Great Plains Dexterity ? Microsoft Great Plains Customization Overview

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, former Great Plains Software Dynamics and eEnterprise are Dexterity-written applications. Also small business line: Microsoft Small Business Manager or Small Business Financials is written in Dexterity and uses the same code base as Great Plains.

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.

? Great Plains Alternate Forms. These are modification to existing forms ? the ones found in DYNAMICS.DIC. The most popular customization are made on SOP Entry form. If you are designing your customization ? we recommend you to avoid alternate forms ? the problem is customization version upgrade. In the case of alternate form ? customization should be redone.

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.

You can always have us help you with the customization. Call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918.

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Florida, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

---

MultiNational Corporation ERP Implementation ? Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains

If you look back to the history, you will see... Read More

Computer Phones ? Facts and Fallacies

The stakes are high when considering security, privacy, and savings,... Read More

Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePoint Document Gateway

MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including... 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

A Guide To Purchasing Professional XP Icons Online And Enhancing Your Applications

Icons are used everywhere; right from software applications, to internet... Read More

Cisco Certification: Introduction To ISDN, Part V

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

Microsoft CRM for Corporate Business ? Working Offline

If your company has regional and worldwide operations, you might... Read More

Chinese Input - Step by Step Instruction on How to Input Chinese Characters in English Windows XP

Enabling Chinese input is quick and easy, there are only... Read More

Unofficial Windows 98 SE Service Pack 2.0 RC2

Microsoft has never released a service pack for Windows98 SE,... Read More

Microsoft Business Solutions VAR/Partner Selection ? Overview for IT Director/Manager/Controller

Microsoft Great Plains and Microsoft CRM become more and more... Read More

Five Reasons for Using an O/R Mapping Tool

So, why should you use any O/R mapping tool? I... Read More

Great Plains Dexterity Customization Options ? Overview For Developers

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

XML Parser and Their Types

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

Microsoft CRM or Siebel

Siebel is traditional CRM market leader, however and mostly due... Read More

Quick Summary of Basic and Common Linux Commands

There are many commands that are used in linux on... Read More

Do You Want Your Own Fully Programmable ERP? - Part 1

We are in a transition phase in the Managerial Administration... Read More

Fleet Maintenance Software Reviews

Innovative Maintenance Systems (IMS) is one company that offers solutions... Read More

Removing Incoming Email in MS Exchange, C# Example

The purpose of one of our projects was MS Exchange... Read More

Software Process Improvement -A Successful Journey

Background: For many organizations like ours, the interim target of... Read More

Groupware: Answers the 5 Questions of Document Collaboration

Every organization which creates collaborative documents, whether they are budgets,... Read More

Implementing ERP for Large Publicly Traded Corporation ? Microsoft Great Plains

We would like first emphasize the change in the paradigm.... Read More

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

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

5 Mac Security Tips You Can?t Live Without

So, you've bought a new Macintosh, and now you may... Read More

Great Plains Custom Development: Dexterity, VBA, SQL, Crystal, eConnect ? Overview For Programmer

Microsoft Great Plains is main Microsoft Business Solutions accounting package... Read More

Corporate ERP: Microsoft Great Plains For The Plant In Brazil ? Overview For CIO

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains as new ERP for multinational... Read More

Microsoft Moves to Small Business Accounting/Retail Market ? Stakes and Thoughts

In this small article we will be looking at the... Read More

Microsoft Great Plains ? Licensing & Product Versions

Current Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has more that 10... Read More

ERP Implementation: Success Factors

As seeing large number of implementations ? in our case... Read More

C++ Tutorial 2, Input and Variables

This is the tutorial where we really get into programming.... Read More

Separate Anti-Keylogging Protection: Who Needs it Most?

If there still are few unprotected computers left, I haven't... Read More

What Stands Behind The Software Description?

With thousands of web pages added to the Net every... Read More

Review on QuarkXpress 6.0

After almost two decades of existence, Quark has become the... Read More

Basic Tips and tricks for Windows XP

Running Applications in Compatibility Mode With Windows XP, you can... Read More