Tricks for building an Open Form GoTo in the Builders

GoTo’s are one of the best features of SmartList Builder, Navigation List Builder and now, via the Drilldown Builder, Excel reports and SSRS reports.  Here are some points to remember when building your Go To:

• You can only open forms that have fields that users can enter the key data into.   Sometimes this isn’t obvious.   At first look the Item Purchasing Options would seem like it wouldn’t work – the key field Item Number is greyed out.
   .
  But if you hit the Save button the item number field becomes accessible.
  
  In contrast, there are no buttons on the Manufacture’s Item Number Maintenance that will make the Item Number accessible.  You can’t build a GoTo to open this form.
  

 

NOTE – some of the most popular forms that can’t be accessed with a GoTo’s are available as Advanced GoTo’s (or Execute Procedure in Navigation List Builder.) 
SmartList Advanced GoTo’s – Payables Transaction Inquiry, Purchase Order Inquiry, Receivable Transaction Inquiry, Sales Inquiry

Navigation List – Execute Procedure – SOP Inquiry, RM Sales Inquiry, RM Cash Inquiry, PM Transaction Entry Zoom or PM Manual Payments Zoom ** In GP2010 these are also available in SmartList Builder 

• The name of the Window is the Name on the Top bar of the screen (This is the “Window Display Name”)
• To determine the Product & Series:
  • use the Support Debugging Tool (I like to got to the Security Information, select by Menu and on the Menu Explorer on the Dictonary is listed on the right) For the series you will need to use trial & error
  • GP’s  Tools | Resource Descriptions | Window
• To open the form with the related record(s), you need to reproduce the same steps, in the same order, that users do to pull up data on that form.  (So go do just that!)
• Always build your Go To in steps and test for EACH step.  First open the form without any tasks, test.   Then add your first task, test.  And so on.  If you make a mistake you will know exactly where your problem is — nothing will happen when you select your Go To.
• On SmartLists – I always test by selecting the Go To in the SmartList Go To dropdown (selecting the upper right window icon and clicking on my Go To name) rather than double-clicking on the list item to trigger the default GoTo.  This allows me to isolate problems with the Go To from problems with the Default Go To (Which, unfortunately has its own issues – to be discussed in a later post.)

For step-by-step screenshots of building a sample Go To in SmartList Builder, check out this post: http://janakirammp.blogspot.com/2009/07/smartlist-builder-building-goto.html

Sometime opening the form is easy but getting the form open with the data related to your SmartList data is a bit trickier.   That will be the subject of the next post in this series – Adding Tasks.

Until then, Happy building!
Devon

Navigation List Builder – Let’s add some Actions!

OK so you have built your Navigation List (as per my prior post: Making a new Navigation List in Builder for GP 2010) 
Now let’s add some Actions:

Default Actions
Open your new Navigation List in your Navigation Pane and you will see two Action categories: Reports and Go To. 
Reports will contain the default action “Print This List”
Go To will contain the default action “Send to Excel”
(Both options are enabled when list items are selected and will print only selected items.)

Adding to the Go To action group
This group should open forms pre-loaded with the data related to the list item

• Press the Actions Icon on the top bar for the Actions window
• Press the Add Action button on the middle right > Select Open Form on the dropdown
• Give it a description (name), Group of Go To, button size & priority
• Rest of this window is identical to adding a SmartList Go To

If you want to add a Go To to the SOP Inquiry, RM Sales Inquiry, RM Cash Inquiry, PM Transaction Entry Zoom or PM Manual Payments Zoom windows, these are included in a different section (kind-of like the Advanced Go To’s on SmartList Builder):

• Press the Actions Icon on the top bar for the Actions window
• Press the Add Action button on the middle right > Select Execute Procedure on the dropdown
• Give it a description (name), Group of Go To, button size & priority
• Product is Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Procedure – select from list of forms above
• Bottom of window populates with the Parameters required to open this form.  Click on each line, Press Edit button on right and add Table and Field to find that value on your list.

Adding to the New action group
This group should open forms so that users can enter new transactions and/or cards

• Press the Actions Icon on the top bar for the Actions window
• Press the Add Action button on the middle right > Select Open Form on the dropdown
• Give it a description (name), Group of New, button size & priority
• Start like a SmartList GoTo with your Product, Series and Form, but typically you won’t want to add any tasks  (You won’t want to pre-load any data on the form.)

Adding to the Actions or Modify action groups
Actions group is for processes to the transaction or card on your list.  Modify is for changes to the transaction or card.  (For “Edit” under Modify use the Go To instructions above – unless that transaction is listed below)

• Press the Actions Icon on the top bar for the Actions window
• Press the Add Action button on the middle right > Select Defined Action on the dropdown
• Give it a description (name), Group of Actions or Modify, button size & priority
• Product is Microsoft Dynamics GP
• Select the appropriate Series and Action from the list
• Bottom of window populates with the Parameters required for this action. Click on each line, Press Edit button on right and add Table and Field to find that value on your list.

