Bisulfide

If you have Microsoft Great Plains and support it for your company then you need to know some technical details about Great Plains version upgrade and what is going on behind the scenes, which options do you have in case of Dexterity, VBA, SQL customization, additional complexity comes with migration from ctree/Pervasive to MS SQL/MSDE.

What is upgrade in the language of technology? Upgrade has server and client sides.

• Server side – upgrade converts tables from old format to the new one. In general words – Microsoft Business Solutions developers may change table structure, append additional fields to add new functionality, things like that. Upgrade copies the table with changes to temporary table, then drops original table, recreates it with new structure and copies all the data from temp table to the newly created one.

• Workstation side – workstation is written in Great Plains Dexterity and has Dynamics.exe – engine and DYNAMICS.DIC – dictionary. These two plus all the additional files will be replaced with the new ones. Other dictionaries, such us REPORTS.DIC and FORMS.DIC should be also upgraded and upgrade will try to deal with them automatically. In some cases modified reports (in REPORTS.DIC) could not be upgraded and need to be recreated in the new version.

What is customization upgrade? You should consider different types of customizations: Dexterity, VBA/Modifier, SQL, ReportWriter, Crystal Reports

• Dexterity Customization – being very short – Dexterity may have so called Custom Forms – these do not need upgrade – they should work as is. Then Dexterity may alter existing Great Plains forms (so-called Alternate Great Plains forms) – in this case Dexterity customization should be redone for these forms/screens. Plus additional consideration should be given to Dexterity triggers, shadow tables, etc.

• VBA/Modifier customization – Modifier allows you to modify existing Great Plains windows – it creates so called modified Great Plains windows, stored in FORMS.DIC. Usually modification is placing new buttons or fields, which in turn will be given VBA s (stored in DYNAMICS.VBA). VBA s may call something nice, like Crystal Report, or have some data access logic. Usually the old version of DYNAMICS.VBA workds with the new version. You may need to rearrange buttons on the modified form.

• SQL – you may have some stored procs for data integration, EDI or the like – if the addressed tables will be changed in the new version then you need to analyze your SQL code. The good news is – Microsoft Business Solution doesn’t make a lot of changes since version 7.0, because Microsoft is now trying to merge the products it owns: Great Plains, Solomon, Navision and Axapta – and so has different priorities

• ReportWriter – MBS doesn’t change tables, but it keeps changing Dexterity formulas used in ReportWriter original reports – this is the problem in so-called Modified Reports upgrade – usually you have these reports modified: SOP Blank Invoice form, SOP Blank Picking ticket, etc. If report can not be upgraded – it should be redone in the new version with some exceptions.

• Crystal Reports – the nice thing about Crystal Report – id doesn’t need to be upgraded (if the fields in the tables exist in the new version – which is usually true statement)

What is upgrade for third-party modules? Your Great Plains may have so-called third party modules: Mekorma, Kampdata, Horyzon, Wennsoft, Avalara, Truepay, Trinity, Intellisol to name a few

Third party modules may have their own utility for upgrade. You just need to know that your third-party is ready for the new Great Plains version – if not – you just wait and stay on the old version.

What is migration from Ctree/Pervasive.SQL 2000 to MS SQL/MSDE? MBS has migration tool. You need first to install Great Plains on SQL Server with exactly the same account/segments structure and then install migration tool (it is Dexterity chunk) on your ctree/Pervasive workstation – then, when you integrate the chunk – you will map it to target SQL-based Great Plains Company, select all system and company tables, click the button and it will move all your tables one-by-one. In the case when your Great Plains ctree/Pervasive has third parties – you need to check if the vendor has migration tool – otherwise you have to do manual move, use SQL Linked server to your legacy data

Do I need consultant? It is probably good idea to have consultant to do the upgrade. We strongly recommend you to use consultant in the following cases

• You have Dexterity customization

• You are doing migration from Pervasive/Ctree to Microsoft SQL Server/MSDE, especially when you have third-parties without migration tools

• You have a lot or ReportWriter Modified Great Plains Reports

• You have old version of Great Plains: Dynamics or eEnteroprise 6.0 or prior – in this case you can not appeal to Microsoft Technical Support – it is discontinued

• Your Great Plains has more than 20 users and you have to have upgrade done over the weekend – if it fails – you have business problems

• You don’t have support – in this case you have to select your Microsoft Business Solutions Partner and pay for the annual support/enhancement plan – you will get new registration key and will be ready for the upgrade

Good luck in upgrading and if you have issues or concerns √ we are here to help! If you want us to do the job – give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, Texas, New York, Georgia and Florida, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com) You can reach Andrew at 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577. He is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

You might think you don’t need a firewall because windows XP has one
built in,
but read on for a plain-english explanation why this isn’t enough.

Before broadband and cable connections were common most people didn’t need a
personal firewall because they weren’t connected to the Internet for extended
periods of time.

Every computer that connects to the internet has an IP address. This is like
a sort of phone number, and is issued either to an individual computer or to
a “gateway” that connects a private network to the ‘net.

Domestic dial-up internet connections normally use a system called Dynamic
IP Addressing where people are issued with a sort of “new identity” every
time they connect, so it’s difficult to find and attack an individual computer
– Dynamic IP addressing is a bit like having your phone number change every
time you use the phone, which makes it difficult for the bad guys to find you.

But the longer you keep a particular “phone number” the more chance
there is of someone finding you and that is why high-speed always-on connections
need handling with care.

In particular, with “always on” DSL and cable connections you are
connected for extended periods of time which give the attackers more chance
of finding you if you’ve got an unprotected connection.

In these days of identity theft and with more and more security holes being
uncovered in commercial software it is vital that you have a good firewall
if you use a high-speed connection.

You may already have a firewall, either in a device called a “Broadband
Router” which goes between your computer and the Internet or the very
basic firewall built in to Windows XP Service Pack 2 and you might think that’s
all you need.

But there’s another reason that you won’t have thought of.

Basic firewalls will tell you, and hopefully protect you if someone is trying
to get in…. but they won’t tell you if something is trying to get out!

That’s right! Certain spyware and viruses can gather your personal information
and send it out of your machine without you knowing.

A good firewall will spot these attempts to send stuff out and will warn you,
quite possibly before your Antivirus or Spyware application notices the problem.
Which gives you time to get the problem fixed.

Steve Blampied lives in Jersey in the Channel Islands and has been an
independent IT consultant for around 10 years.

He is currently putting together a web site solely about free software.

http://www.freesoftwareadvice.com

He also has a small IT company in Jersey.

Technology.je Limited

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