This is the sixth article in the #GPPT GP Power Tools: What’s in each module series? of articles.

It covers what is included in the Form Control Tools module. This module was added to Build 31 of GP Power Tools and provides “No Code/Low Code” Customization to Microsoft Dynamics GP. It can also replace Field Level Security and work with the Developer Tools module to create customizations across multiple forms, windows and fields.

Introduction

The Form Control Tools module contains features to allow an administrator, consultant or developer to customize Microsoft Dynamics GP without code. It uses resource filters to apply almost 60 rules with different customizations against forms, windows and fields in any product dictionary in Microsoft Dynamics GP. Rules can also be controlled with passwords and form control conditional scripts.

Benefits

Here is a quick summary of the benefits:

• Add “No Code/Low Code” customizations to Dynamics GP for any window or field.
• Replace Field Level Security with a more powerful and easier to maintain system.
• Has over60 rules to apply many common customizations without needing code.
• Use resource filters to seamlessly apply rules across multiple windows and fields.
• Add Passwords with multilingual dialog prompts to any form, window or field.
• Works with Developer Tools to allow code to be applied across multiple resources.

Features

Below is a list of the features for this module.

The following key is used to denote whether the feature is a Standard Mode (User level) feature (unmarked) or an Advanced Mode (Administrator level) feature and to what build of GP Power Tools the feature was added in parenthesis.

• (A) Advanced Mode Feature

Form Control Status (31)

This window is used to show the active Form Control IDs, the forms that the affected and the list of triggers applied to implement the desired customization functionality.

Form Control Resources (31)

This window is used to show dictionary resources cached by Form Control. This resource cache is how Form Control knows what to apply triggers against. You have the option of filtering the resources by a Form Control ID and rule to see the resources that meet the resource filter for that rule.

Form Control Setup (31) (A)

The Form Control Setup window is used to setup the rules and resource filters for the Form Control module. There are almost 60 rule types available including rules to completely replace Field Level Security, rules to add customization to any form, window and field in Microsoft Dynamics GP, and rules to allow Developer Tools to create triggers across multiple resources in one go.

Build 32 adds more control over the Resource caching methods and Form Exclusion. This can improve performance as well as provide additional control over which forms are included.

Password Setup (31) (A)

The Password Setup window is used to define passwords with multi-lingual prompts and their options. It can be used with Form Control or called from Developer Tools scripts via a Helper Function.

I hope this helps your understanding of GP Power Tools and what it can do for you. If you want more details than provided in this series, please download the GP Power Tools User Guide manual, which contains 882 pages of detailed description of every feature in the product.

You can also download and install the product, NFR (Not for Resale) Keys are available for partners and a free 30 day trial is available for customers (just install and follow the on screen instructions). GP Power Tools can also work with no registration keys if only the sample company is installed.

I firmly believe that all Microsoft Dynamics GP sites globally should have GP Power Tools installed, and the articles in this series will explain why.

David

19-Aug-2024: Created after the release of build 31.1 of GP Power Tools.
23-Jun-2025: Updated after the release of build 32.1 of GP Power Tools.

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