Released on: August 27, 2008, 2:42 pm

Press Release Author: Alba Spectrum LLC

Industry: Computers

Press Release Summary: Microsoft Dynamics GP, or former ERP name is Great Plains
Software Dynamics / eEnterprise gives you, programmer or software developer vide
spectrum of report design tools: Crystal Reports, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services, GP ReportWriter, MS Access, MS Excel to name some of the popular.

Press Release Body: Microsoft Dynamics GP, or former ERP name is Great Plains
Software Dynamics / eEnterprise gives you, programmer or software developer vide
spectrum of report design tools: Crystal Reports, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting
Services, GP ReportWriter, MS Access, MS Excel to name some of the popular. In this
small technical paper we would like to introduce you into Crystal Reports design for
Dynamics GP, assuming that you are new to GP and need some starting help. We also
assume here, that you are on MS SQL Server Database: GP 10.0, 9.0 and 8.0, if you
are on GP 7.5 and earlier: 7.0, 6.0, 5.5, 5.0 or 4.0 where Great Plains was
available on Ctree or Pervasive SQL/Btrieve, please review database connection
options, described in our earlier articles - you will need to install Ctree/Faircom
or Pervasive ODBC drivers. Let's come back to Crystal for GP on MS SQL Server:

1. Tables specifications. You can install Dynamics GP SDK from CD #2, however for
quick and reasonably detail reference, please login GP workstation, the
Tools->Resource Description->Tables. To give you a popular reports design scenario:
Historical Sales Order Processing invoices. SOP30200 (SOP Header) and SOP30300 (SOP
line) should be lined by SOPTYPE, SOPNUMBE fields. When you have these two tables
linked, you can group invoices by customer and you can link customer master tables:
RM00101 by CUSTNMBR field

2. Report Wizard versus SQL Stored Proc or view. If you are beginner and if your
report is not overly too complex, then you can hand your project over to report
creation wizard. If you need complex data joining, aggregation and potentially
internal temporary tables, we recommend you to change the approach and build your
SQL queries on the MS SQL Server stored procedure or SQL view levels. SQL stored
procedure is the most powerful tool and here you are absolutely unlimited. If
somebody is complaining that Crystal Report doesn't work correct (something like
record duplications, omissions) - first question would be - is report based on SQL
stored procedure, and if not - recommend to port DB linking logic to stored
procedure

3. Subreports. Classical report should be from the top to the bottom line by line
with grouping and summarization. Such classical concept doesn't require subreport.
If somebody suggest subreport, first check if it could be replaced by group.

4. Calling Crystal report from GP. If you would like to use GP standard
functionality, consider calling Crystal from VBA interface, you will need sample VBA
code and the window itself should be placed into modified windows by Modifier.
Alternatively you can call Crystal from Dexterity custom objects or via popular
add-ons, such as Rockton. However often users open Crystal Reports independent and
the narrow down the result set by selecting parameters



Web Site: http://www.albaspectrum.com

Contact Details: Andrew Karasev, Alba Spectrum, LLC, http://www.albaspectum.com,
help@albaspectrum.com, 1-866-528-0577, serving Great Plains Dynamics GP community
since 1994. Please visit our information portal Pegas Planet:
http://www.pegasplanet.com. GP, SAP B1 local service in Chicago, Naperville, San
Diego, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas. We specialize in ERP remote support and we cover
the whole territory or the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, Pacific,
UK, Australia, New Zealand. US States covered: IL, CA, FL, WA, DC, NY, MI, PA, AZ,
TX, LA, GA, AL, HA, IN, WI, AL, KA, IO, NV, NM, CO, SC, NC, DE, MA.