Stand-alone Application Guide

208 Pages·2012·2.06 MB·English

Microsoft Dexterity
®
Stand-alone Application Guide
Release 12
Copyright Copyright © 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Limitation of liability This document is provided “as-is”. Information and views expressed in this document, including
URL and other Internet Web site references, may change without notice. You bear the risk of using
it.
Some examples depicted herein are provided for illustration only and are fictitious. No real
association or connection is intended or should be inferred.
Intellectual property This document does not provide you with any legal rights to any intellectual property in any
Microsoft product.
You may copy and use this document for your internal, reference purposes.
Trademarks Microsoft, Dexterity, Excel, Visual Basic, and Windows are trademarks of the Microsoft group of
companies. FairCom and c-tree Plus are trademarks of FairCom Corporation and are registered in
the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Warranty disclaimer Microsoft Corporation disclaims any warranty regarding the sample code contained in this
documentation, including the warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
License agreement Use of this product is covered by a license agreement provided with the software product. If you
have any questions, please call the Microsoft Dynamics GP Customer Assistance Department at
800-456-0025 (in the U.S. or Canada) or [phone].
Publication date December 2012
Contents
Introduction 2
.................................................................................................................................
What’s in this manual..................................................................................................................2
Symbols and conventions............................................................................................................3
Part 1: System Manager Components 6
.....................................................
Chapter 1: Basic Application Functions..........................................................7
Elements of a system manager...................................................................................................7
Developing a system manager....................................................................................................8
Sample applications.....................................................................................................................8
Starting the Sample System Manager........................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Pathnames....................................................................................................11
ISAM pathnames........................................................................................................................11
SQL pathnames...........................................................................................................................15
Sample pathname implementations........................................................................................20
ISAM pathname implementation.............................................................................................20
SQL pathname implementation...............................................................................................23
Using pathnames........................................................................................................................26
Chapter 3: Navigation...................................................................................................27
Toolbars........................................................................................................................................27
Command-based toolbars.........................................................................................................28
Chapter 4: User IDs and Logins............................................................................29
Implementing a login procedure..............................................................................................29
Setting up users...........................................................................................................................30
Logging out of an application...................................................................................................31
Sample login procedure and user setup..................................................................................33
Chapter 5: Security..........................................................................................................39
Security procedure......................................................................................................................39
Security table...............................................................................................................................40
Security setup window..............................................................................................................41
Sample security implementation..............................................................................................42
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Chapter 6: Activity Tracking....................................................................................47
Implementing activity tracking................................................................................................47
Activity log table........................................................................................................................48
Sample activity tracking implementation..............................................................................49
Chapter 7: Windows Help...........................................................................................51
Overview of Windows Help support......................................................................................51
Implementing Windows Help..................................................................................................53
Adding help support to your application..............................................................................54
Generating help files..................................................................................................................58
Help file content.........................................................................................................................60
Compiling a help file.................................................................................................................63
Maintaining a help file..............................................................................................................63
Help files included with Dexterity .........................................................................................64
Chapter 8: HTML Help....................................................................................................65
Overview of HTML Help..........................................................................................................65
Help menu...................................................................................................................................66
Help processing procedure.......................................................................................................66
Context-sensitive help...............................................................................................................69
Help pane....................................................................................................................................71
Help files included with Dexterity..........................................................................................71
HTML Help references..............................................................................................................72
Chapter 9: Preferences.................................................................................................73
Methods of implementing preferences...................................................................................73
Guidelines for preferences........................................................................................................74
Typical preferences.....................................................................................................................74
Storing preferences....................................................................................................................75
Preferences window...................................................................................................................75
Sample preferences implementation.......................................................................................76
Chapter 10: Work Menu...............................................................................................79
Work menu items table..............................................................................................................79
Work menu setup window.......................................................................................................80
Sample work menu implementation.......................................................................................81
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Chapter 11: Table Maintenance............................................................................87
Table maintenance window......................................................................................................87
Maintenance routines.................................................................................................................88
Monitoring progress...................................................................................................................89
Sample table maintenance implementation............................................................................90
Chapter 12: Process Server......................................................................................95
Overview of distributed processing.........................................................................................95
Required procedures..................................................................................................................97
Optional procedures.................................................................................................................100
Setting up distributed processing..........................................................................................104
Remote procedures...................................................................................................................105
Process Monitor........................................................................................................................108
Sample process server implementation.................................................................................110
Chapter 13: Load Balancing..................................................................................121
Services.......................................................................................................................................121
Distributed Process Manager (DPM).....................................................................................122
Required procedures................................................................................................................123
System index..............................................................................................................................126
Enabling and disabling load balancing.................................................................................127
Common load balancing configurations...............................................................................128
Multiple process servers on one machine.............................................................................129
Troubleshooting load balancing.............................................................................................129
Sample load balancing implementation................................................................................132
Part 2: Tools 142
.........................................................................................................................
