The Dynamics GP Blogster

Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 - Final prep work done!

2009-11-09T18:08:00.011-05:00

Yesterday, after an afternoon catching up with Leslie and David, I was finally able to link up to the rest of the team staying at the Ramada, namely Mark Rockwell, Richard Whaley, and Darren Hunt from IBG. After weighing the possibility of leaving the hotel for dinner vs. eating at the restaurant by the lobby, we decided for the hotel's restaurant. This is the crew that went to dinner:

Left to Right: Mariano Gomez, Mark Rockwell, MVP Leslie Vail, Richard Whaley, David Musgrave, Darren Hunt

Today, the morning started with a breakfast at the hotel. The hotel shuttled us to the Microsoft campus. I have to admit, the new Vision building is amazing! The Horizon building also underwent some upgrades getting some new war rooms and training areas. Here are some pictures from the Vision building:

Panoramic view of the Vision (left) and Horizon (right) buildings

Vision building

A few in our group were attending eOne's eXtender classes, while David and I went to catch up with the Tools & Developers Support team, Scott Stephenson, Patrick Roth, Dave Dusek, Dawn Langlie, among others. The morning was flying away and we could not seem to find the time to begin working on the presentation. Our presentation timing was really off, lunch was upon us, we had a few more friends stop in to say hi, presenter's shirts were in... after lunch, we sat into a quick meeting with the Dex team, then went to do the technical testing of our laptops with the presentation equipment... still, not much prep work for the presentation at this point.

It was 4:00 PM and we finally were able to take a couple hours to streamline our timing. Hopefully the adjustments will pay off tomorrow. After a long and relatively stressful day, we wrapped up and went down to the event Registration session were we linked up to old friends, had some food, and played some table games, all the while enjoying the venues commons venue. Here are some pictures of the dining area in the Vision building:

Fire pit (it's my understanding this pit is capable of launching water during the summer months)

Food bars. You can get anything from Asian, to stake, to subs and burgers, all with an extensive salad bar to pair up with your meals

Seating area. Equally impressive is the amount of space dedicated to dining

Tomorrow is D day for our presentation. We are up first at 10:45 AM EST (GMT -5:00), but will get together in the morning for some breakfast at the Vision building, then will be moving to our Conference room to get setup. More on how we did tomorrow!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 - A star filled afternoon

2009-11-08T18:18:00.010-05:00

Following my Journey to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009, I arrived in Minneapolis without a hitch and 20 minutes before the original schedule of 10:10 AM CST - hat tip goes out to Delta! We waited 2 minutes at a staging area on the runway before ground control authorized the pilots to taxi to the arrival gate. My arrival gate at Minneapolis International was F13 and I had to walk over to gate C2, approximately a good mile, adding to the walk I did earlier in the morning from the parking lot at Hartsfield-Jackson International. The following is the Lindbergh terminal layout at Minneapolis International:

I had a relatively short layover as my flight to Fargo was departing at 11:25 AM CST, but could not make the rest of the day without a coffee. So I went over to Starbucks and picked up my favorite: a double-tall mocha with wip. Upon boarding, I sat next to United States Air Force Lt. Sarah Reich who happened to be an Officer and Communications specialist en route to Fargo to pick up some belongings to haul back to Washington D.C. We conversed about her career in the Air Force until the topic turned to what I did for a living. Having to explain that you do ERP implementations is not always an easy subject, but we had a good time talking.

I picked up my luggage and waited for the shuttle that would take me to the Ramada. While I was standing outside the airport. I saw this woman standing and talking on the phone. I thought she was very familiar, but could not quite make out the face from far. As she approached me, I realized it was no one other than MVP Leslie Vail. We both got into the Ramada's shuttle van after waiting for 15 minutes and caught up a bit from the last time we had seen each other -- some 5 6 years aback.

Upon arrival to the hotel and at check in, I discovered that my room was not ready -- I guess, the previous guest had checked out a bit late and the room was still being cleaned. So Leslie and I just sat in the lobby and were talking from one subject to the other until we decided it was time to ask if David Musgrave had checked in already. The receptionist called him down stairs and after 20 minutes he showed up. Finally! David Musgrave and I, face to face, for the second time since 1997! Here are a few pics from that encounter:

Me and David

David and Leslie

Leslie, David, and I

I can't wait to reunite with a bunch of my fellow professionals: former MVP Richard Whaley, Mark Rockwell, Steve Chapman, Michael Johnson and many more who I know will be in town for the Conference.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 - The journey begins!

2009-11-08T07:17:00.006-05:00

This morning I got up (with a bump on the side from my wife) at 5:00, a bit too early for my scheduled trip to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009, which will take me through the beautiful city of Minneapolis, where I will be transferring planes to get to Fargo. Given that I live in Atlanta, a major hub in the United States, it's just about right that you give yourself enough time to depart.

By 5:30 I was ready and decided to drive my car and park at the airport for the days I will be out... I was at the airport by 6:15 after what seemed like a very uneventful morning in the Atlanta traffic. In fact, there was nothing, no one on the road. Surprising? Very much so considering Atlanta's traffic is ranked 3rd in the US for congestion. the one thing I did not count on was the fact that the check in counter was located a good 600 meters away from the parking lot. May not seem as much, but try that when you have to stroll around a big bag and a carry on (laptop).

Check in was really smooth... for a change I got an actual human being who was willing to assist in making the experience satisfactory. For those of you who have never traveled through Atlanta, security checkpoints can be a nightmare, with never ending lines of people waiting to get through. Aside from the usual shoe removal, all-things-metalic removal, belt removal, jacket removal, laptop out of the carry case, cell phone demo, laptop catton swabbing, laptop demo, ID verification, and gentle smile from the security agent when everything is ok, I was out of the security area very fast.

Atlanta's airport, because of its layout, requires you to then hop a tram that will get you to your departure concourse, but not before going down some really steep electric stairs where you have to hold on for dear life and hope that the person standing behind you does not let go of their carry on.

Now, I am sitting at the gate where there is a line of people hoping to sit in the same seat upfront. They have all so far been turned away, because the flight is a full flight and there will be no re-arrangements of seat. The flight to Minneapolis is a 5-hour flight, hence the reason I think people are just trying to get comfy. This is what my trip looks like, so let's see what else will the day hold.

