Reviewing Bundle Search Results

In the last video we covered searching for bundles. In this video we will go over the results found here on the Search & Install Bundles page. You can get to this page by hovering over Customization then SuiteBundler and clicking Search & Install Bundles; then click Search. The name field is self-explanatory, it’s just the name of the bundle, but remember that a developer can call their bundle anything they want. So just because a name sounds impressive does not necessarily mean the bundle is any good. These names are also the links that you would click on to begin the installation. The bundle ID is also mostly self-explanatory, it’s the ID the bundle receives when it’s created. This is an identification number that NetSuite assigns and the developer has no control over, and cannot change. Using a bundle ID assures that you are getting the correct bundle. Two names, for example, could be identical, but two bundle ID’s can’t. The bundle ID also does not change when a bundle is updated. If I create a bundle and get an ID of 100, no matter how many updates and changes I make to that bundle the ID will stay 100. The version shows the version number of the software bundle. Developers are free to use version numbers however they want. Most use numbers showing the major and minor version, and the patch level. Some change the format slightly though and you can see this by the lowercase v in front of this bundle or the .a at the end of this bundle. Since developers are free to use versions however they want you could see a bundle jump from version 8 to version 10 without a version 9 in between. Most developers, however, are smart enough to not do this. The managed field tells you whether a bundle is managed or not. This means that updates to the bundle can be pushed to you automatically. Differences between managed and unmanaged bundles were covered in a previous video titled, “What is a Bundle”. The company field tells you what company published a bundle. Usually, if you are going to install a bundle you should have a relationship with the company that created the bundle. This does not mean that they have to know who you are, and that you are installing their software. It does mean that you should know who, or what, the company is and why you are installing the software they developed. You should also know if you’re allowed to, meaning that there aren’t any licensing issues you haven’t realized. Created on tells you when the bundle was created. This is a good way to decide if you think a bundle has been out long enough to be stable. Created on does not change as a bundle is updated, similar to how the ID behaves. Availability shows if a bundle is publicly available, private, or shared with a select group. What is selected for availability depends on how the developer packaged and published the bundle. Public means that everyone with a NetSuite account can find that particular bundle. Shared means the developer decides who the bundle is shared with, but since they can also choose everyone, it can be very similar to public. Private means the bundle was created by someone who has an administrator account in both the system the bundle was created, and in your account. This is usually seen if you have a sandbox and you are creating bundles. The SuiteApp.com column provides a link to the bundles webpage in the SuiteApp directory, if it exists, and the developer populated the information when creating the bundle. Most of these aren’t populated though since most bundles are not linked to a SuiteApp anyway. We are not going to cover SuiteApp in this course, but basically it’s just NetSuite’s featured software storefront. It can be thought of, as similar to, the Apple Store or Google Play and it does include some software that is not in the bundle library. You can browse over to www.suiteapp.com if you want to take a look. Finally the number of installs shows the cumulative number of times the bundle has been installed since it was created. This number is not version or update specific. It starts at zero and goes up by one every time someone installs the bundle. Using a combination of the number of installs, the version number, and the created date, should give you a feel for the bundle. Do other people trust it, does it receive regular updates, has it been out for a while. But like I said before, you really should know what you are installing before you install it.