Microsoft Great Plains - Typical Problems And Fixes ? Overview For IT Administrators
May 15, 2007
How to delete the user? This is the first problem you encounter - when user shuts down the computer - Great Plains doesn’t have the command to log off the user and when user tries to login the next day - she gets error message that user is already logged on. The fix:
- Microsoft SQL Server - open SQL Query Analyzer, switch to DYNAMICS database and run the following script: DELETE ACTIVITY WHERE USERID=’KATHY’.
- Pervasive SQL/Ctree - if you have more than one user registered you can delete the user from GP: System->User Activity->Delete User. If you like to work on the file level - ask all the users to log off. On the server, where you have your Great Plains files structure - DYNAMICS is the root, in SYSTEM folder delete ACTIVITY.* files
How to unlock the batch? This happens when user posts the batch and has her computer crashed (via surfing the internet - smile - or things like this)
- General tip - Great Plains recommends to logoff and then login back with the same user id. Then Great Plains will prompt the user to recover posting batch. Unfortunately it doesn’t work in 70% of the cases
Microsoft Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive SQL.2000 Data Repair ? Overview For DBAs
May 14, 2007
Some introduction into Great Plains Software products, now Microsoft Business Solutions. Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary DYNAMICS.DIC and runtime DYNAMICS.EXE), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are database administrator who is supporting the version on Pervasive SQL.2000/Ctree ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Microsoft Great Plains Tables Structure ? Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file, account master file - GL00101, Sales Header Work file - SOP10200 - and you got the idea.
2. Use Microsoft Access. Lunch Microsoft Access and make a link to Microsoft Great Plains tables. This will allow you to do data modification/repair. Some people are trying to use Pervasive control center - we do not recommend this - MS Access does job better.
OEComplete ? A Personal Information Manager
May 13, 2007
OEComplete is a utility for managing the personal information of the user. It is designed to be flexible and affordable even for the home user. OEComplete allows setting up appointments and tasks, and creates notes for easy reference. Recurrence, reminders and attachment enhance the competence in addition to import and export facility.
For example, a weekly status meeting can be set to recur every Friday evening and remind you of the same any time before it, just by a single setting.
Users of Outlook Express particularly benefit from it, having an appointment scheduler and task manager along with their emails. OEComplete starts automatically when you start Outlook Express while Outlook Express can be opened from OEComplete also.
The Calendar option in OEComplete helps you set appointments for any day, and plan your task ahead of time. OEComplete allows scheduling of recurring appointments, such as a weekly status meeting that occurs on a regular basis
Experience the features: · Task Recurrence · Set up Appointments, Tasks · Create Notes · Set Alerts/ Reminders · Set up recurrence of appointments · Import and Export of Data
SyncUp ? A File/Folder Synchronizer For Windows
May 12, 2007
SyncUp, a file synchronizer is designed to assist the home and advanced users. The product has a simple and familiar windows explorer type interface for easy file handling. Further, the Scan Results provides a detailed preview of the files for synchronization.
SyncUp has a flexible filter system to facilitate the user to change the sync direction, copy and delete files etc. while processing the synchronization. With scheduler the user can automate the process of synchronization in the background at any specified date and time. It also allows the user to set multiple schedules for a single profile.
It allows you to synchronize files or folders from the Source location to Update location of the same hard drive, another hard drive, mapped network or across any removable media and vice-versa. It also lets you to synchronize files/folders between two PCs by using any one of the following cables: Parallel cable, Direct Crossover cable, Network LAN or US.
A Guide To Purchasing Professional XP Icons Online And Enhancing Your Applications
May 11, 2007
Icons are used everywhere; right from software applications, to internet browsers, to operating systems to websites and even in print media. But businesses have to waste a good deal of money and time in manufacturing icons on their own. Professional icons are tough to create and need expertise in terms of creative artists, lots of time and software. But just as in any other field today, here again there are specialized organizations dedicated to manufacturing and supplying ready made icons. This article is meant for those of you who intent to purchase readymade XP icons for your applications
So what are XP style icons?
XP style icons are the in-thing now-a-days and are preferred above all other icons. This is because of the fact the XP icons look more professional and blend effortlessly into your applications. Some basic features of XP style icon are as follows;
Features of XP style icons
Removing Incoming Email in MS Exchange, C# Example
May 10, 2007
The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange handler for processing incoming email.
The basic source of knowledge was this article “Developing Managed Event Sinks/Hooks for Exchange Server Store using C#” by Logu Krishnan, published to the address http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/CsManagedEventSinksHooks.asp, and also examples from Microsoft Exchange SDK.
