The Dynamics GP Blogster

In Part 1 of this series, I outlined the principles and detailed the reasoning behind why we chose to build our Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central development environment using Windows Docker containers. In the Dynamics GP world, we are not quite used to containers, so let me start with the definition, straight from the horse's mouth (so to speak). According to the wizards over at Docker, "A container is a standard unit of software that packages up code and all its dependencies so the application runs quickly and reliably from one computing environment to another. A Docker container image is a lightweight, standalone, executable package of software that includes everything needed to run an application: code, runtime, system tools, system libraries and settings" . The first thing to highlight from the definition is, "standard unit of software" . In fact, that's key to this whole thing! Standardization ensures that every developer in the organizatio...

This is my first foray into the world of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) development and this series of articles is meant to help Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs understand the process of building a BC development environment, identify similarities with a Dynamics GP development environment, and fully utilize your accumulated experience. Yes, there's tons of literature out there, but none have the perspective of a GP ISV, so there's that 😋 It is worth noting that I am a 20+ years Microsoft Dexterity developer and, as we say, "we do things a little different around here" in the Dex world, but I am very excited to be initiating this new chapter in my career. As you all know, at this point in my life I manage the Software Engineering team at Mekorma and as a long time Microsoft Dexterity developer they were a few things I knew I wanted out of this new development environment: Isolation From an engineering perspective, this means that each developer ne...

Yesterday marked the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 to the English speaking market - other languages soon to follow. After a few hiccups in the download process (make sure you clear your browser cache before attempting to download), I was able to get my hands on the 1.81 GB zip file containing the actual installation media (1.92 GB unzipped). Since this is not a major release, I went straight for the Updates folder on the image and executed the MicrosoftDynamicsGP18-KB4458410-ENU.msp  file - The msp file was also published separately on the Service Pack, Hotfix, and Compliance Update Patch Releases for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018  page on PartnerSource and CustomerSource and it probably offers a better download experience and less of a footprint, if all you need is to update an existing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 instance. Applying the msp  is a fairly straight forward process. However, if you need instructions for a full install, take a look at my article...

Microsoft Dynamics GP users rejoice! If you were a part of the long list of users, partners, and ISVs scared by some imaginary deadline set (by Microsoft) for you to migrate from Dynamics GP and onto Dynamics 365 Business Central, it's now my pleasure to separate fact from fiction in this era of, well, fake news - at least in the Dynamics space. Microsoft has recently published the October '18 Business Applications Release Notes , a 239 page document describing all the upcoming features and functionality to be included with Dynamics 365 for Sales, Service, Marketing, Finance and Operations, Talent, Retail, and Social Engagement; the Power platform (Power BI, PowerApps, Microsoft Flow, Common Data Services), and Dynamics 365 Business Central. The words "Dynamics GP" appear 7 times in this document (including the table of content) and span from pages 117 through 133, explaining what is an imminent reality: Dynamics GP is now part of the Business Central plan, alth...