Want to duplicate an GP Excel Report plus a few fields?

Want to duplicate an GP Excel Report plus a few fields?  Or wondering what these “Data connections” are in SmartList Builder? Or puzzled on where the “Data connection” went in Builders for GP 2010?  Wonder no more…

The GP Excel Reports are based off a series of SQL views added to the GP database. The “Default” ones are all the data straight from the view, others are the view with some restrictions added. (Same as the SmartList favorites they are modeled after.)

The programmers for GP Builders added these views as “Data Connection” in the table section for the Builders.  So you can use this data in anything you build. 

They have their own security (similar to the SQL tables/views) under MS Dynamics GP > Tools > SmartList Builders > Security > Data Connection Security.  

In GP2010, the “Data Connection” option disappears in the table section in Builders unless there are Data Connections enabled in security. (Same with the SQL table option!)

Next time you want to quickly add the data from an Excel Report (which you know are a lot like the SmartLists)… Try the Data Connection.   It might work for you.

Happy Building,
Devon

PS – for those of you familiar with SQL – check out the design of these views (names are the same as the name for the Data connection) you will learn all sorts of interesting things about the GP data and tables.  (All these neat SQL Functions “dbo.DYN_FUNC_XX”  like  DYN_FUNC_Account_Category_Number)