Tag Archives: VBA

Review of Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications – Part 1

Posted on 4th February 2013 by Ian Grieve

At the end of December, Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications, written by Leslie Vail and published by Packt Publishing was released.

Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications by Leslie Vail

I got a copy of the book in order to do a review and have decided to break the review down into multiple parts. The reason for this is that the book includes some practical examples which I have decided to do and then include the results of this in the review; after all if it is a book on developing how can you accurately review the book if you don’t use what you learn to build something?

The book is aimed at developers new to working with Microsoft Dynamics GP, so bear in mind that I am not a developer when reading my reviews. Quick synopsis of my background: I started my career as a trainee developer and moved through a variety of roles such as developer and support analyst before moving to my current position as consultant and project manager.

I oversee development teams working on additions or amendments to Microsoft Dynamics GP as well as personally undertaking some modifications using Report Writer or Modifier with VBA. So despite not being a developer, I am used to working with them and did, once upon a time, be one myself.

The first chapter of the book covers the Microsoft Dynamics GP Architecture from a high level perspective.

It covers the history of the GP interface from it’s origins with Great Plains Software, an overview of Dexterity and the development environment. There is a detailed explanation of the launch file (Dynamics.set), which included a couple of points of which I wasn’t aware, and the configuration/preferences file (Dex.ini).

The explanation of the Dex.ini file included the ExportOneLineBody switch which I didn’t know about, but for which I have an immediate use.

Leslie then goes on to explain about the structure of the tables in the SQL Database which always strikes newcomers as arcane and overly complex. Leslie explains this well with plenty of detail on both the structure, including both the physical and technical names, and how transactions move between tables as their state changes.

Chapter 1 wraps up with a detailed explanation of the UI covering how forms are constructed, how the scrolling windows work and the common buttons used on forms, scrolling windows and individual buttons.

The second chapter of the book focuses on the fundamentals of integrating applications with Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, eConnect, GP, Integration Manager, Microsoft, Modifier with VBA, Packt Publishing, Report Writer, Software Development Kit, Visual Studio Tools For MDGP | Tagged Books, Dexterity, eConnect, GP, Integration Manager, Leslie Vail, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Modifier with VBA, Packt Publishing, sanScript, VBA, Visual Studio Tools for Dynamics GP | 3 Comments

Microsoft Dynamics GP SmartList Default Visible To Company

Posted on 29th October 2012 by Ian Grieve

In July, as part of his weekly MS Connect suggestion series, Mark Polino raised the issue of SmartList Favourites and the default Visible To which is set to System.

Mark’s suggestion was to have the default changed to User which would leave a generally tidier list. To be honest I’d rather have a setting which allowed the default to be chosen by each client. The reason for this is we’re currently in the middle of an upgrade project where a few Microsoft Dynamics GP systems will be merged into one and it would be good to have the default Visib le to set to Company.

Following on from my recent post on a fixed width SmartList left pane I decided to have a fiddle and see if I could force the default to something else. And it turns out with some simple VBA that you can do exactly that;

Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft, Modifier with VBA, SmartList | Tagged Customisations, GP, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, Modifier, Modifier with VBA, SmartList, VBA | 2 Comments

VBA Customisation To Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Login Window To Display Desktop Alert If Caps Lock On

Posted on 25th October 2012 by Ian Grieve

In 2009 Patrick Roth, on the Developing for Dynamics GP blog, posted a customisation for the Microsoft Dynamics GP login window which displays a message box if the caps lock is on when the user goes to enter their password.

Then, back in July, Aaron Berquist on his blog High Dynamic Range, posted an article on using VBA to create a desktop alert to users which doesn’t take focus away from the application.

I decided to take a look and see if I could combine these two ideas into one and have a desktop alert displayed when the user has caps lock on when logging in, which is far less intrusive than the message box approach by Patrick.

The result is a customisation of the login window (which you can download at the end of the post) to display an alert if the user has the Caps Lock on using the desktop alert code Aaron posted.

The code displays a message to the user if they have Caps Lock on when the login window displays, or when they tab into the Password field if they haven’t already seen the message;

The customisation was created in GP 2013 and has only been tested in this version of GP but has been tested on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 8. As with everything I post here, it is supplied entirely without warranty and you use it at your own risk.

However, if you do have problems let me know and I’ll see what I can do to fix them.

Download

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft, Modifier with VBA | Tagged Customisations, GP, Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, Modifier with VBA, Security, VBA | 4 Comments

Installing Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 – Insufficient Privileges To Modify The VBA Project Error

Posted on 6th September 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics GP I upgraded a clients test system from Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 SP3 to 2010 R2 successfully on the main system such as installing the main client and upgrading the system and company databases.

The client has a few modified reports on the system which needed to be brought across to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010. These reports were exported from Customisation Maintenance (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu >> Tools >> Customise >> Customisation Maintenance);

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Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft | Tagged Customisations, Errors, GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, Modified Reports, Report Writer, Run as Administrator, VBA | 1 Comment

Check Remittance Run-time error ’13′ – Type Mismatch: Follow Up

Posted on 1st September 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics GP We heard back from the Development Team in Fargo, who David Musgrave contacted regarding the issue we encountered with the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.7 Library.

They recommend that packages should be moved around using the Customisation Maintenance (Microsoft Dynamics GP menu >> Tools >> Customise >> Customisation Maintenance) to Import/Export the modified reports. Rather than doing this, which runs the potential risk of leaving client machines with an outdated REPORTS.dic we have been pointing the clients at a centralised REPORTS.dic on a server and copying only the Dynamics.vba to each client (we change the reports more often than the VBA).

Using Customisation Maintenance to Import the package file to each client would have prevented the problem as it would use the Microsoft ActiveX Data Objects 2.7 Library reference on the local machine. Doing it the way we do, by copying the VBA, transfers the reference within the VBA file.

This is an issue for internal discussion and we perhaps need to change the process we use for dictionary files.

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft | Tagged Check Remittance, Customisations, Errors, GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, Modified Reports, Payables Management, Payment Run, Purchasing, Report Writer, VBA | 1 Comment

Check Remittance Run-time error ’13′ – Type Mismatch

Posted on 31st August 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics GP I implemented the VBA workaround for cheque remittances on a test system for another client site, to make sure they don’t see the undefined symbol error, the other day after I upgraded Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 to GP 2010 and tested the remittance to ensure it worked. amend VBA on Server 2008 R2 SP1

When the client came to test the remittance themselves on the test Citrix Server they got a type mismatch error;

Continue reading →

Check Remittance Vendor Address VBA Workaround

Posted on 8th July 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics Following on from yesterdays post about the Undefined Symbol error, where I discovered that Microsoft have removed the link from the check remittance tables to PM Creditor Master, I thought it might be useful to post the VBA workaround used to get the creditor address.

The first step was to create five Calculated Fields on the Check Remittance report; for simplicity I named them CreditorAddress1 through CreditorAddress5. No separate field for Post (Zip) Code was created as addresses can be of all different lengths and I like to output tidy addresses where I can.

Once the fields were created and added to the report, in the Remittance Header section, they were selected and made available to Visual Basic. Continue reading →

Posted in Dynamics, GP, Microsoft | Tagged Check Remittance, Customisations, GP, Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010, Modified Reports, Payables Management, Payment Run, Purchasing, Report Writer, VBA | 3 Comments

Check Remittance Undefined Symbol Error When Upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Posted on 7th July 2011 by Ian Grieve

Microsoft Dynamics The customer I recently upgraded from Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 to GP 2010 have encountered an error during the payment run at the cheque remittances step;