Netsuite woes: Is there decent reference anywhere? [closed]

Question

I'm hoping this question isn't too obscure cross fingers

I'm looking for a decent reference for netsuite scripting and api (both of which are based on ASP)

does anybody know where to find this stuff? The netsuite help pages are mediocre at best, and the forums aren't very active. (I suppose these two things are already bad signs, but it's worth a try right?)

Answer 1

As a ex NetSuite employee I was frustrated by this time and time again, even internally there is no good refs other than the published pdf's in dev docs.

One of the best places for snippets of code and clues of how to do things is the NS User Groups as well as the not so good sample apps.

A lot of it is done with trial and error. I have found developing web services a little lest frustrating than the client and server side scripting.

B

Answer 2

Found some sample code + documentation here. I integrate netsuite with some kohana based site. I've thrown up two snippets that I use for easing development, a getNetsuiteConnection() method and a snippet used for getting a list of custom fields in a given record.

Update: Found some more resources recently (mostly targeted at using NetSuite via the PHP framework).

• NetSuite Global Scope Problem
• Getting a List of Customers
• NetSuite Tips & Tricks
• Tips & Code Samples

08/12 Update: If you are working with ruby, checkout this gem which implements a portion of the NetSuite SOAP API.

Answer 3

A Quick Netsuite Scripting Tip

When working on SuiteScript, we have different field types and and form fields in NetSuite but to get values from these we have generic functions

nlapiGetFieldValue();
record.getFieldValue();
rec.getValue();

These functions always return values as type string. Even for Date and Numeric type of fields.

So when manipulating values returned one should(have to) convert them to right types to avoid bugs.

For example we may apply parseInt or parseFloat for Numeric data.

var val = nlapiGetFieldValue('fieldId');
if( 3 > parseInt(val))

Beware that ParseInt can return NaN so a more efficient way is to use these type of functions

function getNumber(number){
 return (parseFloat(number) == NaN)?0.0:parseFloat(number);
}

For date type fields we may use standard Netsuite functions

nlapiStringToDate();

Answer 4

I can't stress enough what a great resource the user group is. I constantly get answers there, many by NetSuite employees, including the creator Evan. Subscribe to the various forums and ask questions. Be sure to mention what you are doing, what you have tried and any thoughts you have on the process you are attempting. I find that when I follow that formula I get answers. Others at my company will just ask how to do something and rarely get any help.

Be aware that many things are not either documented or are not supported in SuiteScript and/or Web Services and the supported list is not consistent between the two.

Answer 5

It is a bit of a nightmare. The help-center section is useful for reference.

https://system.netsuite.com/app/help/helpcenter.nl?topic=help

Answer 6

I second Corey in utilizing the NS user group (recently migrated to https://usergroup.netsuite.com/users/index.php? where I am waiting on approval). Also paying the premium for NS phone support has been helpful in resolving issues. Outside of NS provided support/resources, the linkedin NS user group is pretty decent. I don't find much use out of stackoverflow results for NetSuite problems, probably for the lack of understanding of the system.

NetSuite for Dummies is a good reference for NetSuite in the functional perspective, but offers very little to developers. For Devs, I'd suggest checking out the NS developers guide here https://system.netsuite.com/core/media/media.nl?id=5732122&c=NLCORP&h=5fca4bf5dd825a28ab41&_xt=.pdf&addrcountry=US (old but still relevant). The developers guide contains much of the same information as the help section (albeit the help section is more up to date, but does not have effective searching).