http://www.extensibles.com Performance and Optimization of SQL Server, .NET and Visual Studio Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:11:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.extensibles.com/87/sql-server/microsoft-dynamics-gp-ecommerce-custom-solutions-and-coding/ http://www.extensibles.com/87/sql-server/microsoft-dynamics-gp-ecommerce-custom-solutions-and-coding/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:28:46 +0000 Kevin http://www.extensibles.com/87/sql-server/microsoft-dynamics-gp-ecommerce-custom-solutions-and-coding/ If your organization has functioning ecommerce website with shopping cart, price list and credit card processing and your Corporate ERP application is Microsoft Dynamics GP – you are probably favoring the idea of ecommerce integration on the level of connectors and custom scripts, versus implementing ecommerce website from scratch on new ecommerce off-the-shelf product.  If this  is the case – our small publication should give you orientation session, that should be applicable to both ecommerce B2B and B2C scenarios: 1. Dynamics GP eCommerce integration tools and methods.  The most simple tool is GP Integration Manager, where you setup integration to push ecommerce shopping cart to GP Sales Order Processing Invoice or Sales Order.  IM is very simple if you do not need real time integration and ready to launch integration by IM operator.  Second tool to consider is GP eConnect SDK, where you program ecommerce integration in C#, or VB.Net.  The third possible way is to do direct SQL scripting, more likely Stored Procedures, this method may seem to be natural and simple, however in our opinion eConnect would save you more time at the end of the way, as in SQL custom stored procedures you will have to come through very long learning curve and data repair.  The fourth method is to deploy proven integration scripts and code fragments from specializing Dynamics GP ecommerce ISV partner, where all you need to do is to tune the scripts to your specific requirements.  Let’s describe each method is additional details 2. Dynamics GP Integration Manager as ecommerce integration tool.  Integration itself could be setup by end user, if you are small organization without dedicated IT.  If you are OK to just lunch integration manually one time per day – then IM is definitely the way to consider.  Plus, in IM you can have good field for custom events handling in VBA scripts and even more – you can base IM Queries on Advanced ODBC, where you can look into SQL Cross Platform Views, joining data from your MS SQL or non Microsoft databases: Oracle, MySQL/PHP, Lotus Notes, and others.  And if you have IT department with programming enthusiasts – you can even schedule IM integration to run every, say 20 minutes, by Windows Macro (or better consider shareware Macro application to launch IM integration) 3. eConnect programming.  If you are Microsoft Visual Studio programmer with C# or VB experience and reasonably knowledge of SQL and XML – eConnect should be very friendly for you.  Plus in web project you can do bidirectional integration, as eConnect allows you not only to push or update objects in Dynamics GP, but also retrieve and synchronize them in eCommerce front end, if required.  eConnect was initially dedicated to eCommerce developers, who plan to deploy Dynamics GP as accounting back end for ecommerce application, so feel free to review and practice eConnect programming in ecommerce 4. SQL Direct Scripting.  If you believe that your ecommerce integration is really primitive, then try to create targeted object, such as SOP Invoice via GP user interface and review how records are distributed in the company SQL database tables.  If distribution looks simple, try to imitate it in SQL Stored Procedure, be ready to multiple iterations, do your experiment in the test database (you can create test company via GP Utilities) 5. eCommerce proven integration scripts.  We recommend you to consider our scripts, deployed in ecommerce production integration environments for multiple Dynamics GP customers.  We have these scripts and code fragments ready for tuning.  They should allow you to save time on unnecessary learning curve and avoid complex debugging and potential data repair and recovery exercises 6. eCommerce eConnect Automatic Batch Posting add-on.  eConnect doesn’t have batch posting methods, but there is no need to reinvent the bicycle.  We have Posting Server, which does just that – give us a call 7. eCommerce and older Dynamics GP Great Plains versions.  Integration Manager should work with all the versions of Great Plains Dynamics GP: 10.0, 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0, including Great Plains on Pervasive SQL Server 2000/Btrieve or Ctree.  eConnect in our opinion achieved its maturity for Dynamics GP version 9.0, so if you plan to program eConnect and your version is earlier than 9.0, consider GP version update to 9.0 or better to 10.0.  