Changing the metrics properties on the Microsoft Dynamics GP home page - Part 1

Part 1 of 2 - Changing the metrics properties on the Microsoft Dynamics GP home page.

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In this series I wanted to surface a little known secret about the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP Home Page metrics: you can change the graph properties...no coding required! In fact, there are many graph properties that can be changed.

Gross Profit for the Past 12 Months sample metric

Microsoft Dynamics GP makes use of the Office Chart Control, a component of the Microsoft Office Web Components to display the metrics that you have become accustomed to see on the home page -- see my article Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and Office Web Components for more information on the different versions supported.

When you right-click on the metric of your choice a menu becomes available that will allow you to choose from a number of options, as shown below.

Today we will be looking at the Data properties.
Data

Command and Options window - Data Source tab

The Data option presents the Commands and Options window with 3 tabs: Data Source, Data Sheet, Type... you have guessed correctly! You can make changes to what's being displayed on the metric by creating a new data sheet or reading data from a query. However, this information will be lost as soon as you refresh the home page.

Perhaps, the option that's most important at this point is the Data Sheet option. The Data Sheet option shows the numbers crunched by GP for each category and series of the metric being displayed.



Command and Options window - Data Sheet tab

 The good thing about the Data Sheet tab is, you can actually use the numbers displayed to reconcile against your subsidiary module, since that's the source of the data for all metrics.

Finally, the Type tab allows you to change the type of graph being displayed. Most metrics are set to display bar graphs by default, but you can make a subtle change to the type of graph to enhance your reading of the data being presented.

Commands and Options window - Type tab

The series continues tomorrow exploring some of the other properties available to you as a user.
Until next post!

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

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Ingredients for a successful Convergence 2011 experience

"Convergence is more than just the sum of its keynotes and sessions"

My new article is out over at MSDynamicsWorld with some pointers for a successful Convergence here in Atlanta. Wheather you are a local or coming from another city or country there are a few things to take into account even before you arrive at Hartsfield-Jackson. You can read about these ingredients here.

All comments welcome, so please let me know what you think.

Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 sessions now out!

Likewise, I wanted to bring attention to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011 sessions that David Musgrave and I will be co-presenting:

Development Troubleshooting with the Support Debugging Tool
Presenters: David Musgrave and Mariano Gomez, MVP

Following the success of this session at Convergence Atlanta 2010, David Musgrave and Mariano Gomez return to the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference with a number of advanced features included in the now popular Support Debugging Tool. Learn how to debug and trace your customizations, build temporary fixes, and troubleshoot development issues and problems with dictionaries. Discover some of the tricks used by the Microsoft Developer Support team. Presenters will demonstrate real life scenarios and work through their resolutions.

Topics:

- Manual Logging Mode
- Advanced Debugger Mode
- Dictionary Control
- Scripting and Triggers
- SQL Execute and Runtime Execute features
- Exporting and Importing fixes


Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics GP Customization Tools

Presenters: David Musgrave and Mariano Gomez, MVP

New to Microsoft Dynamics GP? Welcome to this jam packed session where Microsoft’s David Musgrave and MVP Mariano Gomez will walk you through the different customization tools available to address your next project. If you have plans for a Microsoft Dynamics GP customization, but you don’t know where to start and are skeptical about future upgrade issues, then this session is for you. Gain some introductory knowledge of Modifier and Report Writer with Visual Basic for Applications, Dexterity and Visual Studio Tools with two of the leading Community experts, who will contrast the tools and help you sort through the complicated terminology, to bring you a clear picture of the choices available for your next project.

Topics:

- Where to start?
- Modifier and Report Writer with Visual Basic for Applications
- Dexterity
- Visual Studio Tools
- Resources

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Just a note on this last session... in previous years we focused our attention on the experienced to advanced developer. This time around, if you are just getting acquainted with Microsoft Dynamics GP development, we want you to start out on the right foot without the frustrations, so please attend our session and save yourself the headache of figuring this thing out on your own.

Register for the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Conference 2011, in the always beautiful Fargo, North Dakota, here.

Until next post!

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

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Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2011 sessions are now out!

If you are attending Microsoft Dynamics Convergence this year, it's a good time to begin planning the sessions you want to attend. The session codes, titles, and speakers are now available for you.

On that same note, David Musgrave and I are presenting the following sessions:

CSGP14 Administering Microsoft Dynamics GP Like a Pro with the Support Debugging Tool

Track: Microsoft Dynamics GP
Speaker(s): David Musgrave, Mariano Gomez
Audience: IT Professional, Technical Decision Maker
Skill Level: 300 - Experienced

Session Details

Following the success of this session at Convergence Atlanta 2010, David Musgrave and Mariano Gomez return with a number of advanced features included in the now popular Support Debugging Tool. Learn how to maintain a clean DEX.INI in a Terminal Server environment, execute complex profiling of transactions and data, and resolve day to day security issues and problems with dictionaries. Discover tricks used by the Microsoft Support organization and its partners.

