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Getting started with Lokad ASP.NET Sales Forecasting

Getting started with Lokad ASP.NET

This document explains how Lokad ASP.NET Sales Forecasting (LASP) can be installed or uninstalled on your web server.

Install

  1. Download the latest binaries.
  2. Get a Lokad account (unless you already have one).
  3. Update the web.config file of your existing web application.
  4. Upload Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting.dll (a) and the updated web.config to your web server.

(a) The Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting.dll library must be put into the /bin directory of your ASP.Net application.

As you can see the install does require to actually modify the source code of your existing web application. Furthermore, LASP will not make any change to your database neither during the install, nor afterwards while executing the application.

Updating your web.config file

The web.config file of your existing web application must be updated with some additional settings. Before making any change to your web.config, we strongly suggest to make a backup of your current configuration file.

Most of the settings of the sales forecasting application are actually defined directly through the configuration file. We have pasted below to the XML lines that must be inserted into your web.config file. Do not be afraid if it looks a bit long, actually your configuration will be touched only on 3 places.

<configuration>
<configSections>
<sectionGroup name="Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting">
<section name="Settings" type="System.Configuration.DictionarySectionHandler" />
<section name="SalesProvider" type="System.Configuration.DictionarySectionHandler" />
</sectionGroup>
</configSections>

<Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting>
<Settings>
<add key="type" value="Lokad.Configuration.Settings, Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting" />

<!-- username and password of your Lokad account -->
<add key="username" value="myemail@example.com"/>
<add key="password" value="mypassword"/>

<!-- Base period duration for the analysis: day, week or month -->
<add key="period" value="week"/>
<!-- Number of past and future periods to be displayed -->
<add key="pastPeriods" value="10"/>
<add key="futurePeriods" value="10"/>

<!-- only the top N most selling products will be forecasted -->
<add key="maxForecastingTasks" value="100"/>

<!-- See http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx -->
<add key="dateFormat" value="MM-dd" />
<add key="roundingDecimals" value="1" />

<!-- Do not change those, unless you know what you are doing -->
<add key="periodStart" value="2001-01-01" />
<add key="serieNamePrefix" value="csk" /> <!-- serie name = prefix + product ID -->
<add key="taskName" value="csk" />
<add key="wsPageSize" value="10" /> <!-- web services SOAP calls are paged -->
</Settings>
<SalesProvider>
<add key="type" value="Lokad.Data.CommerceStarterKitProvider, Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting" />
<add key="connectionStringName" value="CommerceTemplate" />
</SalesProvider>
</Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting>

<system.web>
<httpHandlers>
<!-- The 'path' indicates where the Lokad application will be accessible.
Caution: make sure this URL is not openly accessible
(this URL should typically be restricted to Admin users). -->
<add verb="POST,GET,HEAD" path="Admin/Lokad.aspx"
type="Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting.PageFactory, Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting" />
</httpHandlers>
</system.web>
</configuration>

All the sales forecasting settings are defined in the section group named /configuration/Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting. The first XML block in /configuration/configSections is just a registration the Lokad section group for inclusion into your configuration file. The second XML block are the actually sales forecasting settings. The last XML block in /configuration/system.web/httpHandlers is defining where the sales forecasting reports will be accessible.

You can reuse most of this sample XML though cut-and-paste, just make sure that
  • you have changed the username and password to match your Lokad account.
  • you have chosen a HttpHandler path that is protected (access restricted to Admins).

Understanding the LASP settings

We will provide below some further explanations for the configuration settings of LASP ; you are in hurry, you may skip this section.

The parameters username and password are used by LASC to connect to your Lokad account. Through the very same username and password, you can directly log into your Lokad account. By convention, Lokad uses e-mail addresses as usernames.

The parameters period, pastPeriods and futurePeriods are used to specify what kind of forecast do you want. The period indicates whether you want daily, weekly or monthly forecasts; then pastPeriods and futurePeriods indicates how many past periods (resp. future periods) must be included in your sales forecasting reports. Note that the period parameter has an impact on your Lokad subscription price (pastPeriods and futurePeriods do not impact your subscription price).

The parameter maxForecastingTasks is a bit more subtle. The price of the Lokad subscription plan is based on the number of forecasting tasks. Basically, each product in your catalog has its own sales history, and potentially its own forecasting task. Yet, if your catalog includes low sales volume products, you may not be interested into getting sales forecasts for those products. The maxForecastingTasks is typically used to exclude low sales volume products from being forecasted. This parameter indicates the maximal number of products to be forecasted, all products being ranked from the most selling to the least selling.

The parameters dateFormat and roundingDecimals are used to customize the formatting of your sales forecast reports. The dateFormat can be any string as specified on the Custom DateTime Format Strings (MSDN). This parameter will be used to adjust the date display on the first line of your report. The roundindDecimals is a positive integer that indicates how many floating point digits must be displayed in the sales reports. Indeed the forecasting algorithms may return values that includes several non-significant numbers.

The attribute type within the tag named SalesProvider specifies the eCommerce application to be integrated. The specified value should refer to the assembly qualified name of a .Net class. The available providers are AspDotNetStoreFrontProvider, CommerceStarterKitProvider, DotnetCartProvider, ECommerceFrameworkProvider and XseDotnetProvider.

Uninstall

  1. Revert back the subscription plan of your Lokad account to Free.
  2. Restore your previous web.config file (to be re-uploaded to your web server).
  3. Delete the Lokad.Web.SalesForecasting.dll from the /bin directory of your ASP.Net application.