If you are on older version of GP on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and you have reasons to stay on your current version – we have SQL Stored Procedures based product – Order Connector, which should do good work of eCommerce shopping cart to Sales Order Processing transaction integration ]]> http://www.extensibles.com/87/sql-server/microsoft-dynamics-gp-ecommerce-custom-solutions-and-coding/feed/ 0 http://www.extensibles.com/79/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-developing-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-notes/ http://www.extensibles.com/79/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-developing-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-notes/#comments Tue, 20 Jul 2010 01:11:17 +0000 Kevin http://www.extensibles.com/79/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-developing-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-notes/ 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 ]]> http://www.extensibles.com/79/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-developing-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-notes/feed/ 0 http://www.extensibles.com/58/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2/ http://www.extensibles.com/58/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:14:33 +0000 Kevin http://www.extensibles.com/58/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2/ If you are on the way to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics GP ecommerce integration options, and in your case you already have custom programmed (often in-house) ecommerce web application in production and you do not like the idea to redeploy ecommerce on new platform (and write off investment in legacy ecommerce program) – we respect your approach and would like to recommend you this small publication.  Instead of promising so-called “turn-key” ecommerce to Corporate ERP tandem, we recommend you so-called “solutions” approach, where your ecommerce programmers deploy and tune connectors, libraries or code samples, proven and tested in multiple ecommerce integration to Dynamics GP environments: 1. Ecommerce master-slave concept.  Before you jump into the technology details, let’s speculate about strategy.  If your current ecommerce website application has rich functionality (inventory item adding, counting, pricing, including sales promotion campaigns, potentially logistic automation by initiating product allocation to Sales Order and delivery, new and existing customers maintenance, etc) then you may decide to make your current ecommerce application to be a master and push its records to Dynamics GP (which should be in this case Slave application).  Often we see opposite situation, where ecommerce application is pretty simple and all the logic is done in Microsoft Dynamics GP and records should be pushed to ecommerce (here we have GP as master and ecommerce as slave) 2. Ecommerce integration target in Dynamics GP.  In most of the scenarios you are targeting Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing  (ecommerce invoices or sales orders), Inventory Control (new and existing items, price lists, items availability in warehouses), Receivable Management (new and existing ecommerce customers), Purchase Order (Purchase Receipts – typically when you are receiving merchandise in GP and pushing new items into ecommerce database) 3. Ecommerce integration programming tools.  Microsoft Dynamics GP is available on Microsoft SQL Server DB platform (2008, 2005, 2000 and earlier) and Microsoft Windows Servers (2008, 2003, 2000 and earlier), and these facts make Microsoft Visual Studio and Dynamics GP eConnect SDK.  If fact, you can review Dynamics GP table structure in GP SDK (could be installed from GP 10 CD #2), or directly in Dynamics GP user interface (Dynamics GP -> Tools -> Resource Description -> Tables), however you should be cautious and we recommend you to use direct SQL Select statements only to pull data from Great Plains and avoid feeding data via SQL Insert statements (as you could violate business logic and compromise data integrity, instead consider pushing data to Dynamics GP via eConnect methods) 4. ECommerce Order Connector.  This product is the set of SQL Stored Procedures, dedicated to ecommerce developer to move ecommerce orders to Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing module.  It is “Solution” in the sense of being tunable and customizable, it is also compatible with historical versions of Microsoft Great Plains and Great Plains Dynamics  (on Microsoft SQL Server, not available for Pervasive SQL Server 2000 or Ctree).  Currently we are in progress to extend Order Connector to cover major ecommerce generic platforms integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP with intuitive user interface setup 5. Alba Spectrum Posting Server.  