Program Names
Lawson recommends the following program naming standards for Lawson applications:

Each program should start with a two character "system code". Lawson recommends using a system code as a standard, but any identifying two character code will work. We recomend creating a system code for use with your custom programs. For example: Kastle Consulting will use "KC" as a system code and as a naming standard.

After the two character code please use the following number ranges for the next two or three characters of the program code:

Range Description
01-99 Online entry and inquiry programs and forms. Setup and maintenance programs have the lowest program numbers.
100-199 Batch update programs.
200-299 Batch report programs.
300-399 Special processing reports (for example, Year-End Closing).
400-899 Additional batch report programs and conversion routines.
900-999 Special load programs and database administration routines.

Some special programs do not follow the above numbering scheme, but instead use a scheme that includes the two character System Code and two more alphabetic characters. These programs are usually Online programs that are set up to be used only for "Invoking" from another application (See INVOKE in Lawson documentation).

Additional Indexes
Lawson uses for format of "FilePrefix" + "SET" + number for the index names. I've always seen index XXXSET1 used as the "Primary" index for a file (although there may be some cases where this is not true).

Lawson does not recomend any naming standards for additional indexes. You should also check with your DBA to find out what an additional index would do to the performance of your system.

I recomend using the same "FilePrefix" + "SET" as the beginning of your new index, but the start the numbering at 51. You can really start anywhere and name the index anything. By naming the index using the same prefix as Lawson uses your DBA will be happier and there will be less confusion when writing and debugging programs.

An alternative to adding an index to a file could be to create an Indexed Work File for your program. Load the work file with only the records you need, then work with the index in the work file. You could also define a sort for the program.

User Exits (UE)
In earlier versions of Lawson User Exits were not that easy to work with.

Now they're not only easy, they're almost simple!

You can write a UE instead of making modifications to the code and in some cases you can accomplish the same thing as modifying the code and do it much faster.

Here's An Example
Let's say you want to add a few new fields to the BL02 (ShipTo) screen and you want these fields to be updated in another Lawson table. Here's how you'd do it:

First of all you will need to change BL02.scr to include the additional fields (the UE can't handle this). Then copy BL02PD to BL02EPD and copy BL02WS to BL02EWS (since we want this to be an "Ending" UE.

Modify BL02EWS to only have WS fields that you need that don't already exist in another WS. Modify BL02EPD, replacing all "BL02S" with "BL02ES" and then change the code to do exactly what you want it to do. Remember that you have access to all the same variables that BL02 has in each Screen section.

Compile to code. Enter: qcompile -u ProductLine SystemCode BL02E and press enter.

Check for errors, fix them and compile it again.

For more information you should see the Application Developers Workbench Standards Lawson Help file (787k) under the "Application Programs" submenu.