Steve comes with a great post detailing his recent experience on econnect integration in Dynamics GP V9.0. Read the article, clicking the below link

Dynamics GP Land: Sending XML Files to eConnect

In this post I will talk about the changes made to the API for eConnect for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and how developers can take advantage of these changes to affect their custom application.   If you have been using eConnect 2010 you have already realized that there is a new Windows service running called the eConnect for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Integration Service.   This is a change from the version 9 and 10 days where there was a COM+ application for eConnect that appeared under Component Services.  Like the eConnect COM+ application, the eConnect 2010 service runs under a Windows user that requires DYNGRP role access in the DYNAMICS and company databases.  I will breakdown some of the other changes in the following sections.

eConnectMethods Class

There are several new methods added to this class and they are discussed in the eConnect Programmers guide in MSDN here.   These methods provide the functionality for reading and writing to the Dynamics GP databases.   One of the more interesting changes is that the CreateTransactionEntity method returns a string value.   This string is the XML that is passed to the eConnect API and it includes the generated Document Number of the transaction.    So if you are integrating Sales Transactions and do not pass the SOPNUMBE value in the XML, the eConnect API retrieves the next number internally and you will then be able to see the SOPNUMBE in the string value returned by the CreateTransactionEntity method.

The CreateEntity, CreateTransactionEntity, DeleteEntity, DeleteTransactionEntity, UpdateEntity, and UpdateTransactionEntity may have different names but they all go down the same road.   In other words, right now they have been named this way for readability but have no real big differences.  For instance, it is possible to create a GL Transaction by passing a GL Transaction Type XML document to the DeleteEntity method.   The only difference between these methods is that the CreateTransactionEntity returns a string and the others return a bool!   An advantage to having different naming conventions would be for readability of your code.   If you have an application that does multiple operations like creating new transactions, updating existing customers, and deleting addresses, you could pass the specific XML documents to the desired methods so the code would be easier to understand from a developer perspective.   For example, you would pass your XML document that updates a customer record to the UpdateEntity method and you would pass a new Sales Invoice transaction XML document to the CreateTransactionEntity method.  

RequireProxyService

You can bypass using the new eConnect Windows service so your application calls the eConnect stored procedures under the context of the user running the application.  Thus the eConnect service does not even need to be running and the user(s) running the application will need to have access in SQL server.  You can give them DYNGRP role access or something more granular like spefic access to eConnect stored procedures and tables.  You can take advantage of this option in a couple ways where you will set the RequireProxyService configuration property to false.   The default value for this setting is true so by default the eConnect service needs to be running.   If it is not, you will receive a "There was no endpoint listening at net.pipe://localhost/Microsoft/Dynamics/GP/eConnect/EntityOperations that could accept the message" error when the eConnect API attempts to intialize the service proxy.  

There are two ways to use this configuration setting:

1.  Add a key for this setting in your application config file like below:

 2.  In your application code, set the RequireProxyService property of the eConnectMethods class to false:

An interesting related tidbit is that the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 takes advantage of this setting.  If you have the Microsoft Dynamics GP Web Services installed, take a peek at the WSServiceAppSettings.config file under the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\GPWebServices\ServiceConfigs folder.   You will see a line at the bottom of the file that sets the RequireProxyService to false.   You can even go ahead and stop the eConnect Integration Service and attempt a call to a method in the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Web Services and it will be successful.   Go ahead I know you want to try!  The web services call will be successful because the eConnect service proxy is bypassed and the call to the eConnect SQL objects is made under the context of the user running the Microsoft Dynamics GP Service Host service that is used by the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Web Services.

ReuseBaseTransaction

When using multiple transaction types in a single XML document, a change to the API for eConnect 2010 was made in regards to the way transactions are processed.  If you use the eConnectProcessInfo node for each transaction type in the XML document, then each transaction type will run as a seperate transaction.   This is fairly signficant because the entire XML document is not treated as one transaction.  So transaction types that are successful will not rollback if an error is hit with a transaction type that runs later in the XML.  Take for example the following XML:

 If the SOP transaction is successful but the POP transaction fails for some reason, the SOP transaction will not rollback.   This is a change when compared to how this worked in previous versions of eConnect.   However, there is a configuration setting called ReuseBaseTransaction that can be used to make sure that each transaction type will use the same SQL connection so everything would rollback in the XML document.  You can set ReuseBaseTransaction to true by adding it to your application config file or the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Service.exe.config file depending on if you are using the service proxy (RequireProxyService).