I will provide an update from Minneapolis.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Lunching with Developing for Dynamics GP Team

2009-11-06T10:56:00.006-05:00

The moment of truth has arrived... next week David Musgrave and I will be facing those of you attending the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 in Fargo, ND., to deliver some really exciting sessions on developing and troubleshooting Microsoft Dynamics GP.

To make matters even more interesting, Patrick Roth has announced that he will be hosting a lunch topic session to obtain your input on the Developing for Dynamics GP blog site. You may not know what you will get, but maybe having a chance to sit with Pat, David, and I should be enough motivation to get you started. We would definately love to steal more chairs and join a few more tables to accomodate all of you who decide to sit with us. I know I have a few comments for the site and a list of topics I would like to see them address more often. Why not come and introduce yourself, say what you like (or don't) from the site, and have some food in the process. You will sure get their attention by doing so and voice your opinion.

It's not too late to register, so take advantage of the open seats left and come enjoy the beautiful weather in Fargo, while having a chance to sharp up some of your skills -- I am not kidding, check the weather in Fargo, this is the 5-day forecast.

See you all at the Conference next week!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

"Unhandled Script Exception: Set Precision.." when selecting item in Item Maintenance window

2009-11-04T23:48:00.005-05:00

Background

The user was attempting to select an item in the Item Maintenance window and received the error:

Unhandled script exception:
set precision passed bad precision value -1.

EXCEPTION_CLASS_SCRIPT_OUT_OF_RANGE
SCRIPT_CMD_SETPRECISION

The error only happened for a handful of items in a catalog of a few thousands.

Solution

Dynamics will attempt to set the decimal precision for the currency and quantity fields on the Item Maintenance window based on the number of decimal places for the functional currency (this is the default) or based on the number of decimal places used to define the item list price under the Item Currency Maintenance window; and in the case of the quantities, the number of decimal places for the quantities. To fix the issue, you will want to look at the columns DECPLQTY and DECPLCUR for any values at or below zero which would sure render an incorrect precision value when Dynamics GP attempts to set the value of the drop-down list on the screen. In this case, a zero value in any of these columns will result in a precision value of -1, when the system attempts to set the drop-down list value.

The following query will identify any suspect records causing the problem:

SELECT * FROM IV00101 WHERE (DECPLQTY <= 0) OR (DECPLCUR <= 0);
SELECT * FROM IV00105 WHERE (DECPLCUR <= 0);

To fix, you will want to at least set them to the values of your functional currency, for example:

UPDATE IV00101 SET DECPLQTY = 3 -- 2 decimals
WHERE (DECPLQTY <= 0);
UPDATE IV00101 SET DECPLCUR = 3 -- 2 decimals
WHERE (DECPLCUR <= 0);
UPDATE IV00105 SET DECPLCUR = 3 -- 2 decimals
WHERE (DECPLCUR <= 0);

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

The Technology Corner - Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

2009-11-02T15:05:00.005-05:00

Folks, as you may (or may not) know Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is feature-complete with the beta release being shipped in the next coming days. Microsoft Office 2010 beta should be out almost simultaneously -- for my previous posts on Microsoft Office 2010 click here.

In addition, you may want to clap for this one: SharePoint 2010 will run on Windows 7 and Windows Vista SP2, at least the developer's version, eliminating the need for tedius virtual machine or virtual PC images for those of us who are developers or consultants trying to demonstrate things like Microsoft Business Portal and Workflow.

While most of us don't have beta code yet, it is safe to say you can get a head start on setting up a SharePoint 2010 development environment by reading this MSDN entry. Make sure you observe all the system requirements.

Here is what SharePoint Senior Director, Tom Rizzo has to say about the product.

http://media.nuveminc.net:8080/spc09/tom_rizzo.wmv

You may also visit the SharePoint 2010 site for videos and more infomation about the subject.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

New Article on MSDynamicsWorld.com: Microsoft Dynamics GP Hybrid Applications Development

2009-10-29T09:31:00.004-04:00

A few days aback I did a review of hybrid application development from a technical perspective, my new article on MSDynamicsWorld takes a look at the hybrid approach from a business perspective. Take some time to read the article and let me know what you think.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Top Ten Reasons to attend the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009

2009-10-26T11:32:00.004-04:00

If you are not already registered to attend the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2009 and you need some help making your decision to come visit Fargo, the center of the Microsoft Dynamics GP world; then the video below will have you clicking on the link above to register in no time.

Say no more... Just click to register.

Hope to see you all there.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

VST - Amount in Words on SOP Entry window

2009-10-19T12:13:00.010-04:00

Background

Just recently, I came across a Microsoft Dynamics GP Partners forum question, requesting the ability to add the amount in words to the SOP Entry window and possibly other windows throughout the system. Certain requirements may seem very strange to some of us, but are based on actual customer requests elsewhere on this planet.

The proposed solution

As I have been lately talking about hybrid integrating applications development, I thought it would be more than appropriate for this occassion to show how this customization could be achieved with the use of Modifier and Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP. The idea? Pretty simple! Add a text field to the SOP Entry window with Modifier, then build a forms dictionary application assembly with the Dictionary Assembly Generator that can be accessed from Visual Studio Tools. In Visual Studio, I would then create a Dynamics GP project that would reference the Application.Dynamics.ModifiedForms.dll to set the document amount in words to the text field added with Modifier, by calling the Report Writer function RW_ConvertToWordsAndNumbers. If this sounds all too complicated, I will show you how to build this customization in 4 steps.

1. Modify the SOP Entry form to include a local text field. The following screenshot shows the modified window with the text field, '(L) Amount In Words'. Don't forget to grant yourself security to the modified window in Dynamics GP.

2. Use the Dictionary Assembly Generator (DAG.EXE) tool provided with Visual Studio Tools to generate the Application.Dynamics.ModifiedForms.dll application assembly for the forms dictionary. Since DAG.EXE is a command line utility, go to the command prompt then go to the Visual Studio Tools SDK folder (typically under Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP10 VS Tools SDK) to execute it, as follows:

dag.exe 0 "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Dynamics.set" /F /N:Dynamics

3. Open Visual Studio and create a new Dynamics GP solution, SOPAmountInWords.

Once the solution has been created, you can proceed to add a reference to the forms dictionary application assembly.

