Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 10 Digest

It's been 10 weeks so far of great features in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013. The list seems to be endless, but at the same time super informative. This shows the amount of work that went into making this one of the biggest releases ever.

Enjoy this weeks features:

Feature of the Day: Journal Entry History Inquiry

Journal Entry Inquiry

Original article: Feature of the Day: Journal Entry History Inquiry
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Journal Entry History Inquiry.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Edit Remit To Address

Edit Remit to Address

Original article: Feature of the Day: Edit Remit To Address
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Edit Remit To Address.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Update 1099 Information

Update 1099 Information

Edit 1099 Transaction Information

Original article: Feature of the Day: Update 1099 Information
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Update 1099 Information.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Update Item Allocation Inquiry in Field Service

Service Call Entry - Parts showing allocated item

Can now inquiry Field Service allocations from Item Allocation Inquiry window

Original article: Feature of the Day: Update Item Allocation Inquiry in Field Service
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Update Item Allocation Inquiry from Field Service.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Multitenant SQLReports

Can now select deployment folder for reports of a specific company

Original article: Feature of the Day: Multitenant SQLReports
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Multi-tenant SQL Reports Server.ppsx
Learning script: GP2013 Multitenant SQL Reports Server Learning Script

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 3

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 3

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

In the previous installment of this series, I went through the Web Client installation steps and showed you some challenges with ASP.NET 4.5 installation on IIS 8.0 on my Windows 8 environment. Today, I will talk about some common errors I have experienced with Web Client and show how to troubleshoot these.

Troubleshooting Web Client Installation Issues

1. Unexpected Error - System.Web.HttpUnhandledException (0x80004005): There was no endpoint listening at https://fqdn:48650/SessionCentralService that could accept the message.

Unhandled Exception (0x80004005)

Typically, this error will appear when the Session Central Service is not running on the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) server on the port being listened on. If you open the Services snap-in under Administrative Tools, you will see that the service is stopped.

Session Central Service service not running

If you see this error, turn on the GP Session Central Service and try to log in again on the Web Client. If the error persists, check to make sure the port is active - the default listening port is 48650.


2. There are no remote servers available to handle the request

No remote servers available error

This error is usually attributed to the Session Service service(s) not running on one of the session hosts.

Session Service not running

A further look into the Session Central Service log (found under \Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP Web Client\SessionCentral\Logs) would show the following trace:

Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.Web.Services.Session.Service.SessionCentralService
Error: 0 : Session Central Service was not able to successfully communicate with 
the Session Service at https://fqdn:48651/SessionService.  The exception details 
are:
 
System.ServiceModel.EndpointNotFoundException: There was no endpoint listening at 
https://mgb003:48651/SessionService that could accept the message. This is often 
caused by an incorrect address or SOAP action. See InnerException, if present, 
for more details. ---> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote 
server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: No connection could be made 
because the target machine actively refused it [2001:0:4137:9e76:2cce:1cb8:9cdf:4470]:48651
   at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect
   (EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress)
   at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, 
   Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, 
   ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Exception& exception)
 
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream(TransportContext& context)
   at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetRequestStream()
   at System.ServiceModel.Channels.HttpOutput.WebRequestHttpOutput.GetOutputStream()

   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---

If you see this error, turn on the GP Session Service and try to log in again on the Web Client. If the error persists, check to make sure the port is active - the default listening port is 48651.

3. Unexpected Error -  System.Web.HttpUnhandledException (0x80004005): Process has exited during startup with code: '-532462766'.

Unhandled Exception: Process has exited during startup

You will usually receive this error if you have not installed the Web Client Runtime during the installation of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 client on your session host server. Run the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 setup or go to Control Panel | Programs to change the installation settings to add the Runtime feature.

Web Client Runtime

Of course, there are a number of things that can go wrong and these are just a few that come to mind. Damaged certificates can also be an issue and I will be covering this in my next installment, also showing some troubleshooting techniques I learned from my buddy Aaron Donat.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2b

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 2b

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

Now that we have Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client Runtime installed, it's time to take a look at the Web Client installation process.

Web Client Installation

The installation process starts with the usual legalese stuff around Licensing Agreement and why you must accept these terms - pretty simple: you don't and you cannot install the software.

