Thursday, January 31, 2013

Create and Assign a team when a new record is created in MS CRM 2011



More often we will need to create a Team when a new record is created in MS CRM and assign the team back to same record. This can be easily done through two plugins:
  • Plugin 1: Create a Team
  • Plugin 2: Assign the Team to Record
In some case we will not have the luxury to have this as two plugins and confined to achieve them through single Plugin (or through Custom development). But we will often get “Security Role Privilege Error” when trying to achieve these through single plugin. This happens as it takes some time for the privileges to propagate to the newly created team. 
To resolve this issue we need to delay and check the application until the privilege has been assigned.
Here are steps for achieving this through single plugin:
 
1.       Create Team based on the newly created record.
2.       Assign Security role to the created Team.
3.       Check if the required privilege is assigned to team and delay the application until 
        the privilege is set (see below).
 
bool teamLacksPrivilege = true;            
while (teamLacksPrivilege)
{
       RetrieveTeamPrivilegesRequest retrieveTeamPrivilegesRequest = 
       new RetrieveTeamPrivilegesRequest
       {
                    TeamId = _teamId
                }; 
     RetrieveTeamPrivilegesResponse retrieveTeamPrivilegesResponse =
       (RetrieveTeamPrivilegesResponse)_service.Execute(
       retrieveTeamPrivilegesRequest);
 
     foreach (RolePrivilege rp in 
        retrieveTeamPrivilegesResponse.RolePrivileges)
        {
            if (rp.PrivilegeId == readAccountPrivilege.Id)
            {
                 teamLacksPrivilege = false;
                 break;
            }
            else
            {
                 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.Join(500);
            }
        }
}
 
4.       Assign the Team to created Record.

Dynamics GP 2010 and SL 2011 on the same machine


We had a situation of installing Dynamics GP 2010 and SL 2011 on the same machine. Both products have been installed without any issues. However, if we tried to open Dynamics GP, the below error message appears and crashed the GP application.

Error Message                       



Exception Message in Event Viewer

Faulting application name: Dynamics.exe, version: 10.0.324.0, time stamp: 0x4a39b637
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.1.7600.16385, time stamp: 0x4a5bdaae
Exception code: 0xe0434f4d
Fault offset: 0x00009617
Faulting process id: 0x1180
Faulting application start time: 0x01cb280e1d3be92d
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP\Dynamics.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 18d9ebd3-941f-11df-8ddb-18a905f104ee

We have searched and found the cause of the issue in the Internet and the cause is as follows,
Cause   

The .NET framework assemblies for all the Dynamics family products have the same name, signed by Microsoft, and have the same version number but each product modifies the assemblies as desired except Dynamics GP. So, we need to move other Dynamics product assemblies to their own location.
Resolution

Move the following assembly files from C:\Windows\Assembly folder to Microsoft Dynamics SL installation folder.

1.       Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.UI.WinForms.Controls.dll
2.       Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.UI.Navigation.dll
3.       Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.UI.WinForms.Controls.ni.dll
4.       Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.UI.Navigation.ni.dll

After moving the assemblies to Dynamics SL folder, Dynamics GP opens without any issues.

Hope this helps!!!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Management Reporter for Dynamics SL


Introduction  

Management Reporter(MR) is a real-time financial reporting application designed to empower information workers too quickly and easily create, generate, secure, and publish financial statements, such as Profit and Loss (P&L) statements, balance sheets, Trial balance and Income statement

Why Customers Are Moving to MR

Though FRx is already an effective Management Reporting tool, there are lot of advantages of using MR than FRx that are listed below. 
  • MR is much easier to support since it is much more current technology.  The look and feel of the software is very similar to other Microsoft products which should be easy for the user to learn and use.
  • Report Server in MR is useful to publish your reports to a web server and all users can view, print and Export to Excel.
  • The underlying Database in MR is SQL Server, the best database solution from Microsoft providing the enhanced stability to the solutions where FRx is using Access as the database. 
  • MR allows for “undo” when you make a mistake editing a row, column, or tree. The error correction is not easy in FRx compared to MR.
  • MR publishes reports to SharePoint in a seamless manner and with less effort once MR is configured which is not possible with FRx. 
  • Stress key numbers to highlight the numbers which is in negative and turns those numbers into red which is a key feature with MR.
  • Personalized reports as per the company standards to include the Logos & Graphs is a feature of MR.

Key Features

  1.  Easy creation and customization
  2. Advanced financial intelligence
  3. Multiple ways to access reports

Client Workstation Requirements

           

Step's for Installing MR Version - 2.1

Server Installation

  1.  Run the  setup
  2. Check the check box ( I accept the terms in the  license agreement)
  3. Click Next
  4. Browse your path (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics ERP\Management Reporter\2.1\)
  5. Click Next , Click Install
  6. Check the Check box ( Start the configuration console to continue)
  7. Click Finish
  8. Check the Check box ( Add Microsoft dynamic SL)

     9.  Click Next

Service Account


        You must specify the account under which the services will run.  In my example, I simply used 
        my own domain account, although you may prefer to use a different account.  If you enter a
        specific account, you will have to provide the password for that domain account.


Database Configuration


       Enter the name of SQL Server database server on which the MR Database will be created, 
       then enter credentials that can be used to create the database. The specified user must be a 
       member of the sys-admin role on the SQL Server.


Application service


         The Management Reporter application service will be configured to use the following port.
          Leave the default port or type a new port.



Microsoft Dynamic SL


          Enter the name of SQL database server, and then enter SQL (or) Windows credentials. 
          Database automatically listed.



