Review of Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications – Part 3

After slacking off a lot in terms of reviewing Leslie Vail’s book Developing Microsoft Dynamics GP Business Applications, which was published at the end of December by Packt Publishing, I’m going to try to get a regular tempo of review posts going. Today I’m here with the review for chapter 4;

This chapter is all about Building the User Interface which Leslie does by getting the reader to build an interface for customer contacts integration and covers:

• Creating base resources
• Creating tables and keys
• Creating forms and windows
• Creating scrolling windows
• Working with window fields
• Completing your windows

So from this chapter I expect to get a good grounding in creating an entirely new window which should look like this:

Well, as I’ve progressed through I’m not sure if I’ve missed something (and I have read back) or if there’s a problem in the book. I’ve created the scrolling window for the phone numbers but I’m not entirely clear what if I’m placing both lines in the Big Line item or only the second line; and I also can’t see anywhere telling me how to do the scrolling window’s headers. The scrolling window also doesn’t seem to be lining up as shown in the original image and I’m missing field labels.

There is a section describing static text and a screenshot which shows the missing labels but it also shows the scrolling window as taller and with the two buttons one over the other and labels in place, but nowhere could I see an explanation of how this was done.

Below is my window in the designer where I have carefully used, and double checked, the positions for each element and as you can see it doesn’t really look like it will end up looking like the original screenshot;

Overall the chapter is good and explains how to create the different fields, windows and forms but I am left with the nagging doubt that there may be a little bit missing, or I have totally misread sections. Unfortunately, I’m fairly sure it’s not me as I have read back over the chapter a few times looking for what I think are the missing bits; I’ll be absolutely delighted if Leslie (I’ve sent her an email with my questions and will update if I hear back) or someone else can point out where I’m wrong.

I’ll review chapter 5 next weekend which is where Leslie covers sanScript which is the code behind the window.

Don’t forget, I have an ebook giveaway running with Packt Publishing where there lucky winnerrs will get an e-copy of the book.

Alternatively, you can purchase Leslie’s book either direct from Packt Publishing or via Amazon:

Amazon UK	Amazon US