In this short FAQ style article we would like to introduce you - software developer, programmer, database administrator into Microsoft Great Plains Integration tools and options
Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions product for US mid-market. Historically Great Plains Software designed Great Plains Dynamics and Dynamics C/S+ as multiplatform application and the integration was possible via Great Plains Dexterity or Dexterity-based end user tools, such as Import Utility and later on via Integration Manager. When Microsoft Windows platform won the OS market (the last battle was in 1997 with PowerMac) Great Plains recommended OLE Server approach: Continuum for VB and Delphi and new Microsoft light programming technology - VBA (Visual Basic for Applications), which was integrated into Dexterity application - Great Plains Modifier (requires customization site enabler license). Since then Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise integration techniques use Microsoft technologies.
1. Microsoft SQL Server approach. This integration technique uses SQL stored procedures and views to pull data from your legacy or third party application and push it into Great Plains. The nice thing about MS SQL Server - it has linked server technology - you can establish the link to virtually all ODBC ir OLEDB compliant databases: Oracle, DB2/Unidata, Sybase, Ingress, Lotus/Domino, Pervasive SQL/Btrieve, Ctree/Faircom, Microsoft Access, Foxpro to name a few. You can schedule your integration as maintenance job or DTS package. However keep in mind that Great Plains tables structure is rather complex (it has master records, summaries, historical, work, open tables) and you should probably verify your stored procedures business logic with Great Plains source code (DYNAMICS.DIC with Dexterity procedures and functions scripts - in regular DYNAMICS.DIC these are stripped out - not every MBS partner has source code subscription - so do your selection work)
2. Great Plains Dexterity integration with Great Plains process server. This is more advanced and recommended approach, however it requires advanced Dexterity programming skills and access to the source code. The idea behind is simple - you populate so-called triggering custom table and then check it from Dexterity custom application every 5 seconds or so. If the record is there - then you process it. Processing is usually Dexterity source code stored procedure call. Great Plains uses similar logic when you post the batch and see the status in Process Monitor window. If you don't have source code - you can try to do the best guess with Microsoft Great Plains Software Development Kit (SDK)
3. Great Plains Integration Manager. This is end user tool and is easy to use. However - it uses Great Plains as OLE Server and calls Great Plains forms behind the scenes. As the result - it is very slow - we recommend using integration manager when you have up to one thousand transactions per day.
4. eConnect ? it is type of Software Development Kit with samples in VB.Net. Obviously the development environment should be Visual Studio.Net. eConnect will allow you to integrate master records - such as new customers, vendors, employees, etc, plus you can bring transactions into so called Great Plains work tables (eConnect doesn't allow you to bring open or historical records - you need to post work records in Great Plains, the same limitation applies to Integration Manager above) eConnect is rather for ongoing integration. It was initially created for eCommerce application integration to Great Plains.
Happy integrating! 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, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Dallas, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (help@albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer; help@albaspectrum.com
Culver prom limo ..Icons are used everywhere; right from software applications, to internet... Read More
In the case when you represent mid-size or mid-size-to-large business,... Read More
Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays thetasks... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Navision serves both European and American megamarkets.... Read More
Many Webmasters have never bothered to view their website's server... Read More
Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their... Read More
OEComplete is a utility for managing the personal information of... Read More
Hey Guys! Don't raise your eyebrows or fear by hearing... Read More
Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic... Read More
What is 'adware'?Adware is basically software or scripts that are... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is now approaching the phase of... Read More
Remember back in the days where screensavers were the coolest... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is web-based CRM application, deploying all... Read More
What is Snort?Snort is an open source network intrusion detection... Read More
Spyware and malware are large problems for Internet users today... Read More
Which Type of Shop Can Rely On A Home Built... Read More
.Net Framework is a platform or development environment to seamlessly... Read More
Need software to record your voice, streaming audio or musical... Read More
I started using PIP (Picture It Publishing) Platinum 2002 right... Read More
No matter how much you enjoy your favorite screensavers, sometimes... Read More
The COSMIC FP (function point) software quality metric, is no... Read More
We all already got used to computer monitoring both at... Read More
This tutorial covers OLAP solutions used by Data warehouses and... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics... Read More
Microsoft Great Plains ? ERM from Microsoft Business Solutions and... Read More
Wood Dale limo ..Microsoft Great Plains serves majority of US based horizontal and... Read More
Language development computer: Computer-based method for aiding language development seems... Read More
The various resume software offered, particularly on the internet, can... Read More
If you are in a business that passes documents around... Read More
Shareware is software that you can try before you buy;... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Small Business Manager is Great Plains Dexterity... Read More
Finding the best spyware removers to detect and remove spyware... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is mid and even corporate... Read More
In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More
Great Plains Integration Manager scripting and translation - overview for... Read More
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is present several years on the... Read More
Learning how to program software seems like a daunting task... Read More
Microsoft SQL Server is the leader for inexpensive and middle... Read More
The intuitive algorithm.Roger Penrose considered it impossible. Thinking could never... Read More
So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More
Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More
It's all about turn times in the eMedia industry! The... Read More
Intro This concise article will tell you in plain English... Read More
C++ Function templates are those functions which can handle different... Read More
Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More
If someone entered your home, uninvited and installed numerous cameras... Read More
To all web designers out there, this article is for... Read More
With thousands of web pages added to the Net every... Read More
There are plenty of articles out there about how to... Read More
If you have Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise (version 6.0 or earlier)... Read More
Software |