    10.  Click Next
    11.  Click Configure



    12.  When the data provider is successfully configured, click Close 



    13.  Start menu -> Click (configuration console)
    14.  Select your database, click import.


    15.  Enter your login credentials , Click ok
    16.  If you don't want the companies that are showing in the screen just check skip Check box.


                       Click Import companies, a message box will pop up , click ok then closes.

Client Installation

  1. Run the  setup 
  2. Check the check box ( I accept the terms in the  license agreement)
  3. Click Next
  4. Browse your path (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics ERP\Management Reporter\2.1\)
  5. Enter Server name: port (http://solomon-2011:4712)
  6. Click Next , Click Install
  7. Click Finish
  8. Start menu -> Click (Report Designer)  -> Click Yes
  9. Choose the  company , click Set As Default

Note: If you use SQL authentication, uncheck the Windows authentication check box, specify the Microsoft    
          Dynamics SL user name and password

     10.  Enter your login credentials , Click ok

Creating a new report using Report Wizard

    Given below are the procedures to create a new report by using the Report Wizard:
  •  On the Tools menu, click Report Wizard
                                      (Or)
                     Click Report Wizard icon.
  • On the Getting Started page, do the following:
            -->  In the Report Template list following

                     1.  Balance Sheets – current and YTD
                     2.  Income Statements – Rolling Quarter
                     3.  Income Statements – Actual vs. Budget
                     4.  Monthly Trial Balance
                                 Click any one of the radio button. 

              -->  Actual book code list, Select a choice.
              -->  Click Next.

  • On the Define Your Report Sections page, do the following:
                     1.  In the Report section list, click a section of the report.
                     2.  Select one or more segment values, and then click Add.
                     3.  Click Next
                     4.  On the Reorder and Edit Your Report Sections page, click next.
                     5.  On the Format and Preview Your Report page, click next.
                     6.  On the Choose Your Report Structure page, select Create one report for the entire 
                          entity, and then click next.

  • On the Name and Generate Your Report page, do the following:
                     1.  In the Name box, type a name for your report.
                     2.  Select the Generate this report after the wizard closes check box.
                     3.  In the Period box, choose the period.
                     4.  In the Year box, choose the Year.
                             The report date changes to reflect the specified period and year.
                     5.  Click Next
                     6.  On the Completing the Report Wizard page, review the report
                             Definition settings, and then click Finish
                     7.  Click Ok
                     8.  Click Generate
                     9.  A sample Report will appear within few moments.


 Long post.Hope this post helps!!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

GP 2013 Web Client Login Issues


When you log into GP 2013 web client, some “Unexpected Error” issues may occur. Here, we are giving you few resolutions for the issues.

Error:
An unexpected error has occurred. Press the Sign-in button to reconnect to the application.


This error could be because of any one of the below causes:

Go to Event Viewer in your server and find out if you see any one of the below error message appears in the Event Viewer.

Cause 1:

Exception message in Event Viewer:

Cannot open database "GPWEBCLIENTSESSIONCENTRAL" requested by the login. The login failed.

If you see this error message in the Event Viewer, follow the steps mentioned in Resolution 1.


Cause 2:

Exception message in Event Viewer:

The application is configured to issue secure cookies. These cookies require the browser to issue the request over SSL (https protocol). However, the current request is not over SSL.

If you see this error message in the Event Viewer, follow the steps mentioned in Resolution 2.

Resolution 1 for Cause 1:

1. Verify the databases "GPWEBCLIENTSESSIONCENTRAL” and “GPWEBMANAGEMENT” are created in the SQL Server. If not, create these databases using web client configuration wizard.

Note: To open Web Client Configuration Wizard, go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Administrative Tools\Dynamics GP Web Client Configuration Wizard

2.    Make sure that “GP Session Central Service” and “GP Session Services” have started. If not, start the services.



Resolution 2 for Cause 2:

Remove Cache, Temporary internet files from browser, restart the server and then check again.
If the issue still exists, set requireSSL="false" in the file web.xml (C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GP Web Client\GPweb\Web.xml).

Hope this helps!!!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Using Multiple Services in one NAV Server


In continuation to the previous article of “Creating the multiple services in NAV”, we are going to see instances where multiple Services in NAV can be used effectively.

Where do we apply?
                Multiple Services can be used in connecting a Role Tailored Client to multiple databases through a Single NAV Server Computer.

How do we do?
The steps below indicate us on how to connect RTC with Second Instance:

1.       As a preliminary step, we need to change the name of the second service that was created. This must be done to identify the different services present in the local system.

2.       Create Name for the Second service:
a.       Go to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60\Service2 folder. Open the CustomSettings. Config File. By Default, this file will open with Visual Studio.
b.      Search for the following line: <add key="ServerInstance" value="DynamicsNAV" />
c.       Replace the “DynamicsNAV” with “DynamicsNAV2”
d.      Save the changes.

3.       With this new name we can avoid the conflict of selecting the different databases.
4.       Open the RTC.
5.       In the Role Center menu bar, Click Microsoft Dynamics NAV and then click “Select Server”.
6.       Type the second server name as DynamicsNAV2 and click Connect.
7.       Select the companies that are available in the connected database and then click connect.
8.       We are now going to working with the second database in RTC.

Note: Before starting to work with the second service we must activate port sharing so that multiple clients can share the same port number.

How to activate Port Sharing?
·         Open the Services (StartàRunàServices.msc).
·         Search the  Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service and go to its properties
·         On the General tab, select the Startup as Manual and click OK.
·         Start the Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service.

Note: We can also specify a separate port number for each Service. We then do not need to implement TCP port sharing. For Permission Issues See Configuring the Net.TCP Port Sharing Service.