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

admin    Misc     Development, Dexterity, Dynamics, Ecommerce, eConnect, formerly, Great, Known, Microsoft, Plains, Programming.

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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What You Can Expect from Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains

admin    Misc     Business, Expect, From, Great, Microsoft, Plains, Solutions

One can expect a lot of additional features from the latest version of Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, which is the Microsoft Dynamics GP. The Great Plains software is easy to navigate because of its familiar interface, which follows those of the usual Microsoft Office applications like Word and Excel. This is great if your employees are used to using these applications, thereby increasing productivity and satisfaction.Because this Microsoft Business Solutions software is integrated with Microsoft Office programs, you can easily transfer information from the program to Great Plains, and vice versa. The information can also be easily accessed by users, since there are personalized views that enable a user to access data whenever he needs it. If you upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, you will not have a hard time retraining your staff because the interface is familiar to them already.The newest version of Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains also works with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, enabling your employees to collaborate and communicate easily with customers and trading partners. Other Microsoft Office system applications that are integrated with Microsoft Dynamics GP are Microsoft RMS, SQL Server, SQL Express Edition, CRM, FRx, Windows Server, and Small Business Server.There are also customization tools available in the Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, so that you can easily adapt this latest version to your business and your requirements. Recurring tasks can also be automated so that you can focus on the more critical tasks rather than the small ones.As for accessibility, your employees, partners, and customers can access pertinent information anytime and anywhere. The Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Business Solutions community can also offer support and resources when needed.This Microsoft Business Solutions software also recognizes the importance of strategic decision making in your business and strives to meet your demands in that aspect. Information is always available for reporting and analysis so that you can make valuable decisions with all factors considered. Reporting is also easier because of the pre-formatted reports included in Great Plains, and these reports can be efficiently published and broadcasted to your audiences because of the SQL Server integration.

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Microsoft Great Plains Integration Notes

admin    Misc     Great, Integration, Microsoft, Notes, Plains

Microsoft Dynamics GP, current version 10.0, deploys MS SQL Server 2005 or earlier versions. If you are software developer, it is probably first that enlightens you – design custom integration with SQL stored procedures or views. However you should first get the idea on the majority of available programming and integration tools to make the best pick for your customization project. Let’s review GP integration options:

1. GP Integration Manager. IM is intuitive integrating tool, which allows end user to design query, map query fields to GP business objects, such as GL account, SOP Invoice and all the other (except probably some exotic ones, typically related to newly acquired modules, very new functionality, or the like). If you need to alter standard GP integration logic, IM allows you to deploy VBA scripting and program events: before query, before document and others. To give you practical example – in before document event VBA script could alter document date, if you would like to issue your integrated invoices twice a month, while integrating every day. Besides VBA scripting you can deploy field value translation – if your integration query gives you customer ID as 100 and in GP it is AARONFIT001, you can import translation table and apply it in your integration. Translation table can be imported in Excel format

2. eConnect. This tool opens integration door to MS Visual Studio .Net C# or VB programmers and among them are eCommerce developers. eConnect core is set of encrypted SQL stored procedures, which replicate GP Dexterity business logic – this means that eConnect “validates” GP logic and it is a way safer than direct SQL scripting. eConnect covers the majority of GP modules and objects, however it doesn’t cover such modules as Invoicing (however it covers Sales Order Processing or SOP module, which is more powerful one)

3. Microsoft Dexterity, former name is Great Plains Dexterity. This IDE and programming language allows you to go into GP heart and utilize its source codes and engines. The example of Dex customization is Albaspectrum Posting Server, which allows eCommerce eConnect developer to post Sales batches directly from eCommerce application, which is not possible in pure eConnect. Dexterity allows you to create all the thinkable integrations, however it requires Dex programming experience and it is not recommended to count on newcomers in Dex.

