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Showing posts from June, 2010

Dex - Dexterity and IntelliSense: It's time to vote!

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Yesterday I presented some arguments for IntelliSense implementation in Dexterity . If you are an ISV or application developer who spends a lot of time developing Microsoft Dexterity applications and working in the Dexterity environment, you may certainly appreciate the benefits of having intellisense embedded in the sanScript language. Take this sample muck up of the Script Editor window: As a result of this, I have opened a Microsoft Connect product suggestion to have this feature implemented, but it cannot be even considered if YOU the reader don't take 1 minute of your time to vote on the suggestion. So, if you are reading this now, please click on the link below the image (or on the image itself) to cast your support for this suggestion. Microsoft Connect product suggestion 570553 [Ed:] If you have problems accessing the link, visit http://connect.microsoft.com/ to associate your Windows Live ID and create profile prior to voting. The Microsoft Dexterity development communit

Dex - Dexterity and IntelliSense

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I have heard many times how it's nearly close to impossible to implement IntelliSense in Microsoft Dexterity. For those of you not familiar with the term, IntelliSense is to software development what autocompletion is to Microsoft Dynamics GP data entry or Office Excel for that matter. Similar to other autocompletion systems, IntelliSense is a convenient way to access descriptions of functions, particularly their parameter lists. It speeds up software development by reducing the amount of name memorization needed and keyboard input required. It also allows for less reference to external documentation as interactive documentation on many symbols (i.e. variables and functions) in the active scope appears dynamically in the form of tooltips while programming. IntelliSense works by accessing an automatically generated in-memory database of classes (not [entirely] supported in Dexterity), variable names and other constructs defined in or referenced by the application being edited. Wit

IM - Integration Manager Service Packs

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Have you ever wonder how many service packs have been issued for each version of Integration Manager 10? Have you asked the question more than 100 times without a straight up answer? Suffer no more, the following is a list of service packs and hotfixes issued so far for Integration Manager 10.0 To check your version and build number, launch Integration Manager and click Help and then click About Integration Manager Integration Manager version 10.0 RTM Version 10.00.0836 Service Pack 1 10.00.0932 Service Pack 2 10.00.1072 Service Pack 2 Hotfix 10.00.1134 Service Pack 3 10.00.1221 Service Pack 3 March Hotfix 10.00.1305 Service Pack 4 10.00.1378 Service Pack 4 September Hotfix 10.00.1384 Service Pack 5 10.00.1592 Remember that Integration Manager service packs do not rely on Microsoft Dynamics GP service pack level and can be installed at your discretion. Until next post!

Multilingual GP

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I have to admit that translating Microsoft Dynamics GP is a daunting task, especially if your translation techniques rely on the traditional Dexterity string translation used over the years by many international partners providing some sort of non-English version of Dynamics GP for customers abroad. I have myself done my fair share of Dynamics GP translation work, first with the Spanish version for Latin America and later on with a prototype Russian version . But have to admit, the process is a bit tedious. And what about double-byte languages ? There is really no support for this in Dexterity, so translation efforts are limited to single-byte languages. With this said, I have been fascinated by Multilingual GP. These folks have taken translating Microsoft Dynamics GP to the next level. Not only do they translate the user interface (forms and reports), but they go as far as rendering data on screens and reports in other languages. Can you imagine that? If for example a user stores an

From the Newsgroups: Upgrading 150+ company databases

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This week the partner newsgroup takes on the topic of upgrades and you will be surprise to know the different approaches available to do upgrades for large amounts of company databases, especially when down time is not much of an option. Q: Have got a situation with a client with 150+ companies (databases) on version 9. Client is extememly downtime sensitive. Is there a supported upgrade technique or method to minimized downtime? The answer comes courtesy of Microsoft's Randal Mayer , Partner Technical Online Community moderator. A: The supported approach is to prioritize the databases by urgency and importance of being completed. It is the high priority databases which will require being upgraded first, validated, backed up and then released to production. For the remaining databases of less importance and less urgency, run Utilities to convert them afterwards ideally after hours. NOTE: All company databases are not required to be upgraded. In other words, once the system databa

The Dynamics GP Blogster to visit Toronto, Canada

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The Dynamics GP Blogster will be in the beautiful city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada from June 14 to June 16 on a business assignment, but for those of you who would like to exchange business cards and ideas please don't hesitate to reach me at the Marriot Downtown Eaton Centre . I will be available in the evenings after 5:30 PM and as time permits. For those of you who decide to tag along for dinner or otherwise, table topics are fairly open. Everything, but politics and religion goes :-) Hope to see some of you there. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

Encumbrance vs PO Commitments

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Two modules often confused are the Encumbrance and PO Commitments modules. They do have some similarities, but also have clear differences. The basic differences are: Encumbrance tracks history in Great Plains while PO Commitments does not. Encumbrance doesn’t integrate with Requisition Management only PO Commitments. You can still use Encumbrance instead of Commitments, but you can’t track against a budget within Business Portal Requisition Management until you create a PO in Great Plains. Encumbrance requires all budgets to be entered for all open fiscal years but PO Commitment's budgets can be entered for any years you want to. Their similarities: They are initiated in the Purchase Order Entry window. Budgets are for Purchase Orders only. Can do multiple purchases simultaneously (mass). Inquiries on current view. No MC functionality. Maintenance available. Hope this helps shed some light. Until next post! MG.- Mariano Gomez, MVP Maximum Global Business, LLC http://www.maximumglo

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Advisor

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With the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, I have been seing more and more questions regarding upgrading from earlier versions of Microsoft SQL Server -- for example Microsoft SQL Server 2000 -- to Microsoft SQL Server 2008. The questions usually comes in the form of " we are currently running [ some prior version of SQL Server here ] and they are ready to move to Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Is there a checklist in place for this upgrade? How does this affect GP? " To start, the reason you will not find much of a checklist on upgrading Microsoft SQL Server on CustomerSource or PartnerSource is because this topic does not have much to do with the Microsoft Dynamics GP application itself, but rather falls in the domain of the Microsoft SQL Server Team. As such, one of the cool tools available from the SQL Server Team is the SQL Server Upgrade Advisor . SQL Server Upgrade Advisor is a wizard-based application that helps you prepare for upgrades to SQL Server 2008 or SQL S