Extensibles – SQL Server for Visual Studio

Current version of Microsoft Dynamics GP, 10.0 is available on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2000. If you are on older version, we’ll also give you advise on where to find information. We’ll begin with Microsoft Great Plains architecture and technology inside:

Videos Available on Services • New Technology Adoption Workshops. • Project Readiness Workshops. • Entry Level Training Workshops – Induction Partnership. • Performance Tuning and Optimization Workshops. • Consulting Support on Architecting and Designing solutions. • Consulting Support as Subject Matter experts on latest technology aspects. • Proof of Success Development on Latest technology aspects. Technology • Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 [Code Name Orcas], SQL Server 2008 • Windows Vista Technologies (WPF, WCF, WWF), • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, BizTalk server 2006 • Visual Studio 2005 , VSTS, SQL server 2005 (BI, RS, AS, PTO, DBA) • Enterprise .NET. , Enterprise J2ee • J2EE using Web Sphere and Web logic, Struts, Hibernate, JSF, Ajax, • Oracle 10g (DBA, PL & SQL, PTO, Forms, Reports) for more Info.. www.synergetics-india.com

My 5th tutorial dealing with basic adding and removing items to listviews. WEBSITE: www.Quack-Ware.com FORUMS www.Quack-Ware.com

Where are We Going .NET vs Java
What in the world is going on in the marketplace? Technology is moving so fast that it is sometimes a little difficult to tell what is happening.Visit Here Now http://dotnet-asansol.blogspot.com
Let’s take a short trip back to the past.It wasn’t too long ago that applications were designed, developed, and deployed on a single machine. For those of you that can remember the early days of the personal computer era, things like dbase, FoxBASE, and the like might ring a bell. Everything ran on the same machine — the user interface, the business rules, and the database services.Then along came local area networks, which ushered in the era of clientserver applications. Now the user interface and the business rules sat on the PC and sent requests to a client-server DBMS such as Oracle or SQL Server, while on the server side, records were processed and results were returned to the client.As LANs matured and their reliability improved, application development went through yet another evolution, namely, the advent of 3-tier architecture. This transformation resulted in the user interface, business rules, and data services each becoming its own independent logical element in the application architecture. The physical world may have implemented each element on a separate machine, but that was not required.The main advantage of the 3-tier model is that business logic could now be broken up into components, where they could be used not only in one but many applications. Additionally, changes to business logic in the server did not require the calling party or client to change at all. In other words, the details of the implementation of business logic or the function is not important, as long as the way it is called and the type of information that it returns do not change. Let’s face it, the world is changing quickly and we need to be able to adjust without having to re-deploy.Of course, the initial implementation of the 3-tier model (later to become the n-tier) was primarily on common machines and operating systems such as Intel, Windows, and Unix. Vendors each supported their own brand of components. Microsoft supported COM, followed by DCOM. IBM promoted CORBA, and Sun touted RMI. Each of these middle tier component flavors was proprietary and did not provide for inter-operability and communication among disparate pieces. In order for a Microsoft application to talk with a CORBA component another piece of software was required for translation. The same was true for apps trying to communicate with DCOM objects as well.All of this made it difficult for diverse systems to talk to one another, creating an increasingly significant problem, as Internet business-tobusiness applications became the focus. The web, a relatively recent addition to the overall IT architecture, has dramatically changed the way we look at application development and correspondingly the deployment of associated services.If you log on to Land’s End, for example, it’s not unlikely that the underlying application will have to utilize components developed by a number of other parties such as AMEX, MasterCard, Visa, UPS, FedEx, along with a host of internal systems to provide the total consumer shopping experience.Sun, with it’s Java language, was in the right place at the right time. Java’s ability to be compiled to byte code and run on any machine that had a Java Virtual Machine gave it portability. The fact that it was designed to be totally object oriented, target web-based applications, and observe security issues associated with distributed apps gave it tremendous appeal to corporate clients.Visual Basic, on the other hand, earned its stripes in the Windows-based application development world. It’s easy to develop apps that leveraged the Window’s Operating System, and as it VB evolved it took on more and more features that made it increasingly object oriented, capable of creating reusable COM/DCOM objects, and a viable tool for web-based applications. Today, Microsoft claims that there are more than 3 million Visual Basic programmers in the world.Introduced in 1991, Visual Basic has gone through 6 versions. Each one increased power, features, flexibility, and capability, leading up to two major programming languages — Java and Visual Basic, with each camp feeling that their product is better.The fact is that language is not truly the key. The winner will be the framework/platform that enables the design, development, and deployment of applications and takes advantage of services or components distributed throughout the web.With the pending release of the next version of Visual Studio (of which VB is a part), Microsoft has decided to radically change the way that their language suite works. The next version of Visual Studio will be called Visual Studio.Net or VS.Net, and the next version of Visual Basic will be titled VB.Net. There are many new features and capabilities, but in my opinion, there are two major changes that will move Microsoft to the center stage.Visit Here Now http://dotnet-asansol.blogspot.com

