Michael Bianco

Notes on Dates & TimeZones with NetSuite’s SuiteTalk API

Setting date and datetime fields in NetSuite using the SuiteTalk API is tricky business. Here’s some notes on how to ensure that the date you push over to NetSuite persists the way you’d expect regardless of the server, local server, user, and company timezone. The API is sensitive to the timezone of the current user. If you push the same datetime value to the XML via SuiteTalk, and change the timezone settings on the user preferences page, the resulting date set on the record will most likely change. The timezone is not available on the employee record. Also, the timezone is not available on the company/subsidiary record. It is impossible to determine the timezone set on the user or the company from the SuiteTalk API…

Fixing Bundler Issues After a macOS Sierra Upgrade

I recently upgraded my laptop, and with that came setting up a fresh dev machine. With a fresh install always comes with a set of development configuration problems. Here’s some tips of resolving ruby bundler issues in MacOS Sierra. These tips assume you are using dotfiles that look similar to these. Also, I prefer fresh installs, so I never pull config from my old machine/OS. These fixes may not work if you are migrating configuration from a previous OS. For any of the fixes outlined below: Adjust the version strings based on your project If you do not have bundler’s shared gems disabled, then you can omit the –install-dir directives. An error occurred while installing pg (0.18.4), and Bundler cannot continue…

Notes on NetSuite’s Gift Certificate Record

The gift certificate functionality in NetSuite is much more limited than other functionality in NetSuite. It’s also the only option for implementing store credit, electronic, and physical gift cards in NetSuite. If you need to integrate with the gift certificate system in NetSuite, here are some notes to help you along the way: Gift certificates are not created directly. They are are created by creating a “Gift Certificate Item” and using that item in a SalesOrder. Gift certificates can be created without an associated posting transaction (Sales Order) by importing a CSV. However, you cannot create a standalone gift certificate via SuiteTalk…

Finding the NetSuite Deposit Associated with a Payment or Refund

Determining which NetSuite deposit record is associated with a customer payment, customer refund, cash payment, cash refund, etc using SuiteTalk is not straightforward. It’s also challenging to determine if a refund record is still available to be deposited. Payment transactions have a status field which indicates if a record has been deposited or not, but refund records do not have this field. In order to determine if a refund is deposited, you need to search for an associated deposit…

How to get a NetSuite demo account for SuiteTalk or SuiteScript development

If you’re looking to integrate with NetSuite, you need a NetSuite instance to use for development. However, getting one isn’t straightforward. Here’s how to get up and running with a NetSuite demo account. Signup for a "SDN Community Edition" account. Here’s a direct link to the signup form. After submitting the form, you’ll be told that you will get a response. You won’t. I’ve applied for multiple SDN accounts on behalf of clients and they’ve never gotten a response. You’ll need to email sdnsupport@netsuite.com with the following template: SDN Support, I applied for a NetSuite test account a couple days ago, and I have not received an update…

Using NetSuite’s Token Based Authentication with SuiteTalk

NetSuite’s OAuth is very different from the standard oauth flow: setting up a user for token based auth is very cumbersome. It requires digging around in the NetSuite GUI, creating roles, and copy/pasting various keys. Why use token based authentication? The alternative is email + password based authentication. This method works fine, but passwords expire every six months; resetting passwords every six months is a huge pain for a SAAS product that integrates with NetSuite. Plus, email + password auth is much less secure (an attacker can login to the GUI with a email and password). Here’s a guide to getting setup with token based authentication. Note that you must be using a SuiteTalk API versions greater than 2015_2. 1…

Fixing Invalid DATABASE_URL Reference on CircleCI

I’ve become a huge fan of CircleCI—it’s the best CI tool for small-medium projects that I’ve found. Recently I ran into an issue setting up a new rails project with Postgres as the database backend with circle: However, when I looked at my database.yml the constant DATABASE_URL was clearly not being used. DATABASE_URL was properly being used as the lookup string for an ENV reference: I was stumped for a while until I ssh’d into circle and noticed that somehow the single quotes were stripped from DATABASE_URL: Circle’s build inference process involves generating a database.yml file which uses the original database.yml file to some extent…

Sending Dokku Container Logs to Papertrail

I’m a huge fan of Heroku. Although it’s expensive compared to a raw DigitalOcean droplet or EC2 instance, it’s so easy and it just works. However, there are some use-cases that Heroku doesn’t handle well. Business integration systems (eCommerce NetSuite integration, for example) often require handling requests that may take longer than the 30 second request timeout. Dokku is the next-best alternative to using heroku (if you don’t have enormous scaling needs: dokku apps are restricted to a single host). Here’s how to push your dokku app logs running to PaperTrail, or another syslog-compatible cloud hosting provider (I’m sure this approach would work for Loggly or CloudWatch)…

3 Email Efficiency Tips

I wanted to share a couple quick email efficiency tips that have been helpful over the last couple weeks. When scheduling a meeting, instead of asking “What time would be good to meet?” suggest a exact time and day with two alternatives that work for you. Also provide a link to your full public calendar with event details hidden (I use ScheduleShare for this). For example: Would 2-2:30pm on Thursday the 12th work for you? If not, would Wednesday at 10:00am or Thursday at 11:00am work?..

Steps to Refocus, Regroup, and Get Productive

After a series of unrelated meetings or going through a full inbox, it’s easy to feel scattered, unfocused, and distracted. This has happened to enough times, that I’ve written out an instruction manual for myself to enable me to quickly get refocused and back on the right track: Record everything in your head. Dump all tasks into your favorite task manager (ToDoist is mine!). Don’t attempt to label, prioritize, or organize tasks. Collect scattered tasks. Get all tasks, ideas, or unorganized bits of information in a centralized location. Run through any written information and transcribe any actionable items. I’d recommend setting up a “paper inbox” to throw all paper, notes, mail, etc so it’s easy to process…

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