Now you can proceed to add the following code in the editor:


// Created by Mariano Gomez, MVP
// No warranties conferred, express or implied
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Bridge;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications.DynamicsModifiedDictionary;

namespace SOPAmountInWords
{
    public class GPAddIn : IDexterityAddIn
    {
        // IDexterityAddIn interface
        const short FUNCTIONAL = 1;
        const short ORIGINATING = 2;

        SopEntryForm sopEntryMod;
        Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications.DynamicsDictionary.SopEntryForm sopEntry;

        public void Initialize()
        {
 
            // create overload method for changes in the document total field
            sopEntry = Dynamics.Forms.SopEntry;
            sopEntry.SopEntry.OriginatingDocumentAmount.Change += new EventHandler(OriginatingDocumentAmount_Change);

        }

        void OriginatingDocumentAmount_Change(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string amountInWords;

            // retrieve amount in words
            if (sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyViewButton.Value == ORIGINATING)
            {
                amountInWords = Dynamics.Functions.RwConvertToWordsAndNumbers_.Invoke(
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.OriginatingDocumentAmount.Value,
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyId.Value,
                    0
                );
            }
            else
            {
                amountInWords = Dynamics.Functions.RwConvertToWordsAndNumbers_.Invoke(
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.DocumentAmount.Value,
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyId.Value,
                    0
                );
            }


            // assign value to custom text field on modified form
            try
            {
                sopEntryMod = DynamicsModified.Forms.SopEntry;
                sopEntryMod.SopEntry.LocalAmountInWords.Clear();

                sopEntryMod.SopEntry.LocalAmountInWords.Value = amountInWords;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Error attempting to set modified form field value: {0}", ex.ToString());
            }

        }
    }
}

Code Explanation

The first aspect of the code is to reference the namespace of the modified form applciation assembly. This will allow us to access the modified form object, SOP Entry. As a best practice, and to avoid working with extremely long object namespaces, I created two variables that reference the objects I need to work with. In addition, I defined two constants that will check whether the amount is being displayed in functional or originating currency as the wording will need to change accordingly.


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Bridge;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications;
using Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications.DynamicsModifiedDictionary;

namespace SOPAmountInWords
{
    public class GPAddIn : IDexterityAddIn
    {
        // IDexterityAddIn interface
        const short FUNCTIONAL = 1;
        const short ORIGINATING = 2;

        SopEntryForm sopEntryMod;
        Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications.DynamicsDictionary.SopEntryForm sopEntry;

In the Initialize() method, we will register a change event on the Originating Document Amount field, in turn Visual Studio will create the proper overload method that we will use to add the code to manage the display of the amount in words.


        public void Initialize()
        {
 
            // create overload method for changes in the document total field
            sopEntry = Dynamics.Forms.SopEntry;
            sopEntry.SopEntry.OriginatingDocumentAmount.Change += new EventHandler(OriginatingDocumentAmount_Change);

        }

In the OriginatingDocumentAmount_Change() method, we now can add the code to manage the display of the amount in words by invoking the RwConvertToWordsAndNumbers_() function, exposed via the Microsoft.Dexterity.Applications namespace (Applications.Dynamics.dll application assembly)


        void OriginatingDocumentAmount_Change(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            string amountInWords;

            // retrieve amount in words
            if (sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyViewButton.Value == ORIGINATING)
            {
                amountInWords = Dynamics.Functions.RwConvertToWordsAndNumbers_.Invoke(
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.OriginatingDocumentAmount.Value,
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyId.Value,
                    0
                );
            }
            else
            {
                amountInWords = Dynamics.Functions.RwConvertToWordsAndNumbers_.Invoke(
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.DocumentAmount.Value,
                    sopEntry.SopEntry.CurrencyId.Value,
                    0
                );
            }


            // assign value to custom text field on modified form
            try
            {
                sopEntryMod = DynamicsModified.Forms.SopEntry;
                sopEntryMod.SopEntry.LocalAmountInWords.Clear();

                sopEntryMod.SopEntry.LocalAmountInWords.Value = amountInWords;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("Error attempting to set modified form field value: {0}", ex.ToString());
            }

        }

Note that the value of the CurrencyViewButton is checked to establish whether to display the amount in functional or originating, but also use the correct currency wording (dollars/cents, pounds/pensks, etc).

The Report Writer function is then called with the required parameters. Then the result is assigned to our exposed text box field.

4. Now we can build and deploy the solution. Copy the resulting application assembly to the AddIns folder under the GP installation folder. Launch Dynamics GP and go to the SOP Entry screen. You can enter a new document or browse through existing ones as the customization will fill in the text box appropriately.

Hopefully you enjoyed this simple and useful customization and learned a bit more about developing hybrid applications.

Downloads
You may download the zip file containing the Visual Studio solution, application assembly and package file with the customization. To install, copy the Application.Dynamics.ModifiedForms.dll and the SOPAmountInWords.dll files to the AddIns folder under Dynamics GP. Import the package file and grant yourself security to the modified SOP Entry window.

SOPAmountInWords.zipx - Click here to download

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

The Technology Corner - Microsoft Office 2010 The Movie

2009-10-17T14:35:00.005-04:00

Anyone who thought Microsoft could not compete with big time Hollywood productions, think again! All you need to do is take a look at this uber-spectacular video for the upcoming release of Microsoft Office 2010 circulating on YouTube.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUawhjxLS2I

The trailer production was contracted out to Director Dennis Liu who also has the short on his site. If only they would develop the movie... it would be the most hilarious thing ever. For more Microsoft Office 2010 videos, visit the official back stage site at http://www.office2010themovie.com/. You will learn about all the features being incorporated into the product from the people who made it possible.

Until next post,

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP hybrid integrating applications

2009-10-12T12:24:00.003-04:00

As I prepare for the 2009 Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference, one of the topics that keeps coming across the sample applications we are planning on showcasing to the attendees and frankly, something that David Musgrave and I have been informally publishing and talking about for quite some time now is the topic of hybrid integrating applications development.

Simply put, in the world of Software Development the Earth doesn't always revolve around the Sun. In fact, in the world of Software Development, there are times when the Sun and other planets may need to revolve around the Earth. This is, as a developer your solution becomes the center of the Solar system and all resouces at your disposal work to make that solution robust and to meet the requirements established by your customer -- customer used here in the broad sense of the word.

