The Dynamics GP Blogster

Dear readers, Check my new article at MSDynamicsWorld.com: "Here's a Creative Exercise you Probably Won't Miss: Allocating Inventory in Transit Using Microsoft Dynamics GP" . The article recollects the old tricks used to manage in-transit inventory and explores the new In-Transit Transfer Transactions feature in Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0. Once again, thanks to David Gumpert, Managing Partner and Editorial Director at MSDynamicsWorld.com for allowing me the chance to exercise my second passion -- writing. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

For those of you battling it out with a "Type Mismatch" error in your event or field scripts upgraded to IM 10.0 from previous releases of IM, sweat it no more! This issue has been recognized as a bug by Microsoft and was unfortunately not resolved in Feature Pack 1 (or Service Pack 2). The problem seems to occur with all IM VBScript functions that accept parameters. " The issue is that these functions (and many other) accepted OPTIONAL parameters in prior versions of IM. The reason these are now failing is because Integration Manager has been switched over from VB6 to C# .Net code. The problem with that is that C# does not support optional parameters. That means that those existing function's "Optional" parameters are now actually Required parameters. " said Greg Willson with Microsoft in the Microsoft Dynamics GP Community group. However, as a workaround, IM developers must supply all parameters for the affected functions until a Hot Fix is made avai...

News has surfaced on the US Dynamics GP Field Team blog that Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking is now supported as part of the growing number of deployment options. Needless to say that P2P is only suitable for very small operations and may require one of the participating workstations to have suitable capacity to run SQL Server Express 2005 and Microsoft Dynamics GP all at once, while accepting incoming requests for posting and all the various operations involved with the system. The article also clarifies that P2P has only been tested on machines running Windows XP, but expect to have results soon for environments running Windows Vista. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

This free live webinar will be conducted on June 26, 2008 at 10:00 AM PDT / 1:00 PM EDT with the sponsorship of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online and InsideCRM.com. If you are interested, register here . Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Ok, I felt the need to write about this because I still cannot understand why, after so many years, the Microsoft Dynamics GP development team cannot extend the courtesy of adding the extra calculated field required to display the address third line for customers, vendors, etc., and anyone who happens to have a third line in their address. Case in point, if your address happens to be: 1972 Western Boulevard Tower C Suite 400 COLUMBUS, OH 43203 Dynamics GP will display on all its reports: 1972 Western Boulevard Tower C COLUMBUS, OH 43203 Now, that's just a bummer! Anyways, to correct this issue you will need to modify all reports where you need to display a third line by incorporating a fourth calculated field -- follow whatever convention used by Microsoft to create the calc field as it will make your life easier. Your address calculated fields should look something like this: Address Line 1 = Function_Script( rw_SelectAddLine 1, "", Address1, Address2, Address3, "...

There are two methods that will allow you to retrieve the exact version and build number in eConnect 10.0. Method 1 In Windows, go to Start > Programs > Microsoft Dynamics > eConnect 10 > Release Information > Release Info. You can verify the Connection String by clicking on Connection. Once this is done, click on Retrieve and the window will be populated with the exact version of eConnect. Method 2 You can run the following SQL script in SQL Server Management Studio Query window against your DYNAMICS database: exec DYNAMICS..taeConnectVersionInfoDYNAMICS Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Fresh from Tech-Ed: Microsoft unveils SQL Server 2008 release candidate (RC) which has been declared the last public release before release to manufacturing in Q3, 2008. For now, SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate (dubbed RC0) has been made available to the general public. If you are interested in testing the product (if you haven't already done so with TCP version), you can click here to obtain a copy. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Ok, you walk into this new customer site that you just picked up as a result of a change of VAR. You know nothing about their SQL Server installation and/or whether it is properly configured with all the required service packs. How would you like to be able to pull a bunch of SQL Server information without having to search the entire Internet for it, or search the entire SQL Server Books Online help file, bother the DBA, or better yet, call me :-). T-SQL has a very little known function called SERVERPROPERTY which provides a vast number of arguments that allow you to obtain tremendous amount of information about your SQL Server. The following is a list of my favorite propterties and the most requested by consultants, DBAs, and users alike: Syntax SERVERPROPERTY ( propertyname ) Properties Collation : returns the name of the default collation being used on your SQL Server Edition : Installed product edition of the instance of SQL Server. Use the value of this property to determine the ...

Check my new article as MS Dynamics World ! The article exposes the use of window and record level OLE container objects (clip notes) in Microsoft Dynamics GP and how they can be leveraged to provide basic document management capabilities, directly supporiting accounting departments with CPA and bank audits. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

The GPConnection object replaces the instantiation previously made with the RetreiveGlobals DLL, used with previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Open method The Open method allows you to open an ADO connection using the current GP user login information. This method uses the data source that is in use when Microsoft Dynamics GP is open. If you want to use a default company database (TWO or GPDAT) for this method, then you must set the Open value in the connection string before using the Open method. You will not be able to update the connection string after the Open method is called. There is no close method for this object. Once the connection is returned to the same way the connection object was initially created in the script, that connection object can be closed normally. Syntax object .Open({suppress}) Comments All properties for the Open method will return string values. Examples The following example is the Open script. It opens the data connection. set MyCon = CreateObj...