 Keep in mind this behavior change only happens when using multiple transaction types in your XML document AND using a eConnectProcessInfo node in the transaction type.   If you do not use eConnectProcessInfo, then the same transaction is used by default for the entire XML document.

Using the eConnect WCF Service

You may choose to use the eConnect Integration Service by making a service reference in your Visual Studio project.   The programming reference and techniques for doing so are discussed in MSDN here.  The eConnect Integration Service is a new WCF service available in the 2010 version of eConnect.  So if you are developer with experience around WCF programming techniques or want to do more with WCF, this is one strategy to use with an upcoming eConnect project.  When using the eConnect Integration Service as a Service Reference, you do not need to make a reference to the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect assembly since all the classes are available with your service reference.  You would still need to make a reference to the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Serialization assembly to help in constructing eConnect XML documents if necessary.

One advantage I have seen in a few cases so far is the ability to call into eConnect with a specified Windows account.   This may come into play when you have a web application that supports Anonymous or Forms based authentication and the web application needs to call the eConnect API to interact with Dynamics GP.   If you are using the Service Reference, you have access to a DynamicsGPClient object which gives you access to a ClientCredential property.   In the below code example, I use the System.Net namespace to use a NetworkCredential object that I can pass to the ClientCredential.  

Using the above pattern I can pass a specific Windows user credential to the eConnect API that will have access to the eConnect Integration Service because it is a valid Windows user.  Depending on the web site security and configuration, if I do not do this then I may receive a message that says something like:

The pipe name could not be obtained for the pipe URI: Access is denied.  (5, 0x5)

Tracing Steps 

On version 9 and 10 of eConnect it was possible to do tracing of the eConnect API but you could only do it by modifying the .Net Framework machine.config file and then give the COM+ user account for eConnect Full Control to the root of the C drive.  That was not always ideal.  Things have changed for the better when it comes to tracing in eConnect 2010! 

In addition to tracing the eConnect API which gives you insight into the XML string passed and connection string info, you can also initialize tracing the WCF layer.   So any type of exception in the WCF layer can be traced.   You can add tracing information to either your application config file if you are setting RequireProxyService="false" or you can add tracing information to the Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Service.exe.config file if RequireProxyService="true".   Remember the latter setting is the default and right now the most common usage we see.   I always use the below tracing information so to make things easy I will just copy my entire Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Service.exe.config file which you can copy into your Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Service.exe.config file or simply replace it:

The tracing output will create files in the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics\eConnect 11.0 folder.   The Windows user running the eConnect Integration Service will need Full Control to this location to make sure all the files are written to it.   The settings I used above are set to "Verbose" so the files can grow to a large size quickly if this is left on and you have a heavy integration.  I would advise to use tracing only in troubleshooting issues with eConnect.   An example would be when you use the Web Services for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 since tracing will give you access to the generated eConnect XML document serialized by the Web Services.  

When using the above tracing information that I provided, the eConnect.log file can be viewed to see the generated eConnect XML passed to the API along with the connection string.   The files that end with .svclog are WCF trace files and can be viewed with Notepad but they are difficult to read.   If you have the Windows SDK installed from Visual Studio, you may have the Service Trace Viewer application (C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\SvcTraceViewer.exe) which is great for loading up .svclog files and finding information about exceptions easier.

I know there has been a number of changes with the eConnect 2010 release and unfortunately I can't cover all of them here but hopefully this will be helpful for you.

Chris

I had a case this week that was asking a fairly commonly asked question about integrating address information using eConnect. The scenario is that we want to update a customer or vendor address and the previous address had three lines in the address and the new address only has two lines. When the update is processed, Address Lines 1 and 2 have been updated, but Address Line 3 has the old data and has not been cleared.

So how can I update Address Line 3 with blank data?

Background

Let's start with a little more background information.

