Dynamics GP Integrations using Integration Manager, Table Import, eConnect and Web Services

Getting started with GP Integrations?

If you are getting started with Integrations check out these posts - Sandip Jadhav - Types of Integration methods with Dynamics GP, which gives you a brief sneak-peek about the 8 tools available with GP for Integration. Integrating to Dynamics (GP) The Basics by the Touchstone guys. In this post they explain the first question that gets asked is “what is the best way of integrating?” and several ways of finding what tables do you need to integrate to?

There’s also a nice post - Integration - All About Attitude by the nice people at Rose Business Solutions. Steve Endow has a post on "Real Time" Dynamics GP Integrations in which he discusses the steps to create a “real time” integration between Dynamics GP and another system.

Other posts worth highlighting are Integration to Concur Travel & Expense by Geoffrey Wayong, also covered by the Dynamics GP Team at NEW Integration Capabilities with Concur Travel & Expense! 

Related categories on GPWindow are DEVELOPMENT which includes – Dexterity, Developer Toolkit, GP SDK, Tables Information, Testing, VBA and VS Tools for GP and CUSTOMIZATIONS which covers – modifier, Extender and Macros.

eConnect

Steve Gray says - “I spend an amount of time advising people to 'read the manual' when they write in with questions.” and points us to the - eConnect Help Online.

Also in the eConnect sub section, you can view posts regarding using eConnect to get data into Dynamics GP with some examples. eConnect Integration Service for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 by Mariano Gomez contains information about eConnect 2010 and how it is better than its predecessors. There other detailed posts by Steve Endow with his troubleshooting notes - More than I ever wanted to know about eConnect and MSDTC and Troubleshooting eConnect "System Error" Message. Steve also shares some performance benchmarks of eConnect in the post eConnect Performance Benchmarks.

Mariano covers Retrieving Microsoft eConnect 10.0 Version and Steve has a post on Checking eConnect Version Number Programmatically.

You can also find some examples to use eConnect to get data into GP from Steve like Using eConnect to import Inventory Adjustments with Multi-Bin, Clearing Existing Field Values Using eConnect, eConnect Bank Transaction Import.

From Sage, Quickbooks, Peachtree

You should definitely check out the posts in the Rapid Migration and Implementation Tools if you are working on bringing customers from one of these accounting systems.  The free tools from Microsoft make migration a snap, and will save you a lot of time.

In addition to that, In the From Sage, Quickbooks, Peachtree sub section, you will see posts related to migration and other news from other Accounting Systems like Sage, Quickbooks and Peachtree into Dynamics GP. Check out the posts - Helping Peachtree customers make a “Smart Move”… 

Integration Manager

Version Information : First off, a couple of posts to bookmark – Victoria Yudin shares Dynamics GP Integration Manager versions and Mariano has the GP 10 Service Pack versions here - IM - Integration Manager Service Packs.

Downloads : You can find IM Downloads here - Integration Manager Downloads 

Information :  If you are looking to get started with Integration Manager this post by Q Factor Integration Manager: The Basics will give you all the basic details about the product.

There are loads of useful posts by MVP Mariano Gomez like one on Integration Manager 10 INI settings and Copying an Integration in Integration Manager to copy an integration into another integration, How to schedule Dynamics GP to automatically log in and run an Integration Manager integration in cases where you want Integration Manager to run automatically at night and bring in data from another system, Sorting Records in Integration Manager v10 to sort the records as they appear on your import file by changing IM ini settings.

Mariano also covers - IM - How to group Integration Manager transactions based on transaction date, How to import the Vendor 1099 Box with Integration Manager and How to filter source query records dynamically. Mariano also has a nice article on MSDynamicsWorld - "Putting to Rest Four Myths About Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager". Mariano also explains the Supported Date Formats in Integration Manager and then goes on to detail out the steps for Dropping Timestamps from SQL Server and Text File Data Sources in Integration Manager, where he discusses two methods (SQL Query and VBScript).

MVP and bestselling author Mark Polino has a lot of nice articles on Integration Manager covered in his Weekly Dynamic feature -

• Weekly Review: Integration Manager Resources 
• Weekly Dynamic: Integration Manager Support
• Weekly Dynamic: Integration Manager Option
• Weekly Dynamic: Copy an Integration with a New Source
• Weekly Dynamic: Killing a Hung Integration
• Weekly Dynamic: IM Troubleshooting - Key A Transaction
• Weekly Dynamic: Automating Integrations

In the Integration Manager sub section, you will also see posts related to using Integration Manager to bring data (Journal entries, Payables Invoices, Sales Invoices, Bank Transactions etc.) into Dynamics GP.

There’s a post by Mohammad R Daoud that explains how to Import Transactions Distributions Using Integration Manager. There is also a great posts on Integration Manager and ODBC by Rose Business Solutions.

Errors and Troubleshooting : Steve Endow talks about Integration Migration Frustration and shares his - “integration review template" to help me try and detect some of these issues in advance next time.” Steve also has the Integration Manager 10 Bugginess: Data Sources, Relationships, and Scripts post where he discusses the Relationships feature. Mark Polino also shares his Integration Manager Rant.

If you using Integration Manager on a terminal server you might find the post Integration Manager 10 : Changing the path of IM Database for a User useful, and if you are using IM 2010 you would want to check out the Integration Manager with GP 2010 Error post.

Waqas has a nice post on Integration Manager 10– Debugging Integration Error and Daoud explains how you can keep Microsoft Dynamics GP visible when running Integration created by Integration Manager and watch the transactions pushed inside GP windows a record after record

Check out other posts directly at Integration Manager section on GPWindow.

