The Dynamics GP Blogster

Well, this year was quite the year in the Microsoft Dynamics GP world! Everything from partner readiness training events for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Web Client around the US., to Convergence in New Orleans from which I happened to walk away with a severe case of pinkeye  ( side note: what was it with that city? I heard of more than 100 people attending the Conference walking away ill with anything ranging from stomach flues, to fever, to pinkeye, to...well you get the point ), to the actual launch of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and the web client, to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift in Fargo, ND, to the GPUG Summit in Tampa, to the MVP Global Summit in Seattle which counted for the first time with Microsoft Dynamics GP content. Who could also forget the release of the Business Analyzer Windows Store app and the marathon of features released with Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 SP2, forcing my dear friend Pam Misialek to write another set of Feature of the Day articles. Wo...

Well, I'm writing this article thinking about all the things that happened in my life throughout this year and I have to say, some events have been extremely good, others, well, not so good. However, whatever curve balls life throws at you makes you appreciate it a bit more for what it is. In the end, I have my family around, people who cares about us, and a good following out there that makes The Dynamics GP Blogster  one of the top resources in the Microsoft Dynamics GP community. My wife Marina Dzyura Gomez and our children cannot thank you enough for your support and your readership. Marina Dzyura Gomez and Mariano Gomez So whether you celebrate Christmas or not, or you simply observe a time of peace and quiet, or you simply have to keep working like me, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and wish upon you and yours the true meaning of peace of this special time of the year. One of my favorite old time artists is Perry Como . I leave you wi...

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 web client introduces new terms beyond your traditional "Launch File" and "Settings File", and though these two terms still exist, the list has just got a bit longer. Most of the terms in this list identify web client architecture components. Other terms simply identify technology stack elements. However, familiarity with all these terms, components, and their relationships is a must if you are a technical/implementation consultant or IT director looking to understand what is going to take to deploy the environment. Active Directory Certificate Services Certificate Authority Certificate Store Dynamic Form Rendering Fiddler Trace GPWeb HTTP Activation HTTPS Binding Last Heatbeat Multi-tenancy Named System Database NETSH Potential Sessions Remaining Rendering Engine Runtime Service Security Token Self-Signed Certificate Session Central Service Session Host Session Management Proxy Service Session Monitor Sessi...

A few weeks aback I talked about Updating your Visual Studio Tools for web client development environment  and soon after I started receiving numerous emails from developers wanting to know if they could leverage the current Visual Studio Tools 2013 SP2 (VST) templates with Visual Studio 2013.  As of yet, Microsoft has not released Microsoft Dynamics GP Add-In and Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Client Add-In templates for Visual Studio 2013, but with the help of my good friend Michael Hammond , Sr. Engineering Lead at Microsoft I have instructions on how to move the current Visual Studio 2012 templates to Visual Studio 2013 1. Locate the current VST templates folders under your Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 program files folder. These can usually be found as follows: Visual C# templates folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ProjectTemplates\CSharp\Dynamics GP C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\ItemTemplates\CSharp\...

Back in February of this year, I did a full walk-through of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 deployment on Windows Azure . I realized that one of the things that make it hard for partners and customers to determine whether to use the Windows Azure platform for hosting their Microsoft Dynamics GP solution is the scattered information regarding (application) features that are supported on the platform. In fact, did you know that even if you are not running Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, you can still take advantage of Windows Azure to host other versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP? You can always run the desktop client with Remote Desktop Services (RDS) to accomplish this. So, the objective of this article is to go over the Microsoft Dynamics GP components that are supported on the Windows Azure platform, which can be categorized into features that are Fully Supported and features requiring RDS licensing . Full Support These are features that are internet facing (accessed via a browser) f...

If you are a consultant, chances are you run your Microsoft Dynamics GP application demo environment on a laptop along with Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services. This is all good, because it saves you from having to deal with virtual machine images in most cases. I also happen to be running all my application demo environment components on a Microsoft Windows 8.1 machine which gives me the opportunity to showcase the new Business Analyzer app. Business Analyzer app on Windows 8.1 Traditionally, when you try to connect Business Analyzer to SSRS on a Windows 8.x machine, the setup would go into a tail spin and you would end up with a "Cannot connect to server" error. By default, Windows 8 Modern UI Applications are forbidden to send network traffic to the local Computer. This is, Windows Store apps requiring network access are not automatically capable of communicating with a server application when both are running on the same machine - in this case...

