Can I use visual basic to update great plains database

[msid]

Hi,

I am totally new to Great Plains. I am curious to know if I can use Visual Basic to programmatically update/ add data to Great Plains Database. Can anyone shed some knowledge as to how to accomplish this.

Thanks in Advance
Masud

 

[hooggie]

It is possible but I would advise against it. If you are new to the system you will not be aware of all the business logic that you will be by passing when entering data directly to SQL.

It is possible but without knowing what you are doing you could corrupt the data and leave your system worthless.

Speak to you supplier if there is something specific you want to do they will help you do this without casuing any harm to your database

 

[msid]

Thanks a Lot Hoogie for the information.

I have been adviced to use Integration Manager module. Is it possible to customize Integration Manager using VB. More over is there any more info I can find regarding customizing Integration Manager?

Basically What I want is to pass Data from Asp page and create an account if its new customer and insert/update customer data.

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Masud

 

[rmaslanka]

Masud,

If you haven't looked at it yet, the Integration Manager is basically an MS Access application that allows imports and updates of GP data without having to worry about the logic.

If you can populate an Access table (or just about any type of list) from your ASP site, you can have Integration Manager populate GP from that table. Although not as clean as having ASP manipulate GP, it's much safer.

You can create your own integrations, using as many or few fields as you'd like, and script them to run your imports in a batch.

Not a problem.

Ray

 

[jmcgarvey]

Hi,

What I would do is pass your data from the ASP page in a SQL database then let Integration Manager read the SQL and add/update the records. You could have a flag on the records which could be updated to avoid duplicating processes, or you could just delete the data after you have finished with it.

alternatively you could use dexterity. This would involove you reading the data from a source (eq SQL or a CSV file) and writing it into the relevent tables using info in the SDK. This is a hell of alot more complicated but its much quicker and dosent involve more cost.

Hope this helps,

JMG

 

[msid]

Thanks Ray & JMG.

Thanks a lot for the info I will try using it. I am having difficulties in Identifying Tables and and which tables to update. When I open the GP database there are so many tables and I have no clue which table to use. When I open tables in SQL database I can see all the column name.

How do I know if the insert/ update would affect more than one tables in GP. Moreover How can I specify Integration Manager which tables to Update/add data from SQL table.

Thanks for your Help

Masud

 

[jmcgarvey]

You should download the SDK from partnersource. This gives details of all the tables in gp and how they relate to each other.