Hybrid application development involves using multiple development tools and techniques to make your solution a viable one. In the case of the Dynamics GP development, those development tools involve the use of Microsoft Dexterity, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP. In today's world, to think that one tool is enough to build an application is ludocrus (take this from the Microsoft Dexterity developer in me). In fact, as the Microsoft Dynamics GP application suite continues to expand its use of managed code, using one tool to deliver a solution is becoming very (if not extremely) limiting!

A hybrid development approach will then allow you to take advantage of the best features available with each tool. A Microsoft tool that best represent this hybrid approach in the Dynamics GP space is Menus for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP -- save the joke about the name... MVP Mark Polino once called this the longest name for any Microsoft product -- VSTM for a short, uses Microsoft Dexterity to expose a menu managing API that allows Visual Studio developers to add their customizations to Microsoft Dynamics GP standard menu structure.

A hybrid development approach can be use for even VBA customizations, where you need to run Microsoft Dynamics GP internal functions and procedures. By now, many of you may have explored running Dexterity sanScript code from your VBA customizations with the Dynamics Continuum Integration Library... yeah, yeah, I have also heard the claims and place the disclaimers myself about supportability of this approach. You may even be taking advantage of calling .NET assemblies from Dexterity. In fact, your Visual Studio Tools solutions are by nature hybrid, since they take advantage of Microsoft Dynamics GP resources that are accessed via .NET assemblies.

Hybrid development forces developers to broaden their knowlege of tools and leave their comfort zones, but I firmly believe it makes for better integrating application solutions.

Related Articles

Sample Hybrid Customizations @ Developing for Dynamics GP
VBA - Creating a keyboard shortcut for a Microsoft Dynamics GP window expansion button
This week, free Visual Basic for Applications workshop with the Dynamics GP Blogster
Using Menus for Visual Studio Tools from VBA - Calling native VBA forms
How to display existing record notes on an existing Dynamics GP window with Modifer and VBA
Using pass-through sanScript in VBA to return a file path to a Dynamics GP Modified form field

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCTS
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

MVP Headlines at Dynamics Conference

2009-10-12T11:47:00.004-04:00

The Microsoft MVP Award Program blog has a stub running today on my appearance at the 2009 Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference in Fargo, ND. If you are planning on attending the conference, please don't forget to register. There are still plenty of seats open and you can still get some decent hotel rates around town. The Conference will be held from November 9th - 11th, with an entire day of post-conference training FREE!!

Don't miss out on this great opportunity to meet some of your fellow peers doing the technical heavy lifting in the trenches. A big reason why these conferences are successful is because you have the ability to interact with other people who understand your pains and may even give you a tip or two on how to tackle your issues.

Until next post,

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

The Technology Corner - Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Dynamics GP v10

2009-10-06T12:40:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the MVP Award Program, I got a hold of Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Technical Preview. While the Technical Preview copy has been out since the beginning of July via Microsoft MVP Connect Services, I have just come around to installing it and testing the traditional Dynamics GP operations with SmartLists and Navigation Lists. I have to say I am pretty impressed, but before we get there, let's take a look at a few Microsoft Office 2010 improvements.

The New Startup Splashes

Well, the old saying has it that "food enters through the eyes" and Office 2010 is not the exception. Microsoft has departed from the old boring splashes to some really modern polychromatic animated art. Here are a few artworks for some of the most recognized products within the suite.

The installation process went pretty smooth and I was surprised to see all my Microsoft Office 2007 components upgrade without a hitch. Visio continues to be provided as a separate install, but even this wasn't a deterrent to installing the product. The startup process for all these applications is fairly fast when compared to previous versions of Microsoft Office, even the 2007 version.

The Features

Microsoft Office 2010 is jam-packed with new features, but hear it directly from the Microsoft Office Product Management team.

See What's New in Microsoft Office 2010

See What's New in Microsoft Excel 2010

See What's New in Microsoft Word 2010

See What's New in Microsoft Outlook 2010

See What's New in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

See What's New in Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 (Formerly Microsoft Off...

Microsoft Dynamics GP

I am currently running Microsoft Dynamics GP v10 Service Pack 4 on Windows 7 Enterprise. Upon launching Dyanamics GP I thought I would encounter my first issue with the Home Page perhaps not being able to address the new version of Microsoft Outlook 2010 components.

However, it seems that Microsoft Office development team made a concious effort to preserve the COM automation interfaces for compatibility with other applications that have come to rely on these objects. Next step involved testing SmartList exports to Microsoft Excel 2010 and Microsoft Word 2010. I went ahead and selected the Account Summary SmartList and click the Export to Excel button. The test completed successfully as shown in this video:

Microsoft Office 2010 - The Movie

Finally, I leave you with a really cool teaser released on YouTube. I am sure more of these will pop up as the release date approaches.

If you are currently participating in the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview please feel free to add your comments to this post sharing your experiences. In particular, if you are testing Microsoft Dynamics GP with the Technical Preview, I would like to know of your findings.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Microsoft Small Business Summit Online

2009-10-02T15:49:00.004-04:00

This one comes a little late, but I found some really cool videos of the Microsoft Small Business Summit Online over at Microsoft's new partner, Yahoo! This summit was apparently done in 2008, but the material could never be outdated.

@ Yahoo! Video

I rescued these two Dynamics GP videos from the pack. The first is a presentation from Rich Miller, Sr. Product Marketing Manager and Trevor Gilchrist, Technical Product Specialist demonstrating the rich capabilities of Dynamics GP.

Business Management Software and Increasing Productivity @ Yahoo! Video

The second video provides a Customer Case Study and their considerations for switching out their Manufacturing system and replacing it with Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Financial Management with Dynamics GP Accounting Software @ Yahoo! Video

Visit the Microsoft Small Business Summit site for more information on upcoming summits.

Trivia: Did you know they are more than 1000 videos online demonstrating varios capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics GP?

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

More on OLE attachments and record notes

2009-10-01T22:36:00.004-04:00

Microsoft's David Musgrave takes on OLE attachments and record notes based on a support case he tackled recently. David reviews the process use by Dynamics GP to retrieve the next note index value and how the system associates the note to a record. He explores the OLE container and how the file names are encoded along with the path.

Furthermore, he provides some Dexterity and SQL code to demonstrate how you would retrieve the hexadecimal value used to compose the notes file name. Be sure to read David's article to get the complete scoop.