MCSD .NET certification exam is one of the advanced level certifications meant for developers who are into designing and developing a range of enterprise solutions employing Microsoft development tools and the Microsoft .NET Framework across a range of platforms. The MCSD .NET certification process assesses your capabilities in building distributed, web-based and commercial applications by making use of Microsoft products including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft component services, and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. The process of getting MCSD .NET certified is not that difficult. But the benefits of achieving this certification cannot be overstated. The certification helps in reaching the winning edge to be in an advantageous position to attract prospective employers in addition to enjoying highly paid jobs. Some of the leading job roles for MCSD certified professionals include software developer, web developer, software engineer, software architect, systems analyst, application developer, and senior systems analyst. There are a few points you need to know to get MCSD .NET certified. To get the certification, you need to appear for four mandatory core test papers in addition to one elective test paper. For your elective test paper, you can choose either 70-229: SQL Server 2000 Design or 70-431: MCTS: SQL Server 2005 Implementation Microsoft MCSD .NET certification exam page gives enough details about the MCSD Certification. There are some reputed sites on the internet that offer quality training material to help you pass the certification exams with great ease. They offer preparation kits containing explanations and practice tests of realistic nature to boost you confidence and skills necessary to take the examination. You can also come across study notes, short tutorials, articles, exam tips and ‘how to’ to increase your ability to identify various question patterns, the key concepts and tips that are little known. Over and above, comprehensive reporting tools help you identify both your strengths and weaknesses and throw enough light on the opportunities available for improvements. The process of getting trained with online support includes choosing the core and elective examinations, downloading the tutorials and practice test papers and just follow the instructions given thereof. Therefore, act today and take yourself to the winning edge of your IT career by becoming MCSD.NET Certified.

