EDI: Electronic Document Interchange for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Software Developer/Pr

Microsoft Great Plains - Microsoft Business Solutions accounting and ERP system, originally targeted to mid-size - now, with advancements and increasing reliability of its database - Microsoft SQL Server, Great Plains is attractive solution for large corporation. Big companies usually have purchasing and order processing automation via so-called Electronic Document Interchange or EDI. EDI was introduced long time ago for UNIX systems and in most of the cases appears in the form of Header, Lines and Trailer of predefined fixed position fields.

We would like to give you - programmer, software developer, database administrator the primary clues on producing EDI formatted text from Microsoft Great Plains database. Please, note however that Great Plains here is taken as the example, similar approach will work for other SQL based systems: Navision (SQL Database or C/SIDE database), Microsoft RMS, Solomon as well as Oracle and other non-Microsoft products. In the case of non-SQL system, such as old Great Plains Dynamics, ACCPAC on Pervasive SQL - IDE interface will involve ADO/ODBC or Microsoft Access programming.

1. Sample Query ? The query below uses CAST construction to make the result fixed length and meet the positioning. Plus the unionizing allows to produce Header and Detail in one select statement. Here we are dealing with work Sales Documents

select

case

when b.LNITMSEQ=c.LNITMSEQ+1 and b.CMPNTSEQ=c.CMPNTSEQ+1 then CAST('Header' as char(10))

else CAST('Detail' as char(10))

end

as FIELD0,

case

when b.LNITMSEQ=c.LNITMSEQ+1 and b.CMPNTSEQ=c.CMPNTSEQ+1 then cast(a.CUSTNAME as char(65))

else cast(cast(b.QTYDMGED as decimal(19,5)) as char(65))

end

as FIELD01,

case

when b.LNITMSEQ=c.LNITMSEQ+1 and b.CMPNTSEQ=c.CMPNTSEQ+1 then CONVERT(char(51), a.DOCDATE, 101)

else cast(b.ITEMDESC as char(51))

end

as FIELD03

--Additional fields go here

from SOP10100 a join SOP10200 b on a.SOPTYPE=b.SOPTYPE and a.SOPNUMBE=b.SOPNUMBE join

RM00101 d on a.CUSTNMBR=d.CUSTNMBR

join

(select SOPTYPE as SOPTYPE, SOPNUMBE as SOPNUMBE,

LNITMSEQ

as LNITMSEQ,

CMPNTSEQ

as CMPNTSEQ from SOP10200

union

select SOPTYPE as SOPTYPE, SOPNUMBE as SOPNUMBE, MIN(LNITMSEQ)-1 as LNITMSEQ, MIN(CMPNTSEQ)-1 as CMPNTSEQ from SOP10200

group by SOPTYPE, SOPNUMBE

) c on a.SOPTYPE=c.SOPTYPE and a.SOPNUMBE=c.SOPNUMBE

and ((b.LNITMSEQ=c.LNITMSEQ and b.CMPNTSEQ=c.CMPNTSEQ) or (b.LNITMSEQ=c.LNITMSEQ+1 and b.CMPNTSEQ=c.CMPNTSEQ+1))

left join SOP10106 udf on a.SOPTYPE=udf.SOPTYPE and a.SOPNUMBE=udf.SOPNUMBE

where a.ADDRESS3'Exported' and

a.SOPTYPE=3 and upper(d.USERDEF2)='YES'

order by a.SOPTYPE, a.SOPNUMBE, b.LNITMSEQ asc

2. Mark processed documents - for this reason we use SOP10100.ADDRESS3 field - which was not used in Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise version 6.0:

update SOP10100 set ADDRESS3='Exported' where SOPTYPE=3

3. Communication with UNIX EDI Client or Server ? each case requires individual approach. You may have to assign the file directory, exposed to the UNIX system or use old DOS command to move the file, or you can have automatic email. Good idea is to write communication application in your favorite programming language