Related articles

All About the Dexterity OLE Container - click here
Understanding Notes and the Note Index Field @ Developing for Dynamics GP, click here

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

MVP Frank Hamelly's gptip42day

2009-10-01T16:40:00.003-04:00

Folks, if you are not taking advantage of MVP Frank Hamelly's gptip42day daily columns featured in his gp2themax blog, you are missing out on some of the best "from the trench" tips you will ever find (Mark, your "50 tips in 50 minutes" are very good too, so no offense).

Frank explores some of the hidden, dark secrets of Microsoft Dynamics GP in a friendly manner and presents real life examples of their usage and how they affect your daily work. Kudos to Frank!

Until next Post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Congratulations to Mark Polino, MVP!

2009-10-01T16:17:00.003-04:00

"I would do this stuff without recognition from anyone..."

Dynamics GP MVP Mark Polino has been granted another clean bill of health by Microsoft, renewing his current status as MVP for the 2010 year. Mark has been a regular contributor to the Microsoft Dynamics GP user community newsgroups, the Microsoft Dynamics GP partner forum, and has been featured as one of the Microsoft Dynamics Top 100 most influencial professionals in 2009. Mark also runs one of the most succesful blogs in the community, DynamicAccounting.net, where he is constantly featuring articles around the Dynamics blogosphere and his customary columns, Weekly Dynamic and Weekly Review.

Be sure to stop over at DynamicAccounting.net and congratulate Mark for his MVP renewal achievement.

Related Links

The Microsoft MVP Award Program Blog - Click here.

Until next post,

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Inside multi-platform integrations with Integration Manager

2009-09-30T22:17:00.007-04:00

I have been working on a very challenging systems conversion project, from JD Edwards on AS/400 and DB2 to Microsoft Dynamics GP v9. Part of the challenge stems from the fact that certain processes, mainly in-house applications developed for the AS/400 will continue to support existing business processes pass the "go-live" date.

I am tasked with developing multiplatform integrations to support application processes in place and by doing so, I've had to dust off my DB2 - AS/400 skills. Per the client's request, the integrations need to be easy to use, extremely flexible and adaptable, and low maintenance (as in little to no programming required). Many of you may think that due to the nature of the systems involved, this could very well be an eConnect implementation. However, Integration Manager was chosen because of the characteristics previously described.

As I work through implementing the first integration to manage expense reimbursements from Lotus Notes, my integration needs to read data from some interface tables in a DB2 catalog. As such, we deployed the IBM Client Access ODBC driver. Working through the configuration was fairly simple, but due to the driver features I was afraid Integration Manager was not going to be able to store the DSN configuration.

One thing I discovered while working with IM v9 SP4 (9.00.0054) is that due to it's underlaying implementation of the almost outdated use of ADO technology, it cannot perform a preview of the source queries, with the following error message:

Upon further research, it seems this error is generated because server-side cursors are not supported with ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) files. As it turns out, ISAM was originally developed by IBM and later replaced with a storage file system called methodology called VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method). VSAM is the physical access method used in DB2.
What does this have to do with IM? Well, IM -- version 9 specifically -- uses ADO to connect and retrieve data. The problem with ADO and VSAM file systems is that the cursor location needs to be set to AdUseClient and the cursor type needs to be checked for bookmark support:

oRecordSet.Supports(adBookmark)

Apparently, this is not being done in IM v9's internal ADO implementation. The good news is, I checked this against IM v10 and I have to say it works just fine, since, IM v10 was developed from the ground up with ADO.NET.

Given there was no preview available, testing began with a small dataset.

Integration Manager began importing expense vouchers and in the process neglected randomly to import the distributions. I executed the same integration a few times and obtained random results: transactions that previously imported fine along with their distributions did not import and failed the second time around. I verified the RecordSource Rule and Source properties to make sure they were set to Default Non-Imported and the source query for the distributions, respectively.

Upon adding some VBScript to write the records that were being read and attempted during the integration, I noticed that the header records were being read in order while the distribution records were shifting randomly. In some cases IM would match the header record with the distribution record, but in some cases it would skip a valid set of distributions for an expense voucher. By changing the UseOptimizedFiltering flag in IM to False the imports began to work as expected.

Integration Manager is a very useful tool and should not be overlooked when considering multiplatform systems integrations, especially if the customer insists on easy of use. All the integrations will be scheduled on a server and will run unattended, which only validates IM's flexibility.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Microsoft Dynamics GP Roadmap Update

2009-09-27T12:12:00.004-04:00

Back in April I published an article describing Microsoft Dynamics GP roadmap up to release GP 11 Future Pack. The timeline also described what would happen at least up to 2011.

Just recently the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Management and Marketing team released a new stub titled Microsoft Dynamics GP "11" Preview with a link to the Dynamics GP "11" Presentation Pack (visit their site for more info). The presentation pack contained a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation describing the Dynamics GP roadmap up to GP "14".

To comment a bit on the roadmap, the Product team has a vision that extends beyond the initial 2011 scope delivered back in April, throughout to 2016, which quiets down rumors as to the future of Dynamics GP and reafirming Microsoft's real commitment. While the bullet points accompanying GP "12" and GP "14" are pretty vague, it's worth mentioning that GP "14" is contemplating a major user interface update. I won't be surprised to see more improvements to the GP ribbon and perhaps even extensibility of forms and reports with Visual Studio Tools for Applications. What is Visual Studio Tools for Applications? It's Microsoft's replacement for VBA. After all, VBA is old technology --reminiscence of Visual Basic 6 -- and served it's purpose already if you ask me.

What else to expect? Integration, integration, integration... tighter integration with Microsoft Office, tighter integration with Microsoft SharePoint Server, bigger-broader enhancements to BI, and even support for cloud computing deployments with SQL Azure.

Keep in mind as you read this article that these comments are my personal point of view based on the trends I am seeing across all Microsoft product stacks and do not represent the views and/or directions of Microsoft.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

How to startup GP with a default navigation page rather than the home page

2009-09-23T11:58:00.002-04:00

So you want to be able to startup GP with a navigation bar option instead of the typical home page? This request was posted today by Mary Fetsch on the Microsoft Dynamics GP community public newsgroup.

After playing around with the navigation bar for a while and some head scratching, the light bulb went off... use a macro! One peculiarity about the navigation bar is, while click actions are off limits to the macro system -- the navigation bar is part of the .NET managed code application wrapper -- each option can be accessed with a combination of the Control key on the keyboard and a numeric sequence associated to the option. As such, Home can be accessed with the CTRL+1 keyboard combination; Financial, with the CTRL+2 combination, and so on.

