| As more midsize and small business | | | | connection to Linux World. If you are on |
| organizations are deploying open platform | | | | Oracle, then similar construction will allow |
| operating systems and tools, such as Linux | | | | you to hook up MS SQL Server |
| with various blends and PHP/MySQL, we would | | | | |
| like to share our experience implementing | | | | 3. Web Services. eConnect allows you to open |
| Microsoft Great Plains in these combined OS | | | | GP objects for non-Microsoft developer via |
| environments. If you are using Oracle and | | | | XML web services - you can either use |
| Unix, you may also consider the methodology, | | | | eConnect interface directly or wrap it in |
| however it deserves separate article just for | | | | custom web service interface |
| brief overview, especially about Java, EJB | | | | |
| nuances. | | | | 4. eConnect excurse. The core of eConnect is |
| | | | set of MS SQL Server encrypted stored |
| 1. MS Great Plains platform overview. GP | | | | procedures, allowing you manipulate GP master |
| workstation is written in C Shell, named | | | | records and work transactions: SOP Entry, POP |
| Great Plains Dexterity. It was designed in | | | | Receivings, Customers, Vendors to name a few. |
| earlier 1990th, when DB and OS platform | | | | eConnect has restrictions of GP |
| independence was the paradigm. However, when | | | | architecture, one of the typical FAQ is why |
| Microsoft acquired Great Plains Software | | | | we can not post GP batches in eConnect? |
| seven years ago, Microsoft Dexterity was kind | | | | Well, this is the restriction, but you can |
| of de-emphasized and GP itself was open for | | | | break it utilizing Albaspectrum posting |
| .Net platform and for Microsoft Visual Studio | | | | server. eConnect was dedicated initially to |
| C# and VB developers, especially via | | | | eCommerce software developers, to enable GP |
| eConnect. Plus, GP is available on Microsoft | | | | ERP platform as backoffice accounting for |
| SQL Server DB platform only. Saying these, | | | | e-commerce front end |
| Microsoft Great Plains version 10.0 and 9.0 | | | | |
| should be considered as committed to | | | | 5. Integration technology. Here again |
| Microsoft technologies: SQL Server, .Net, | | | | eConnect comes to the scenes. GP Integration |
| Windows, MS Office: Sharepoint, Excel, etc. | | | | Manager, which is rather traditional Great |
| | | | Plains integration tool, was recently |
| 2. Cross Platform SQL Queries. If you do it | | | | redesigned partially in eConnect and so IM |
| from Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or 2000 side, | | | | performance was substantially increased. IM |
| the construction you typically use is Linked | | | | can read tab and comma delimited text files |
| Server, where you should first try ODBC | | | | as well as ODBC compliant queries. |