Microsoft Great Plains ReportWriter Report Upgrade – Advanced Technique Notes
Microsoft Dynamics GP usually has various modified RW reports such as SOP long invoice form, POP purchase order form, inventory pick ticket. Personalization usually puts the company logo in one or another graphic format, puts some texts: description, general conditions of the company, things like that. If these are the only modifications made, reapplying them to the new version of the RW report is not technically difficult. However, in some advanced cases, you have very complex reports, when you show or hide fields based on data logic; in such a case, you can consider updating the report, even if it is not in the list of reports that could be updated. Let’s look under the hood:
o Calculated Fields. These structures cause an update problem and result in the report being placed in the list of non-updatable reports. What’s annoying is the fact that the Validate Report functionality isn’t that deep and doesn’t really validate calculated fields. You need to put the report in the test environment and physically run it to get the error message on the calculated field. Why do calculated fields change with the new version? Because GP tries to make the standard report work better, add extra functionality, etc. How do you find the job? You open the standard unmodified report in the new version and on the second screen you open the modified report in the old version, then you compare the calculated fields one by one and find the culprit; then you apply developer judgment and make the report work with the new version in modified format
o Changes in the structure of the tables. The latest versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP, such as 10.0 and 9.0, do not show a revolutionary redesign of the tables. One reason could be this: Microsoft Business Solutions subdivision is working on Microsoft Dynamics or old Project Green, dealing with interface unification GP, AX, SL, NAV
o Other reporting options. Microsoft Dynamics GP Report Writer is a Dexterity application or module, and its customization capabilities are somewhat restricted (at the same time, it is integrated into GP’s Microsoft Dexterity interface, so it is very easy to use and relatively easy to update ). Considering the fact that GP is based on Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or 200, you should be open to other industry standard reports such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SRS). When we talk about CR and SRS, good report design manners would be to put the SQL report query in the SQL Stored Procedure or SQL View, if this is chosen as the design approach, the selection of reporting tools is simple, you take what you want, Crystal or SRS, as they will be just reporting tools, not query builders