Often in ecommerce you require complete automation, where you expect ecommerce walk-in or on account customer to pick the products into ecommerce shopping cart, go to check out, pay with credit card or on account and then your ecommerce application automatically creates Microsoft Dynamics GP Invoice (including posting it – or in ERP terminology transfer it from work to open phase).  If you already reviewed eConnect libraries and methods – you should of realize, that eConnect doesn’t have Dynamics GP Batch Posting logic.  If you want to do automatic batch posting directly from your ecommerce application, please review Alba Spectrum Posting Server 6. Cross Platform eCommerce integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Web hosting is very popular on Linux and Sun/Solaris platform.  eCommerce DB could be high end Oracle, DBII, Sybase, Progress.  If this is your case, you can still use eConnect, Order Connector or Posting Server, assuming that you are familiar with such technologies as JDBC-ODBC Bridge, ODBC connection from Oracle development environment 7. ECommerce for legacy Great Plains Dynamics versions.  As general recommendation (we are ready to do the job, if you decide that you would like it anyway), we recommend you to update to current Dynamics GP version 10.0 (or if you are reading this lines in second half of 2010 – then to Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0).  Current version has the following advantages: it is supportable by Microsoft Business Solutions directly in case when you are disappointed in your Dynamics GOP Partner; it si compatible with current MS SQL Server and Windows Server versions to name a few 8. Dynamics GP Software Development Factory.  If you would like to outsource Great Plains Ecommerce development project, we are happy to offer you our Great Plains Dexterity and eConnect Software Development Factory services.  We serve you USA, Canada nationwide, plus in Spanish speaking Central and South America (in Brazil we offer you SAP Business One to Dynamics GP integration services) 9. Local Dynamics GP eCommerce Integration Programming Service in USA.  We serve you from our offices in Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta (in GA we only support SAP Business One customers locally) 10. Service in Europe and Central Asia.  As Microsoft Dynamics GP is no longer supported in continental Europe (including eastern Europe: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) – Alba Spectrum is supporting old versions of Dynamics GP and Great Plains Dynamics in Russian, German, Polish, French: 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 and earlier 11. Please, call us in USA or Canada: 1-866-528-0577, or internationally 1-630-961-5918, or email us help@albaspectrum.com  Our Dynamics GP, SAP Business One and Microsoft CRM consultants and programmers speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Filipino ]]> http://www.extensibles.com/58/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2/feed/ 0 http://www.extensibles.com/57/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp/ http://www.extensibles.com/57/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 10:49:07 +0000 Kevin http://www.extensibles.com/57/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp/ If you are on the way to evaluate Microsoft Dynamics GP ecommerce integration options, and in your case you already have custom programmed (often in-house) ecommerce web application in production and you do not like the idea to redeploy ecommerce on new platform (and write off investment in legacy ecommerce program) – we respect your approach and would like to recommend you this small publication.  Instead of promising so-called “turn-key” ecommerce to Corporate ERP tandem, we recommend you so-called “solutions” approach, where your ecommerce programmers deploy and tune connectors, libraries or code samples, proven and tested in multiple ecommerce integration to Dynamics GP environments: 1. Ecommerce master-slave concept.  Before you jump into the technology details, let’s speculate about strategy.  If your current ecommerce website application has rich functionality (inventory item adding, counting, pricing, including sales promotion campaigns, potentially logistic automation by initiating product allocation to Sales Order and delivery, new and existing customers maintenance, etc) then you may decide to make your current ecommerce application to be a master and push its records to Dynamics GP (which should be in this case Slave application).  Often we see opposite situation, where ecommerce application is pretty simple and all the logic is done in Microsoft Dynamics GP and records should be pushed to ecommerce (here we have GP as master and ecommerce as slave) 2. Ecommerce integration target in Dynamics GP.  