Table Import

In the Table Import sub section, you will find some nice posts about GP’s Table Import functionality. This wonderful post by Mariano Gomez The often overlooked, yet powerful Table Import will get you started with Table Import and show you an overview of Table Import feature and an example to import a few customers using a tab-delimited file. Christina has the interestingly yet aptly title post - Table Import is not always the ugly stepsister. Mark covers this in his Weekly Dynamic Weekly Dynamic: Table Import.

Webservices

GP Webservices are where the future of Dynamics GP Integrations lies. Performance benchmarks are now carried out keeping this is mind. In the Webservices sub section, you will find posts about the introduction of GP Webservices, installation of Dynamics GP Web Services, issues faced while installing Webservices and uninstalling GP web services completely.

There’s a nice post by the DynGp Team - Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Web Services that will get you started with Dynamics GP Webservices 2010.

Then there’s this nice article by Steve Gray that has the Code to call a web service method. Steve covers Formatting Note Lines with GP Web Services. Chris Roehrich at Developing for Dynamics GP provides some awesome code on How to retrieve Quantity On Hand amount using Web Services for Dynamics GP 10.0 and discusses the Web Services Configuration Settings for Integrating Large Transactions.

Some of these posts point out some common problems that you may face while installing Dynamics GP web services on the GP server - Web Services Install: Fatal Error during Installation by Janakiram , Dynamics GP Web Service Installation Error by Sandip Jadhav. Sandip in this another post that tells us on How to Remove Dynamics GP Web Service completely.

-------------------- Via http://www.gpwindow.com/INTEGRATIONS_/

Are there any articles related to the topics above that I missed ? If yes, add your comments.

Print GL, PM, RM Reports to Screen

Tina shares her tip for updating all report options to print to Screen instead of Printer using SQL Scripts. Check it out here - Send Reports to Screen (Instead of Printer) in Dynamics GP

This builds on an article by Mariano where he showed how to send all posting journals to screen - How to send all posting journals to Microsoft Dynamics Screen?

GP 9 Support Ends Jan 11, 2011

If there are any of you, or anybody you know who are still on GP 9.0, you need to keep this date in mind - 01/11/2011. That’s when mainstream support for GP 9 ends.

If people still need convincing – you need to show them the GP 9 Vs GP 10 Vs GP 2010 – Upgrade Value Guide.

See the When does my GP product’s support end? and  Support Lifecycle for Dynamics GP posts for details.

Dynamics GP SDT Essential Series 2 – Transfer AA Dimensions and Codes from Test to Production

The Support Debugging Tool has a fantastic XML Table Export and Import features. This can be used to achieve fantastic things like –

• David Musgrave showed – how to transfer Security Tasks and Roles between Systems. This is useful when you are migrating security from Test to Production.
• Mariano Gomez used the XML Table import as one of the ways of Transferring Extender customizations from one company database to another

Another use that we recently tested this feature was in migrating the Analytical Accounting Dimensions and Codes from Test to Production. Often people test out the AA Codes and Dimensions in a test environment, and when they are happy with what they want they want to set it up in Production. SDT allows you to transfer this in a snap, instead of manually setting things up again in Production.

As a bonus, the article also covers the ability of running SQL scripts from inside GP using the SQL Execute option of Support Debugging Tool.

Read the complete article here - Dynamics GP SDT Essential Series 2 – Transfer AA Dimensions and Codes from Test to Production

Dynamics GP SDT Essential Series

Mariano Gomez and Mark Polino have declared this to be the Support Debugging tool week, so following David Musgrave, I’ll also try and roll out the Support Debugging Tool posts I have been working on with Rubal and Chetna.

First up is  - Dynamics GP SDT Essential Series 1 – Working better with Multiple Companies

When you are working with Multiple companies all day long, the little things help.

Using the free Support Debugging Tool from Microsoft, you can achieve the following, with just a few clicks -

• You can use different color themes for each company, helping you differentiate between various companies in a flash 
• You can display a message when a user logs into a Test Company or a Historical Company
• You can display the company name in the Title bar

Read the complete posts here - Dynamics GP SDT Essential Series 1 – Working better with Multiple Companies

Note - A lot of this information I cover in this series is covered elsewhere, which will be referenced with each post. The Microsoft Dynamics GP Cookbook also has almost half a chapter dedicated to the Support Debugging Tool. The aim is to reach out to all the people who have not started using this awesome tool yet.

New Light Licenses for GP

From Steve Farr at the GP UK Blog -

Effective from today , Microsoft  is introducing three lighter access license rights helping extend the ERP solution further into an organisation. You’ll find all details of the announcement on PartnerSource here.  If there is one thing you do in the next couple of days, it’s to access the link and download the materials.

There will also be a Partner Academy Live session planned for the 8th September at 4pm GMT. You can register for the Live meeting here – again, please do make the effort to attend, but if you can’t, the meeting will be recorded and made available after the event.

I took a quick look and looks like some interesting light licenses for people who just need access to Business Portal, SQL RS, Management Reporter, Office Excel Reports. Looks like a great initiative!

GP 2010 VPC with MR now available

Just in time, as the Beta VPC expired on Aug 31 - Check out this post by the Dynamics GP Team here - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/gp/archive/2010/09/01/microsoft-dynamics-gp-2010-rtm-quot-coremr-quot-vpc-is-now-available.aspx

A few notes -

• It has Management Reporter setup, which is awesome!
• Functionality like Workflow and Business Portal are NOT enabled on this VPC.
• The “CoreMR” VPC is only supported on the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1 platform.  You will not be able to utilize the new Windows7 Virtual PC Platform.  (In some cases, you may need to uninstall Windows7 Virtual PC from your laptops as it cannot “Coexist” on the same machine with Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 SP1.
• “Core-Plus” will be available within the next two weeks.