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SYNERGEX HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
Please mark your calendars: Synergex will be closed this Thursday, November 27, and Friday, November 28, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

SIGN UP TODAY FOR THESE UPCOMING SYNERGEX EVENTS

• December 8-12, 2003 Synergy/DE UI Toolkit Essentials-- Gold River, California
  
• February 26-27, 2004 SPC 2004-- Birmingham, England
  
• March 2-4, 2004 VisualSmart Sponsors DCI Show-- Chicago, Illinois
  
• March 11-12, 2004 SPC 2004-- Cleveland, Ohio
  
• March 15-16, 2004 SPC 2004-- Providence, Rhode Island
  
• March 18-19, 2004 SPC 2004-- New Orleans, Louisiana

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