In most of the scenarios you are targeting Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing  (ecommerce invoices or sales orders), Inventory Control (new and existing items, price lists, items availability in warehouses), Receivable Management (new and existing ecommerce customers), Purchase Order (Purchase Receipts – typically when you are receiving merchandise in GP and pushing new items into ecommerce database) 3. Ecommerce integration programming tools.  Microsoft Dynamics GP is available on Microsoft SQL Server DB platform (2008, 2005, 2000 and earlier) and Microsoft Windows Servers (2008, 2003, 2000 and earlier), and these facts make Microsoft Visual Studio and Dynamics GP eConnect SDK.  If fact, you can review Dynamics GP table structure in GP SDK (could be installed from GP 10 CD #2), or directly in Dynamics GP user interface (Dynamics GP -> Tools -> Resource Description -> Tables), however you should be cautious and we recommend you to use direct SQL Select statements only to pull data from Great Plains and avoid feeding data via SQL Insert statements (as you could violate business logic and compromise data integrity, instead consider pushing data to Dynamics GP via eConnect methods) 4. ECommerce Order Connector.  This product is the set of SQL Stored Procedures, dedicated to ecommerce developer to move ecommerce orders to Dynamics GP Sales Order Processing module.  It is “Solution” in the sense of being tunable and customizable, it is also compatible with historical versions of Microsoft Great Plains and Great Plains Dynamics  (on Microsoft SQL Server, not available for Pervasive SQL Server 2000 or Ctree).  Currently we are in progress to extend Order Connector to cover major ecommerce generic platforms integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP with intuitive user interface setup 5. Alba Spectrum Posting Server.  Often in ecommerce you require complete automation, where you expect ecommerce walk-in or on account customer to pick the products into ecommerce shopping cart, go to check out, pay with credit card or on account and then your ecommerce application automatically creates Microsoft Dynamics GP Invoice (including posting it – or in ERP terminology transfer it from work to open phase).  If you already reviewed eConnect libraries and methods – you should of realize, that eConnect doesn’t have Dynamics GP Batch Posting logic.  If you want to do automatic batch posting directly from your ecommerce application, please review Alba Spectrum Posting Server 6. Cross Platform eCommerce integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP.  Web hosting is very popular on Linux and Sun/Solaris platform.  eCommerce DB could be high end Oracle, DBII, Sybase, Progress.  If this is your case, you can still use eConnect, Order Connector or Posting Server, assuming that you are familiar with such technologies as JDBC-ODBC Bridge, ODBC connection from Oracle development environment 7. ECommerce for legacy Great Plains Dynamics versions.  As general recommendation (we are ready to do the job, if you decide that you would like it anyway), we recommend you to update to current Dynamics GP version 10.0 (or if you are reading this lines in second half of 2010 – then to Microsoft Dynamics GP 11.0).  Current version has the following advantages: it is supportable by Microsoft Business Solutions directly in case when you are disappointed in your Dynamics GOP Partner; it si compatible with current MS SQL Server and Windows Server versions to name a few 8. Dynamics GP Software Development Factory.  If you would like to outsource Great Plains Ecommerce development project, we are happy to offer you our Great Plains Dexterity and eConnect Software Development Factory services.  We serve you USA, Canada nationwide, plus in Spanish speaking Central and South America (in Brazil we offer you SAP Business One to Dynamics GP integration services) 9. Local Dynamics GP eCommerce Integration Programming Service in USA.  We serve you from our offices in Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta (in GA we only support SAP Business One customers locally) 10. Service in Europe and Central Asia.  As Microsoft Dynamics GP is no longer supported in continental Europe (including eastern Europe: Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland) – Alba Spectrum is supporting old versions of Dynamics GP and Great Plains Dynamics in Russian, German, Polish, French: 9.0, 8.0, 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 4.0 and earlier 11. Please, call us in USA or Canada: 1-866-528-0577, or internationally 1-630-961-5918, or email us help@albaspectrum.com  Our Dynamics GP, SAP Business One and Microsoft CRM consultants and programmers speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, Filipino ]]> http://www.extensibles.com/57/visual-studio-database/ecommerce-integration-add-ons-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp/feed/ 0