The Dynamics GP Blogster

Much has been asked about the Microsoft Dexterity OLE Container lately and I wanted to address this topic by providing some background on the technology and how it is used from GP. In addition, I will address how to automate OLE externally from other applications. Definition In principle, OLE is a compound document technology from Microsoft based on the Component Object Model (COM) . OLE allows an object such as a graphic, video clip, spreadsheet, etc. to be embedded into a document, called the Container Application . If the object is playable such as a video, when it is double clicked by the user, a media player is launched. If the object is allowed to be edited, the application associated with it (the Server Application ) is launched. An object can be linked instead of embedded, in which case the Container Application does not physically hold the object, but provides a pointer to it. If a change is made to a linked object, all the documents that contain that same link are automatical...

The following 2 weeks will bring tons of Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 security articles from David Musgrave over at Developing for Dynamics GP . It's no secret to anyone that the new role-base security has not been without its shared dosis of confusion and frustrations for companies and users upgrading from previous releases and even new comers to Microsoft Dynamics GP. David has published a list of the topics to be covered, as follows: How to transfer Security Tasks and Roles between Systems How to identify the Security Tasks and Security Roles associated with a specific window or report How to identify the Security Tasks and Security Roles using the Support Debugging Tool How to resolve Security errors on Login How to resolve Security Privilege errors How to resolve Dictionary not loaded errors Information about v10 Security Conversion Tool Don't forget to mark your calendars for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over the next two weeks to get these important topics. Update 11/12/200...

This one comes straight off the Microsoft Dynamics GP newsgroup (even the title given to this article). Business Situation During the course of a test upgrade the user came across a situation where records in a Smartlist table were not upgrading at all. In his attempts to have the upgrade bypass the problem, the user deleted the records from the SmartList table in question and the upgrade was able to succeed. Nonetheless, the user attempted to run a few of the built-in SQL Maintenance routines found under Microsoft Dynamics GP > Maintenance > SQL and came back empty handed. This series of routines did not correct the damaged records and did nothing in aiding the upgrade, which brings us to the question on the subject: What does SQL Maintenance really do? This question can be answered by looking at what SQL Maintenance does not do. SQL Maintenance does not take any actions on table records, except of course, when you drop a table :-). The routines found under SQL Maintenance are ...

My buddy and fellow MVP Frank Hamelly had been excited about a trick he did for one of his clients, so I figured I would materialize his trick in this article. Business Situation In this day and age where the economy seems to be at the center piece of all business decisions, not even Dynamics GP has escaped the turmoil. Customers are demanding more efficient use of all business resources and paper is certainly one of those elements that lend themselves for true money saving. Frank's customer had wondered if all posting reports could automatically be directed to screen without manually having to go into each series posting option to change the output. In addition, he requested the system not ask for the destination of the report each time it was going to be printed. Background The Posting Setup window (Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Posting | Posting) displays all posting reports based on the series and transaction origin. Posting Setup window These settin...

I decided to go back to my roots! Yes, my blog started with SQL Server tricks around Dynamics GP and slowly (but surely!) progressed into other interesting technical topics, so I decided to scout my bag of tricks and found two useful user-defined function scripts that I regularly use on most of my SQL Server developement projects around GP. Today, I am featuring two scalar-valued functions that allow you to separate numeric values from character values in alphanumeric fields such as purchase order numbers, receipt numbers, audit trail codes, among others. This can be particularly useful when developing integrating SQL Server applications that need to grab the next document number and increment the numeric portion. While I have seen many solutions out there, most of them use some sort of loop structure to get to evaluate each alphanumeric character in the string sequence to determine whether it's a numeric value or an alpha value. Any loop structure, as insignificant as it may seem...

As of today, it seems that the old links for web access to the Business Solutions (Microsoft Dynamics) related Microsoft public newsgroups are no longer working. For the Microsoft Dynamics GP community this affects the following newsgroups: microsoft.public.greatplains microsoft.public.dynamics.gp.developer There have been new links to these newsgroups for a while, but it looks like the old web address has been discontinued. So, if you were using the two URLs below: http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.greatplains http://www.microsoft.com/Businesssolutions/Community/Newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.dynamics.gp.developer You will need to update your favourites to the new URLs below: http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.greatplains http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.dynamics.gp.develope...