License Agreement

Once you pass the first screen, you are at the point of choosing between the two installation options. In the case of a single server (or word warrior workstation like mine) you will want to choose the Single Machine option. However, if you have multiple servers playing in your environment and you want the ability to segment services and what's not, then the Custom option is the way to go.

Installation Option

The Windows User Group window allows you to specify either the Web Client User group or user account and the Web Management Console user group that will be allowed to access the Web Client or administer the environment, respectively. Here we will be using the local accounts we setup in Part 1 of this series.

Typically, most customers will already have an Active Directory group in their domains where they already have Microsoft Dynamics GP users added to, since nowadays you need something similar to access SQL Reporting Services and Business Analyzer reports (if you are into making administration easier). So this is where I recommend using what you already have.

As for the Web Management Console, this will probably continue to be in the domain of the Microsoft Dynamics GP system administrator or simply become an extension to the functions of the overall system administrators in the organization.

Windows User Group

The next option is to enter the domain account that will be used as the application pool identity for the Web Client website. Again, here we will use the account we created in Part 1 of this series.



Web Site Configuration

Next up is creating a database to store our Web Management Console settings. If you are going to use Windows Trusted Authentication, the account you are using should have at least dbcreator rights on SQL Server to be able to do this.

Web Management Console database

Session Central service communicates with the website and maintains stats on all the session services running on the session host machines. Session Central service listens in on port 48650 by default (you can configure your own). If using SSL, you must select the personal store certificate created in Part 1 of this series. The port will automatically be setup on the firewall by the installation.

Session Central Service

As far as analogies go, think of Session Central service as a Distributed Process Manager (DPM). For more information on DPM, take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Architecture Whitepaper.

Session Service is a Windows service that runs on the Session Host machine and is responsible for authorizing users, creating user sessions, retrieving existing sessions, and monitoring sessions to report back to the Session Central service.  The Session Service will also start a shell instance of Dynamics GP,  also referred to as a Runtime.Process.exe, at the time a requesting GP Web Client users is authenticated as a valid user.

Session Service listens in on port 48651 by default (you can configure your own). If using SSL, you must select the personal store certificate created in Part 1 of this series. The port will automatically be configured on your firewall by the installation.

Session Service

Again, as far as analogies go, think of Session Service as a Distributed Process Server (DPS) instance. For more information on DPS, take a look at the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Architecture Whitepaper.

Finally, we need to specify the Runtime Service URL which by default listens in on port 48652. This URL provides the information for building the user's session address (in the form of https://machineaddress:48652/RuntimeService/pID) where pID is the process ID generated by the GP shell application.

Runtime Service URL

This is the only part of the configuration where an SSL certificate is strictly required.

The final aspect is to review the installation settings and kick off the install itself.

Install Progress

Progress Bar

A key troubleshooting aspect from all of the above is to ensure that the GP Session Central Service and GP Session Service are running. For that, you can check the Services panel under Administrative Tools or Computer Management.

GP Session Central Service and GP Session Services should now be running 

This concludes the installation portion of the Web Client and so far we have not ran into any issues with the process itself.

---

Now, it's time to launch the Web Client...

In my first attempt to launch the client I received the following error:

HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden

The Web server is configured to not list the contents of this directory.

Most likely causes:

A default document is not configured for the requested URL, and directory browsing is not enabled on the server.

Things you can try:

If you do not want to enable directory browsing, ensure that a default document is configured and that the file exists.

Enable directory browsing using IIS Manager.
1.     Open IIS Manager.
2.     In the Features view, double-click Directory Browsing.
3.     On the Directory Browsing page, in the Actions pane, click Enable.

Verify that the configuration/system.webServer/directoryBrowse@enabled attribute is set to true in the site or application configuration file.

 

Detailed Error Information:

Module	DirectoryListingModule
Notification	ExecuteRequestHandler
Handler	StaticFile
Error Code	0x00000000
Requested URL	https://mgb003:443/
Physical Path	C:\inetpub\gpweb
Logon Method	Anonymous
Logon User	Anonymous

 More Information:

This error occurs when a document is not specified in the URL, no default document is specified for the Web site or application, and directory listing is not enabled for the Web site or application. This setting may be disabled on purpose to secure the contents of the server.