4. SQL Scripting. If eConnect is not an option for you (where we would strongly recommend you to review eConnect one more time and change possible your mind in favor of eConnect option), you can go ahead with SQL scripts. Review GP table structure in Tools->Resource Description->Tables, then in GP test environment create the transactions you plan to integrate via GP user interface and analyze the records created in the tables. Try to feed one transaction in test company and then try to run check links: Maintenance->Check Links, select your series and work or master tables in them – be sure check links doesn’t produce error report. SQL stored procedures integration is not self evident and here we just give you initial orientation.

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Microsoft Dynamics Gp Great Plains Ecommerce Considerations

admin    Misc     Considerations, Dynamics, Ecommerce, Great, Microsoft, Plains

This topic is really popular among eCommerce developers and programmers, especially from Microsoft .Net side: ADO.Net and C# and VB eCommerce coders. Ecommerce custom programming is not the open issue for general public as it requires industry considerations, industry biddings among business to business providers on behalf of end customers. We would like to concentrate on GP ecommerce industry specifics, which should be separated from generic ecommerce software development streams. Ecommerce website design sector probably places you into the position of offshore web development search. However there are software development niches, where you need local US based support. USA based ecommerce websites development might be kind of overpriced, especially in you expectations, so this is why we recommend you to consider offshore web design option first

1. Offshore Pluses and Minuses. Of course the software programming and development world is not optimal and you should expect ups and downs. But if you will apply strong management and conflict resolution team, you will reign above the expected and possible problems

2. Third Party tools. As Microsoft Business Solution Dynamics subdivision recommends, you as software development organization should deploy Micrsoft Dynamics GP eConnect SDK and programming tool. eConnect allows you to deploy object oriented programming approach to GP e-commerce developing

3. eCommerce hosting options. At this time, October 2007, the best website hosting options are here in the USA, as other countries have certain restrictions: China. Brazil (in this case low bandwidth performance)

4. E-Commerce Development scenarios, including Albaspectrum posting server. eConnect allows you to create master records or work transactions, however it doesn’t allow you to pot transactions to General Ledger (GL). Posting server breaks through this restriction and allows you to post GP transactions batches from eCommerce application directly

5. Web sessions remote support. Modern technology doesn’t require GP consultant to come onsite to do sales estimation and following up consulting support

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Edi for Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics Gp – Highlights

admin    Misc     Dynamics, Great, Highlights, Microsoft, Plains

Electronic Document Interchange or EDI is popular bundle of various technologies, allowing you to submit or accept PO requests from/to your partners: vendors or customers. In this article we do not assume new “modern EDI” trends to think that XML format interchange is also EDI, we will think about EDI in traditional manner, where EDI is fixed length (text, with some exceptions) field format, where each line might be header, details (lines) and footer (trailer) with the options to have more flexible lines definitions. The goal of this article is to give you highlights, assuming that you are Great Plains developer, programmer or IT specialist, on how to integrate EDI compliant systems with Microsoft Dynamics GP Great Plains

1. GP technology overview. When talking about EDI, you should think about GP from the position of Great Plains Database platform, current version 10.0 is available on Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2000 only (and MSDE and SQL Select, which in fact is reduced version of MS SQL Server). If you consider to deploy integration tools, such as GP Integration Manager (IM) or GP Dexterity, you should think about performance and the volume of your EDI transactions per day or one integration session (and how frequent do you plan to have these sessions)

2. SQL Stored Procedures, Views, DTS packages and queries. In our opinion this is the most efficient and fastest way to export EDI transactions from Great Plains. You should invest some time into formatting SQL select statement output (such functions as CAST and CONVERT)

3. IM and Dex. These tools should be considered to be deployed if you plan importing EDI files. Integration Manager allows you to use ODBC connection to import documents, however fixed-length EDI format brings some technical challenge (it is not comma or tab delimited file and IM needs help here). If you plan to deploy Integration Manager, consider preprocessing fixed length files with DTS package or SQL Linked Server query to reformat it to tab delimited text file. If you are comfortable with Dexterity – this tool allows you to call SQL stored procedures, where you can do fixed-length fields parsing

