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Over the past few weeks I have been posting a number of “What’s New” articles for GP Power Tools build 20.
If you have missed any of them, this article has all the links to the articles, so you can read them at your leisure.
GP Power Tools is the first product that I have released over the years to have a proper installation program. As the complexity of the products increases and there are more files involved than a single Dexterity chunk (.cnk) file, it became necessary to use an installer rather than just a zipped archive file.
GP Power Tools has a number of DLL files as well as a text file with version history, a license document and the user guide PDF.
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015 added Service Based Architecture (SBA) and .Net Interop functionality to the application. Service Based Architecture allows the Dexterity developer to write global procedures and use meta data to expose these service enabled procedures to the outside world as REST Web Services.
GP Power Tools provides five Service Enabled Procedures which can be used to execute custom business logic created in the Runtime Execute window. These services can be called as Web Services, from Visual Studio Tools using Visual C# or Visual Basic.Net, or from any Dexterity product dictionary using sanScript.
The Database Validation feature was previously demonstrated but never released. GP Power Tools now releases Database Validation for general availability.
Database Validation is a tool designed to ensure that the user, company and table settings at the SQL Server level match what the Microsoft Dynamics GP application says they should be.
One of the most popular features of the now discontinued Support Debugging Tool was the Company based Color Schemes. This feature allowed administrators to specify a different color scheme for each Microsoft Dynamics GP company.
GP Power Tools takes this functionality and enhances it to make it more powerful and easier to use.
GP Power Tools is now released and available via my distribution and support partner, Mekorma.
Continuing on with the What’s New series, today’s article will have a quick look at some of the usability enhancements to the Microsoft Dynamics GP application.
I am so proud and excited to finally release the much anticipated replacement for the discontinued Support Debugging Tool.
Welcome to GP Power Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP for versions GP 2010 (v11.0), GP 2013 (v12.0 including R2) and GP 2015 (v14.00 including R2).
This first release of GP Power Tools will be build 20 and includes many new features, enhancements to existing features as well as rebranding as a Winthrop Development Consultants product.
[Update: Winthrop Development Consultants now distributes its products directly]
Winthrop Development Consultants is proud to announce its Partnership with Mekorma. Mekorma is now the exclusive distribution and support partner for the Winthrop Development Consultants product range.
One request that I have heard a number of times is for a method to expose scripts written using Runtime Execute or SQL Execute to normal users.
Because these windows are Advanced Mode features designed for administrators to use, they require SQL Server sysadmin or dbo privileges as well as application level security and the System password (if used) to access.
The Support Debugging Tool already has the ability to create and execute Dexterity sanScript and Transact-SQL scripts, without needing the Dexterity development environment or SQL Server Management Studio installed.
Now GP Power Tools adds the ability to create and execute Visual C# scripts and Visual Basic.Net scripts, without needing Visual Studio installed.
The Administrator level (Advanced Mode) features of GP Power Tools require application level security, SQL Server sysadmin or dbo status and the System Password (if one is configured) to access them.
So what happens if you want a user to be able access a feature and can provide the security required at the application level and SQL Server level, but you don’t really want to provide them with the Microsoft Dynamics GP System password?
As GP Power Tools approaches release, it is time to continue the What’s New series and explain another of the new features added to the product.
You can now enable Security Activity Tracking to collect statistical data on the usage of the various resources and security objects within the system.
As mentioned in recent posts, GP Power Tools is almost ready for release. The user guide manual documentation is now completed… all 256 pages of it. If you want to get the code now, you can already install the public beta and upgrade to the final release later.
This is the first article in a series of What’s New posts for GP Power Tools. The aim of this series is to highlight some of the new features of the tool and flesh out more details than the 21 reasons to upgrade article.
As the release of GP Power Tools approaches, I am hearing the following question from existing users of the Support Debugging Tool:
“Why should I pay to upgrade to GP Power Tools when the Support Debugging Tool is free?”
Today, I am releasing an update to the GP Power Tools Public Beta.
If you have installed a previous version, please download and install this updated code as it contains a number of cosmetic and performance changes that have been identified by beta testers and during the documentation process.
Now that the GP Power Tools Public Beta is out there, I know that people will not read the user guide documentation (GPPTools.pdf).
So I thought it would be worth while mentioning some guidelines to make the install as smooth as possible.
Today, I am announcing a free public beta of GP Power Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP versions 11.0 (GP 2010), 12.0 (GP 2013) and 14.0 (GP 2015).
As you know, I have been working extremely hard on getting GP Power Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP ready for release and now it is time to get some feedback.
GP Power Tools is the next generation replacement for the Support Debugging Tool.
Read on for more details …
Since leaving Microsoft in October last year, I have been asked many times about the future of the Support Debugging Tool.
So I wanted to let people know what is happening with the tool and what to expect.
This is the third and final article in the series, make sure you look at the previous articles before this one.
The previous articles can be found at:
Today’s article adds the final step by adding a method for a user to execute the code we have written so far without requiring access to any Support Debugging Tool windows.
This is the second article in the series, if you haven’t already, please see the previous article: Using the Support Debugging Tool to create user accessible SQL Scripts – Part 1.
Today’s article adds a simple user interface for the previously created SQL scripts using Dexterity sanScript.