Here is an organized list of the Defined Actions available by Series (and the Group they are typically listed under in Navigation Lists):

HUGE NOTE – the Defined Actions of Print and Email are in Navigation List Builder but do not work.  Apparently, this is a known bug – they haven’t been programmed yet.  MS expects these to be fixed in GP 2010 SP2.  This is true for all document types.

• System – Modify – Edit Note
• Financial
  • Journal Entry
    • Actions – Back out, correct, copy, post
    • Modify – Delete
  • Batch – Actions – post, delete
  • Account – Modify – Open maintenance form
• Inventory
  • Items – Modify – delete;  Site assign / unassign;  Currency assign / unassign
  • Item Price– Modify – adjust, copy, delete 
  • Inventory Transaction – Modify – Open transaction
• Purchasing
  • Vendors – Modify –  apply / remove hold, delete, email settings
  • Purchase Orders
    • Modify  – delete, apply / remove process hold
    • Actions – print, email (see note above)
  • Payable Batch – delete, post
  • Payables transaction
    • Modify  – delete, post
    • Actions – print (see note above)
• Sales
  • Customer
    • Modify – apply / remove hold, email settings, delete
    • Actions – Age account, assess finance charge ,print statement, NSF, waive FC
  • Prospect – Modify – delete
  • Salesperson – Modify – delete, inactivate, reactivate
  • Receivables Batch – delete, post
  • Receivables transaction
    • Modify  – delete, post
    • Actions – print, email (see note above)
  • SOP  Fulfillment Order – Actions – confirm pack, pick, ship
  • Sales Order Processing
    • Modify – apply & remove hold, delete, post, open entry (Edit)
    • Actions – allocate/fulfill, purchase, transfer
    • Actions (not working, see note above) – print Document, email, print Packing slip, print Picking ticket

Under the product Extender actions are avaliable for Delete, Duplicate, Open, Update value 

Let me know if you see any other issues with these actions and Happy Building!
Devon

Making a new Navigation List in Builder for GP 2010

People have been searching for and asking how to use the new Navigation List builder in GP2010. So here are some basic steps for building a Navigation List:

1. You will find the Navigation List Builder under SmartList Builder (Microsoft Dynamics GP >> Tools >>SmartList Builder >> Navigation List Builder)
2. Add your tables, restrictions & calculated fields as normal.  Set the Field Display options and field names.  (Remember you can use the Copy/Duplicate option from an existing SmartList for this.  See my posts: Making a copy of a Builder SmartList and Copy a basic SmartList from GP into SmartList Builder? )
3. On the upper right, select what Navigation Pane you want this list to appear on.
4. Check Display fields – the columns on the main list (be sparing with these – but you can add more than will show on the screen – remember that users can unselect fields so they don’t show.)
5. Select Preview fields – the bottom section on the List.  Press the Preview icon on top to organize these fields on the Preview section.
   
6. If you want a Status image     for your records – press Options icon on the top to select the source field (only fields with data types of Dropdown List or Yes/No) and image for each value.
   
7. Now you want to add the items to appear on the top dark blue bar of your list:
    
   You do this via the Actions icon on the top
   • Actions are organized into the following Groups:  Modify, New, Reports, Go To, & Actions (similar to the groups in the screen-shot above)
   • Select Large or Small Icons (the image shown will be the stock image for the Group selected)
   • Select Button priority (Primary, Secondary, Force Overflow) – what to show when displaying GP with small screen sizes
   • Several types of Actions are available:
     • Defined Action – typically items found on stock Lists for Modify and special Groups.  These will be the subject of a follow-up post. Posted on 11/5/10:  Navigation List Builder – Let’s add some Actions!
     • Execute Procedure – under Product of Microsoft Dynamics GP there are 5 to open GP windows – SOP Inquiry, RM Sales Inquiry, RM Cash Inquiry, PM Transaction Entry & PM Manual Payments 
     • Items you are used to from SmartList Builder Goto’s : Open Form, Open File & Open Web Page
8. Save your List.  You will find it at the after the rest of the Lists on the selected Navigation Pane

Try building a new Navigation List today, I think you will find these Lists very useful!

Happy Building,
Devon

Security for SmartList Builder and the other Builders

I always forget how to add a task to give a user security to access the SmartList Builder module in GP 10, so to help us all – bookmark the following post: Creating a SmartList Builder Security Task by Ralph W. on GP Users Edge.

In the first part he does a great job showing what you need to do to add this task. 

Then he goes on to:  

• “Assignment of Security Task to Security Role”  – replace their Role IDs with yours
• “Granting Access to the New SmartList Object” – generally you will want to add each new SmartList to the appropriate Task IDs.   He makes one Task with access to all SmartLists, but this may work for you, too!

For GP 2010, You will find additional items to check (not shown on these screenshots)  but the steps are the same.

To add access to a new list from Navigation List Builder you will find your new lists under the following:

Happy Building!
Devon