4. eConnect – this tools is oriented toward XML streams and parameters, so, we do understand your enthusiasm to deploy this tool as it is friendly to eCommerce MS Visual Studio C# and VB.Net developer, however EDI technology might be a bit “archaic” for eConnect project

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Microsoft Great Plains Version Update to 10.0 Latest Notes

admin    Misc     10.0, Great, Latest, Microsoft, Notes, Plains, Update, Version

According to Microsoft Dynamics GP technical support, today on November 16, 2007 MBS release Service Pack 1 for GP 10.0, and by doing this ended long lasting GP upgrade path problem: if you were on GP 9.0 higher than SP2, then you had to wait with upgrading to GP version 10.0. In this small article we would like to stress some of the known issues fixed in 10 SP1:

1. IV10200 upgrade freezing. According to MBS technical sources, if you had over several hundred thousand records in this table, the chances were high that upgrade will fail. In our practice we have upgrade example, where number of records in IV10200 is below one hundred thousand, and it was still crashing at this step

2. GP 9.0 to 10.0 upgrade performance issue. From various sources we had the story that upgrade from 9.0 to 10.0 took a way longer than upgrade from 7.0 to 10.0. This issue is fixed in GP 10.0 SP1

3. Security migration 9.0->10.0 failure issue. As you might know if you follow upgrade wizard and select default path for GP 10 workstation installation, security migration should fail. And this is due to the spaces in “Microsoft Dynamics GP” path. In the past what you had to do is supersede default installation path with the one without spaces

4. Upgrade recommendations. If you are on version 9.0, then install GP 10.0 and apply service pack 1 prior to launching GP utilities

5. Security upgrade workaround. In GP 10.0 Security architecture was completely redesigned and now it represents nice tasks and roles. However for you it means that you will have to come through homework and review existing security settings, especially former 9.0 user classes and then base GP security roles on GP modules specific assignment: GL, Project Accounting, Sales Order Processing, Purchase Order Processing, Inventory Control, etc.

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Ecommerce Development for Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics Gp 10.0 – Overview

admin    Misc     10.0, Development, Dynamics, Ecommerce, Great, Microsoft, Overview, Plains

Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 is SQL 2005 application, however direct SQL scripting to feed or integrate eCommerce orders or invoices and payments might be complicated, due to rich GP business logic and its required validation in data integration. As eCommerce typically sends sales data to Great Plains Sales Order Processing module, which is really eConnect covered area, we recommend you first research Microsoft Dynamics GP eConnect technology, we will review eConnect in brief in this article below. Direct data feeding via SQL stored procedures is also OK if you try to restrict your integration functionality: do not allocate inventory items in SOP lines, create sales orders rather than invoices (to avoid building up GL distribution in your SQL scripting). Let’s begin:

1. eConnect. This tool and SDK was specially developed for eCommerce programmer, and later on Microsoft Business Solutions advanced eConnect and now it is covering other modules: POP, Payroll, General Ledger, etc. If you dig deeper, you will figure out that the heart of eConnect is set of encrypted SQL stored procedures. These procedures imitate GP Dexterity business logic in creating, deleting, modifying master records and work transactions. eConnect should be preferred tool as it validates Dex business logic and is recommended by MBS for e-commerce developers. If you think that eConnect is not a relevant tool for you, you can go ahead and take SQL querying route

2. SQL. Here you need to be comfortable with your GP SQL tables familiarity. The best tables reference could be found in GP workstation: tools->resource description->tables. Tables are sorted by series, you go to Sales, sort by tables physical name and jump to SOP10100 – this is Sales Header table, it keeps Sales Order, Invoice, Return, Quote document header. The second table will be SOP10200 – this one stores sales document lines: inventory items or non-inventoried items

3. eConnect and Batches posting. GP architecture has several phases of transaction life: work, open and history and among these phases only work transactions could be created in eConnect and be submitted for GP operator approvals. In eCommerce application you often want to post payments against invoice plus you want invoice to be posted and scheduled for delivery. If this is the case, you should research Alba Spectrum Posting Server, which is extension to eConnect and by technology it is Great Plains Dexterity application, appealing to Dex source code – developer places approved GP batches to custom table and posting server calls GP Dexterity native logic to post the batches

4. GP Integration Manager. If the volume of eCommerce transactions is relatively low and you are small organization, you can consider integration e-commerce transactions via IM over night. IM deploys GP as OLE server and so, GP workstation should be running behind the scenes. Some customers report IM performance issues, which is normal scenario for OLE server, where you open and feed data into GP hidden forms and screens.