Fellow MVP Frank Hamelly has decided to come out of hiding (sometimes he needs a little push :-) ) with this new article on Customer Item Numbers on MSDynamicsWorld. This piece addresses an important issue sorrounding data entry and tracking in SOP, especially with customers who love to send in only their part numbers. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

In his new MSDynamicsWorld article Mark zooms in on using Microsoft Dynamics GP effectively to keep your company's tax records in order. This is a MUST READ article for all companies looking to optimize the use of GP while leveraging the exceptional tax engine framework built inside the application. One more thing not mentioned by Mark: if sales and use tax automation is key to your company, there are a number of integrating solutions that can be purchased through your Microsoft partner. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

In his traditional Weekly Dynamic blog column, Mark shows users how to deal with erroneous entries made and recorded by Microsoft Dynamics GP Auto-complete functionality. Click here to read up a bit more. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MVP, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Back in early July, I announced the move of the former GP_eEnterprise Yahoo! group over to Google Groups . Well, know we have reached another important milestone: our 8th birthday! This group was founded on this November 14th, in the year 2000. So to all of you who have joined our group Happy 8th Birthday! For those of you who have not, please go to http://groups.google.com/group/DynamicsGP and sign up to this community of long standing traditions and rich history. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, a proud moderator of the Dynamics GP Google Groups Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

I spent a good time writing my previous blog article on adding trailing asterisks to the check amount in words. If you followed the article, you will noticed that at some point I created two conditional calculated string fields to fill in the amount in words with trailing asterisks based on a condition. However, it appears that calculated string fields are still affected by the 80 characters limitation , rendering the remaining characters truncated from the report. Needless to say this limitation is not a limitation with any of the Report Writer user-defined functions. In the case of the RW_PadWithStars function used in the previous article, it accepts any string and returns the padded version with asterisks up to the limit specified. However, when the value is passed to the Report Writer calculated field, it is further truncated to 80 characters. This issue has been on the table since Dexterity 6.0 (and perhaps earlier) and I am surprised it has not gained traction with the Dexterit...

This one came up in the Microsoft Dynamics GP newsgroup today and I thought it would make for a good blog article. Business Situation It is common business practice to suffix the check amount in words with asterisks to prevent words being extended to reflect larger check amounts than what the check was originally written for. Challenges The trailing asterisks need to be dynamic, not static, to accomodate for variable lengths in the amount in words. Asterisks should be able to change relative to the length of the amount in words. Solution Microsoft Dynamics GP check stubs reports generated in the Purchasing series use String A 255 and String B 255 directly from the PM_Payment_Work table. In order to add the asterisks at the end of the strings, two conditional calculated fields will need to be created. To add the asterisks we can use the Report Writer user-defined function RW_PadWithStars found in the financial series. Steps 1) Open Report Writer. v9. Go to Tools > Customize > R...

Fellow MVP, Mark Polino addresses the accounting of revenue and expense deferrals with standard GP functionality in his Weekly Dynamic column over at DynamicAccounting.net. Mark demonstrates that many times you just have to get creative when buying fancy modules is not an option. Please stop over, read, and let Mark know what you think about his article. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

INTRODUCTION This article describes how to uninstall an existing Microsoft Dynamics GP v10 system if you cannot uninstall it by using the Add or Remove Programs feature (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista) in Control Panel. It is recommended that you verify that you cannot uninstall by using Add or Remove Programs first. MORE INFORMATION First, verify that you cannot uninstall Microsoft Dynamics GP by using Add or Remove Programs (or Programs and Features) To verify that you cannot uninstall Microsoft Dynamics GP by using Add or Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista), follow these steps. For Windows XP or Windows Server 2003: 1. Click Start, click Run, type control appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then press ENTER. 2. Click to select Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 product from the application list, and then click Remove. For Windows Vista: 1. Click Start, type Programs and Features in the Search box, and then press ENTER. 2. Click to select the product to be un...

Folks, please check my new (rehashed) article on Support Debugging Tool at MSDynamicsWorld.com. I finally managed to write my First Look article for the not so technical community -- yet keeping it subtly technical. Now you know! The word is out! No more excuses on why you did not hear about the tool before. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MIS, MVP, MCP, PMP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Wow! So you have this fancy customization in Extender, but now you are stucked with figuring out a way to get the data out to SmartList. Sweat it no more! Fellow MVP, Victoria Yudin has a great article on SmartList and Extender . She also took the guessing work out of the picture by adding tons of screenshots and step by step instructions with a detailed example. One note: these same techniques can be applied to reports, so you solve this one and you also have the reports going for you. Please visit Victoria's blog and let her know what you think about her post. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

In his new Weekly Dynamic blog entry, Mark explores duplicating journal entries that can become the norm rather than the exception. Consider that extensive entry you did in response to your last audit, what if you had to recall it, change numbers, and make additional entries? Please stop by and let Mark know what you think about this article. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP, MCP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

Fellow MVP, Mark Polino explores Workflow functionality in GP 10 in his new MSDynamicsWorld article. Mark explores the multi-level approval functionality and delivers some of the key benefits currently available with the feature, especially it's MOSS integration capabilities. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP, MCP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/