As most of you are aware we had our client conference last week, a great chance to meet and greet some of our clients and catch up on the latest technologies and the Dynamics (GP) road map.
I think that most people would agree that one of the high lights was the sneak preview of some of the Dynamics (GP) version 11 features and the integrations with office 2010.
Our thanks to Tom and Will from Microsoft for these insights and especially to Will for the mind blowing insight into project Gemini.
Imagine being able to filter cut pivot millions of rows in excel full of GP data without any effect on performance, all achieved through a simple add in to excel. It will change the face of BI as we know it. As Will mentioned there are loads of demos of it out there on you tube so here is a link to a few.
http://www.youtube.com/user/geminute#p/u
Also the end would appear to be in sight for report writer, as we were shown the new word 2010 report templates allowing you to create professional looking reports in word linked to your dynamics Data and with unlimited numbers of templates per report type ( you could have 20 different invoice layouts if you wanted).
All the presentations from the day are available on request from the contact page of our web site
http://www.touchstone.co.uk/contact_us.aspx
And I can not close off this blog without mentioning the lunch which was fantastic, a full on carvery with roast beef Yorkshire pudding , lamb , turkey all the trimmings and desserts to die for, fantastic.
Monday 19 October 2009
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Dynamics (GP) v8 is no more. Microsoft stopped support yesterday
For those of you still on Microsoft business solutions (Great Plains) version 8. Microsoft finished support for this version yesterday.
We however have not , if you are one of our clients and you are on version 8 or lower we will still support you. However you need to be aware that we will not be able to escalate issues to Microsoft for these versions or produce code fixes if required.
If you would like look into upgrading you to the latest release please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
We however have not , if you are one of our clients and you are on version 8 or lower we will still support you. However you need to be aware that we will not be able to escalate issues to Microsoft for these versions or produce code fixes if required.
If you would like look into upgrading you to the latest release please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Integration Manager Dynamics (GP) V10 not pulling through fields
Hi folks , this one has cropped up in several support cases this week.
In version 10 Integration manager data is sometimes not being pulled through. This is usually when the destination field is down several sub levels in destination mapping.
A good example of this is the email field that is held under internet settings when integrating a debtor or creditor record.
We have found that although it is already mapped you just need to go into destination mapping and re add the source field. it will now bring through the data.
This is not immediately obvious when troubleshooting as the source field appears correctly mapped to start with.
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
In version 10 Integration manager data is sometimes not being pulled through. This is usually when the destination field is down several sub levels in destination mapping.
A good example of this is the email field that is held under internet settings when integrating a debtor or creditor record.
We have found that although it is already mapped you just need to go into destination mapping and re add the source field. it will now bring through the data.
This is not immediately obvious when troubleshooting as the source field appears correctly mapped to start with.
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Friday 9 October 2009
Dynamics (GP) eConnect, web services and ISO Currency codes
When you set up econnect to use with web services you need to have all the ISO codes for your individual currencies in Dynamics (GP) populated.
These are setup on the currency maintenance window in Dynamics (GP).
There are two internationally recognised codes for each currency. An alphabetic and a numeric code. Please be aware you need to use the alphabetic code as the web services will not pass/recognise the numeric ones.
The below ISO website has the list of internationally recognised codes.
http://www.iso.org/iso/support/faqs/faqs_widely_used_standards/widely_used_standards_other/currency_codes/currency_codes_list-1.htm
If you have any questions contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
These are setup on the currency maintenance window in Dynamics (GP).
There are two internationally recognised codes for each currency. An alphabetic and a numeric code. Please be aware you need to use the alphabetic code as the web services will not pass/recognise the numeric ones.
The below ISO website has the list of internationally recognised codes.
http://www.iso.org/iso/support/faqs/faqs_widely_used_standards/widely_used_standards_other/currency_codes/currency_codes_list-1.htm
If you have any questions contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Hurry Hurry hurry, Touchstone's Dynamics Client Conference is next week.
Our annual Dynamics Customer conference is next Thursday, its a great opportunity to catch up on the Dynamics product range and see what extra value you can get out of your Dynamics (GP) system.
