Extender Auto Open and Auto Close options not working in GP 2010

Just recently, I came across an issue reported by a partner on Extender Auto Open and Auto Close options not working.

Extender Auto Open and Auto Close options

After implementing a simple Extender window on the Item Maintenance form, I ran a couple tests to confirm. Effectively, when I did open the Item Maintenance window, the Extender window did not open as expected.

I then went to the Additional menu to open the Extender window and then closed the Item Maintenance window. The Extender window did not close along with the Item Mantenance form.

My environment is Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 with Service Pack 3 (11.00.2044), but the issue can be recreated on previous builds of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 as well. In the interest of full disclosure, I did not test this in any previous release of Dynamics GP, i.e., v10.0.

The issue has been replicated by Microsoft and a problem report created for it, but no immediate fix date has been provided. If you are affected by this issue, please open a support case referencing this post or the actual partner forum post URL: http://bit.ly/P2G0rr

NOTE: The Allow Hot Key option still works as expected.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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SmartList Builder and creating Calculated Fields with Extender data

Just recently, I ran into a case where the partner was creating a SmartList Builder calculated field using data from the RM Open table (RM20101) via an Left Join table operation with the Extender Window Field Numbers. In fact, this is a very typical scenario for a lot of deployments where Extender is used, especially when you cannot use the standard Extender functionality to integrate with out-of-the-box smartlists.

The original SLB calculated field look something like this:

Extender Calculated Field

When the SLB smartlist was deployed, a number of results came back as zero for the records where there was no entry in the Extender Window Field Numbers table, even when the Sales Amount and Current Trx Amount fields had a value in the RM Open File table.

Paying a bit more attention to the issue made me think of how LEFT OUTER JOINs are processed by the Microsoft SQL Server query engine. This is best illustrated with the following example:

RM Open				Extender
Customer Number	Document Number	Sales Amount	Current Transaction Amount	PT UD Key	PT UD Number	Total
AARONFIT001	INV3223	200.00	40.00	INV3223	5.00	5.00
ADAMPARK001	INV1020	100.00	20.00	NULL	NULL	NULL

Note that if Extender data was not entered for INV1020, a left outer join query would produce a NULL value as a result of the join operation. To overcome this situation, we applied the T-SQL ISNULL() function to the Extender field in SmartList Builder. Since SmartList Builder uses pass-through SQL to build each portion of the SELECT statement used to retrieve the records, then this should work just fine. The final calculated field is as follows:

Remember, Extender is a valuable tool to capture additional data and enhances the value of SmartList Builder when combined together to deliver reports. Pay special attention when creating calculated fields that rely on information from Extender tables in left join scenarios.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Unhandled script exception: Illegal address for field '[Not Found]' in script 'Unregister_Triggers'

If you have recently upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2, a few days aback, a partner reported receiving the following errors when returning from Report Writer:

Unhandled script exception:
Illegal address for field '[Not Found]' in script 'Unregister_Triggers'. Script terminated.

EXCEPTION_CLASS_SCRIPT_ADDRESSING
SCRIPT_CMD_LOAD_ATSI7

Unhandled script exception: Illegal address for field '[Not Found]'

The error is followed closely by:

Unhandled script exception:
Object has no reference.

EXCEPTION_CLASS_SCRIPT_BAD_PARAM
SCRIPT_CMD_DEREF_TABLE

Upon review, the error appears to be an issue with Extender and also happens when returning from Modifier. This issue has been written up as a bug and is scheduled to be fixed. To workaround the issue, exit Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 and log back into the system.

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Opening a Microsoft Dynamics GP Extender window conditionally

Today I came across an interesting request on the Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner Online Technical Community - here on referred to as the Partner forum. The partner wanted to know if it was possible to open an Extender window based on a specific Sales Transaction Entry document type being selected. In particular, the partner wanted to have the Extender window open only when the document type was an invoice.

Sales Transaction Entry window - Invoice

The first thing that comes to mind for most hardcore technical resources is to write some VBA or Visual Studio Tools code to do this. While not impossible, recurring to this type of customization to achieve the partner's request, quickly becomes cumbersome and inflexible as a solution if more and more conditions are needed throughout the application or even the window.

However Extender has a little known feature called Window Groups.

A window group is made up of one or more windows. The windows that can be added to a Window Group are Windows, Detail Windows, Notes and Inquiries. Conditions can be added to each window to specify when each window will be opened.