The macro

The macro I created is the typical login macro documented in the Integration Manager manual with an extra touch: I recorded extra steps to close all windows and the keyboard combination for the default startup navigation option, in this case the Purchasing option. The macro looks like this:

Purchasing.mac


# DEXVERSION=10.0.324.0 2 2
Logging file 'macro.log'
CheckActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form Login window Login
  MoveTo field Password
  TypeTo field Password , 'somePassword'
  MoveTo field 'OK Button'
  ClickHit field 'OK Button'
NewActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form 'Switch Company' window 'Switch Company'
  MoveTo field 'OK Button'
  ClickHit field 'OK Button'
NewActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form sheLL window sheLL
NewActiveWin dictionary 'default'  form syReminders window syReminders
ActivateWindow dictionary 'default'  form sheLL window sheLL
  CommandExec dictionary 'default'  form 'Command_System' command CloseAllWindows
ActivateWindow dictionary 'default'  form Toolbar window 'Main_Menu_1'
ShellCommand 'Navigate to \cmdNavigationPane\PurchasingButton\PurchasingAreaPage' # Purchasing
ActivateWindow dictionary 'default'  form sheLL window sheLL

Once the macro was ready, all that's needed is to change the Dynamics GP application shortcut to launch and play the macro all at the same time, as follows:

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Dynamics.exe" Dynamics.set purchasing.mac

One thing I like about these type of user questions is, they are real life situations that can shave minutes from someone's daily routine making life a bit easier.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Microsoft Dynamics GP v10 and supported virtualization platforms

2009-09-21T23:48:00.011-04:00

The Windows Server Catalog site may just be one of the best kept secrets on the web. According to the About This Site page, "[t]he Windows Server Catalog lists thousands of hardware and software items compatible with the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. In addition, products may also be compatible with other versions of Microsoft Windows as shown in each product details page."

In response to my friend Steve Endow's inquiry on Microsoft's support of vitualization environments and Dynamics GP, I went in quest of finding the answer since it is not always apparent where to find this information. The first place of course, the Systems Requirements page of CustomerSource/PartnerSource. On this page, you can clearly read the software and hardware virtualization platforms supported, but as usual the fine print is rather more interesting.

It turns out this page points to the Windows Server Catalog page where furthermore you can inquiry on other tested solutions by clicking on the Server Virtualization Validation Program site link.

The site has a Support Policy Wizard link that will take you to a wizard-based tool where you can select the products you would like to obtain support information about.

Next, in the product drop-down, you can choose any of the Microsoft products listed, in this case, Dynamics GP. Version 10 is the only release listed, but I am sure this will change in a couple years from now with the advent of new releases.

After clicking Next, the wizard presented a drop-down list with the supported virtualization technologies. Among the ones listed:

Microsoft Hyper-V
Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades 4.1
Novel SUSE Linux Ent Server 10 SP2
VMWare ESX 3.5 Update 2, 3, 4
VMWare ESXi 3.5 Update 3, 4
VMWare vSphere 4
Citrix XenServer 5, 5.5

But there had to be more, right? Right! The wizard allows you to check on the guest operating system configurations and processors along with the environment to verify which configurations have been tested and are currently supported.

As indicated in the screenshot, I decided to try something not too common: I selected Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades 4.1 as the virtualization technology, Windows Server 2008 R2 as the guest OS, and x64 as the OS architecture. When I pressed Next ...

...I was pleasantly surprised to see that Cisco WAAS Virtual Blades with Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64) was a supported platform. The good news is, as long as a platform and a configuration is supported you are able to obtain technical support.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

The Technology Corner - Windows 7 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Update

2009-09-20T19:47:00.002-04:00

In the previous article I reported having an issue with Support Debugging Tool not unchunking and generating a "Table not found" issue. After a couple of minutes online with my good friend David Musgrave he made me realize that unchunking applications with User Account Control activated can also cause the Dynamics application runtime engine to wreak havoc in the process.

After running Dynamics GP as administrator (only needed for unchunking the Support Debugging Tool) everything went just fine. One can make the general assumption that if you are installing any third party Dexterity-based application, then UAC must be disabled or Dynamics GP must be run as an administrator to allow chunk files to install properly.

PS. David took offense in the part where I said "SDT remains broken" as he felt I was blaming him. The problem is there will be little or nothing I can do to make up for this one, because the guy don't even drink Coca Cola or smoke anything... ah, I just remembered Veal Parmagiana!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

The Technology Corner: Windows 7 and Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0

2009-09-20T13:10:00.005-04:00

For those of you who follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you probably already got first hand updates as I was going through rebuilding my laptop with the new Windows 7 and getting all my core applications installed. Most of you are aware that I am more of a technical guy, so hardware and applications performance is very critical.

Let's start with my laptop... I currently own a Dell XPS M1710 running Intel Centrino Duo core and 2.5GB in RAM. I know, yes! I use a gaming notebook taking advantage of the processing capabilities and the massive 17" screen. A little outdated when compared to the new XPS, but it still gets the job done!

The goal was to install the following software:

Windows 7 Enterprise
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, including Microsoft Project 2007 and Microsoft Visio 2007
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard with Service Pack 1
Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard with Service Pack 1
Microsoft Dexterity 10 with Service Pack 4
Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 with Service Pack 4
Support Debugging Tool for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10
Visual Studio Tools with Service Pack 4 for Microsoft Dynamics GP

In addition, I needed to install Microsoft Silverlight 3, Microsoft .NET RIA Services, Microsoft Virtual Earth Control CTP, and Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager 10 with Service Pack 4.

After all, I am also gearing up for the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference, so I really needed to showcase all the latest technology -- well, I would have loved to have Visual Studio 2010, but Visual Studio Tools is not compatible yet -- to you the developers out there.

The prep work
I started out by backing up my all files onto my home NAS and progressed from there with a checklist of the most important programs I needed after the Windows 7 installation was complete. My goal was not to have a straight upgrade from Windows Vista Service Pack 2, but rather a fresh install as mostly recommended by Microsoft anyways.

Once backups were ready and the inventory of applications was completed came the actual installation of Windows 7.