During a normal implementation, customers using the Inventory module are faced with testing numerous transaction scenarious prior to going live with their Dynamics GP system. However, the conversion to the live company requires transfering the Inventory Master tables, including the Item Quantity Master (IV00102) table. This table hosts the Quantity On Hand and Quantity Available fields per site which can already be affected by the transactions previously tested. In order to reset the values in these fields without any SQL query involved (ok, not completely), you can try this simple solution: create a physical count for all items! 1) Create a stock count schedule for all items. Go to Transactions > Inventory > Stock Count Schedule. Enter a Stock Count ID, i.e., CLRQTYS. 2) Mass Add all items in your inventory by any criteria 3) Start the count by clicking on the Start button. Close the Stock Count Schedule window. NOTE: you can choose to uncheck the Reuse Stock Count checkmark. 4)...

I knew all those "Service Unavailable" messages could not be just another glitch in some Microsoft server. News has surfaced that the Microsoft Dynamics Community will be moving soon, featuring an improved interface and for ease of access to experts in various areas. The following is a transcript as released in the Dynamics GP community earlier today. Within the next few weeks you will begin to see the Microsoft Dynamics Community pages located at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/community , moving to a new location at https://community.dynamics.com . We are making this move in an effort to streamline the accessibility of all Microsoft Dynamics communities and make the user experience of interacting with community experts and your peers much easier. The newsgroups as you see them today will still be intact, but the web pages which you use today to access them will be different. Plus you’ll see more streamlined content and future functionality additions, such as networking to...

Often customers upgrade their hardware infrastructure, requiring Microsoft Dynamics GP databases to be migrated to the new environment. The steps outlined by KB article 878449 (requires access to Microsoft CustomerSource or PartnerSource sites) allow you to achieve just this without much headaches. If followed in detail, the results will speak for themselves. As always, before attempting any of these procedures, have a complete backup of ALL your SQL Server data (company databases, DYNAMICS database, and system databases). Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Thanks to Leslie Vail, MVP for taking the time to compiling what I consider a very extensive list of DEX.INI settings used in both the Dexterity development environment and Microsoft Dynamics GP. Some of these settings can be very damaging to your data and will require you to have precise knowledge (and backups) before you play around with them. You can click here to download a Microsoft Word document. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP IntellPartners, LLC http://www.IntellPartners.com/

For those of you attempting to install GP 10, you could come across any of 2 error messages indicating that the .NET Framework 2.0 is not installed, when in fact it is, and furthermore, you have applied SP1 and/or installed any new versions of the Framework (i.e., 3.0 or 3.5): Error message 1 .NET Framework 2.0 is not installed. The installation cannot continue. Error message 2 Product: Dexterity Shared Components -- .NET Framework 2.0 is not installed. The installation cannot continue. Then, the installation is ended. To overcome any of these error messages, follow KB article 947539 to resolve. In summary, you will have to copy the contents of the Dynamics GP CD1 to your hard drive, follow 2 steps outlined by the KB article -- includes downloading 2 funky .MST programs ( DexSkipDotNetCheck.mst and SkipDotNetCheck.mst ) to bypass the .NET Framework 2.0 check, and run the installation MSI with a cryptic set of parameters that will allow GP to be installed. Until next post! MG.- Marian...

This is one of those issues that I cannot fathom why the Microsoft Dynamics GP development team has not address in its RM Paid Transaction Removal procedure. It seems when the RM module gets "out of sync" -- usually after a crash of some sort -- it will cause transaction records to post between the RM Open table (RM20101) and the RM History table (RM30101). Unfortunately, for the end-user the problem is only evident when executing the Paid Transaction Removal operation, since they are likely to experience the following error message: (Microsoft)(SQL Native Client)(SQL Server)Cannot insert duplicate key row in object 'dbo.RM30101' with unique index 'AK3RM30101'. In addition, rebuilding the RM Key table (RM00401) does not solve the problem as the system will not know what to do with the same record found on both open and history tables. Given this situation, I have written the following query to identify and help in resolving the issue -- the query must be execu...

Microsoft has released the long awaited Feature Pack 1 for Dynamics GP for its US and International English speaking customers and partners. Feature Pack 1 includes a number of new components, such as Business Portal Migration Utility, Business Portal Security Synchronization Utility, Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10, eConnect SDK, eExpense, Field Service Anywhere, Office SmartTag Manager, and PSTL, while including and extensive number of fixes to existing products (Service Pack 2). PartnerSource The product can be downloaded here CustomerSource The product can be downloaded here Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/ UPDATES TO THIS ARTICLE: 12/23/2008 - Added CustomerSource link for FP1

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 Home Page is one of those application elements users and developers tend to be extremely intrigued about. It provides the ability to view To Do's, pending Outlook email messages, incorporate Metrics, add shortcuts to Reports and ability to incorporate custom links, but how come the user is not able to define certain preferences like colors and other features? Some of these "secrets" are programmed in the HomePage.xsl stylesheet file, which can be located in the Background directory under the Dynamics GP installation folder ( Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Background ). The file can be edited with Visual Studio or Notepad for that matter. Once opened, search for: background-color:#F9F9F9 This tag can be found in the body tag of the html section of the document. If you happen to be editing with Visual Studio, you can open a dummy Win32 project and play with the background colors of the window. When you find the right color, take note of the ...

According to Redmond Developer News, Microsoft will be releasing SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3 this summer, raising concerns on the release date of SQL Server 2008. While Microsoft has assured the general public that the RTM version still on track for Q3, it may not come as a surprise if the product slips into Q4. Read the full story here , but in the mean time, if you are performing extensive testing on the CTP version, submit all your bugs to Microsoft as SQL Server 2008 may not be released on time if the features cannot be fully tested. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Visit Mark's blog to get an insight into his love/hate relationship with Integration Manager and how Microsoft should once and for all unleash the power of the product. Mark makes compelling arguments that are thought provocative, but at the same time cannot be ignored if you happen to be an Integration Manager user or developer. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/