4. Scheduled DTS Package - you should probably create DTS package to do all the steps: call SQL Query and save it as a file, then call DOS command or simple EXE application - which does communicate with UNIX

Happy programming! 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 Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, based in Chicago, California, Colorado, Arizona, New York, Texas, Florida, Georgia and having locations in multiple states and internationally (www.albaspectrum.com), he is Dexterity, Transact SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer; akarasev@albaspectrum.com

---

Microsoft Great Plains Accounting/ERP Implementation ? Finance Industry Customization Example

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is very generic accounting application... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains Furniture & Fixtures ? Implementation & Customization Highlights

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics / eEnterprise... Read More

Your Computer May Be Infected, Heres How To Check (NOT about virus)

NOTE: Please take time to read on - it may... Read More

How the Firefox: How to... Manual Helped Me

A few months back I really got sick of my... Read More

COSMIC: A Small Improvement on the Symons Method

The COSMIC FP (function point) software quality metric, is no... Read More

How a Bug Challenges to a Software Professional

It is really interesting that a bug can create problem... Read More

Groupware: What Works the Way Businesses Do?

GroupwareThe internet is full of 1.5 million to 7 million... Read More

Great Plains Dynamics on Pervasive/Ctree support ? overview for consultant

All of us know that Microsoft bought former Great Plains... Read More

Passwords Used In Microsoft Word Documents

You would like to protect your documents, wouldn't you? Reasons... Read More

Reloading Windows XP

If you have been running Windows XP for a couple... Read More

Create A Flash Presentation For Free With Open Office

The intentions of this short tutorial are not to teach... Read More

These Items Are A Must Before Making The Decision To Purchase Any Off-The-Shelf Software

1. What determines the software price? Is it Per Seat... Read More

Cisco Certification: Five Things To Do DURING Your CCNA Exam

There are plenty of articles out there about how to... Read More

Run Your Own Search Engine

Our hosted solution allow you to run your own search... Read More

Builders Beware

Which Type of Shop Can Rely On A Home Built... Read More

Inherent Dangers Of File Sharing Via The Internet.

Cyberspace has opened up a new frontier with exciting possibilities... Read More

Vlans

In order to implement VLANs in a network environment, you'll... Read More

10 Steps To Secure And Manage Your Passwords

Passwords protect your most sensitive personal, financial and business information.... Read More

My Experience - Making a Vision into Reality

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

Microsoft CRM Implementation - US Market Lessons

Microsoft CRM is CRM answer from Microsoft Business Solutions. If... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains: Customization Upgrade & Recovery ? Visual Studio VB 6.0

Microsoft Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics, eEnterprise has... Read More

Free PDF Publishing Software

In a previous article, I wrote about OpenOffice... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains e-Commerce ? additional considerations for programmer

Microsoft Great Plains, designed back in 1990th as database transferable... Read More

Why Stick With Email Clients Like Outlook?

Trying to figure out a stream in banning one email... Read More

Ukraine IT Myths Dispersed

While Ukraine is becoming a new popular IT outsourcing destination,... Read More

Crystal Reports for Microsoft Great Plains ? Overview for Developer

Microsoft Great Plains is main accounting / ERP application... Read More

Why Java RDBMS?

It is a well known fact that Java as a... Read More

Begun, The Browser Wars Have

As Mozilla Firefox nears 10% market share, with well over... Read More

FreeDOS

Before September 1995, Microsoft Windows was an MS-DOS program. DOS... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Axapta ? Selection Considerations

During the years of our consulting practice, which comes back... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains POP: Purchase Order Processing ? Overview For Consultants

Great Plains Purchase Order Processing (POP) module makes up one-third... Read More

Lotus Domino: Reports and Connectors ? Crystal Reports, XML, ODBC/JDBC, OLE

Lotus Notes Domino is very efficient in electronic document workflow... Read More

Can Group Collaboration Software Meet Business Needs?

According to a survey conducted by InfoTrends/CAP Ventures entitled "Content-Centric... Read More