Using the <taCreateVendorAddress> node, we can create a new vendor address with 3 lines. Below is the example XML used:

<eConnect>
  <PMVendorAddressType>
    <taCreateVendorAddress_Items>
      <taCreateVendorAddress>
        <VENDORID>ACETRAVE0001</VENDORID>
        <ADRSCODE>WAREHOUSE</ADRSCODE>
        <UPSZONE></UPSZONE>
        <SHIPMTHD></SHIPMTHD>
        <TAXSCHID></TAXSCHID>
        <VNDCNTCT></VNDCNTCT>
        <ADDRESS1>Unit 42</ADDRESS1>
        <ADDRESS2>XYZ Building</ADDRESS2>
        <ADDRESS3>100 Main Street</ADDRESS3>
        <COUNTRY>Australia</COUNTRY>
        <CITY>Perth</CITY>
        <STATE>WA</STATE>
        <ZIPCODE>6000</ZIPCODE>
        <PHNUMBR1></PHNUMBR1>
        <PHNUMBR2></PHNUMBR2>
        <PHNUMBR3></PHNUMBR3>
        <FAXNUMBR></FAXNUMBR>
        <UpdateIfExists>1</UpdateIfExists>
        <RequesterTrx></RequesterTrx>
        <CCode></CCode>
        <USRDEFND1></USRDEFND1>
        <USRDEFND2></USRDEFND2>
        <USRDEFND3></USRDEFND3>
        <USRDEFND4></USRDEFND4>
        <USRDEFND5></USRDEFND5>
      </taCreateVendorAddress>
    </taCreateVendorAddress_Items>
  </PMVendorAddressType>
</eConnect>

 This creates the address as shown in the screenshot below:

 So now we want to update this address.  We no longer want the XYZ Building line in the address and so change address lines in the above xml document to be:

        <ADDRESS1>Unit 42</ADDRESS1>
        <ADDRESS2>100 Main Street</ADDRESS2>
        <ADDRESS3></ADDRESS3>

Note: We also have the element <UpdateIfExists> set to 1, so it can both create and update addresses.

After importing the update XML document our address looks like the screenshot below: 

As you can see, the Address Line 3 has not been cleared from its previous value. The reason is that the eConnect code only updates fields where a value is passed and we did not pass a value for that field.

One suggestion I have heard was to pass a space through for the <Address3> element, however the space is counted as white space and ignored.

Below are two solutions. The first is the method which has been suggested in the past and the second is a much simpler solution that works well.

Solution 1: Custom Post Stored Procedure

This solution use the Post Custom Procedure to update the Address Line 3 when a special token value is passed updated on the field. So we will use the string "[Blank]" to signify that we want this field to be blank.

We then modify the taCreateVendorAddressPost stored procedure by adding the following update statement just before the return (@O_iErrorState) statement.

update PM00300 set ADDRESS3 = ''
where VENDORID = @I_vVENDORID and ADRSCODE = @I_vADRSCODE
and ADDRESS3 = '[Blank]'

So when we import the xml with the address lines as shown below, the custom post procedure will clear Address Line 3 for us.  

<ADDRESS1>Unit 42</ADDRESS1>
<ADDRESS2>100 Main Street</ADDRESS2>
<ADDRESS3>[Blank]</ADDRESS3>

Solution 2: Using CDATA to pass a space 

This solution was suggested by my colleague Allan Cahill and is even simpler, it does not need any custom stored procedures. It works on the idea of passing a space character to stored procedure in such a way that it is not ignored as white space. Using the syntax <![CDATA[ ]]>, we can pass the space through. This will update the Address Line 3 field with a space, but as Dynamics GP automatically strips leading and trailing spaces, this will be the equivalent of a blank or empty field. Below is the address lines from the XML document:

<ADDRESS1>Unit 42</ADDRESS1>
<ADDRESS2>100 Main Street</ADDRESS2>
<ADDRESS3><![CDATA[ ]]></ADDRESS3>

For more information on this method have a look at Chris Roehrich's post: Serializing CDATA tags in eConnect XML Documents.

Result

Both of these solutions work, you can decide which one is best for you. The screenshot below shows the updated address field with Address Line 3 now blank:

Hope this information is useful to you.

