Programming

.NET is a programming framework created by Microsoft that developers can use to create applications more easily. .NET provides an extensive set of libraries or pre-built bundles of code that a programmer can call instead of writing the code from scratch. C# is the language created by Microsoft to develop applications within the .NET framework. The advantage of using .NET is the time-savings and associated cost savings gained through the use of the libraries that are available across all of the Microsoft products including Dynamics GP.

Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft that is used to develop computer programs for Microsoft Windows, as well as web sites, web applications, and web services. Specific to Dynamics GP, Visual Studio for Microsoft Dynamics GP is a Software Development Kit (SDK) tool set, used to build applications, which can access the Dynamics GP dictionaries (forms, windows, window fields, table fields, global variables, commands, procedures, and functions) and be triggered by changes within GP such as a window opening. These capabilities make it a great tool for our programming team when building applications using the .NET framework.

Dexterity for Dynamics GP is the programming language used to create the most highly-integrated custom applications to the Great Plains platform. It was designed in the early 1990s to build the platform-independent graphical accounting package known at that time as Great Plains Dynamics which took on the name of Dynamics GP after Microsoft acquired Great Plains. Dexterity is now used to build new functionality, user interface modifications, and database integrations that appear native to the GP application and are supported on the Standard (Desktop) and Web Client versions of GP. The benefits of using Dexterity is that the applications have the same user interface, look and feel so there is no learning curve for end-users and all of the code resides inside of GP for easy maintenance.

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SQL scripting is done to interact with the Microsoft SQL Server database directly. This allows intricate changes that may be impossible through other means. It can trigger an operation to be performed by watching for changes, deletes or inserts in the database or it can run on a schedule. SQL scripting or a SQL job runs behind the scenes so end-users never see it. An example of SQL scripting would be in our Use Tax application where a negative credit is converted to a positive debit in the database.

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Visual Basic for Applications (VBA for short) is used to modify forms and reports and add programming logic around them. An example of use of VBA would be to add a new field on a form and then have a value inserted into that field based on a calculation using data from other fields. Another example is a report built by our team for a client needing a payroll exception report, which would show anomalies or mismatches in hours logged against salary and hourly pay codes. VBA is a great tool for quick modifications, but one disadvantage is that the code needs to be stored and updated on each client machine when changes to it are made.

The Modifier is native to Dynamics GP and is mostly used to hide fields, rearrange fields, make fields required, change fonts, and other cosmetic changes within the application. Changes made by Modifier in GP are stored in the Forms Dictionary so if the Forms Dictionary is shared across all clients, then all client machines see the changes without having to load the code on each client machine.

With Extender by eOne, one can build extra windows and new data entry screens with new fields for Dynamics GP without writing a single line of code. Extender cannot modify an existing screen, but it is used to create new data entry screens and then the tools necessary to connect the new screens together to form a mini-application. The new screens can be added to Dynamics GP menus and the new fields can be added to SmartList and to Dynamics GP reports.