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Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0, former Microsoft Great Plains, MS Dexterity customization options - overview for programmer, software developer, IT director and ERP consultant

Since its introduction as C-Shell computer platform (MAC & Windows) and DB independent programming language and development environment, Great Plains Dexterity covered very long and probably bumpy way together with the whole ERP and IT industry. When C programming language was a believed panacea to provide application cross-platform expansion, nobody could envision such future toys as web thin client (HTML and JavaScript programming with Java EJB and .NET database connectors), XML (providing simple cross-platform interoperability) and especially XML web services (enabling remote users to get info from virtually any server).

When Great Plains Software was acquired by Microsoft - the new owner as we guess had no plans to play-up such Dexterity old-good “strong points” as C Shell and cross-platform potential, and as many expected Microsoft Business Solutions “froze” new “Source Code Partner” re-enrollment. In 2005 Microsoft BS re-opened the program (however the price of the new enrollment and annual fee is king of high for small and mid-size VAR). The unofficial opinions were - Microsoft Project Green or currently Microsoft Dynamics project is a technological challenge and it will not happen overnight, so Dexterity is still out there and partners, who help MBS develop verticals for Microsoft Dynamics GP are still welcomed.

Sanscript. Microsoft Dexterity scripting language is so-called Sanscript, cursor driven DB access language, plus it has script and triggers. With version 7.0 Dexterity support such nice things as COM objects, web services, etc.

DYNAMICS.DIC. This dictionary has all the logic of GP core modules. When you install MS Dynamics GP 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0 and older versions DYNAMICS.DIC comes with scripts stripped out. If you are enrolled into Dex source code program you have access to DYNAMICS.DIC with all the scripts in place. This enables you to look up procedures and functions calls examples, the sequence of events, etc - very good help in your custom programming, which is based on the imitation.

Dexterity Programmers Pool. Well, good point - when Microsoft purchased GPS, Navision, Axapta, etc. - it launched the plan to unify its MRP applications on the .Net and MS SQL Server base. This decision resulted in new Dex programmers training slow down. This slow down was even worth, considering the economic conditions of early XXI century, when a lot of IT and programmer positions were eliminated and programmers were laid off. However, opposite process of programming outsourcing and offshore development leaded to the Dexterity source code programming centers renaissance in Philippines and India. Manila was a real stronghold, where such new programming dragons as Alba Spectrum and Enterlogics.com.br opened their development offices

Future. When Microsoft Dynamics (AX, GP, SL, NAV, CRM) will be unified product, Dexterity will probably be replaced with eConnect and Web Services interfaces - Microsoft Visual Studio programmers will be probably positioned to develop industrial-strength third party modules for Microsoft Dynamics. At this moment some experts expect Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX will play more role in final Dynamics, especially on the international arena - Brazil, Europe, China, India, Latin America. Dexterity really doesn’t support Unicode and Microsoft had to probe first Navision and later on Axapta to become its international ERP

Some Nice Dex Source Code Programming Features. Automatic Posting. You can use Source code to enable batch posting without operator intervention. This will require one additional user license - this computer will play the role of posting server. Chinese language support - bypassing Unicode lacking - you can write Chinese in special popup and force it into Dex screens - special utility is required

Microsoft Dexterity Customization upgrade. When MBS decided to concentrate on .Net and Project Green - the Dex custom code upgrade became more straight forward and simple, however it is still good idea to deploy professional Dexterity developer on MBS Dexterity customization partner

Dexterity Nation-wide support. Considering the fact of market diminishing and programmers concentration in the centralized programming hubs (Chicago, Houston) with connections to outsourcing centralized call centers (Brazil, Philippines) - it is good idea to deploy phone and skype support technicians plus outsourcing the customization upgrade. As in the case of Axapta - it is very easy to outsource Dex upgrade - you need to provide remote desktop connection or even zip and upload DYNAMICS and company databases together with your Dexterity customization dictionary to your Dexterity upgrade partner

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.ronix-systems.de http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Europe: Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, Russia, Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, OAE, Bahrain), Asia: China, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, South & Central America: Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico

Tags: great plains, Great Plains Dexterity, Microsoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamicsgreat plains, Great Plains Dexterity, Microsoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamics

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Microsoft Dynamics GP, also often referred as Microsoft Great Plains or Great Plains Dynamics may be considered as very good ERP platform, ready for custom logic and integrations with legacy systems. eConnect is one of the tools of choice to be deployed in the case of creating and moving objects to Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Master Records. Accounts, Customers, Vendors, Employees are typical master records. eConnect can create, update and remove these records. eConnect methods first try to validate business logic, so eConnect should be preferred over direct SQL scripting (trying to add or change records directly in Microsoft Dynamics SQL tables)

Transactions. eConnect also allows you to create or modify so-called work transactions. However eConnect doesn’t typically go beyond work transactions, so-called open or historical transactions should be created through Microsoft Dynamics GP posting, moving to history, voiding, etc. routines and this requires MS Dynamics GP operation intervention

Beyond eConnect. There are multiple options for you to deploy Microsoft Dexterity to automate such processes as posting. Imagine, you are moving daily eCommerce sales from your third party e-Commerce system to Great Plains and want them to be posted automatically. In this case you can deploy eConnect to bring work Sales Invoices and Payments and then you deploy Microsoft Dexterity Posting server to trigger posting all the way to the General Ledger

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.ronix-systems.de http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Oracle Financials, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.
We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN

Tags: eConnect, Microsoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamics GPeConnect, Microsoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamics GP

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Modification, Customization, Custom development, Reporting and Scripting overview.

Microsoft Great Plains or Microsoft Dynamics GP currently version 9.0 has variety of customization tools. General directions for so-called Project Green or Microsoft Dynamics project expose more Microsoft Dynamics GP business logic to be modified in .Net by Visual Studio developer in C# or VB. eConnect, originally created for Microsoft Great Plains eCommerce developers will be expanding the number of Microsoft Dynamics GP object in its scope, plus web services will allow to resolve eConnect objects for .Net developer. When we are talking about modifications, we think about light custom pieces, when older tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity or Modifier with VBA (this one seems to be in phasing out mode, so you need to make your judging prior to coding), Report Writer (reports with light possible Dexterity modifications) and new tools such as Extender. Let’s come through the tools one-by-one…

Microsoft Dexterity. This tool can help you with small adjustments as well as will huge customizations for Microsoft Great Plains. Dexterity however requires programmer with some experience, because it is unique for Great Plains and not wide spread on the market as Visual Basic, for example. Dexterity customization is usually done for DYNAMICS.DIC dictionary in Sanscript scripting language, you modify existing Dex forms (such as SOP Entry, making it alternate form) or create new Dexterity forms (preferred over modifying existing), then you extract your custom piece from DYNAMICS.DIC and distribute in the form of so-called “chink” file (*.CNK). The problems of using inexperienced programmer (who could learn as she/he goes) are multiple restrictions or rules, such as inability to change existing tables - you create new table instead, upgrade issues with existing customized forms, conception of Dex triggers, combining of dex and SQL Procedures logics, Dexterity source code availability and programming, etc.

Modifier with VBA. This tool is probably legacy now, because it is going out of the scenes with the advance of Microsoft .Net and VB.Net as the successor of old Visual Basics (which subset is VBA or Visual Basic for Applicatons). The idea is simple - Modifier uses Dexterity tool (user friendly restricted version of dex) to create so-called modified forms, where you can take off some fields, add new, change the name of existing, etc. Then you attach VBA scripts to the fields, especially new ones and so modify the logic of the form. Your customization is stored in DYNAMICS.VBA or custom dictionary with VBA extension. Again as we said above - you should think about longevity of your customization and its future.

Developer Toolkit. We suggest you to discover this tool on your own and enjoy. Please be sure, however - if you are MBS VAR and plan your modification as the product for the market - you should think about Dexterity, if you plan to extend fat client, or maybe eConnect directly - if you are thinking about modifications to Business Portal

Extender. Make your own discovery. We respect new tools and the efforts of MBS to design user or functional-consultant friendly modification tools, you should be ready to some restrictions, and they are understandable for the first versions of the module

ReportWriter modifications. In Great Plains Report Writer you can modify such important reports as SOP Invoice Long form, placing logo on it, to be the first idea. The technology of ReportWriter is Dexterity and you can use it intuitively or even add Dex finctions with rw_ prefics to be enabled in ReportWriter customization

Give us a call 1-866-528-0577 or help@albaspectrum.com if you need additional information or directions.

Andrew Karasev is technical consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.ronix-systems.de http://www.enterlogix.com.br ), serving clients in Illinois, California, Texas, New York, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, New Jersey, Washington, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and having locations in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Mexico

Tags: Microsoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP ModificationMicrosoft Dexterity, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP Modification

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