Windows 7 installation.
I popped my copy of Windows 7 Enterprise into the DVD drive and rebooted my laptop. The first surprise was the now graphical installation interface, a long shot away from the old DOS interfaces that plagued previous Windows installations. The interface was pretty intuitive to navigate. I essentially started by reformatting my existing partion. This is where the second surprised come to play. In previous installations of Windows, formatting a partition could take long minutes. Windows 7 completed the reformatting of my 76GB partition in less than 10 seconds. From there on, copying the files and extracting them onto the hard drive was pretty simple. The footprint was minimal too, occupying less than 3GB.

As a laptop user, my major concern is always drivers. Windows 7 did an excellent job recognizing all my laptop components including the wireless... this was awefully cool because, the OS could immediately access other components available online and perform some basic updates at the same time the installation was happening. The only dissapointment was my display driver. That I had to install from a pen drive that I prepared before reformatting just in case.

Once the final reboot was complete, I run the Windows Update to make sure nothing else was missing... and yes, they are already a few Windows 7 updates available. End to end, the OS took approximately 30 minutes to install, including the updates. The third surprise came then... Windows 7 was booting up three-fold faster than Windows Vista. It went from a painful 1.5-minute boot up process to less than 10 seconds. My laptop seemed to have regained some life, though I was a bit skeptic since I really hadn't loaded anything yet.

Programs installation

SQL Server 2008 Standard with Service Pack 1
Once the Windows 7 updates were installed, I moved on to SQL Server 2008 Standard installation. SQL Server installation was pretty straight forward, however, at the beginning of the install, Windows 7 warned me that this program was written for another version of Windows and presented me with a link as to where I could find the updates for SQL Server... now that's productivity. Windows 7 askmed me if I wanted to change the installer compatibility, and did so upon my acceptance of the message. The installation continued as usual and without any hiccups.
I then went to the SQL Server site and downloaded and installed Service Pack 1. In less than 15 minutes I was up and running with SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1. I restarted the laptop to test the boot up and surprisingly, nothing had changed as far as performance.

Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise

MS Office installation went uneventful. However, when the installation was completed and I let couple minutes pass by, Windows 7 had already downloaded Office 2007 Suite Service Pack 2 and the required security updates for everything else installed at this point. I thought this would be a drag, because they were more than 35 updates between SQL Server, Office, and other driver components on my machine that needed to be applied. Wrong! When I clicked on the shut down button. Everything got installed and applied in one pass! No more multipass service pack installation bootups! Between the installation of MS Office 2007 and the service packs, I spent another 30 to 40 minutes. I also activated all the products during this time.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard with Service Pack 1

So I then put the VS2008 DVD in the drive and began the installation. Again, nothing much to report here. Once the installation was complete, I ran Windows Update. VS2008 SP1 was next in line. That got applied successfully without any issues and the whole experience took 20 minutes tops. Other security components were installed, but this took less than 5 minutes.

Surprisingly enough at this point, my laptop's performance seem to hold steady...

Microsoft Dexterity 10 with Service Pack 4
Dexterity took less than 2 minutes to download, and 2 minutes to install... next!

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 with Service Pack 4
Since the introduction of Feature Pack 1 with Service Pack 2, the GP installer had already incorporated changes to deal with .NET Framework and the newer operating systems. So I decided I would start my installation with the Feature Pack 1 with Service Pack 4 installer. Everything went fine until I launched Dynamics Utilities. It complained that it could not find BCP... hmm, then I remembered Vaidy's article on the subject when he was attempting to install on GP on Vista. It's easy to forget that Windows 7 also implements UAC -- not a sarcasm by the way. Once I ran Dynamics Utilities as administrator, between the creation of the DYNAMICS system database and the sample company, Fabrikam, some 20 minutes had passed.

I have to admit that throughout this process, my laptop "seemed to had regained its focus" on delivering what it was designed to deliver: peak performance for demanding gaming applications. This was no different for my business applications either and that made me think that Windows 7 was doing a really good job at keeping a low memory and disk overhead, giving all other applications the room needed to perform adequately.

Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP
Installing VST was a bit tricky. I started with the SDK download available from PartnerSource only to find out that it was asking for an existing installation of Visual Studio 2005 or greater. Since it said "greater" I assumed VS2008 would be just fine, but the installer did not seem to recognize I had VS2008 installed. I thought for one instance that this would be the wall that would stop me in my tracks. I ran a Windows 7 compatibility analysis on the MSI and Windows 7 suggested to run it in compatibility mode "Previous Windows version". So I did, still the same error.

It turns out VST SP2 has an additional installer that checks for the existance of VS2008 and gives you the option to install the VST Templates for VS2005 or VS2008. Phew!! Sigh of releaf! The problem was not relaed to a compatibility issue with Windows 7. I moved on to download and install VST SP4 once the initial components were installed. Because of the issues I had, I wasted precious minutes in this step, so overall it took some 45 minutes and some swearing to get through.

Support Debugging Tool
I downloaded this baby from the Support Debugging Tool download page and attempted to extract directly into the Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP folder and received a priviledge error -- UAC in action again. It was necessary to extract it into the My Documents folder then move to the GP folder.

I booted up GP to add the code and got prompted as such. However, after acknowledging the message I got the following error:

I have a feeling this error is Service Pack 4 related, rather than anything to do with Windows 7, but for now, SDT remains broken. I then had to rename the chunk file and move on.

Integration Manager
I began Integration Manager's installation very aware of Vaidy's findings with his initial installation test on Windows 7 RC, but I figured, I will once more test Windows 7 backward compatibility features. After all, this is one of the biggest selling points to customers to upgrade to Windows 7.

Everything began just fine... space requirements computed, files transferred, components registered, registry keys created. Surprisingly enough, after launching IM -- expecting it to bumb out -- everything was fine! I entered my registration keys and opened an integration just fine. I installed IM from the Feature Pack 1 with Service Pack 4 DVD image. Not sure if this had anything to do with my success, but there it was, up and running! The process took less than 4 minutes to complete.

All in all my laptop reinstallation took over 5 hours (including moving back files to the hard drive).

Before deciding to perform a Windows 7 upgrade, take in to consideration all the factors and applications your business is currently running. Check with each one of the manufacturers to validate compatibility. However, as an early technology adapter, I am pretty please with the results of this installation and can give Windows 7 two thumbs up!

