Released on = July 6, 2007, 3:54 pm

Press Release Author = Alba Spectrum Group

Industry = Computers

Press Release Summary = Former Microsoft Great Plains, or prior to Great Plains
Software purchase by Microsoft the ERP name was Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise,
has multiple modification and programming options and tools. Current trend is
defined by Microsoft and as you can expect encourages you into .Net programming
realm

Press Release Body = Alba Spectrum Group. http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918

Former Microsoft Great Plains, or prior to Great Plains Software purchase by
Microsoft the ERP name was Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise, has multiple
modification and programming options and tools. Current trend is defined by
Microsoft and as you can expect encourages you into .Net programming realm: C#,
VB.Net. If you work as a programmer in IT department, you should first research
such tools as Microsoft Dynamics GP eConnect, SRS (Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services), GP Integration Manager (VBA scripting is probably easy for you to
experiment - you can empower IM with such an easy scripting language, however this
is rather Microsoft legacy, not .Net). If you are comfortable with web publishing
and SQL stored procedures - you can create simple applications, which will enable GP
data inquiry via web forms. If the tools above don't do the job, you should
familiarize yourself with additional options:
. Microsoft Dexterity. Great Plains Dexterity gives you unlimited control over GP,
however it is proprietary tools designed by Great Plains Software in 1990th, and as
such - it is not easy to begin programming in Dexterity on your own. We would
rather encourage you to understand Dexterity technology architecture to be able to
identify Dex customization projects and outsource them to Dexterity development
firm. Dex is typically distributed via so called chunks, which you copy into your
GP workstation directory and when you launch GP next time, you get the invitation to
integrate Dexterity chunk. The traces of Dexterity influence you can see in MS SQL
Server GP databases: DYNAMICS and Company, where all dex tables have DEX_ROW_ID
autoincrement column; Dynamics.Dic is Dex dictionary, which is interpreted by
Dex.EXE - dexterity executable. The assembly of your GP set of applications is
described in Dynamics.set file. Dexterity settings could be reviewed in Dex.ini
. SQL Scripting. Try first this surgery where you can not really harm the data (as
SQL is really powerful and at the same time dangerous - you issue delete statement -
and your data is gone) - in reporting. Reports could be based on SQL views or
Stored Procedures - and you can deploy several reporting tools: SRS and Crystal
Reports, for example. To get the idea about Dexterity tables, in GP open
Tools->Resource Description->Tables. When you get sufficient comfort level to move
on to more interactive SQL scripting routines, such as data integration, please know
the secret - you can not add or delete columns from Dex tables - if you do so -
Dexterity will not be able to work with altered table. The only what you can do is
to add indexes, however try to avoid placing Dex tables into replication - if you do
so - upgrade will require dropping replication GUID columns

Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum Group. http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, serving MS Dynamics GP
customers locally in Houston: Richmond, Rosenberg, Dallas, Katy, Sugar Land,
Galveston; Chicago: Naperville, Aurora, Morris, Glen Ellyn, Winchester, Oak Park,
Lyons, Alsip, Lemont, Seneca, Ottawa, Joliet, Plainfield, Romeoville, Barrington,
Crystal Lake, Rockford, DeKalb, Wheaton, Lisle, Downers Grove, Batavia, St. Charles,
Norway. Dex customizations USA/Canada nationwide support is available via remote
support/connection: California, Minnesota, Florida, New York, Virginia, Oregon,
Arizona, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Mexico.



Web Site = http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details = Alba Spectrum Group. http://www.albaspectrum.com
help@albaspectrum.com 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918