View more information »

Clearly, I did not want to enable directory browsing, but after noticing that the site wasn't even launching it was evident that the ASP.NET client was not installed on the site. As mentioned yesterday, this problem was solved by applying the steps outlined in the TechNet article, Installing IIS and ASP.NET Modules. I once more checked my website and now had the following folder under my Web Client website.

aspnet_client folder under gpweb Website

The fun did not end there. So, I will cover some troubleshooting topics tomorrow, before continuing into other findings.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 2a

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 2a

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

Yesterday, we walked through a few pre-requisites needed for the installation of the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web client on single Windows 8 machine - from now on, the road warrior laptop. It is worth noting that I also made some of the Silverlight registry changes to allow the Web Client to access local resources (printers, SmartLists, and access to temp folders) from within the browser. You can read more about these changes and download the registry entry for Silverlight in Aaron Donat's new article over at Developing for Dynamics GP.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client and Silverlight Security Requirements

Today, I will cover some of the issues I experienced through attempts at running the Web Client without having ASP.NET 4.5 running on IIS 8.0 - as mentioned before, at first, it was not quite obvious ASP.NET 4.5 was not installed on IIS.8

---

Installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013

Prior to installing the Web Client, the installation process takes us through Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client Runtime service installation.

The main setup window (launched with Setup.exe) allows you to install Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, along with some of the traditional products, plus the Web Client, Tenant Services, and the Web Services Management Tools, three new components for GP 2013.

You can find more information about the Web Client architecture in Aaron Donat's article over at Developing for Dynamics GP:

Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Infrastructure Overview

The first things you will notice during the installation process is the Bootstrapper Setup window, which will automatically install Dexterity Shared Components 12.0.



Bootstrapper Setup window

At the features level, you will have a choice of installing the Web Client Runtime service. This feature is a MUST prior to installing the Web Client itself. More information about the Web Client Runtime can be found in Aaron's infrastructure article above.


Select Features window.

New for GP 2013 is the ability to name the system database. For those of us "old timers", you also have a choice of continuing to use the DYNAMICS system database name as a default choice. For more information on the named system database feature, take a look at my article Microsoft Dynamics GP "12" Named System Database Architecture.

Named System Database

Once the application is installed, you should now be able to return to the Windows 8 start screen and see the launch icons there.

A peek into the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 installation folder, confirms we now have a WebClient folder with all the assemblies, extensions, and providers that in conjunction form the Web Client Runtime service.

Web Client Runtime files

Following this first part, the rest is just running Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities and let the program take care of creating the system database and adding the Fabrikam company. Practically nothing has changed in the Utilities process.

Next, I will cover the Web Client installation.
Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series - Part 1

Windows 8 and the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Series
Part 1

This series narrate my personal experiences of installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Beta and the Web Client in an unsupported environment. The following installation steps are for testing purposes only and were done on a test box. If you are to test, please make sure your machine is not a production box.

"While it's not supported, it doesn't mean it won't work. It only means we haven't tested it"...
                                                                                                      Microsoft Dynamics GP Support

---

After returning from the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012, I am more than drinking all this Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Kool-Aid. And why not? After all, this is probably the biggest release to ever hit the block since the days of Microsoft Dynamics GP 6.0 - if you've been around long enough, you will remember that v6 had the first major facelift in the product history.

So, I figured the first thing I would be doing is rebuilding my machine with the brand spanking new Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit operating system, which I downloaded from MSDN. And so I set out to backup all my files onto my home storage area network (SAN), to blow away my current (now former) Windows 7 Ultimate install.

Installing Windows 8 went extremely smooth, with the usual couple reboots before the desktop was ready. To complete my install, I have added the following applications to my system:

• Microsoft Office 2013 Preview
• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition
• Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2012

Windows 8 is natively equipped with .NET Framework 4.5, ASP.NET 4.5, Internet Explorer 10, Internet Information Services 8.0 (which needs to be added via the Add/Remove Windows Features in the Control Panel).

...in summary, everything not currently supported for the installation of the Web Client. You can read more about the system requirements on Microsoft Dynamics PartnerSource.

System Requirements for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013


Nonetheless, off I went to install Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the Web Client.