Let's see how this request would then be implemented in Extender:

First, we will need to setup the Extender window and associate the key fields that will be used against the Sales Transaction Entry window. As it stands, this is a very standard procedure. The following example shows two fields added to the Extender window needed:

Extender Window - Additional Invoice Information

Once the window is in place, we can proceed to create the Window Group and setup the condition as shown below:

Extender Window Group - condition for SOP Type = Invoice (4)

Note that in the Windows section we chose the previously created Extender Window. Next, in the Conditions section, we created a condition for SOP Type = 4 (Invoice). Now, in my books, that's what you call simplicity!

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
IntellPartners, LLC
http://www.IntellPartners.com/

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Parsing Long String fields in Extender for using with Report Writer

A few days aback I came across a Partner Forum question where the partner was attempting to add an Extender field to a Report Writer report, not without his share set of challenges.

In their infinite wisdom, the folks at eOne added a trigger to the rw_TableHeaderString Report Writer function which allows them to expose data to Report Writer without having to create alternate versions of a report in their application. In turn, with a few steps outlined in the Extender manual, users can invoke the rw_TableHeaderString as a user-defined function in a string calculated field to retrieve the piece of data needed from an Extender table by passing in the Window ID, the key fields, and the position of the field to retrieve on the Extender window. This is an example from such call:

Calculated Field: EXTENDER_KEY
Expression Type: Calculated
Result Type: String
Expression: STRIP( SOP_HDR_WORK.SOP Number )

Calculated Field: (C) AdditionalShippingInfo
Expression Type: Calculated
Result Type: String
Expression: FUNCTION_SCRIPT( rw_TableHeaderString 3107 “EXTRA_SOP_INFO” EXTENDER_KEY 0 1 )

This is all good! But here comes the issue... Extender Long String fields are 255 characters long and Report Writer string calculated fields support up to 80 characters. The partner tried to use the rw_ParseString Report Writer function to parse the Extender string in various lines as follows:

Calculated Field: (C) AdditionalShippingInfo_Line1
Expression Type: Calculated
Result Type: String
Expression: FUNCTION_SCRIPT( rw_ParseString FUNCTION_SCRIPT( rw_TableHeaderString 3107 “EXTRA_SOP_INFO” EXTENDER_KEY 0 1 ) 50 1)

Calculated Field: (C) AdditionalShippingInfo_Line2
Expression Type: Calculated
Result Type: String
Expression: FUNCTION_SCRIPT( rw_ParseString FUNCTION_SCRIPT( rw_TableHeaderString 3107 “EXTRA_SOP_INFO” EXTENDER_KEY 0 1 ) 50 2)

Of course, when the report was executed it threw an "Error in Equation" error as Report Writer does not support nesting of user-defined function scripts.

At this point, the only option available in order to be able to retrieve a long string and print it on the report is VBA, ADO, and a SQL Server view. The following is the process with references to articles that will help you with each step:

1. Create an Extender view of your data. You may start by reviewing Creating SQL Views of Extender Data over at Developing for Dynamics GP to get an understanding of this process. David Musgrave also outlines a sample view to get you started.

2. Create string calculated fields on your report that will be used to parse the Extender Long String field.

3. Add your report to VBA and add the string calculated fields created in step 2 to the VBA project. Also, add any key fields on the report needed to retrieve the data, i.e., SOP Number.

4. Use ADO to query the view for the information stored and store the data in the calculated fields. You may want to review Using ADO with VBA with Report Writer over at Developing for Dynamics GP for samples on the technique.

While the workaround might seem a bit lengthy, the results will speak for themselves, so don't give up on Report Writer just yet :).

Until next post!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com/

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Using Business Alerts with Extender Tables

For those of you looking to create Business Alert events for Extender tables and data, follow these instructions provided by Microsoft's Dawn Langlie from the Partner Online Technical Community.

"In order to add Extender tables so you can see them in Business Alerts, first go to Tools-Utilities-System-Business Alerts. Here is where you will select the tables. Pick "eXtender" as the Product and Pick "Project" for the series. If you are interested triggering off eXtender windows, the tables you will want to insert are the Extender Window Field Dates, Extender Window Field Strings, Extender Window Field Times and Extender Window Field Numbers. Then click the process button in the lower right corner. This will move the tables in the Tables Available for Alerts section.



Then create your business alert by going to Tools-Setup-System-Business Alerts. Choose to create a new alert. Select your Database and give the Business Alert a name. In "Select Tables" window, you need to change the series dropdown to "Integrating Applications". This will allow you to see your eXtender tables. Insert the tables and hit next."



I added the screenshots to enhance Dawn's instructions, but there you have it! Now you know how to create alerts on your Extender data too!

MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Maximum Global Business, LLC
http://www.maximumglobalbusiness.com

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