When you have legacy in-house programmed ecommerce web application in production with shopping cart, credit card payment interface, B2B or B2C items catalogs and promotional pricing – which does the job – likely that you will favor the idea to leave it there and try the way of ecommerce integration connectors to your Microsoft Dynamics GP Corporate ERP application.  Another option would be to try existing ecommerce module (available from various Dynamics GP ecommerce ISV partners, you can make your research or call Microsoft Business Solutions).  Respecting your approach to program ecommerce integration, we would like to offer this small publication, where we are considering several options and ecommerce programming instruments: 1. Batch Mode ecommerce to Dynamics GP Great Plains Integration approach.  Here we assume that you have reasonable low volume of daily ecommerce invoices or sales orders (in B2B ecommerce you may work on Sales Order execution level and then transferring completed order to Sales invoice).  Batch mode assumes that you export your daily ecommerce documents into text files and then run integration manually.  For Batch mode integration we recommend you to deploy Dynamics GP Integration Manager.  If your source files for integration are text files exports from ecommerce web application, then IM is end user friendly and you may decide to do self discovery or call our office for short Integration Manager introduction in eCommerce integration design.  With IM, however, you can try more sophisticated approach, where you pull data directly from SQL Server (MySQL/PHP, Oracle, MS Access) ecommerce database.  IM has Advanced ODBC Data Source, where you can deploy such advanced SQL techniques as Union 2. Real Time eCommerce integration to Dynamics GP.  Real time means instantly, so IM is not an option, you can deploy, however Dynamics GP eConnect SDK.  eConnect allows you to include libraries into your Microsoft Visual Studio C#, VB.Net project, and then call eConnect methods directly from your ecommerce web application.  eConnect in our opinion came to its maturity with Dynamics GP version 9.0 and especially current version 10.0 (January 2010).  We assume that new version of Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0 will be relying on eConnect technology as well or even with greater emphasis.  EConnect is Microsoft Visual Studio programmer friendly and if you are such a developer, we recommend you to invest your time in eConnect research and self discovery.  eConnect, however doesn’t allow you to post Dynamics GP batches directly from its methods, if you need batch posting from ecommerce application, consider Alba Spectrum Posting Server.  And we would like to make this comment for small and mid-size ecommerce retailers – real time ecommerce integration is often not required and is in essence luxury for the majority of ecommerce community.  Only large volume ecommerce chains need real time integration, so if eConnect training approach seems too unrealistic to you, please continue reading the next paragraph 3. Quasi Real Time eCommerce integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Quasi means almost, and we agree with you, when you say that new customer account setup confirmation with login instructions should be emailed in a second.  You may also decide that charging customer credit card should be instant (technically you are just reserving your amount via credit card processing service, real transfer to your account will happen later).  However, there is no need to integrate ecommerce transaction to your Dynamics GP application immediately, you can do it every hour or every twenty minutes without visible delay for the new or existing ecommerce customer.  If Quasi real time approach seems to be reasonable for you, please review the methods to schedule Dynamics GP Integration Manager to run automatically every half an hour or more (or less) frequently 4. eCommerce Integration Strategies.  Here we recommend you to speculate on which system is master and which is slave.  You may decide to define all your new items, price lists, customers directly in Dynamics GP (master) and then propagate them to your ecommerce application or do it just the opposite, where your ecommerce is master and Great Plains Dynamics is slave.  There are pluses and minuses – obviously GP has matured user interface, where you can create or update your cards and transactions, that are subject to be pushed down to your ecommerce slave application.  But, in some scenarios, you would prefer custom objects with advanced interface in ecommerce to be pushed back to Dynamics GP 5. eCommerce and Dynamics GP, Great Plains Dynamics versions.  As general advise, we believe that being on current version of your Corporate ERP application is a way better, comparing to being on really outdated version.  If you are deploying Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0, 10.0, 9.0 (where you can deploy eConnect SDK for ecommerce programming), or no longer supported versions of Dynamics GP 8.0 and 7.5, or Microsoft Great Plains 7.0, Great Plains Dynamics 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0, 3.2 or earlier (including versions on Pervasive SQL Server 2000/Btrieve or Ctree) – we recommend you to update to GP 11 (10) and deploy eConnect or IM on currently supported version.  We also respect the situation, when MBS annual enhancement reenrollment cost might be too high and you have to stick to your legacy Great Plains version.  In our opinion, if you are on legacy version, investment to ecommerce should be very modest.  For legacy GP versions we recommend you to consider Alba Spectrum Order Connector 6. eCommerce to Dynamics GP in International Environment.  We are sitting in USA, but if you are multinational corporation with facilities overseas or in South America, please note that international business rules require compliance to local country tax code and additional regulations.  Microsoft Dynamics GP is available (often used term – localized) in English speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Oceania), plus in French speaking Quebec Canadian province.  If you plan to deploy ecommerce link to your international facility in such countries as Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Brazil, China, India, Continental Europe – we recommend you to make integration to localized Accounting Application (SAP Business One would be good candidate to consider) 7. Please, give us a call 1-866-528-0577 help@albaspectrum.com