Use the below link to sign up.
http://www.touchstone.co.uk/DynamicsConference2009/
Use the below link to sign up.
http://www.touchstone.co.uk/DynamicsConference2009/
Dynamics (GP) v10, unsupported printers and small fonts.
We have had a couple of cases recently where after an upgrade to Dynamics (GP) v10 , the standard reports all print out in very small fonts.
This usually happens if you are using an unsupported printer. You can request a list of supported printers from helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk .
There are a couple of workarounds you can use for this.
The first is to try different printer drivers for a supported printer from the same range. For example HP printer drivers a pretty well interchangeable. Select the nearest model number off of the supported printer list and down load the driver from the manufacturer’s website and try these.
Nine times out of ten this will work.
We have recently discovered there is a second option you can try. In the Dex.ini file on each workstation add in the following printer commands.
FontCourier New=Lucida Console
Tolerance=-1
MinMilHeight=180
This forces the printer to take on the above font settings, however a quick word of warning, it does not work with all printers and print drivers as they don’t all support these settings and it may not alter the output of the report (In which case you will need to experiment with drivers).
If you have any questions contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
This usually happens if you are using an unsupported printer. You can request a list of supported printers from helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk .
There are a couple of workarounds you can use for this.
The first is to try different printer drivers for a supported printer from the same range. For example HP printer drivers a pretty well interchangeable. Select the nearest model number off of the supported printer list and down load the driver from the manufacturer’s website and try these.
Nine times out of ten this will work.
We have recently discovered there is a second option you can try. In the Dex.ini file on each workstation add in the following printer commands.
FontCourier New=Lucida Console
Tolerance=-1
MinMilHeight=180
This forces the printer to take on the above font settings, however a quick word of warning, it does not work with all printers and print drivers as they don’t all support these settings and it may not alter the output of the report (In which case you will need to experiment with drivers).
If you have any questions contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Report writer, calculations, functions and those pesky global fields in Dynamics (GP)
Anyone who has tried to add a global field (such as company name or companyID) into a function used in a calculated field within report writer for Dynamics (GP), has probably become very frustrated.
For some reason Report writer handles global fields differently. To make matters worse several of these fields are non string values and have integer data types so can not be used within concatenation functions.
Well there is a way round this and it is in essence very simple.
If we take the global field of CompanyID for example. This has a data type of INT5 (integer) and so can not be used in a concatenation in a calculated field. Therefore you need to use the INT_STR function in the calculated field to change its data type to string. However because it is a global field it won’t let you do this.
So to get round this simply create a calculated field with a result type of Integer and insert the global field of companyID. This has effectively created a calculated field with the same value as the global field.
Now because it is a Calculated field Report writer will treat it normally. This means you can now use the INT_STR function but instead of using the global field you use your new calculated field.
This technique will work for all those global fields and will allow you to include them in functions within report writer and with this technique you can add global fields into functions such as STRIP, CAT and INT_STR within Dynamics (GP).
Thanks to Jon Eastman (Touchstone Consultant) who came up with this handy hint.
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
For some reason Report writer handles global fields differently. To make matters worse several of these fields are non string values and have integer data types so can not be used within concatenation functions.
Well there is a way round this and it is in essence very simple.
If we take the global field of CompanyID for example. This has a data type of INT5 (integer) and so can not be used in a concatenation in a calculated field. Therefore you need to use the INT_STR function in the calculated field to change its data type to string. However because it is a global field it won’t let you do this.
So to get round this simply create a calculated field with a result type of Integer and insert the global field of companyID. This has effectively created a calculated field with the same value as the global field.
Now because it is a Calculated field Report writer will treat it normally. This means you can now use the INT_STR function but instead of using the global field you use your new calculated field.
This technique will work for all those global fields and will allow you to include them in functions within report writer and with this technique you can add global fields into functions such as STRIP, CAT and INT_STR within Dynamics (GP).
Thanks to Jon Eastman (Touchstone Consultant) who came up with this handy hint.
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Requested registry access is not allowed Error installing on Vista or Windows server 2008
As I am sure most of you are aware Security on the Vista and server 2008 operating systems is fundamentality different from xp and others that have gone before. This can cause issues when installing Dynamics (GP) products and code onto these environments.