I will certainly be performing more tests and will let you know of any issues I may encounter.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Integration Manager 10 INI settings

2009-09-18T00:17:00.005-04:00

The Integration Manager parameter file, Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.IntegrationManager.ini, provides a few keys that allow the application to perform certain actions according to the values and the sections in which these parameters are initialize . Here is a list of keys for the initialization file per section within the file:

IMBaseProvider section
This section controls the overall behavior of the Integration Manager application.

AutoUpgradeIntegrations= 0/1
Prompts IM to check whether to upgrade an integration or not.

CommandTimeout=30
Time allotted to execute a particular IM operation. If the operation is not successful in the time alloted, the record integration will fail.

HideMsgBox= False/True
Hides IM registration window during the application launch.

UseOptimizedFiltering= False/True
Allows you to maintain the same sorting as the original source. One note that I would make is that the following switch was put in more for performance. If you notice that your data is not coming in the same order as your source file you can set this switch to False and a lot of times that corrects the issue. If you do try changing this setting to false you will want to make sure you are on the latest service pack for version 10.0 of IM which is service pack 4.

IMGPPrv section
This section controls the behavior of the IM Standard integration adapter.

ShowDynamics=False/True
Shows the Dynamics GP interface during the integration process. The user will be able to observ how data is recorded. This feature is particularly useful if troubleshooting a problem record.

DoUIRedraw=False/True
Refreshes the interface when data is being integrated. Works in conjunction with ShowDynamics.

AllowOpenWindows=False/True
Suppresses checking of Dynamics GP windows status, this is, whether they are close or open.

HideMsgBox=True/False
Suppresses any integration status message box during the integration until records are fully integrated.

IMGPeConnect section
This section controls the behavior of the IM's eConnect adapter.

SuppressIntegration=False/True
No information available on this switch.

HideMsgBox= False/True
Suppresses any IM message during the integration until the integration is complete.

Also one other note, on prior versions of IM you may remember a DumpMacro switch that would basically run a trace of what IM was trying to pass in. That switch is no longer used on version 10.0. Instead IM uses the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.IntegrationManager.exe.config file. To create a trace file edit the configuration file as follows:

1. In Notepad, open the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.IntegrationManager.exe.config file.

2. Change the value of the IMTracingOn switch to 1 as follows:

<add name="IMTracingOn" value="1"/>

3. Change the value of the TraceGPDexInstructions switch to 1 as follows:

<add name="TraceGPDexInstructions" value="1"/>

These configuration settings are only used by Integration Manager with the Standard adapter.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

What do those strage reference codes in GL mean?

2009-09-16T13:32:00.004-04:00

The following applies to inventory items with a valuation method of Average Perpetual, LIFO Perpetual, or FIFO Perpetual items.

As of the release of Dynamics GP 9.0 the system will automatically generate General Ledger adjustment entries for situations where an item was sold or consumed from inventory, but its cost was later changed.

In earlier versions of GP, adjustments to Inventory and COGS needed to be entered manually to correct the accounts used by the transactions that sold or consumed the items. As of Dynamics GP 9.0, those adjustments will now be automatically generated. You will see different codes in GL (MCTERCT for example) depending on the type of transactions entered and timing of the transactions.

Unfortunately at this time there isn't a document describing the codes for Manufacturing. However, here are some codes based on various sources of info:

1. MCTERCT - If the items were issued in the Component Transaction Entry window and then the invoice is completed the adjustment will have a prefix of MCTERCT

2. MRCTRCV - If the items were issued in Mo Receipt Entry (they are backflushed) and then the invoice is complete the adjustment will have a prefix of MRCTRCV.

3. MCLSRCV - If the items were issued in the MO Close process (the MO was partially received and more backflushed items were issued during the close) and then the invoice is completed the adjustment will have a prefix of MCLSRCV.

As you can see the naming conventions follow a certain pattern. MCTE transactions come from the Component Transaction Entry window. MCLS transactions come from the MO Close process. MRCT transactions come from the MO Receipt entry window.Here is a complete list of the origins which may be used on Journal Entries that result from a change in average cost that affects sold receipt layers.

The following values will be used at the beginning of the Reference field for the specified originating document types:

1. BOM – Assembly Transaction
2. INV – invoice from the Invoicing module
3. IVT – inventory transfer
4. IVA – inventory adjustment
5. IVV – inventory variance
6. SALES – sales invoice from Sales Order Processing
7. PRTN – purchase return
8. MCTE – for a transaction that originated in Manufacturing Component Transaction Entry
9. MRCT – manufacturing receipt
10. MCLS – manufacturing close, including regular close and Quick MO
11. STCK – stock count variance
12. FSSC – field service Service Call
13. FSRMA – field service RMA
14. FSRTV – field service RTV
15. FSWO – field service Work Order
16. PA – project accounting
17. POP – close a PO line in Edit PO Status
18. RECON – created by Inventory Reconcile
19. CONV - created by an upgrade conversion
20. MCTERCT - If the items were issued in the Component Transaction Entry window and then the invoice is completed the adjustment will have a prefix of MCTERCT

21. MRCTRCV - If the items were issued in Mo Receipt Entry (they are "backflushed") and then the invoice is complete the adjustment will have a prefix of MRCTRCV.

22. MCLSRCV - If the items were issued in the MO Close process (the MO was partially received and more “backflushed” items were issued during the close) and then the invoice is completed the adjustment will have a prefix of MCLSRCV.

There is a report you can install to better help determine where the accounts are pulling from. It won’t help for those entries already created in the system, but should provide you with the information related to the GL entries going forward. If you are on SP3 for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 then you can add the following line under the [General] header of the Dex.ini file of your GP code folders:

RevalJEInDetail=TRUE

When you post a transaction, be sure you are printing the Cost Variance journals. Doing so will cause the PRUD (Purchase Receipt Update Detail) reports to print. This report will give a break down of any/all transactions that make up a particular variance transaction. If you do this then any of the cost adjustment transactions that will be written to the GL will also include the following information in these fields (GL20000):

ORCTRNUM (Originating Control Number) - this will now hold the original document number of the decrease item transaction affected by the cost variance adjustment.

ORMSTRID (Originating Master ID) - this will hold the item number that was revalued on the decrease item transaction.

ORDOCNUM (Originating Document Number) - this will now hold the original receipt number from the Inventory Purchase Receipt (IV10200) table that had a revaluation and forced the cost adjustment.

ORMSTRNM (Originating Master Number) - this will now hold the text value of "IV Ripple Transaction" to make it easier for users to identify the cost adjustments flowing into the GL.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/