Winthrop Development Consultants Blog

Working with Unrestricted Database Triggers

Posted on 5 March 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Best Practice, Dexterity, Triggers No Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

I recently responded on a Newsgroup posting where the developer was wanting to identify a table delete event from a particular form. However, the delete event was happening in a function or procedure that did not pass a form’s table buffer as a parameter and so did not use a form level table buffer belonging to any form. This means that it was not possible to use a form restricted database trigger, but using an un-restricted database trigger was picking up table delete events from multiple forms.

So how can I identify when the database event is being generated from the form I am interested in?

Searching on SQL Server using the LIKE command

Posted on 4 March 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Blogsphere, SQL No Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

My friend Victoria Yudin has posted a great introductory article on her blog about how to use the LIKE command in where clauses when creating queries on SQL Server.

How to write Dexterity source which behaves differently for different versions

Posted on 3 March 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Best Practice, Dexterity No Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

As a developer there are often times when I need to write and maintain code which works for multiple versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP. A great example of this is the Support Debugging Tool for Microsoft Dynamics GP. This tool has been written for versions 8.00, 9.00 & 10.00 and will be maintained for all currently supported versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP as we go into the future.

Handling Translation when Customizing with VBA

Posted on 26 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Customizations, Language, Modifier, Translation, VBA, Visual Studio Tools 2 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

The final topic in the series is one that was added later after I was asked about how to handle translated applications when writing customizations.

Optimizing your Translation Effort

Posted on 24 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 4 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

After a chat with Mariano Gomez, who was directly responsible for the creation of the first Spanish version of Microsoft Dynamics GP, I realized that I had not yet covered some additional areas that will need translation. This post will try to cover the other areas you need to consider.

Dexterity and Double Byte Languages

Posted on 22 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Arabic, Chinese, Dexterity, Double Byte, French, German, Hebrew, History, Japanese, Korean, Language, Spanish, Thai, Translation, Vietnamese 9 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

During the course of this series we have discussed how you can change terminology, or even the entire language of a Dexterity application. We have discussed flipping the windows for languages that read from right to left. We have also discussed using languages which have different character sets.

How to Horizontally Flip the Windows

Posted on 19 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Arabic, Dexterity, Hebrew, Hijri Date, Language, Translation 8 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

So now we know how to translate the language, which is fine for a “western” language, but what about languages that are read from right to left rather than left to right; languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

Customizing Microsoft Dynamics GP? 5 Excuses You Will Want to Bury Once and For All!

Posted on 18 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Blogsphere, Customizations No Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

Over the years that I have worked with Great Plains and Microsoft Dynamics GP, I have seen (and written) many customizations at customer sites. Some of those customizations are in the form of products to handle specific vertical markets or generic tools to enhance functionality. Some of those customizations are in the form of customer specific Dexterity or Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code.

Translating Dexterity Code

Posted on 17 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 9 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

Now that we understand how to write the Dexterity code to allow it to be easily translated and also work in a multi-lingual system. The next step is actually translating the strings and messages.

Linking Field Prompts and fixing VBA Reference Errors

Posted on 16 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Blogsphere, Dexterity, Modifier, VBA 1 Comment

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

The great postings around the blogsphere just keep coming. I am not complaining as the body of knowledge they provide to community is growing all the time.

Writing Multi-Lingual Dexterity Code

Posted on 15 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 3 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

With large international companies using Microsoft Dynamics GP in multiple countries, we are seeing the need to be able to run more than one language of the application on the same system.

Even if an application can be easily translated, you may still encounter problems when you run the application in multiple languages on the same system. This type of environment is called a multi-lingual system and it required another set of “Best Practice” rules.

Writing Translatable Dexterity Code

Posted on 12 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 4 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

When Great Plains Software worked on translating the Dynamics product into multiple languages they came across a number of problems. Even though Dexterity was designed to allow easy translation, the international team found that developers needed to follow certain “Best Practices” to truly have a translatable application.

Dexterity: Designed for Translation

Posted on 10 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 2 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

From the Translating Dexterity Applications Series.

When Great Plains Software decided to update their text based Great Plains Accounting (GPA) software for the graphical user interface (GUI) world of Windows and Macintosh, they found that a suitable development environment did not exist and so decided to develop their own. Hence we have Dexterity.

Translating Dexterity Applications Series

Posted on 8 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Language, Translation 20 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

After a number of questions about translation recently, I have decided to focus on Dexterity’s multi-lingual and translation capabilities for the next couple of weeks.

Creating SQL Views of Extender Data

Posted on 5 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Crystal Reports, Extender, SmartList Builder, SQL, SQL Reporting Services 14 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

Extender can create SQL views of the data in an Extender window which allows the data to be viewed as a single row in the view even though the actual data is stored as a multiple records across multiple tables (depending on data type).

This view can then be used by SmartList Builder to show the Extender data in SmartList.

Why are pictures in Dynamics GP limited to 32Kb?

Posted on 3 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Dexterity, Graphics, Logo, Report Writer 2 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

If you have ever wondered why the Microsoft Dynamics GP Report Writer limits you to 32Kb (32,767 bytes) when adding images, this post should hopefully explain the reasons.

Customizing Visual Studio Tools Addin Modules

Posted on 1 February 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Modifier, VBA, Visual Studio Tools No Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

In a recent Newsgroup posting, it was asked if Modifier and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and the Extender module worked for windows created as part of a Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP Addin module.

Controlling a Visual Studio Tools Window Position

Posted on 28 January 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Blogsphere, Visual Studio Tools 3 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

Mohammad Daoud has found a great technique to control the initial location of a Visual Studio Tools window, so that it is centered on the screen regardless of resolution.

Customizations that you do not need to do

Posted on 27 January 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Customizations, Modifier, NDM, Patrick Roth, VBA 4 Comments

This is a reposting of an article Patrick Roth originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

Having supported the various customization tools over the years, you run into common requests again and again. Something that often surprises me is that you get requests to ‘customize’ Dynamics GP to make it do something and as it turns out Dynamics GP already does this out of the box.

Farewell and Good Luck to The Fabulous Matt G

Posted on 26 January 2009 Posted in Developing For Dynamics GP Tagged with Blogsphere, Fun, General, News 13 Comments

This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.

I have been involved with Great Plains (the product and company) since 1994 and during that time there has been one person in the Fargo Great Plains organisation who has always been there to answer my questions. I could direct any question at him and he would answer it himself or find someone who could. He has supported me personally in many of my projects and given me honest feedback (sometimes brutally honest) on my ideas.