A while back I had a customer site reporting an issue where a small window would open every time a user opens the Sales Transaction Entry (SOP_Entry) window.

This issue only occurs when the GP Power Tools – Administrator Tools module feature to prevent windows opening outside of the visible display is enabled.

The Problem

The window is labelled as ~internal~ which is a special name used for windows that are exempted from the application security model. Windows like this are often used by developers to store additional data or code related to the window that was opened. Under normal circumstances you should never see these types of windows.

The reason that it is visible comes down to a combination of two factors.

1. The developer who created this window failed to change the window to have the object property AutoOpen=False. They hid the window by setting the position it opens at to some value that would normally be off screen. As far as I am concerned this is a bug that needs to be fixed by the developer. It is possible to have a window accessible but not visible by opening the form that contains the window and having the property AutoOpen=False set on the window.
2. GP Power Tools’ feature to make sure that windows are always visible was enabled (Window Position Check) and so it moved the window back into the visible desktop. See the screenshot below.

The Solution – Part 1

We were able to identify the ~internal~ window and the product it comes from using the GP Power Tools Security Profiler window. Just opening the Security Profiler window prior to opening the Sales Transaction Entry window captures all the additional windows opened at the same time.

The ~internal~ window was found to be from the ICJC_DYNAMICS_RCB_FORM form in the Manufacturing product, series 3rd Party.

At that stage the only solution to prevent the window becoming visible was to turn off the GP Power Tools feature preventing windows opening off the screen.

The Solution – Part 2

With the release of GP Power Tools build 26, a new enhancement to the Window Position Memory window (which allows any window in the Microsoft Dynamics GP application to remember its size, position and state) was to also be able to mark a window as disabled.

So, there are three states that a window can have:

Open the Window Position Memory and mark the Hidden Forms checkbox to see all windows. Then expand the Manufacturing Dictionary and Series 3rd Party (as identified by the Security Profiler). Then click on the Technical Name column header to sort by Technical Name and locate the ICJC_DYNAMICS_RCB_FORM form. Finally, click on the the checkbox to mark the window as disabled from the Window Position Check feature.

Build 26 of GP Power Tools now has a feature that can be used to avoid side effects caused by the Window Position Check. However, this problem only occurs in the first place because the window was not set as AutoOpen=False by the developer as it should be.

Hope you find this helpful.

David

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.