Wednesday, November 20 The Microsoft MVP Global Summit is come to an end, but I am going to finish up the series and as usual wrap up with some thoughts. Frankly, today I woke up dragging feet a bit. It's been 2 grueling days of intense sessions with a lot of material to absorb. Since I am leaving on Thursday with the 1:15 PM flight back to Atlanta, I figured I would pack the day with a bunch of sessions I am interested in. And so, I attended the following sessions: BR078 - DevDay1: What’s Next for the Visual Studio IDE? BR519 - SQL Session 11-EN: Hidden Gems in SQL Server 2014 BR296 - SQL Session 12-BI: Applications on SSIM Platform Again, I cannot really disclose much of the content I gather from these sessions, but suffice to say the future of Visual Studio looks great and you can start seeing some of the UX As for SQL Server, you should be looking into some of the content already being delivered by Microsoft in SQL Server 2014 CTP2  and especially its new In-m...

Tuesday, November 19 This day is very significant for us, Microsoft Dynamics GP MVP. For the first time, the MVP Global Summit features Microsoft Dynamics GP content. I had a late start today. I believe I am starting to slow down. The previous day proved very hectic and tiring, displacing between buildings. However, I was at the Microsoft Conference Center early this morning to begin the day. On my way to the registration desk with Leslie and John, I saw this guy which I can only qualify as the Leslie Vail of the MVP world. He sure looked the part. Just some morning fun But what else could get your day going, if not Clippy , the former Office Assistant? Clippy happened to be running up and down the corridors of Building 33 greeting and cheering MVPs in attendance. Clippy We quickly found our way to Building 34 where the GP Product Team comprised of Daryl Anderson and Mike Hammond was ready to rock and roll. The following were the topics for the day: BR133 - Dyna...

Monday, November 18 Seattle has some rain in store for us this week and it did not disappoint. The morning started with a hearty continental buffet over here at the Hilton Bellevue hotel where MVPs were clearly gearing up for the long day ahead. MVPs heading over to MSCC After wrapping up, I headed over the Microsoft Conference Center in Building 33 to begin my Monday sessions. First up was BR404 - What's New in Windows Azure AD presented by Vittorio Bertocci , Principal Program Manager in the Windows Azure Active Directory team in charge of the Developer Experience. I was fascinated by the upcoming improvements Following the BR404 session, I headed over to building 122 to attend the rest of the sessions on my agenda for the day: BR286 - SQL Session 2-ALL: Information Management and Data Stewardship BR287 - SQL Session 3-BI: Under the hood of Power BI BR288 - SQL Session 4-BI: PowerBI IT Admin Experience While I can't comment on the details of the sessions, ...

Sunday, November 17 This week finds me in the beautiful city of Seattle, Washington, partaking in my first Microsoft MVP Global Summit The MVP Global Summit is a multi-day event that is hosted in Bellevue and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. With a large catalog of technical sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, the MVP Global Summit enables MVPs to connect with other MVPs, build relationships with Microsoft product managers, and provide feedback on Microsoft products and technologies. My day started with a fairly quiet travel between the cities of Atlanta, GA and Seattle, WA. Arriving into Seattle-Tacoma International Airport  was its usual self around this time of the year: cloudy, cold, and misty. View of the Port of Seattle After landing, I grabbed a cab that would take me straight to the Hilton Bellevue hotel, where registration was a breeze. Up I went to my room to change into some jeans and headed over to the Bellevue Hyatt Regen...

A few days aback I encountered a really interesting discussion on the Microsoft Dynamics GP Community forum  where the user needed to get the parent customer information on the SOP Blank Invoice Form. I asked myself, "Well, how difficult can that be?" The first thought around these requests is, you create a table relationship between the Sales Transaction Work (SOP_HDR_WORK) table and the RM Customer Master (RM_Customer_MSTR) table by Customer Number and you get the parent customer ID. In that train of thought you immediately realize that there's no way to alias the RM Customer Master table back into the table relationship to retrieve the parent customer ID information. [NOTE TO SELF: this would be a cool Report Writer feature, but I digress.] Of course, a second alternative is to use VBA, but many customers and partners are wary of implementing a VBA solution, especially when they are considering upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 and taking advantage of the we...