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Microsoft Great Plains 10.0 Integration Options, Part Two

admin    Misc     10.0, Great, Integration, Microsoft, Options, Part, Plains

In the previous article “Microsoft Great Plains Integration Notes” we described standard integrating options and tools: GP Integration Manager, eConnect, SQL Stored Procedures and Dexterity. This is addition to the first article and here we will describe advanced scenarios: EDI (Electronic Document Interchange), combining Dexterity with eConnect to address multiple companies in GP user interface, GP integration with Java based applications

1. EDI. It is often considered by software developers as something very complex, where UNIX world is interchanging vendor records, vendor invoices and purchase orders to replenish company inventory or fulfill the order. However if you look at EDI realization, you will often realize that it is simply fixed width text file or combination of fixed width text fields with encrypted numeric fields, where numeric fields you can process and convert into text with relatively simple character processing programming. If you came to the point where on the input side you have fixed width text fields, what you need to do now is to create SQL insert into script and send records into GP tables. The second option is to get formatted fields via select statement and call eConnect methods to send Vendor Invoice into GP for example. In order to parse fixed width text fields in SQL select statement you should read books online and get answer there.

2. Dexterity and eConnect. GP users like Dexterity customizations, as these customizations are seamlessly integrated into GP user interface and security realm. However GP user interface assumes that you as GP user is logged into specific GP company and do your work in this company: enter invoices, post batches, etc. When you are designing customization with eConnect and Dexterity there is simple opportunity to break through single company. Dexterity allows you to call com objects or dll libraries, in turn com object could be written in .Net C# or VB, where you use ADO.Net constructions to switch SQL Server databases, staying for GP companies. As eConnect interface call is stored procedure, this is simple for programmer to call stored procedure in any database he or she likes. Considering legacy technologies, such as VBA scripting with Dex sanscript codes in and Continuum techniques – extension to switch Great Plains Dynamics modules; switching GP companies was always really difficult to accomplish in your integration, so eConnect, Dexterity and DLL combination seems to be very promising

3. GP and Java integrations. Reliable approach is to open eConnect interface via custom web services, which you can call from your EJB, J2EE, Java or Oracle application. Please note that GP is Microsoft realm and if you deploy non-Microsoft technologies such as DB2, PHP websites typically require technology integration testing

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Distribution Front End Integration With Microsoft Great Plains – Technology Notes

admin    Misc     Distribution, Front, Great, Integration, Microsoft, Notes, Plains, Technology

If you are Nationwide distributor and you are accepting sales orders via established and legacy Sales Order Processing application, which you will need to integrate with backoffice ERP, in our scenario with Microsoft Dynamics GP, then we would like to share our Great Plains implementation, customization, programming, report design and business processes mapping experience as well as integrating technology options:

1. Sales System. It is often the case that your sales order processing application sits on Linux or Unix platform and is implemented in Java/EJB, Oracle, Sybase, or PHP/MySQL/Redhat. We assume that you are comfortable in supporting this Unix box, including ongoing data fixes, business logic changes, required in MRP lifecycle

2. Purchasing System. It is often integrated with your legacy Sales system, described in the first paragraph. If you are reseller or integrator, you may utilize vendor drop ship purchase order scenarios, where vendor invoice or shipment notification or bill of lading trigger customer invoice issuance

3. The reasons to implement Microsoft Great Plains. Typical reason is company growth, where you invite outside investors or grow internally – when you formalize your management – typical recommendation is to implement strong ERP application for accounting, and financial reasons