David

Mariano has a nice look a the new eConnect Integration Service for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010.

I spend an amount of time advising people to 'read the manual' when they write in with questions. The eConnect docs are not perfect, but you should have no problem getting started if you spend a few minutes reading. Better (IMHO) that asking someone else to do your work for you.

I'm not even sure that some of the new users have the help file, or know where it is. (You'd think they would, but...)

So, to that end, we've published the eConnect help file online here: http://vstoolsforum.com/econnecthelp/

Getting started with GP Integrations?

If you are getting started with Integrations check out these posts - Sandip Jadhav - Types of Integration methods with Dynamics GP, which gives you a brief sneak-peek about the 8 tools available with GP for Integration. Integrating to Dynamics (GP) The Basics by the Touchstone guys. In this post they explain the first question that gets asked is “what is the best way of integrating?”and several ways of finding what tables do you need to integrate to?

There’s also a nice post - Integration - All About Attitude by the nice people at Rose Business Solutions. Steve Endow has a post on "Real Time" Dynamics GP Integrations in which he discusses the steps to create a “real time” integration between Dynamics GP and another system.

Other posts worth highlighting are Integration to Concur Travel & Expense by Geoffrey Wayong, also covered by the Dynamics GP Team at NEW Integration Capabilities with Concur Travel & Expense! 

Related categories on GPWindow are DEVELOPMENT which includes – Dexterity, Developer Toolkit, GP SDK, Tables Information, Testing, VBA and VS Tools for GP and CUSTOMIZATIONS which covers – modifier, Extender and Macros.

eConnect

Steve Gray says - “I spend an amount of time advising people to 'read the manual' when they write in with questions.” and points us to the - eConnect Help Online.

Also in the eConnect sub section, you can view posts regarding using eConnect to get data into Dynamics GP with some examples. eConnect Integration Service for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 by Mariano Gomez contains information about eConnect 2010 and how it is better than its predecessors. There other detailed posts by Steve Endow with his troubleshooting notes - More than I ever wanted to know about eConnect and MSDTC and Troubleshooting eConnect "System Error" Message. Steve also shares some performance benchmarks of eConnect in the post eConnect Performance Benchmarks.

Mariano covers Retrieving Microsoft eConnect 10.0 Version and Steve has a post on Checking eConnect Version Number Programmatically.

You can also find some examples to use eConnect to get data into GP from Steve like Using eConnect to import Inventory Adjustments with Multi-Bin, Clearing Existing Field Values Using eConnect, eConnect Bank Transaction Import.

From Sage, Quickbooks, Peachtree

You should definitely check out the posts in the Rapid Migration and Implementation Tools if you are working on bringing customers from one of these accounting systems.  The free tools from Microsoft make migration a snap, and will save you a lot of time.

In addition to that, In the From Sage, Quickbooks, Peachtree sub section, you will see posts related to migration and other news from other Accounting Systems like Sage, Quickbooks and Peachtree into Dynamics GP. Check out the posts - Helping Peachtree customers make a “Smart Move”… 

Integration Manager

Version Information : First off, a couple of posts to bookmark –VictoriaYudin shares Dynamics GP Integration Manager versions and Mariano has the GP 10 Service Pack versions here - IM - Integration Manager Service Packs.

Downloads : You can find IM Downloads here - Integration Manager Downloads 

Information :  If you are looking to get started with Integration Manager this post by Q Factor Integration Manager: The Basics will give you all the basic details about the product.

There are loads of useful posts by MVP Mariano Gomez like one on Integration Manager 10 INI settings and Copying an Integration in Integration Manager to copy an integration into another integration, How to schedule Dynamics GP to automatically log in and run an Integration Manager integration in cases where you want Integration Manager to run automatically at night and bring in data from another system, Sorting Records in Integration Manager v10 to sort the records as they appear on your import file by changing IM ini settings.

Mariano also covers - IM - How to group Integration Manager transactions based on transaction date, How to import the Vendor 1099 Box with Integration Manager and How to filter source query records dynamically. Mariano also has a nice article on MSDynamicsWorld - "Putting to Rest Four Myths About Microsoft Dynamics GP Integration Manager". Mariano also explains the Supported Date Formats in Integration Manager and then goes on to detail out the steps for Dropping Timestamps from SQL Server and Text File Data Sources in Integration Manager, where he discusses two methods (SQL Query and VBScript).