---

Web Client Installation Pre-requisites

1. Certificate. Checked! At this stage, I created a self-signed certificate as would normally be accepted (required?) to setup the Web Client in a single machine configuration environment.
 

Server Certificates in IIS 8.0

New Self-Signed Certificate

2. Required user accounts and user groups. Checked! For this step, I use Computer Management to setup two local users to my machine, GPUser and GPWebAccount. The former is a test user account to access the Web Client, the latter, a test account to access the Web Management Console. NOTE: under the current system requirements, these accounts must be created under Active Directory in a Windows Server 2008 R2 environment, so here's the second difference with the standard pre-requisites.

Web client test accounts

3. GP Web Client site. Checked! Back in IIS, I created the website as required, prior to begin the Web Client installation. Note that in this step I selected the https binding on port 443 and the physical path, which I created under the inetpub folder. Also, I made sure to select the previously created certificate.

Web Client website (gpweb)

4. ASP.NET. Checked! The beauty of Windows 8 is, it comes preloaded with the .NET Framework 4.5 and .NET Framework 3.5. But this is also an issue at the same time, since you need to install the ASP.NET 4.0 client on the newly created website. For this I would use the traditional aspnet_regiis command line utility.

aspnet_regiis error installing ASP.NET 4.0

As you can see from the error above, IIS 8.0 is blocking the installation of ASP.NET 4.0 as it is expecting ASP.NET 4.5 to be loaded. NOTE: under the current system requirements, ASP.NET 4.0 and .NET Framework 4.0 are supported. This makes for the third difference with the system recommendations. The URL provided with the error did not provide much assistance. The main question at this point was, if ASP.NET 4.0 cannot be loaded, how would I then load the ASP.NET 4.5 client? After much search, I found a TechNet article describing the steps required to load ASP.NET 4.5 on Windows 8.

TechNet: Installing IIS and ASP.NET Modules

This article proved to be a live saver, since in Windows 8, the .NET Extensibility 4.5 and ASP.NET 4.5 are considered Application Development Features under IIS 8.

Upon following the instructions in the article, I was now able to see the aspnet_client folder under the gpweb virtual directory.

So far, the pre-requisites outlined here line up with those of the standard pre-requisites. If you are unsure of the Web Client architecture, have a look at Aaron Donat's article over at Developing for Dynamics GP:

Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client Infrastructure Overview

Tomorrow, I will describe some of the issues I ran into prior to ironing out the ASP.NET 4.5 client installation on IIS 8.0. Suffice to say, I tried installing the Web Client prior to having ASP.NET installed and that caused some other issues.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 "Feature of the Day" - Week 9 Digest

Just back from the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012, I could probably write a full series with the remaining features left to be covered, but that honor goes to the Inside Microsoft Dynamics GP blog team, which was able to kick these out while the event was in full swing in Fargo, North Dakota.

Here are the highlights from last week:

Feature of the Day: Multi-Select Serial Numbers

Item Serial Number Entry

Original article: Feature of the Day: Multi-Select Serial Numbers
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Multi-Select Serial Numbers.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Saved Batch Approval

Query shows Approval User ID (APRVLUSERID) and Approval Date (APPRVLDT) columns with info

Original article: Feature of the Day: Saved Batch Approval
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Saved Batch Approval.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Unapply Credit Documents when Voiding a Check

We start out with a fully applied invoice for $1,070 by a payment and a credit memo

We now void the payment for $705.00

Now the invoice and the credit memo return to open after voiding the payment

Original article: Feature of the Day: Unapply Credit Documents when Voiding a Check
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD_UnapplyCreditDocumentsWhenVoidingCheck.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day:Update Back Order Item Qty in Field Service

Work Order Entry/Update generated back order quantity of 2 and updates overall item BO qty

Original article: Feature of the Day:Update Back Order Item Qty in Field Service
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD-Update Back Ordered Item Qty from Field Service.ppsx
Learning script: N/A


Feature of the Day: Pay Code, Benefit & Deduction

Original article: Feature of the Day: Pay Code, Benefit & Deduction
Link to presentation: GP2013 FOD Pay Code, Benefit & Deduction Modifier.ppsx
Learning script: N/A

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/