Month: June 2018

I’ve assisted a few clients to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 recently and have seen two different errors cause problems with Workflow.

As part of the upgrade process, database objects are deployed and various scripts run against them. This includes the wfdeployclrassemblies stored procedure which deploys the .NET Assemblies required by Workflow for such tasks as AD lookups and sending of emails.

However, I’m going to make the running of this stored procedure a standard, manual, part of the upgrade as I am finding that if it isn’t run after the upgrade is complete, that AD lookups don’t work until it is (this usually manifests in approvals failing to find a user to email or approvals failing if the user had the email from before the upgrade). I might was preempt and do it manually every time in order to give clients a smoother process. To run the stored proc, open SQL Server Management Studio and, against the system database, typically called DYNAMICS run the following (it’ll take a few minutes):

exec wfdeployclrassemblies

The other issue I’ve now seen more than once (and have also seen when upgrading some clients to prior versions), is that during the upgrade the Workflow managers are lost:

Continue reading “Workflow Approval Request Error After Upgrade”

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

The GP Transaction Search is in in its first version; I think that Steve has made a very good start and I look forward to seeing the progress in future.

Steve isn’t allowing moss to grow, but is instead hard at work on version two, which includes new search windows for the General Ledger and Receivables Management modules as well as custom menus (rather than replacing the Transaction by Document menu) by using Visual Studio Integration Toolkit from Winthrop DC:

After version two comes out with these new search windows, I’d like to see additional windows created for Purchase Order Processing, Sales Order Processing and Inventory Control and, in longer term, other modules. The good news on this front, is that Steve has aspirations to create windows for additional modules as well.

The GP Transaction Search project is an open source one created by Steve Endow, but other people can get involved and contribute. If you find the project useful, consider seeing how you can be of assistance. I’ve already done this and have, since before the release of v1, been offering my assistance with testing and, more recently, with writing SQL queries.

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

A couple of posts ago, I covered installing the stored procedure (which I erroneously referred to as a view when I first posted). The stored proc controls the returned data which in turns controls what is displayed in the search results window.

Customising the returned data is as simple as amending the stored procedure. If, for example, I wanted to add the suppliers country, I can add the following (highlighted) line and save the altered stored proc:

SELECT TOP 200 	
	P.Origin, 
	V.COUNTRY AS 'Country',
	RTRIM(P.DOCNUMBR) DocNum,

Any change does need some familiarity with SQL and stored procedures, but is pretty straightforward.

Before the change is committed, this is the returned data:

Continue reading “GP Transaction Search: Customising the Returned Data”

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

Over the last couple of posts, I’ve covered the installation and configuration of the PM Transaction each enquiry window; now it is time to take a look at the functionality of the inquiry/enquiry window.

The first, and main, access point to the PM Transaction Search window is via the standard navigation of area pages or drop down menus; it replaces the Transaction by Document window on the Purchasing area page » Inquiry/Enquiry menu:

Continue reading “GP Transaction Search: Using PM Transaction Search v1.0.0.4”

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

When running through the installation of the GP Transaction Search the other day, I didn’t cover the deployment of the SQL stored proc.

In the downloaded zip file, there is a SQL script called csspGLTransactionSearch v1.1.sql which needs to bedeployed in each company database:

Once this is deployed, the PM Transaction Search window will be fully working.

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

With GP Transaction Search installed, the next stage is to review the configuration and make any changes necessary.

To review the settings, open the GP.TransactionSearch.dll.config.

There are three settings under the GP.TransactionSearch.Properties.Settings. The only one I would advise changing is the SearchAsYouType one; if you have a small database, leaving this setting set to True is fine, but on larger databases may cause some lag:

One you’ve changed the settings, click Save and close the config file.

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

The installation of the GP Transaction Search window is a nice simple one.

First off, download the addin from the Precopio Services website.

The downloaded file is a zip which contains the four versions currently available:

I am installing the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 version, so have opened the 2018 folder.

Copy the contents of the folder to the Dynamics GP addins folder which is a subfolder of the installation one (by default this is C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Dynamics/GP2018/).

Depending on your security settings, you may need to Unblock the dlls. To check if this is necessary, right click each one in turn and click on Properties. If there is a checkbox called ,em>Unblock, mark this and click OK to save changes.

This post is part of the series on the new, free, GP Transaction Search window from Steve Endow of Precipio Services.

I’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics GP for 15 years now and I have always thought that one of the most useless inquiry/enquiry windows in the Purchasing series was the Transaction by Document (Purchasing area page » Enquiry/Inquiry » Transaction by Document) one. It turns out I am not alone in this assessment.

The window allows you to search only by Document Number. In most cases you also want to narrow the selected data down by vendor/creditor, but the window does not allow this.

Well, sharing my view of the window, MVP Steve Endow, of Precipio Services has decided to do something about it. Microsoft Dynamics GP has several options for making customizations, from minor tweaks using VBA (not supported in the web client), to .NET with VS Tools, to Dexterity. This is a huge benefit for GP customers as it allows them to pick the best technology for the customisation they want. There is always a cost to either making your own customisations, or having someone else do the work for you. However, by not making the customisation, you can really miss out on the benefits. This can lead to users who can struggle to quickly or easily find the information they need.

Steve decided to make the GP Transaction Search project as a very usable demonstration that a relatively small customization can produce significant benefits and efficiencies.

This new enquiry/inquiry window allows you to search by a Document Date range and/or the Vendor ID or Name and/or the Document Number and/or a Document Amount. This makes it a far better window for searching for documents than the standard Transaction by Document one. It is also very quick to return data.

The initial version of GP Transaction Search includes only the PM Transaction Search, but took only one day to develop the prototype, and an additional two to three days to finish, refine, test, and release. If you look at the actual .NET code, it’s surprisingly simple; there are actually very few lines of code in the project–it’s mostly basic .NET functionality, albeit, admittedly, with some clever construction and design and tricks to work with Dynamics GP.

As this shows, it doesn’t require a huge investment to produce really valuable customizations and, as I’ll show over the next few posts, deployment and updates are simple and low maintenance. This aligns with Steve’s view that customizations, when well designed, don’t have to be a burden for customers.

As well as being immediately useful to people using Dynamics GP, Steve has released the project as an open source project; this means that it can be a great learning tool and reference for other developers looking to use .NET with GP. As mentioned the initial project includes a replacement to the Transaction by Document enquiry/inquiry, it can easily be expanded to display any data from any module in Dynamics GP and, potentially, from any other database.

Since the project is quite literally just a simple window with a grid displaying the results of a stored procedure. It can easily be expanded to display any data in Dynamics GP, from any module (such as Receivables Management, Inventory Control, Fixed Asset Management), or in any other application database, for that matter.

The GP Transaction Search window is available for all version of Microsoft Dynamics GP starting with 2013. You can download the install files from Precipio Services; if you’re a developer, the GitHub project is here.