MVP and bestselling author Mark Polino has a lot of nice articles on Integration Manager covered in his Weekly Dynamic feature -

• Weekly Review: Integration Manager Resources 
• Weekly Dynamic: Integration Manager Support
• Weekly Dynamic: Integration Manager Option
• Weekly Dynamic: Copy an Integration with a New Source
• Weekly Dynamic: Killing a Hung Integration
• Weekly Dynamic: IM Troubleshooting - Key A Transaction
• Weekly Dynamic: Automating Integrations

In the Integration Manager sub section, you will also see posts related to using Integration Manager to bring data (Journal entries, Payables Invoices, Sales Invoices, Bank Transactions etc.) into Dynamics GP.

There’s a post by Mohammad R Daoud that explains how to Import Transactions Distributions Using Integration Manager. There is also a great posts on Integration Manager and ODBC by Rose Business Solutions.

Errors and Troubleshooting : Steve Endow talks about Integration Migration Frustration and shares his - “integration review template" to help me try and detect some of these issues in advance next time.”Steve also has the Integration Manager 10 Bugginess: Data Sources, Relationships, and Scripts post where he discusses the Relationships feature. Mark Polino also shares his Integration Manager Rant.

If you using Integration Manager on a terminal server you might find the post Integration Manager 10 : Changing the path of IM Database for a User useful, and if you are using IM 2010 you would want to check out the Integration Manager with GP 2010 Error post.

Waqas has a nice post on Integration Manager 10– Debugging Integration Error and Daoud explains how you can keep Microsoft Dynamics GP visible when running Integration created by Integration Manager and watch the transactions pushed inside GP windows a record after record

Check out other posts directly at Integration Manager section on GPWindow.

Table Import

In the Table Import sub section, you will find some nice posts about GP’s Table Import functionality. This wonderful post by Mariano Gomez The often overlooked, yet powerful Table Import will get you started with Table Import and show you an overview of Table Import feature and an example to import a few customers using a tab-delimited file. Christina has the interestingly yet aptly title post - Table Import is not always the ugly stepsister. Mark covers this in his Weekly Dynamic Weekly Dynamic: Table Import.

Webservices

GP Webservices are where the future of Dynamics GP Integrations lies. Performance benchmarks are now carried out keeping this is mind. In the Webservices sub section, you will find posts about the introduction of GP Webservices, installation of Dynamics GP Web Services, issues faced while installing Webservices and uninstalling GP web services completely.

There’s a nice post by the DynGp Team - Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 Web Services that will get you started with Dynamics GP Webservices 2010.

Then there’s this nice article by Steve Gray that has the Code to call a web service method. Steve covers Formatting Note Lines with GP Web Services. Chris Roehrich at Developing for Dynamics GP provides some awesome code on How to retrieve Quantity On Hand amount using Web Services for Dynamics GP 10.0 and discusses the Web Services Configuration Settings for Integrating Large Transactions.

Some of these posts point out some common problems that you may face while installing Dynamics GP web services on the GP server - Web Services Install: Fatal Error during Installation by Janakiram , Dynamics GP Web Service Installation Error by Sandip Jadhav. Sandip in this another post that tells us on How to Remove Dynamics GP Web Service completely.

-------------------- Via http://www.gpwindow.com/INTEGRATIONS_/

Are there any articles related to the topics above that I missed ? If yes, add your comments.

MemoryStream memoryStream = newMemoryStream();
XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = newXmlSerializer(eConnectType.GetType());
xmlSerializer.Serialize(memoryStream, eConnectType);
memoryStream.Position = 0;

XmlDocument xmlDocument = newXmlDocument();
xmlDocument.Load(memoryStream);
memoryStream.Close();

econnectMethods.eConnect_EntryPoint(

connectionString, EnumTypes.ConnectionStringType.SqlClient, 

xmlDocument.OuterXml, EnumTypes.SchemaValidationType.None,  

string.Empty);