Development for Microsoft Dynamics GP, formerly known as Great Plains: Dexterity, eConnect, eCommerce programming

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Microsoft Dynamics Corporate ERP and CRM family of products includes Dynamics GP (formerly known as Great Plains Dynamics, eEnterprise, Great Plains Select on Pervasive SQL and Ctree), AX (formerly known as Axapta), NAV (known as Navision), SL (Solomon), Microsoft Dynamics CRM (this is CRM application, it might be part of Corporate ERP, but technically it is just CRM).  In this publication we will be concentrating on Microsoft Dynamics GP Programming, Integration and Software Development tools: Dexterity, eConnect, Integration Manager, direct SQL Scripting and SQL Stored Procedures coding in such routines as ecommerce, EDI, Barcoding, generic integration and reporting:

1. Dynamics GP Dexterity, also referred as Microsoft Dexterity and Great Plains Dexterity.  Dex is architectural fundament of Great Plains or Microsoft Dynamics GP.  There is philosophical part in Dexterity, if you would like to know it – Dexterity mission to secure Computer Operating System (especially Graphical Operating System, such as Microsoft Windows, Mac, or Solaris) and Database Platform immunity (initially Great Plains was introduced on Btrieve and Ctree and quickly was expanded to cover Microsoft SQL Server DB platform).  Dexterity has its own proprietary scripting and programming language Sanscript.  If you are trying to contribute for your company Corporate ERP developing and programming, consider taking Microsoft Dexterity precise or customized training.  If you are looking for Great Plains Dexterity luxury or reliable programming (this tool requires multiple years of Great Plains Customization programming dedication), we recommend you to make Dynamics GP programming partner estimation and research.  Our firm is dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics GP modifications, plus we support all versions (new and old) of Microsoft Dynamics GP, Great Plains Dynamics, GP Select, eEnterprise, Great Plains Accounting for DOS, Windows and Macintosh.  If this article is classified as press release by somebody in your organization IT department, please review our technical articles on Great Plains Dexterity customizations, we published them in early 2000th.  Microsoft Dexterity Source Code Programming – if your customization requires access to the source of original Dynamics GP business logic and scripts – you have to find so-called Microsoft Dynamics GP Source Code Partner

2. eConnect for Microsoft Dynamics GP.  This Software Development Kit was introduced initially as a tool for Great Plains eCommerce programmers to open GP objects through ecommerce web application: Customer, Sales Invoice, Inventory Item, Credit Card deposit payment, Ship To Address, etc.  Later on eConnect was expanded to cover most of the modules in GP: General Ledger, Purchase Order Processing, US Payroll, Project Accounting, Sales Order Processing (please, note that older Invoicing module is not covered).  If you are Microsoft Visual Studio developer, who is programming in C#, VB.Net with reasonable exposure to XML and SQL Stored procedures, we recommend you to try eConnect self discovery or take a training.  Sometimes ecommerce developers find eConnect limitations.  One of them maybe found through this scenario – let’s assume that you would like ecommerce application to do all the work, including automatic transaction posting in Dynamics GP.  eConnect doesn’t post GP batch or individual transaction, as these routines are assigned to Dynamics GP User (check the numbers and QTY, take off holds if any, print Batch Edit report and post the batch).  If you would like to post the batch from ecommerce application directly – you will need Dynamics GP Posting Server add-on, available from Alba Spectrum

3. Dynamics GP Customization Upgrade review.  Great Plains version upgrade is small surgery, which requires preparation and dedication.  the same should be true about GP Modifications version update.  You should ask your original or newly selected Dexterity or eConnect programmer to review customization code and make necessary changes to make it compatible with targeted version of Microsoft Dynamics GP (current version is 10.0, Dynamics GP 11.0 is expected to be released in May 2010)

4. Additional ecommerce programming for Dynamics GP considerations.  If you do not need real time ecommerce transaction integration and you would be OK with quasi real time (every hour or every twenty minutes, for example) or batch integration (every night) – consider Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager.  IM doesn’t require programming (but it is open for simple or complex modifications) and friendly for Dynamics GP end user

5. Before you take direct SQL Scripting route.  If you are experienced MS SQL DBA or SQL developer – it is natural to try direct SQL scripting in data feeding to your Corporate ERP application (such as Microsoft Dynamics GP).  In this paragraph we would like to give you some reasons to consider prior to making SQL insert or update statement (of course, Select statement is friendly as it is only for data pulling from SQL Server Database).  First of all – Dynamics GP data flow and table structure is complex and data feeding often requires the whole cluster of tables to be involved and it is often difficult to imitate business logic in SQL Stored Procedure, written from scratches.  Secondly, eConnect is already created for you in encrypted SQL Stored procedures and it covers the logic you need and if you plan to code SQL custom stored procedures, likely that you plan to duplicate the logic already automated in eConnect

6. Is your customization for GP internationalization or localization for specific country or region?  If the answer is positive and you are trying to expand GP for international subsidiary for your company, where you have Great Plains in US or Canadian headquarters, please know that localization is complex, as it includes two aspects: local language support and compliance to local tax, government, state and municipal reporting.  You may relatively smoothly translate Dynamics GP screens to the language, supporting ASCII standard (8 bits or up to 256 characters in the alphabet including digits and special characters – most of Europe, including such countries as Russia, Poland, Finland, Baltic States, Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan).  GP is localized for the majority of English speaking countries, plus French Canadian, most of Spanish Speaking Latin America and Caribbean.  If GP is not localized (in the sense of Tax and Government reporting compliance), we recommend you to consider different Corporate ERP application.  SAP Business One is localized for the majority of countries (historically except Arabic characters based alphabets).  We recommend SB1 in such countries as Brazil, Russia, China, Germany, France – as it is localized and in most cases Certified with Government authorities in the respected countries.  SAP BO is very flexible in its data and reports export to Excel or in direct SQL Select scripts.  You can consolidate your SB1 based subsidiary via FRx report in Dynamics GP or do scheduled GL transactions consolidation from SB1 to GP company.  We are especially optimistic about SB1 with the release of version 88, where A and B streams are merged and you can now deploy all the databases/companies on the same MS SQL Server.  Unicode based alphabets and Dynamics GP – in general the recommendation is simple – GP doesn’t support Unicode (Chinese, Japanese, Korean hieroglyph based alphabets).  With some efforts and with such tools as NJStar you can make GP accept Chinese characters and with Crystal Reports you can combine GP data with custom tables, containing hieroglyph to resemble Chinese Invoice, for example, but expect some cost and budget

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