Usually you will get an error message along the lines of “Requested registry access is not allowed” or permission denied error. When this happens you have two options.
The First option is to disable the User Account Control (UAC) feature for the duration of the install on the machine.
1.Click Start, type accounts in the Start Search box, and then click User Accounts in the Programs list.
2. Click Turn User Account Control on or off. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
3. Click to clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box, and then click OK.
4. Restart the computer.
You can now install the code on the machine. Make sure that once you have installed the code , reset the UAC options and restart the machine again.
The Second option (and my preferred one) is to do it from the command line.
1. Open the command prompt (The command prompt is located in the Accessories group) as a user who has administrative permissions on the local computer. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
2. Type the directory of the location where you copied the .msp or install file for the service pack, and then press ENTER.
3. To run the installation, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
Msiexec /p /l*v C:\MSPErrorlog.txt
Note In the command in step 3, is a placeholder for the name of the .msp or install file.
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Usually you will get an error message along the lines of “Requested registry access is not allowed” or permission denied error. When this happens you have two options.
The First option is to disable the User Account Control (UAC) feature for the duration of the install on the machine.
1.Click Start, type accounts in the Start Search box, and then click User Accounts in the Programs list.
2. Click Turn User Account Control on or off. If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
3. Click to clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer check box, and then click OK.
4. Restart the computer.
You can now install the code on the machine. Make sure that once you have installed the code , reset the UAC options and restart the machine again.
The Second option (and my preferred one) is to do it from the command line.
1. Open the command prompt (The command prompt is located in the Accessories group) as a user who has administrative permissions on the local computer. To do this, click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator.
2. Type the directory of the location where you copied the .msp or install file for the service pack, and then press ENTER.
3. To run the installation, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
Msiexec /p
Note In the command in step 3,
If you have any questions please contact helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
Friday 2 October 2009
FRx Forecaster 7 , Roaming Profiles and Amazing Disappearing Database connections
This is a strange one and is not documented anywhere , in fact when we talked to Microsoft about this they had only seen it once before , so we thought it deserving of a blog post as this may save someone else a lot of time and effort.
This issue happens when you have Forecaster 7 installed in an environment using roaming profiles , in the case of our client they were also on terminal services but the same could be said for citrix.
The problem is, if you create connections to forecaster databases on a machine using roaming profiles, then when you log out and log back in to the machine they are gone and need to be recreated again.
The reason for this is that Forecaster 7 stores the connections on a user basis in an ini file by default in c:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Forecaster\ . This as you can see from the file path, is the users local folder not their roaming profile folder. So when the user logs back on, because roaming profiles are used the system checks the roaming profile folder and low and behold the connection details are not there.
There is no official resolution for this from Microsoft. The only option would appear to be to update the roaming profile from the local one. Our clients IT team came up with their own resolution and have set at bat file to run on login copying the details from the local folder to the roaming profile.
So in summary this is a fairly unique set of circumstances and will not affect the majority of clients however if you are using roaming profiles with forecaster you will need to consider this. Our thanks to Daniel Merchant (IT at our client’s site) who pin pointed this issue.
If you have any questions please send them to helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
This issue happens when you have Forecaster 7 installed in an environment using roaming profiles , in the case of our client they were also on terminal services but the same could be said for citrix.
The problem is, if you create connections to forecaster databases on a machine using roaming profiles, then when you log out and log back in to the machine they are gone and need to be recreated again.
The reason for this is that Forecaster 7 stores the connections on a user basis in an ini file by default in c:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Forecaster\ . This as you can see from the file path, is the users local folder not their roaming profile folder. So when the user logs back on, because roaming profiles are used the system checks the roaming profile folder and low and behold the connection details are not there.
There is no official resolution for this from Microsoft. The only option would appear to be to update the roaming profile from the local one. Our clients IT team came up with their own resolution and have set at bat file to run on login copying the details from the local folder to the roaming profile.
So in summary this is a fairly unique set of circumstances and will not affect the majority of clients however if you are using roaming profiles with forecaster you will need to consider this. Our thanks to Daniel Merchant (IT at our client’s site) who pin pointed this issue.
If you have any questions please send them to helpdesk@touchstone.co.uk
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