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Showing posts from September, 2013

Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2013 - More on Day 1

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How does one manage to talk about a Conference when not in attendance? Well, you get reporters on the ground to tell you what's going on. Sivakumar Venkataraman with Microsoft reminds everyone of the different tracks and sessions features in each: My good friend Thomas Franz over at Integrity Data had a few things to relay, starting from a shout out to Microsoft and GPCC for the great content. His appreciation however goes to the one-off conversations with the Microsoft team and members of the GP community. While Thomas was entertained, elsewhere his coworker, Bobby, managed to pin down my good friend Brian Roney for a possible solution to a big customer request. Kudos to Brian and Michael Hammond who were kind enough to pickup the session I was going to deliver, Developing for the Web Client: a Microsoft Dexterity perspective . Thomas also attended the opening session with Chad an Errol and enjoyed all the roadmap talks. You can read more about the roadmap in

Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2013 - Day 1

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The Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2013 , hosted by GP Partner Connections is now in full session. Unfortunately, last minute circumstances prevented my participation as a presenter this year, but in retrospect, it was probably a good thing as I really don't want to become like those actors that show up in just about every movie. The sessions list for this year is off the chain and if you are a propeller head like me, you can certainly attend some really cool sessions: Developing for the Web Client: a Microsoft Dexterity Perspective (Sept 18, 1:15 PM CST) Dynamics GP Multitenant for Developers (Sept 18, 2:30 PM CST) Dynamics GP Development Team Unplug (Sept 18, 3:45 PM CST) Dexterity and Services: Can they be friends? (Sept 19, 11:15 AM CST) Web Client Customization with VST Deep Dive (Sept 19, 4:00 PM CST) In addition to these development sessions, there are tons of other development related sessions around Window 8 and Windows Phone, and BI for GP. You w

VST: Rendering WinForms in Microsoft Dynamics GP web client

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In my previous article I discussed applying Service Pack 2 to update your VST development environment. The SP2 update introduces the ability to render VST WinForms in the Web Client. Background Prior to the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 RTM, the application development and technical consulting communities got to preview the web client at the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2012 in Fargo in a Web Client Jumpstart Training for partners . Following the training and attendance to some sessions, VST developers got the bad news : "Only Dexterity applications are fully compatible with the web client". That left a number of you with the proverbial (and probably literal) bad taste in the mouth and scrambling for answers. Microsoft came back with a consolation price announcement: "Only VST applications written without using WinForms will be supported in the web client". In retrospect, I feel the message could have been delivered differently, but I digr

VST: Updating your Visual Studio Tools Web Client Development Environment

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Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2 (12.00.1482) introduced some really cool new updates to a lot of application components. Yesterday, for example, I talked about the SmartList Designer  and how it really takes the SmartList experience to new heights. Visual Studio Tools and Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2 introduce support for WinForms rendering on the Web Client - more of that in my next article, but before we get into the details, here's what you need to know to prep your development environment: 1. You must install Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP Service Pack 2 in your system. The VST msi update can be found under MDGP2013_SP2_DVD_ENUS\Tools\SDK\VS Tools\Updates folder in the full DVD image available from CustomerSource or PartnerSource. This should bring the VST components to version 12.00.1488.00 while updating all templates in your Visual Studio development environment. Visual Studio Tools SP2 build number check Control Panel | Programs 2. You must apply

SmartList Designer: a nice addition to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2

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12.00.1482 - the build number for Microsoft Dynamics GP SP2 - brought with it a new list of awesome enhancements. The SmartList reporting tool saw some big improvements with the addition the collapse/expand of the left navigation pane, and a splitter between the tree view and the list box control that displays the actual results.  *Soapbox* I have to say, I like the concept, but not the implementation as I believe Microsoft could have used the splitter code written with the Support Debugging Tool as a more elegant solution. *End Soapbox* However, the biggest improvement/addition to SmartList is the new SmarList Designer . SmartList Designer SmartList Designer allows you to create queries based on table definitions found in Microsoft Dynamics GP and any third party application. You can create a new SmartList or to create a new SmartList based on an existing SmartList. You also can modify the SmartList that you created using SmartList Designer. I have to say, if you have