SQL: Querying Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Database Administrator/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. There are several reporting tools available and you definitely need to know which one to use for different types of reports.

If you are database administrator who is asked to import some data to Great Plains or repair or copy data from one company to another ? read this and you will have the clues on where to look further.

1. Microsoft Great Plains Tables Structure ? Launch Great Plains and go to Tools->Resource Description->Tables. Find the table in the proper series. If you are looking for the customers ? it should be RM00101 ? customer master file.

2. DEX_ROW_ID. This is identity column and each Great Plains table has it - this is due to the Great Plains Dexterity technology. This column is never used as a key field - so don't try to link your tables on DEX_ROW_ID. In case if you need to transfer the table from one company to another you should use these queries:

select * into GL00100_BAK from TWO.dbo.GL00100
go
alter table GL00100_BAK drop column DEX_ROW_ID
go
insert into GL00100 select * from GL00100_BAK
go
drop table GL00100_BAK

The set of queries above will transfer GL00100 (Account Master table) from TWO company into your current company. Then you need to run Checklinks - refer to GP Manual - in order to recreate the rest of the account master related tables.

3. Do not modify the table ? sometimes it seems to be nice if you just append couple of extra columns to the table - like in IV00101 - inventory master file why wouldn't you just add couple of additional descriptions. If you do this - Great Plains Dexterity engine will fail reading all your items - due to the fact that DYNAMICS.DIC (main Great Plains Dictionary file) has exact description of all the tables and Dexterity uses it for reading and writing into the specific table

4. Feel free to create SQL views or stored procs. If you are helping your internal developers to create Crystal Reports - good SQL views are real help to them. Let me give you example, the view below will show work and historical SOP Invoices - then Crystal can just use it

create view SOP_WORK_HIST
as
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP30200 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0
union
select SOPNUMBE, CUSTNMBR, CUSTNAME, DOCAMNT from SOP10100 where SOPTYPE=3 and VOIDSTTS=0

The above view will show all the work and historical non-voided invoices (SOP Type = 3 stays for invoice)

5. Some repair / unlocking tips:

If you run query above against DYNAMICS database - it will unlock the user, who accidentally shut down the computer without logging off Great Plains:

delete ACTIVITY where USERID='JOHN'

Next one will unlock hanging batch:

update SY00500 set BCHSTTUS=0 where BACHNUMB = 'JULYINVOICES04'

Happy querying! if you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains implementation and customization company, based in Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Miami and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, SQL, VB/C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

---

Causes of ERP Failures

ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning. Multi-module ERP... Read More

Antivirus Software ? Get The Bugs Before They Get You!

You turn on your computer, and it doesn't look quite... Read More

Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part V

The major reason I recommend getting your hands on real... Read More

Does your Company have Documentum?

Are you lost in the mess of documents that get... Read More

Scrap Booking Online: Word Perfect or Corel Graphics Suite?

Scrapbooks are very popular these days. I think that almost... Read More

ERP Software Financing: the Future? ? Overview for Company Owner

In our case ? we serve Microsoft Business Solutions ERP... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Logistics & Warehouse Management ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Logistics automation is often considered as barcoding extension to Sales... Read More

Free Software for Newbies and Web Developers

Here is some free software tools to help you build... Read More

Downloading Spyware Removers: Think Before, not After

Just imagine: you are walking, say, towards your car, and... Read More

ERP Remote Support: Microsoft Great Plains Analysis ? Pluses & Minuses

Former Great Plains Software Dynamics/eEnterprise and currently Microsoft Business Solutions... Read More

Anti-Spyware Protection ? Holes in the Shining Armor

Looking at all the ads which promise to get rid... Read More

Is Your Family Protected?

When you think... Read More

10 Ways to Learn a Software

Following tips help you to learn a software in lesser... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Project Accounting ? Overview For IT Director/Controller

Microsoft Business Solutions is now in process of creating so... Read More

Making The Decision To Automate Your Software Testing

Not every software testing project can or should be automated.... Read More

Databases ? How We Love to Hate Them!

You've finally created databases that you can actually use to... Read More

Fast Car Knoppix

Small can be beautiful! Working with Knoppix for the past... Read More

Free Software - Powerful Alternatives to Budget-Busting Software

When you buy a computer, it most likely comes with... Read More

Dont Choose Adobe When Working With PDF

While Adobe is the most known maker of PDF tools,... Read More

Cross-Platform Custom Software Development & Integration ? IT Strategy for Large Corporation

Microsoft Business Solutions products: Great Plains, MS CRM, Navision, Axapta,... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Service Business Customization & Integration Example

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains might be considered as ERP... Read More

10 Programming Tips

(1) Avoid using the same variable again and again for... Read More

International Support - Microsoft Great Plains VAR/Partner Selection ? Overview for V.P. IT

Looks like Microsoft Great Plains becomes more and more popular,... Read More

S is for Spying, Surveillance -- and for Software as Well

Words we choose to describe things and phenomena often show... Read More

My Experience - Making a Vision into Reality

Disclaimer: All the thoughts expressed are my views only! Your... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Jewelry ? Implementation & Customization Overview

Each Industry and market niche has business specific and unique... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Oil & Gas ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains serves the wide spectrum of horizontal markets.... Read More

Simple Solution for Php Includes - IFrames

I have recently created my first Php program. I wanted... Read More

OSI Layers Model

IntroductionDuring the early years of our modern computer era, very... Read More

An Easy Way to Develop JAVA Enterprise Applications

Research bears that less than 70 percent of development projects... Read More

Free Software: How Not To Get More Than You Bargained For!

I completed an experiment recently. I wanted to find out... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Offshore Customization & Development ? Overview for Consultant

When you visit department stores and see that majority of... Read More

XML Parser and Their Types

XML parser is a software module to read documents and... Read More