Software Information

Great Plains Dexterity Programming - Overview For Developer


Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular, partly because of Microsoft muscles behind it. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. Small companies use Small Business Manager (which is based on the same technology - Great Plains Dexterity dictionary and runtime), Great Plains Standard on MSDE is for small to midsize clients, and then Great Plains serves the rest of the market up to big corporations.

If you are developer who is asked: how do we customize Great Plains with its native programming language - Great Plains Dexterity - read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

The history of the Dexterity. Great Plains Dexterity - is proprietary programming language and technology, designed back to earlier 1990th with the goal to build platform independent graphical accounting package - Great Plains Dynamics. Dexterity itself is written in C (following popular those days hope - that C will provide platform independence). You can install Dexterity from Great Plains 7.5 CD #2. Obviously it requires a lot of learning / training, but it allows your custom piece be seamlessly integrated with Great Plains interface.

Native Dexterity Cursors. Dexterity was designed as platform independent programming language and so if you want your code to be operable on all currently supported databases - you use Dexterity ranges and loops to manipulate the records

Great Plains Dexterity with SQL Stored Procs Nowadays, most of Great Plains installations are moved to SQL Server - so you can use Dexterity for custom forms drawing only and make the buttons run SQL stored procedures.

COM Objects calls. Beginning with version 7.0 Dexterity supports COM objects - you register them as libraries in Dexterity. Refer the manual. This technique allows you to call such nice things as web services across the internet.

Dexterity Forms - if you like VBA and are comfortable to do all the business logic in VBA - you can use Dexterity as new forms creator/editor. This is OK - but you have to purchase VBA/Modifier and Customization Site Enabler from MBS.

Some restrictions. Great Plains is actually integration of multiple dictionaries: DYNAMICS.DIC, ADVSECUR.DIC, EXP1493.DIC, etc. In your Dexterity customization you can deal with one dictionary - DYNAMICS.DIC. If you need cross dictionaries customization - consider using SQL Stored Procs for crossing dictionary borders and pulling data/making changes in the other dictionary..

Happy customizing! if you want us to do the job - give us a call.

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies - USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, New York and having locations in multiple states and internationally www.albaspectrum.com, he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

akarasev@albaspectrum.com

1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Business Wire (press release)

Elliott Terminates Tender Offer to Acquire Epicor Software Corporation
MarketWatch - Nov 21, 2008
... LP and Elliott International, LP (collectively, "Elliott" or "we"), a major shareholder of Epicor Software Corporation (the "Company" or "Epicor"), ...
Epicor drops after hedge fund ends hostile bid Forbes
Hedge Fund Elliott Associates Withdraws Offer for Epicor Software Orange County Business Journal
UPDATE 1-Hedge Fund ends offer for Epicor Reuters
RTT News - Barron's Blogs
all 45 news articles


New York Times

The best thing about the 2.2 iPhone software update
CNET News, CA - Nov 21, 2008
When it some to iPhone software updates, I'm all about the basics. Apple could enable the iPhone to cook my dinner every night, but if it added multimedia ...
First Look: Apple's iPhone 2.2 Software Hits The Street (And ... CRN
Lots to like about new iPhone 2.2 software update Ars Technica
Apple releases iPhone Software v2.2 Apple Insider
G4 TV - infoSync World
all 144 news articles


Canada.com

Microsoft to offer free security software to attract beginners
eTaiwan News, Taiwan - Nov 21, 2008
19 to stop selling personal computer security software and to use free personal anti-virus software instead. The new software called Morro can support seven ...
Microsoft: New software not Symantec, McAfee rival Reuters
Microsoft Plans to Introduce Free PC Security Software Wall Street Journal
Spamhaus: Microsoft Now 5th Most Spam Friendly ISP Washington Post
NetworkWorld.com - Bizjournals.com
all 304 news articles


Vertical Releases Feature-Rich Software Update for Wave
MarketWatch - 19 hours ago
... today announced the release of the Wave 1.5 software upgrade to it's award winning Wave IP 2500(TM) Business Communications Solution, the industry's ...


Hann’s On Software bouht by Mediware
Bizjournals.com, NC - Nov 21, 2008
Mediware Information Systems Inc. has bought the assets of Hann’s On Software, a pharmacy-management software provider based in Santa Rosa, for $3.5 million ...
Mediware Acquisition Adds 320 Pharmacy Facilities MarketWatch
Mediware Information buys assets of Hann's On Software - Quick Facts RTT News
Mediware Acquisition Adds 320 Pharmacy Facilities International Business Times
all 19 news articles


AVG Sees Uphill Battle for Microsoft in Its Launch of Free Anti ...
MarketWatch - Nov 21, 2008
AVG, which for eight years has offered free anti-virus software to users worldwide, noted the multiple challenges Microsoft faces in supporting a free ...
AVG sees 'uphill battle' for Microsoft Morro TechRadar UK
Microsoft Announces Upcoming Events for the Financial Community NewsBlaze
Microsoft Announces Upcoming Events for the Financial Community MarketWatch
all 30 news articles


Microsoft’s Mike Neil Keynotes at SYS-CON's 4th International ...
SYS-CON Media, NJ - 18 hours ago
... Black Duck Software, Blackbaud, Blade Network Technologies, Blue Coat, Blue Lane, BlueArc, BlueNote Networks, BluePheonix Solutions, BMC Software, ...
Teaching Everyone to Speak Big Blue New York Times
IBM To Acquire Virtualization Specialist Transitive InformationWeek
IBM To Buy Virtualization-Software Company Transitive NewsFactor Network
eWeek - SearchDataCenter.com
all 95 news articles


Frankly speaking, speech software better but still not great
Seattle Times, United States - 11 hours ago
Getting a computer to turn your speech into words on the screen requires buying expensive, resource-intensive software and mastering a sometimes confusing ...


Authoria Appoints New President and CEO
MarketWatch - Nov 21, 2008
Prior to joining Authoria, Mr. McDevitt was most recently Chief Operating Officer of CDC Software, a $360 million division of CDC Corporation and a global ...


Microsoft purges phony security software from 1 million PCs
Computerworld, MA - 22 hours ago
Windows users have been plagued with a flood of worthless security software in recent months as criminals have discovered that they're money-makers. ...

Software - Google News

home | site map
© 2006