DDGP03 Tools, Tools, Tools: Microsoft Dynamics GP Customization & Integration Tools Review

Track: Microsoft Dynamics GP
Speaker(s): David Musgrave, Mariano Gomez
Audience: IT Professional, Technical Decision Maker
Skill Level: 200 - Intermediate

Session Details

Welcome to this jam-packed session where Microsoft’s David Musgrave and MVP Mariano Gomez will walk you through the different customization and integration tools available for Microsoft Dynamics GP. If you have plans for a customization or application integration, but don’t know where to start, this session is for you. Gain introductory knowledge of Dexterity, Visual Basic for Applications, Visual Studio Tools, Extender, Integration Manager, eConnect, and Web Services with two of the leading community experts.

If you haven't registered yet, please visit the Microsoft Dynamics Convergence Atlanta 2011 site and do so now.
 
Until next post!

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

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Changing and Copying a Home Page Role - Part 2

Part 2 of 2 - Changing and Copying a Home Page Role.

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In Part 1 of this series, I described how you could change a user's home page by reassigning him or her to a different role using the standard Microsoft Dynamics GP interface, but I also explained that my client wanted to be able to copy all the standard settings they had worked on over months to a staff member who was simply switching departments.

I also mentioned the use of a script, and while there's one, I want to also clarify that the client was not interested in having SQL scripts ran in their environment, so I had to come up with an alternate solution. The answer was to install the Support Debugging Tool and use it's XML Import and Export tool.

XML Table Export window

We created a profile with for the tables containing the settings the customer wanted to replicate for their user, which we then exported into an XML file. Since all that was needed was to use one of the existing profiles for an Accounts Receivable user as a template, we chose one user as a template. We then edited the XML file with Notepad, removing information from all other users, then replacing the template user ID for that of the new Accounts Receivable staff.

We then use the XML Table Import feature to reimport the now changed XML data file with the new user's profile settings.

XML Table Import window

The Support Debugging Tool provided a safe mechanism to replicate data the client needed, because in their eyes it meant not having to run queries against their system. In addition, they could test the import several times if needed, because of the data overwrite capabilities offered by the tool.

The next time you are considering duplicating data from one user to another, don't overlook the Support Debugging Tool.

For more information on the Support Debugging Tool, visit the Support Debugging Tool Portal page over at Developing for Dynamics GP. You can find excellent content on the tool as well in MVP Mark Polino's new book Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Cookbook.

Until next post!

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

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Changing and Copying a Home Page Role - Part 1

Part 1 of 2 - Changing and Copying a Home Page Role.

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I was working with a client a few days aback and they have been on Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 for quite a few weeks now. One of their users was moved from the accounts payable department to the accounts receivable department.

The IT staff wanted to change the configuration of her home page to look just like that of an existing user in this department, so of course, came the question..."How do we change her home page, and have her get the same links we have setup for all the other users in the group?".

Out of the box, Microsoft Dynamics GP allows you to change a user's role by clicking the Change Role... button under the Customize Home Page window.

Customize Home Page

Once you click on the Change Role button, you will receive a warning on effecting the changes, since all customizations and previous layout changes would be lost in the process of changing the user's role.

Change Role Warning

Since our goal was to move the user from role, this was the first task at hand. The company enjoyed standard links and settings for their users overall, so worring about loosing the previous links and settings was not an issue. Once we clicked the Ok button, we were at the Select Home Page window where we could move the user to the Accounts Payable role.

Select Home Page

Good so far! Now, how could we make a copy of all the settings established by the IT department for all users to this user profile? Tomorrow, I will show you a script that we wrote to achieve this.

Until next post!

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

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IM - Integration Manager Series Summary

I know you are still unreeling from the New Year's celebrations and that you probably missed out on a couple of the articles I published in the past days. The following are the links to the articles:

• Troubleshooting RPC Errors when running Integration Manager
• Retrieving document numbers assigned by Microsoft Dynamics GP when field rule is set to Use Default in Integration Manager - Part 1
• Retrieving document numbers assigned by Microsoft Dynamics GP when field rule is set to Use Default in Integration Manager - Part 2

I also wanted to take the opportunity to highlight Steve Endow's recent article on Integration Manager, over at Dynamics GP Land which highlights an odd error a customer of his was getting on a workstation.

• Integration Manager 2010 Error: Could not load file or assembly Interop.MSScriptControl

This completes a good roundup of the topics covered.
Until next post!

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

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