We utilized Synchronous Events and created the handler, which fires on OnSyncSave event. The handler creates activity record in Microsoft CRM and then removes the message in the Exchange database before the commitment:
public void OnSyncSave(IExStoreEventInfo pEventInfo, string bstrURLItem, int IFlags) { try { if (IFlags == ((int)EVT_SINK_FLAGS.EVT_SYNC_COMMITTED + (int)EVT_SINK_FLAGS.EVT_IS_DELIVERED)) {
ProcessMessage(pEventInfo, bstrURLItem, IFlags);
}
}
catch (Exception ex) {
log.Debug(ex.Message + ” ” + ex.StackTrace);
}
finally {
LogManager.Shutdown();
} }
For Exchange handlers debugging - it is the extremely convenient to use system log4net in RollingLogFileAppender or RemoteAppender modes (for multiple instance of COM + objects). You can read more on this subject here http://logging.apache.org/log4net/ To allow the handler incoming mail removal, it is necessary to give proper rights to the user, under which account the COM+ application runs the handler. These are rights on change of the information in user’s boxes for whom it is registered (Windows 2003 Server: Active Directory Users and Computer -> Users -> Properties (for COM+ application account) -> Exchange Advanced -> Mailbox Rights). And now the code:
Microsoft RMS ? Great Plains Integration ? Overview For IT Specialist
May 10, 2007
Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft Retail Management System (Microsoft RMS) are getting new market share due to the Microsoft strong marketing campaign. Both products: Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft RMS are coming from the same Microsoft subdivision - Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS), however due to the fact that both products were bought by Microsoft from different vendors, the integration between the two is not an easy thing. At this time MBS has RMS integration on the General Ledger and Purchase Order level into Great Plains out of the box. This integration has some advancements in comparison to old product: QuickSell, but it is still GL and PO only. We do understand the need for midsize and large retail companies, structured as clubs and selling on account to their members to have more adequate integration when you can synchronize your Sales information and have robust Great Plains reporting. There is the product on the market, which is integration on the Receivables Management level from RMS to Great Plains, written by Daniel Sionov and Andrew Karasev and maintained by the alliance between LightEdge Solutions (www.lightedge.com) and Alba Spectrum Technologies (www.albaspectrum.com). In Alba Spectrum Technologies we actually do coding and product tuning for specific client needs.
Microsoft Great Plains Integration with Legacy Systems ? Overview For Developer
May 9, 2007
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology ? Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.
If you are developer who is asked: how do we implement Great Plains integration/interface with your legacy or other system ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.
1. Great Plains Integration Manager - this is rather end-user tool - it is very intuitive, it validates 100% of business logic, brings in/updates master records (accounts, employees, customers, vendors. etc.) brings in transactions into work tables. The limitation of Integration Manager - it does use GP windows behind the scenes without showing them - so it is relatively slow - you can bring 100 records - but when you are talking about thousands - it is not a good option. By the way you can program Integration Manager with VBA.
Microsoft CRM Programming Secrets ? Tips For Developers
May 8, 2007
This article is for advanced Microsoft CRM SDK C# developers. It describes the technique of direct SQL programming, when SDK doesn’t have the functionality to do the job.
Introduction. Looks like Microsoft CRM becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. It is tightly integrated with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision (the last two in progress). Here we describe the technique of creating closed activity-email using MS CRM SDK and direct SQL programming.
Imaging something like this. You need to handle incoming email before it is committed to MS Exchange database. You need to analyze if incoming email doesn’t have GUID in its Subject (GUID will allow MS CRM Exchange Connector to move email to Microsoft CRM and attach it to the Contact, Account or Lead) - then you still need to lookup MS CRM in case if one of the accounts, contacts or leads has email address that matches with sender email address - then you need to create closed activity-email in MS CRM, attached to the object and placed into general queue.
Choose your Java Wisely
May 7, 2007
Java has come along a long way. Many would agree with this. I did not until the Java 1.5 "Tiger" hit me. The tiger had several new features, and more importantly, it has new syntax. Six major upgrades that the tiger presents are certainly the generics, enhanced for loop, autoboxing (unboxing), improvement on Typesafe enum, Static import and the metadata. Of course there are many more, which can be found at java’s official site. Out of these six, at least four would be used in my daily "programming" life. From java 1.1 to 1.4, it seemed more like new frills were simply added. It felt like earning more brownie points when you downloaded the newer version. But should I start using 1.5 immediately, maybe not.
