Year: 2018

Stopping Auto-Play HTML5 Videos In Vivaldi (and Other Chromium Based Browsers)

Ian Grieve3 minute read0 comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPI have a very low tolerance threshold for adverts; I largely stopped watching TV becasue of them (atually I no longer have a TV so I guess it would be more accurate to say I stopped watching TV because of them); not only are the adverts irritating in content, but the volumne was usually a lot higher than the TV show wrapped around them.

Adverts on the Internet have gone through various stages and varying annoyances with the current set not being too bad. Of sites I use regularly, arstehnica is by far the worst with adverts taking over the entire front page.

That said, it’s not actually adverts which are bothering me so much at the momernt, but sites with automatically playing videos. This “feature” has grown in popularity in recent times with many news sites having one, or more, autplay videos on almost every page.

Well, with the death of Opera 12 a few years ago, I made the transition to Vivaldi a while ago. This is a Chromium based browser which gives you access to Extensions in the chrome web store.

The best extension I’ve found for stopping autoplay videos is HTML5 Video Autoplay Blocker. Part of the reason for this post, is because I work on a variety of machines at work and home and keep having problems finding the extension, so I figured doing a step by step post to find and install the extension would help me remember.

Continue reading “Stopping Auto-Play HTML5 Videos In Vivaldi (and Other Chromium Based Browsers)”

SQL Script to Disable Business Analyzer Fact Pane

Ian Grieve4 minute read0 comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPWhen the Reporting Tools are deployed for Microsoft Dynamics GP a fact pane is enabled in the navigation lists, which gives access to the reports. However, this also causes the navigation lists to be much slower. In some cases, pretty much unusable.

While users can switch off the fact pane on navigation lists, they need to be disabled by each user on each list. This means people don’t actually use them.

It is possible, however, to disable the lists using some SQL against the system database (by default called DYNAMICS.

When a user opens a navigation list for the first time, an entry is made to the List View Options (SY07225) table. The first script inserts a trigger after update to switch off the fact pane:

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.triggers WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N'utr_AZRCRV_UpdateSY07225SetFactBoxVisibleOff'))
	DROP TRIGGER utr_AZRCRV_UpdateSY07225SetFactBoxVisibleOff
GO

CREATE TRIGGER
	utr_AZRCRV_UpdateSY07225SetFactBoxVisibleOff ON SY07225
AFTER INSERT AS
	UPDATE
		['List View Options']
	SET
		FactBoxVisible = 0
	FROM
		SY07225 AS ['List View Options']
	INNER JOIN
		inserted
			ON
				inserted.ListDictID = ['List View Options'].ListDictID
			AND
				inserted.ListID = ['List View Options'].ListID
			AND
				inserted.ViewID = ['List View Options'].ViewID
			AND
				inserted.USERID = ['List View Options'].USERID
GO

The second script, is a run once script after the trigger is created; it sets all existing entries in the table to off so that existing users don’t see the fact pane:

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
UPDATE SY07225 SET FactBoxVisible = 0
GO

SQL Script to Notify When Upgrade Complete

Ian Grieve2 minute read2 Comments

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis SQL script was written for a client with a large number of databases and which took a long time to update and they needed to upgrade through several versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP. The script checks for start and end times in the DB_UPGRADE table; when they match for all rows, an error is raised.

The script was scheduled using SQL Server Agent which was configured to send an email when the error was raised; this allowed him to know when part of the upgrade had completed and the next stage needed to be started.

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
DECLARE @UpgradeComplete AS INT

SELECT
	@UpgradeComplete = CASE WHEN COUNT(PRODID) = 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
FROM
	DB_UPGRADE
WHERE
	start_time = stop_time

IF (@UpgradeComplete = 1)
	/*
	throw error because all companies upgraded
	if <> 0, that means upgrade still running and nothing needs to occur
	*/
	RAISERROR ('GP 2016 upgrade complete; next stage needs to be started',11,1)

SQL Script to Change Compatibility of All Databases

Ian Grieve2 minute read3 Comments

Microsoft Dynamics GPWhen moving databases between servers for an upgrade of Microsoft Dynamics GP, you will, when also upgrading SQL Server, need to change the compatibility level of the databases. Rather than dong this individually, the below script can be run against the system database to generate a script you can then run to update the compatibility level of all databases.

The highlighted variable should be changed to the relevant version.

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
DECLARE @CompatibilityLevel VARCHAR(140) = 140


SELECT 'USE master
	GO
	ALTER DATABASE [' + DB_NAME() + '] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = ' + @CompatibilityLevel + '
	GO'
UNION ALL
	SELECT '
		ALTER DATABASE [' + ['Company Master'].INTERID + '] SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = ' + @CompatibilityLevel + '
		GO'
	FROM
		SY01500 AS ['Company Master']
GO

This script doesn’t get the logical file name, but I’ve hooked it into the series I did on Logical File Name SQL Scripts as it will often be needed at the same time.

SQL Script to Change Database Owner of All Databases

Ian Grieve2 minute read1 Comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPWhen moving databases between servers, you need to make sure the databases are set to have an owner of DYNSA. Rather than dong this individually, the below script can be run against the system database to generate a script you can then run to update the db owner.

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
SELECT 'USE [' + DB_NAME() + ']
	GO
	sp_changedbowner ''DYNSA''
	GO'
UNION
	SELECT 'USE [' + ['Company Master'].INTERID + ']
		GO
		sp_changedbowner ''DYNSA''
		GO'
	FROM
		SY01500 AS ['Company Master']
GO

This script doesn’t get the logical file name, but I’ve hooked it into the series I did on Logical File Name SQL Scripts as it will often be needed at the same time.

Disabling Microsoft Dynamics GP Reporting Ledgers

Ian Grieve3 minute read0 comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPI recently had a query from a client about Reporting Ledgers; to answer the query I enabled them in one of my demo VMs. Afterwards, I was faced with a choice; redeploy the sample company or switch off reporting ledgers.

The former was going to take more time than I wanted to spend, but the latter is not possible through the Microsoft Dynamics GP front-end.

I took a quick peek at the tables and found there was only two tables involved in the core product and one in Fixed Asset Management (depending on the installation) and would be easy to update.

/*
Created by Ian Grieve of azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant (https://www.azurecurve.co.uk)
This code is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Int).
*/
UPDATE
	GL40000 -- General Ledger Setup (GL40000)
SET
	Allow_Reporting_Ledgers = 0
	,UseLedgersForAcctBalance= 0
GO

DELETE FROM
	GL40001 -- Reporting Ledger Setup (GL40001)
GO

IF (EXISTS (SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_SCHEMA = 'dbo' AND TABLE_NAME = 'FA49900'))
UPDATE
	FA49900 -- Company Setup (FA49900)
SET
	FA_Allow_Reporting_Ledge = 0
GO

If you’ve entered transactions with reporting ledgers switched on, I would advise against running the above script and, if you do run it, make sure you have a good backup first.

Dark Mode for azurecurve Launched

Ian Grieve1 minute read0 comment

azurecurveDark Modes for websites are becoming more common and I find myself using them more and more often. I’ve done some development work and a dark mode is now available for azurecurve|Ramblings of a Dynamics GP Consultant.

To enable, or disable dark mode, use the drop down select box in the Change Mode widget in the sidebar (ringed in red):

Dark Mode Enable

Continue reading “Dark Mode for azurecurve Launched”

Microsoft Dynamics GP and Making Tax Digital

Ian Grieve4 minute read1 Comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPNew HMRC Legislation for VAT will come into effect from April 2019 for businesses who have turnover above the VAT threshold to use the Making Tax Digital system to meet their VAT obligations using digital reporting and record keeping for VAT.

Microsoft have been fairly quiet on the subject with only one page on the Microsoft Support site raising the subject and pointing at an idea on the Experience Microsoft Dynamics site.

There has been some conversation around Making Tax Digital with regards to Microsoft Dynamics GP and whether it would be supported. Tim Wappat did a post on this subject back in June and I’ve been referring people to the idea and asking them to vote on it.

About three weeks ago, Terry Heley posted an update:

This will be reviewed for GP 2018 R2

I wasn’t aware that there was going to be a Microsoft Dynamics GP 2018 R2 and, according to a post on Twitter I can’t find again, someone has suggested it will be released in October; I was expecting a 2019 in December instead.

The idea is now showing a status update that Microsoft are implementing the required changes:

We are in the process of implementing the changes needed for the Making Tax Digital initiative in the UK. Stay tuned for updates as to when this will be released.

This is good news for both partners and clients in the UK, as Making Tax Digital will be mandatory. There is no news on which versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP will have the new functionality, but I would expect this to be in all versions covered by mainstream support (you can access the Microsoft Dynamics GP Product Lifecycle page here) as this is a regulatory requirement (Microsoft has a history of including regulatory requirements; see the addition of the Invoice Receipt Date field which was added to all versions from 2013 to 2016 in the July 2017 update.

Top 15 Microsoft Dynamics GP Blogs by Feedspot

Ian Grieve4 minute read0 comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPThere have been a number of Top x Microsoft Dynamics GP blogs over the last few years. The most recent list is from Feedspot and this site is included in 4th place:

Feedspot Top 15 Dynamics GP Blogs medal

Feedspot introduces the Top 15 Microsoft Dynamics GP Blogs, Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2018 list saying:

The Best Microsoft Dynamics GP Blogs from thousands of Microsoft Dynamics GP blogs on the web using search and social metrics. Subscribe to these websites because they are actively working to educate, inspire, and empower their readers with frequent updates and high-quality information.

These blogs are ranked based on following criteria:

  • Google reputation and Google search ranking
  • Influence and popularity on Facebook, twitter and other social media sites
  • Quality and consistency of posts.
  • Feedspot’s editorial team and expert review

There aren’t as many of these lists as I thought there were; in fact since 2014, the Feedspot one is th third. They’ve been coming every two years:

  1. Top 25 Dynamics GP Sites
  2. 20 Best Dynamics GP Blogs of 2016
  3. Top 15 Microsoft Dynamics GP Blogs, Websites & Newsletters To Follow in 2018

As you can see from the list above, the lists have dropped from top 25 to top 15, although the first two lists were criticised for including sites which either no longer updated or were updated with majority of content on other ERP systems.

The Feedspot one also has two problems; firstly, it’s named Top 15, but actually only includes 14 sites: secondly, the Perfect Image site listed is pretty much just syndicated content from this site, so the Top 15 is really only a Top 13.

The blogs listed are very good ones, but there is one notable omission: Victoria Yudin|Ramblings and musings of a Dynamics GP MVP. Inclusion of Victoria’s site would put the list to a Top 15.

I’ve worked with Microsoft Dynamics GP for almost 15 years now and while new people have started blogging about Dynamics GP, my impression is that there are fewer people blogging about it now than there was. I’m not sure if this is actually true or if I’m looking back with rose tinted glasses; in the past I made much more use of the available blogs than I do now (I’ve picked up more experience and knowledge of the system in the last 15 years).

Enabling Secure Connection for Web Services: Configure Workflow Setup

Ian Grieve2 minute read0 comment

Microsoft Dynamics GPThis post is part of the Enabling Secure Connection for Web Services series.

With Web Services now configured for secure connections, the final step in the configuration is to amend the Workflow setup. This is done via the Workflow Setup window (Administration area page » Setup » System » Workflow Setup); despite this being on the System part of the menu, it is actually a Company window so any changes made will need to be repeated in all companies using Workflow.

There are two settings which need to be changed; both of them in the Enable E-Mail Actions section.

Change the Server Name to the externally accessible DNS hostname, change the Port to the relevant port and mark the This server requires a secure connection (SSL):

Workflow Setup

Continue reading “Enabling Secure Connection for Web Services: Configure Workflow Setup”