🏪 🛍️ 💰 RFQ

This is a little and functionally truncated part of a large project. I published it as a working example of an external web interface for 1C:Enterprise, which does not use internal features of the platform to do this.

I hope it will help someone who has no clue how to solve a similar task.

• Purpose
• Architecture
• Setup
  • 1C:Enterprise
  • Proxy
  • Web Interface
• Troubleshooting
  • Known Issues
  • Error Codes

😌 Purpose

Well, "RFQ" means "Request for Quotation". To simplify, you want to sell something and need to get which of your suppliers gives you best prices. You can read more on Wikipedia.

Let's speak about implementation. There is a 1C:Enterprise infobase intended to store all data the application work with. Being authenticated, a user of the infobase can create a Procurement Requisition document.

Its interface has three tabs. First one is a list of suppliers:

The second one is a list of inventory to ask for price:

The last tab is a list of questions a user wants to ask a supplier:

After the document is saved, it becomes possible to fill a response for quotation (RFQ) using a web browser. Have a look at links in a RFQ URL column in the Suppliers tab: each of them is unique and corresponds to the supplier (and contract with it) specified in the line. So, a user can send each link to a supplier, then wait for response.

When a supplier follows a link received from a user, they see a simple page with a list of inventory to set price, and a list of questions to answer for. Please note, it does not require authentication in any way.

Below the fields, a supplier has two buttons to press: Save as Draft and Submit. The first one saves all entered data in the 1C:Enterprise infobase; if a supplier tries to open the same URL later, all the entered data remains in place.

If a supplier press the Submit button, it means that all the needful data are entered. So, prices & answers will be saved in the 1C:Enterprise infobase. The URL will become unavailable from this point.

In both cases, entered data stores as a Response to RFQ document. If a supplier saves a response as a draft, the document just writes. And if a supplier submits a response, the corresponding document posts.

😎 Architecture

The project lies on three whales:

1. Web interface. It is a React.js application. The only visible part for a user within direct access to the 1C:Enterprise infobase.
2. Proxy. It is a REST HTTP service script made on Python (on the Flask framework, to be certain). This application intended to transfer data from the web interface to 1C:Enterprise and back, so it can to authenticate on REST HTTP service of 1C:Enterprise infobase.
3. 1C:Enterprise. An infobase stores data and provides a REST HTTP service to operate with it.

🤨 Setup

As mentioned above, the project consists of three sections. Let's make they work.

1C:Enterprise

You need to do the following steps:

1. Load a 1C:Enterprise infobase configuration from the 1c-enterprise directory.
2. Publish RFQ HTTP service of the infobase on your web server.
3. Create at least two users in the infobase:
   • a superuser (must have the Full Access role assigned)
   • a user for external HTTP requests (assign the role RFQ to it)
4. Fill RFQ Interface URL constant's value (Administration → Tools → RFQ Interface URL). You can use a http://localhost:3000 value so far.
5. Create master data: several companies, contracts, items, and questions. You will need those later to make procurement requisitions.
6. Create at least one Procurement Requisition document, then post it. You need to add at least one line of each tabular section.

Proxy Script

Now you have to enable a sort of proxy between the 1C:Enterprise infobase and a web interface.

Have a look at the flask-proxy directory. There is a script you must set up.

Generally, it only has to know how to connect to the HTTP service of the 1C:Enterprise infobase. So create three environment variables which are listed below.

Variable Name	Example Value	Meaning
RFQ_1C_URL	http://localhost/RFQInfobase/hs/RFQ	URL of the 1C:Enterprise HTTP service that you have published
RFQ_1C_USERNAME	RFQ User	Login of a 1C:Enterprise user with the RFQ role assigned
RFQ_1C_PASSWORD	123	Password of the 1C:Enterprise user

If you use Windows, you can do it via Windows + R → sysdm.cpl → Advanced → Environment Variables.

Ensure you have Python packages mentioned in the requirements.txt installed and run the api.py script:

python api.py

You will see something like this:

 * Serving Flask app 'api' (lazy loading)
 * Environment: production
   WARNING: This is a development server. Do not use it in a production deployment.
   Use a production WSGI server instead.
 * Debug mode: off
 * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)

Have a look at the last line. As you can see, your proxy URL is http://127.0.0.1:5000. You can check whether the proxy works or not; try to access the URL below using a browser:

http://127.0.0.1:5000/Ping

In case of success, you're going to get this response:

{"Result": true}

It means that the proxy has connected to the 1C:Enterprise infobase, so everything is fine. Perhaps.

Web Interface

Finally, it is time to start the web interface. All files you need located in react-web-app directory.

At first, please ensure that the URL of Flask application you got above (http://127.0.0.1:5000) is equal to a value of a REACT_APP_SERVER_URL parameter in .env.local file. Secondly, you need to download tons of npm libraries to make React.js work:

npm install

Wait until the procedure ends. Have patience, it may take some time.

Then, start a development server:

npm start

You will see something like this:

Compiled successfully!

You can now view rfq in the browser.

  Local:            http://localhost:3000
  On Your Network:  http://192.168.0.105:3000

Note that the development build is not optimized.
To create a production build, use npm run build.

Make sure that the local address mentioned above is equal to the value of RFQ Interface URL constant you have set before.

I would like to point out that you will have your browser opened with the 404 error immediately after server start. It doesn't mean you did something wrong because it is intended behavior: the only page that the web application shows is a RFQ form. If no RFQ key provided in URL or the key can't be found, the 404 error appears.

4. Done!

Now you are able to follow links in the RFQ URL column of a Procurement Requisition document. Great work!

😇 Troubleshooting

Well, the all above are for educational purposes, so everything can happen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ However, I have included some information which may help you solve a problem.

Known Issues

1. The Price field (the Inventory table) of the web interface has no control of length or precision, which can possibly lead to data loss.
2. The Answer field (the Questions table) is open-ended, and the respective field in the 1C:Enterprise has no limits as well. It can lead to an issue if a user tries to set massive amount of text as answer.

Error Codes

Instead of a normal response, HTTP service of 1C:Enterprise API may return an error description, as well as the proxy script. It always has two values only: ErrorCode & ErrorText. For instance:

{"ErrorCode": 200, "ErrorText": "No endpoint specified."}

If an ErrorCode value begins with 1 (for instance: 100, 101 etc.), it means that the error has occurred in 1C:Enterprise. If the value begins with 2, it means that the error has occurred in the proxy script.

The ErrorText value contains a description of the problem, depending on a reason. For instance, if an error is occurred in 1C:Enterprise, it contains a detail description of the exception.

Code	Meaning
100	1C:Enterprise exception has occurred. It's recommended to check the infobase event log.
101	1C:Enterprise is unable to find key specified in the information register RFQKeys.
102	1C:Enterprise is unable to create or update a Response to RFQ document since it already exists and posted.
103	1C:Enterprise is unable to get a Response to RFQ document because there are many of them by conditions given.
200	Proxy script throws this one if there is no endpoint specified. This one is unlikely to see in a production deployment.
201	Proxy script sent request to 1C:Enterprise HTTP service, but received HTTP status code differs from 200.