Troubleshoot Shop Floor Insight Issues

Troubleshoot Shop Floor Insight Issues

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This article details general information for troubleshooting issues in Shop Floor Insight. If you require more information or cannot fix your current issue, contact Support.

The following steps are found below:

  1. Ensure the Shop Floor Insight service is running properly
  2. Ensure the Business Central service is running properly
  3. Verify the Windows Event log for On-Premise installations
  4. Verify the Shop Floor Insight service log file
  5. Verify the config file
  6. Verify the Service log file
  7. Verify the scanning stations and inspect the browser errors
  8. Investigate what value is being scanned and what value is being returned by the scanner

Ensure the Shop Floor Insight service is running properly

Ensure the Shop Floor Insight service is running properly and there are no 401 unauthorized error messages (access/permission issues). For more information and recommendations, see How to troubleshoot 401 error messages in Shop Floor Insight.

Ensure the Business Central service is running properly

Ensure the Business Central service is running properly on the Business Central server. If the Business Central service is not running, users receive error messages in Shop Floor Insight.

  • On-Premise: View the Windows Event log for
  • SaaS: Verify the Telemetry for more information on any issue with the Business Central Service. For more information, see Microsoft’s Telemetry article.

Verify the Windows Event log for On-Premise installations

Verify the Windows Event log for On-Premise installations to see if there are any relevant errors or related events.

  1. Click on the Start menu and search for “Event” to locate The Event log or Event Viewer.
  2. Locate any relevant entries in the Application section of the Event log (filter the entries if needed).
  3. Locate any entry related to the Business Central services (filter the entries if needed) with a similar timestamp of last known error.

For example, the “MicrosoftDynamicsNavServer$BC150” service is failing because the Microsoft SQL Server service is not running. For “SaaS” installations, these error messages would be found in the Business Central Telemetry. For more information, see Microsoft’s Telemetry article.

Verify the Shop Floor Insight service log file

Verify the Shop Floor Insight service log file (C:\Log\[folder] or a different location).

  1. Locate the config file for the corresponding service on the server where the Shop Floor Insight service runs.
  2. Search for “ServiceAppender” in the config file (the log file’s folder location is indicated in the file value entry).

Verify the config file

Verify the config file (the IW.TimeCollectionModule.Service.exe.config file located in the Shop Floor Insight Service’s folder) of the corresponding Shop Floor Insight service in a simple text editor (e.g., Notepad).

Most config file issues concern the following three URLs:

  • http://[Server_name:port_number /BC150/WS/CRONUS%20Canada%2C%20Inc.]/Codeunit/TCMClientState
  • http://[Server_name:port_number /BC150/WS/CRONUS%20Canada%2C%20Inc.]/Codeunit/TCMCustomFieldMgmt
  • http://[Server_name:port_number /BC150/WS/CRONUS%20Canada%2C%20Inc.

The section in brackets is company specific, and the remainder indicates the codeunit values. The URL is the same for any given company, and the codeunit values need to be as indicated for the first two entries.

Confirm that the config file has the proper URLs:

  1. Navigate to Web Services in Business Central.
  2. Locate any entry in the list with a value in the SOAP URL column and select the link (copying has a different effect).
  3. Copy the company name (in the URL).
  4. Ensure the config file reflects HTTP or HTTPS (if the link is either).
  5. Create a backup of the config file before making changes.
  6. Ensure the URL is listed correctly and the ending of the first two entries have “/Codeunit/TCMClientState” and “/Codeunit/TCMCustomFieldMgmt” added after the corresponding URL for each location in the config file.
  7. Save the config file after updating and restart the Shop Floor Insight service.
  8. Refresh the Shop Floor Insight webpage on the scanning station and try again.

Verify the Service log file

Open and verify the Service log file. Find any corresponding entries at the same time of the error. You can also search for part of the error message in the log file or reproduce the issue and immediately verify the log file for the error message.

The error in question in the log file might be enough information to understand what is going on. For example, if the user is scanning a barcode on a workstation and there is a filter in place that would normally exclude this Production order operation, there should be an entry in the log file stating this.

Verify the scanning stations and inspect the browser errors

Verify the scanning stations and inspect the browser errors if nothing relevant is found in the log file. The scanning station could be having an issue or error with the information not making it back to the Shop Floor Insight service. Troubleshoot this issue from the same scanning station via remote access:

  1. Connect to the Shop Floor Insight interface from the scanning station using a Chrome browser (if possible).
  2. Log into the Shop Floor Insight application with the same employee badge that is experiencing the issue.
  3. Right-click on the Shop Floor page and select Inspect from the contextual menu.
  4. Select Network on the console page.
  5. Select the icon to clear the entries.
  6. Select the icon and ensure Record network log is turned on.
  7. Reproduce the error.
  8. Verify what corresponding information might explain the issue (e.g., If there is a network issue, there should be some entries in the network tab).

If errors are visible on the scanning station and no corresponding entries are found in the service log file, the issue is likely network related.

If errors appear on the scanning stations and relevant entries are also found in the service log file, the issue is not likely network related. Note the related entries in the log file and investigate.

Investigate what value is being scanned and what value is being returned by the scanner

Investigate what value is being scanned and what value is being returned by the scanner if the issue is related to scanning the barcode:

  1. Start the Notepad application from the scanning station.
  2. Give focus to the Notepad.
  3. Scan the barcode.

The barcode scanner returns a value in Notepad. This value matches the corresponding entry on the Barcode Entries page.

The Full Barcode column to the right on the Barcodes Entries page represents what the barcode scanner will return to the Shop Floor Insight application. These entries are created whenever a barcode is printed or previewed in Business Central.

Type Additional information Full Barcode example
Asset Fixed Asset /A00000027%
Job Job Task /J00000053%
Resource Employee badge /R00000001%
Service Service Order /S0000002F%
Routing Routing line operation of production order /O0000003F%
Work Type Non-productive Activity /T00000005%
Work Center Shop Floor Work Center /W00000014%

With Notepad open, scanning a Resource type for an employee badge returns “/R00000001%”. Scanning two barcodes consecutively returns the values all on the same line without spaces between them. For example, scanning the barcodes for Employee Badge, Work Type, and Fixed Asset successively returns “/R00000001%/T00000005%/A00000027%” in Notepad.

If a line break is returned, then the barcode scanner needs to be configured to not return any line breaks after scanning a barcode. If the scanner is not returning the forward slash or the ending percent symbol, the barcode scanner needs to be configured to return full ASCII codes (usually requires a configuration change for the specific barcode scanner).

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