4. Integration bridge. To give you the most typical scenario – GP Integration Manager allows you to integrate text files, exported from your front end business system. IM also can read ODBC data sources, for example if you are on Oracle, you can implement ODBC call to Oracle from IM directly. Another option of integration bridge is Web Service, which in turn deploys eConnect technology to feed and edit records in Great Plains. An obsolete version of web integration is popular in the past http request/response mechanism

5. EDI. If you order goods from large manufacturers, you may need Electronic Document Interchange integration with their ordering systems. As EDI rules are typically simple – fixed length text fields in the text file, consider simple way of formatting SQL select statement output with convert and cast commands

6. Sales Tax. If you sell to all 50 states, Sales Tax calculation accuracy and tax filing should be addressed. In Great Plains it is reasonably straightforward routine and you may deploy Sales Tax web service from various vendors: Avalara would be one of them

7. Reporting. You should be ready to face cross-platform DB queries to address reporting requirements. From MS SQL Server you can create Linked Servers to create distributed queries: SQL Views and Stored Procedures. Then you deploy standard reporting tools: Crystal Reports or Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services – SRS. In the case of strictly financial reports, including consolidated financial statements, you should consider FRx reporting. FRx is proper tool for Balance Sheet, P&L, Statement of Cash Flow, it allows you to pull GL data from GP databases as well as combine budgets and simple balances from Excel

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Microsoft Dynamics Gp Great Plains Custom Logic Programming

admin    Misc     custom, Dynamics, Great, Logic, Microsoft, Plains, Programming.

When you have to deal with mid-market ERP application, such questions as modification, integration, data massage, fixing and conversion, cross-platform reporting are not trivial and require homework, prior to appealing to external consultants help. Here we would like to give top level introduction, which should give you directions on where and how to go deeper into the GP software development layers:

1. GP Programming tools. Microsoft Dexterity is very traditional and matured EDI with Sanscript programming language: Dynamics.dic, Dex.ini, Dynamics.set – these files are defined by Great Plains Dexterity architecture. eConnect – this tool replicates Dex logic in encrypted SQL stored procedures, and as such it is a bit faster than Dexterity itself; eConnect was created for eCommerce developers to enable GP accounting backoffice integration with e-commerce front end. Modifier with VBA – Visual Basic for Applications scripting language was introduced for Microsoft Windows applications, such as Excel; in GP you can modify existing Dynamics screens – place new fields and buttons and animate their logic with VBA scripts. Extender – please note that this tool deploys Dex behind the scenes and being easy to learn for GP end-users, it has some drawbacks as you could expect – as Dex objects are generated in wizard manner – their naming convention and structure might be not friendly for SQL select statement and custom reporting; saying that we encourage you to avoid large scale customizations with Extender and use Extender where you need minor GP business logic tailoring

2. Popular Customization Areas. The most popular custom programming exercise for GP is Sales Order Processing module tailoring. Scenarios for SOP integrations are EDI (Electronic Document Interchange), eCommerce (where you push eCommerce invoices to GP SOP module, often with applied credit card deposits). Second popular module is Purchase Order Processing, where we often see third party requisition systems integrations with GP POP module

3. GP Modified Integration Scenarios. Great Plains Integration Manager is preferred tool for GP integration routines, especially considering the fact that latest GP IM versions (10.0 and 9.0) work with eConnect IM connectors – eConnect boosts IM performance, especially comparing with traditional OLE-based IM connectors. Plus IM is flexible enough for integration logic alteration – you should research VBA pre and post scripts and data translations

4. SQL Scripting. This option may seem encouraging for SQL developer, however GP MRP system is complex in its data flow and posting diagram, so we strictly recommend you to use SQL scripting in select statement only and do not update records, especially if you are beginner and not familiar and comfortable with GP data fixing techniques

5. Future Directions. eConnect will be taking more ground and it is advisable to invest in eConnect programming training and self study. At this time Dexterity is ultimate development tool, however eConnect advancing should allow Great Plains Programmer to work in Microsoft Visual Studio exclusively without rescuing to Dex coding

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