If you have less than 75 concurrent (using the computers at one time) staff the Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) might be the tool for you.  It includes many application that are sold separately by Microsoft in one package, and at a fraction of the cost.  If you are a larger company all of the below benefits are still available in Microsoft’s enterprise packages.  Here are some of the features of SBS:   Remote Access for Network and Email Whether you are travelling on business, working from home or away on holiday the Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS) provides you with the tools to access your files and emails whilst you are away.  There are also many compatible remote access tools that can be used to compliment and enhance your remote access experience or remote offices.   Intranet for Document & Information Sharing SBS provides an intranet (Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services) which is an internal website for your company.  This is useful for providing information and documents to some or all members of your company, such as meeting minutes, schedules, holiday charts even office maintenance lists & suggestion boxes.  Access to each document can be quickly restricted to specific persons, teams or departments.  Staff members can also be restricted to no access, read-only access or modify access.   Shared Calendars A very useful part of the Small Business Server is the shared calendars.  If required secretaries can view and add appointments for their managers, meetings can be arranged by viewing everyone’s availability at a touch of a button.  Meeting requests can be made which automatically add the meeting to the attendees’ diaries.  Appointments and tasks can be shown on many PDA’s, Mobile Phones etc so that you can make appointments on the move.  The significant benefit over paper diaries is that there is no duplication, we have seen numerous offices where the secretary an manager have a paper diary each appointments are added to both, occasionally one diary is not updated causing embarrassment.  The shared calendars can also be used for appointment, interview or meeting room bookings so that the availability of these shared resources can be easily accessed by all.   Email and Messaging Solution Centralised storage of emails is provided by SBS and are very useful for security reasons and productivity when working as a team.  For example if required Secretaries can review, print and reply to their manager’s emails which is useful for delegation and absences from the office.  If you have part-time staff or during absences, other staff can ensure that important emails are not left unread.  It also aids data security enabling centralised anti-virus, anti-spam and backups of emails so that if a computer fails all emails are stored on the server.   Desktop Faxing Fax is still very common in many companies, often inbound faxes are received by the receptionist and placed in the relevant staff member’s tray or the receptionist delivers it by hand.  SBS allows received faxes to be emailed to a member of staff who can then email it to the recipient (or their secretary), they can also be stored on the intranet, printed to a printer automatically or stored in a folder on the server.  There is also software that can be installed to automatically forward faxes to the correct person in the office and delete junk faxes.   The desktop faxing also allows faxes to be sent (with or without standard cover pages) directly from their own computer.  This reduces the need for staff members to print and use a communal fax.  It is very useful for accounts departments where often invoices are faxed to customers or orders are faxed to suppliers, this can be done automatically.   File and Printer Sharing File sharing is a standard part of server working, it allows all files to be stored centrally for regular backups.  You can also store all employee’s ‘profiles’ which are their “My Documents” and Desktop files so that they can logon to any computer in the office and continue to work (as if it were their own).  This also enables organisations to be safe in the knowledge that if a computer fails all important data is stored on the server and backed up.   Printer sharing is very useful as not only does it reduce the cost of having many printers but it also enables printers with many paper trays to be configured once on the server and ‘rolled out’ to many computers thus reducing the misprints that commonly occur.    Application sharing Many companies will have standard software packages that relate to their industry, such as Customer Relationship Management, Accounting and Purchase Order Software, Case & Practice Management software etc.  SBS can compliment the majority of these applications (no-doubt many have been built for Windows Servers).   Automated Software updates for Computers Computer and Server updates that are provided by Microsoft are important to plug security holes as they are discovered; SBS includes an automated method of installing these on all computers at a click of a button.   Premium Edition Benefits Microsoft Small Business Server is sold in two versions Standard which includes the above (and other features) and the Premium Edition which also includes these two items:   Enterprise Level Firewall ISA (Internet Security & Acceleration) Server is an enterprise level firewall which is very customisable, allowing you to monitor and restrict internet access.  You can disable and enable access to the internet:  By time – e.g. lunchtime and outside of working hours only Specific Websites – only work related websites can be accessed Type of access – only websites can be accessed, but files cannot be downloaded Different rules for different employees, departments, groups or level of team members There are almost infinite configurations that can be used to suit your business needs.  Also additional software can provide virus-scanning on the server of all internet access and specific reporting on websites accessed or attempted rule breaking.   Database Server – SQL Server SQL Server is a powerful enterprise database which many software providers use as their database platform.  It cannot be easily copied from the server (helping to ensure no-one can walk away with your client/customer data) and has many security, speed and customisable reporting benefits.

Microsoft Great Plains ERP is wide spread in USA and Canada, as well as in English speaking countries. As we see XXI century progressing, more technical skills are becoming the norm and so to say requirements in MRP system implementation, especially for mid-size and large corporate businesses. This is why when we consider and recommend you new ERP system implementation, we have to address the technology behind architecture and related questions, such as modification, custom reporting, integration with your legacy applications. Microsoft Dynamics GP is not an exception and especially considering Microsoft direction to tight its MBS products to .Net, Sharepoint, Microsoft Office stack of products. If you are IT director in your organization, you have to do your homework in understanding your modification and integration options and then to control implementation and govern it as a complex process. Let’s review the options: