azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins: Taxonomy Index

ClassicPress PluginsThis is part of the azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins which introduces the plugins I have available for ClassicPress.

The plugin I am going to cover in this post, is an existing one which has been brought up to coding standards; Taxonomy Index.

Functionality

The Taxonomy Index allows an index of posts included in a taxonomy to be displayed on a page using a taxonomy-index shortcode.

The default output is configurable via the plugins Settings page, but parameters can be used with the shortcode to customise.

Download

The plugin can be downloaded via my Development site.

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Create User or Assign Company Access Without Using sa

Microsoft Dynamics GPWith Microsoft Dynamics GP, there are only two user accounts which can, by default, create new users or assign access to companies; these the the sa (SQL Server System Administrator) and DYNSA (Dynamics GP System Administrator).

The former account should only be used when absolutely necessary (such as when implementing Microsoft Dynamics GP or moving it to a new SQL Server Instance; there are some ISV products which also insist on the sa account when it isn’t strictly necessary from a tecHnical perspective).

The recommended way of maintaining security is to configure a normal user account with the permissions necessary to create and assign users to companies. There are a few steps to go through to assign the relevant security.

Mark Polino did a post a while ago on adding users without using the sa account, but, in this post, Mark assigned the sysadmin role to the user. While this will do the job, and in fewer steps, I prefer to lock down security so users only have the permissions required, which precludes assigning a sysadmin role. The reason for this is both best practice, but also that I have several clients who will not allow the sysadmin role to be assigned to a GP user.

The following steps cover the minimum security required for a user to be able to add new users or assign them access to companies.

Assign the user to all companies in Microsoft Dynamics GP (this is done in the User Access Setup window (Administration area page » Setup » System » User Access):

User Access Setup

Continue reading “Create User or Assign Company Access Without Using sa”

azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins: Tag Cloud

ClassicPress PluginsThis is part of the azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins which introduces the plugins I have available for ClassicPress.

The plugin I am going to cover in this post, is an existing one which has been brought up to coding standards; Tag Cloud.

Functionality

The Tag Cloud plugin creates a configurable widget where tags can be included or excluded from from the tag cloud. Formatting of the widget is also available.

On a multisite, this plugin can be configured at the network level and then these settings used on each site, or site settings then set.

Demo

This site uses the Tag Cloud widget in the sidebar.

Download

The plugin can be downloaded via my Development site.

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Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Conclusion

eOne SolutionsThis post is part of a series on creating a Journal – Standard integration using SmartConnect from eOne Solutions; I recently posted a series on Implementing SmartConnect.

Over the last few posts in this series, I have shown how to create a simple General Journal integration.

The process is slightly more involved than creating a similar integration, but the huge advantage is being able to schedule the integration to automatically run and select all files from a folder.

With Integration Manager, to allow multiple people to use the same integration you had to point it at a shared drive letter which all users had in common (and often not all did, due to being in different locations).

In addition, SmartConnect can also process the Excel spreadsheet directly, without requiring the user to save the active page down as a CSV; something which Excel really doesn’t want you to do.

The other main benefit of SmartConnect is that if there is an eConnect node available, it can integrate that type of record into Microsoft Dynamics GP, whereas Integration Manager could only use the ones available via the standard or eConnect adapters.

eOne Solutions also have a product called Node Builder which allows additional eConnect nodes to easily be created without the need for a developer. I’ll be taking a look at NodeBuilder in a future series.

azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins: Sidebar Login

ClassicPress PluginsThis is part of the azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins which introduces the plugins I have available for ClassicPress.

The plugin I am going to cover in this post, is a new fork of someone else’s plugin; Sidebar Login.

Functionality

Sidebar Login provides a widget which allows users to login from the sidebar using an AJAX enabled widget. I forked this plugin as it was no longer maintained; I’ve added a very small number of enhancements at the same time, but will maintain this plugin myself going forward.

Download

The plugin can be downloaded via my Development site.

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Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Could Not Run The Scheduled Map

eOne SolutionsThis post is part of a series on creating a Journal – Standard integration using SmartConnect from eOne Solutions; I recently posted a series on Implementing SmartConnect.

The final error I received while creating the Journal – Standard map was when I scheduled the map to run automatically:

Windows Event Viewer showing error

JOURNALSTANDARD : SmartConnect Scheduler : Could not run the scheduled map You do not have access to the connectors required for this map.

Continue reading “Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Could Not Run The Scheduled Map”

azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins: Shortcodes in Widgets

ClassicPress PluginsThis is part of the azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins which introduces the plugins I have available for ClassicPress.

The plugin I am going to cover in this post, is an existing one which has been brought up to coding standards; Shortcodes in Widgets.

Functionality

By default shortcodes cannot be used in widgets, the Shortcodes in Widgets plugin adds this functionality.

Demo

The Buy My Books section in this sites sidebar is an example of a shortcode being used in a widget; the shortcode being used is the Toggle Show/Hide one,

Download

The plugin can be downloaded via my Development site.

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Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Credit Amount Was Not Supplied Error

eOne SolutionsThis post is part of a series on creating a Journal – Standard integration using SmartConnect from eOne Solutions; I recently posted a series on Implementing SmartConnect.

While I was creating the Journal – Standard for this series, it was not all smooth sailing. I received an error message while testing the integration:

SmartConnect Progess window showing error

Continue reading “Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Credit Amount Was Not Supplied Error”

azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins: Shortcodes in Comments

ClassicPress PluginsThis is part of the azurecurve ClassicPress Plugins which introduces the plugins I have available for ClassicPress.

The plugin I am going to cover in this post, is an existing one which has been brought up to coding standards; Shortcodes in Comments.

Functionality

By default shortcodes cannot be used in comments, the Shortcodes in Comments adds this functionality; it allows a whitelist of the shrtcodes which can be used in comments and installs with the default set of shortcodes used by the BBCode plugin.

Demo

BBCode is installed on this site, so leaving a comment using a bbcode shortcode will work.

Download

The plugin can be downloaded via my Development site.

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Create SmartConnect Journal – Standard Map: Connection Could Not be Validated Error

eOne SolutionsThis post is part of a series on creating a Journal – Standard integration using SmartConnect from eOne Solutions; I recently posted a series on Implementing SmartConnect.

When I was creating the Journal – Standard for a client recently, I encountered a problem when trying to add a Key Field in the Map Setup window:

Connection could not be validated error

SmartConnect

Connection could not be validated

ERROR [IM002] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified

This integration polls for Excel spreadsheets in a certain folder; it took me a moment to realise that the server I was working on was a new one and did not have Microsoft Excel installed.

I asked the client of they could install it for me and, once they had done so, the error disappeared and I was able to add the key fields without further problems.