Chapter 14: Using the Import Utility...........................................................143
Accessing the Import utility....................................................................................................143
Licensing the Import utility.....................................................................................................143
Using the Import utility...........................................................................................................143
Chapter 15: Using the Modifier.........................................................................145
Modifier......................................................................................................................................145
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA)......................................................................................148
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Chapter 16: Using the Report Writer............................................................153
Accessing the Report Writer...................................................................................................155
Licensing the Report Writer....................................................................................................155
Using the Report Writer..........................................................................................................155
Chapter 17: Using the Resource Descriptions.....................................157
Accessing the Resource Descriptions....................................................................................157
Using the Resource Descriptions...........................................................................................157
Part 3: Sample Dictionaries 160
...........................................................................
Chapter 18: Sample System Manager Dictionary.............................161
Using the Sample System Manager with SQL.....................................................................162
Using the entire SSM dictionary............................................................................................162
Using portions of the SSM dictionary...................................................................................164
Setting up an application that uses the Sample System Manager....................................168
Chapter 19: Process Server Dictionary.......................................................171
Chapter 20: Load Balancing Dictionary.....................................................173
Appendix 176
..................................................................................................................................
Appendix A: Script Flowcharts..........................................................................177
User IDs and Logins................................................................................................................178
Security......................................................................................................................................179
Appendix B: Splash Screen...................................................................................185
Appendix C: OLE Container...................................................................................187
Using the OLE Container........................................................................................................188
Implementing the OLE Container.........................................................................................190
Glossary 193
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Index 197
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Introduction
The Dexterity® Stand-alone Application Guide provides information about
creating stand-alone applications with Dexterity. You should be familiar
with creating Dexterity applications before using the information in this
manual. Refer to Volumes 1 and 2 of the Dexterity Programmer’s Guide and
the SanScript Reference and Function Library Reference manuals for
additional information about resources and sanScript commands used in
the scripts and examples described in this manual. You can also refer to the
Sample System Manager and other sample dictionaries included with
Dexterity for examples of how basic application functions can be
implemented in stand-alone applications.
You may use and modify the scripts and resources in the sample dictionaries for
your own applications, but we make no warranties regarding the sample
dictionaries, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose.
What’s in this manual
Following is a list of the contents of the Dexterity Stand-alone Application
Guide, with a short description of each.
(cid:127) Part 1, System Manager Components, describes the various compo-
nents that compose the base functionality of applications.
(cid:127) Part 2, Tools, explains how to use the Import Utility, the Modifier, the
Report Writer, and the Resource Descriptions tools with stand-alone
applications.
(cid:127) Part 3, Sample Dictionaries, describes the Sample System Manager,
Process Server and Load Balancing dictionaries that are included with
Dexterity.
(cid:127) The appendix contains flowcharts describing some scripts included in
the Sample System Manager dictionary, information about adding a
splash screen to your application, and a description of the OLE con-
tainer application provided with Dexterity.
2 S T A N D - A L O N E A P P L I C A T I O N G U I D E
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Symbols and conventions
To help you use the Dexterity documentation more effectively, we’ve used
the following symbols and conventions within the text to make specific
types of information stand out.
Symbol Description
➥ of table Items; A continuation character indicates that a script
continued from one line to the next should be
typed as one line in the Script Editor.
The light bulb symbol indicates helpful tips,
shortcuts and suggestions.
Warnings indicate situations you should be
aware of when completing tasks with Dexterity.
Margin notes Margin notes call attention to critical information,
summarize important and direct you to other areas of the
information. documentation where a topic is explained.
The New symbol indicates additions and changes
New
available with this release of Dexterity.
The SQL symbol indicates information that
SQL
applies only when a SQL database type is used.
Convention Description
Part 2, Tools Bold type indicates a part name.
Chapter 5, “Security” Quotation marks indicate a chapter name.
Applying formats Italicized type indicates a section name.
set 'l_Item' to 1; This font is used to indicate script examples.
RUNTIME.EXE Words in uppercase indicate a file name.
Software Development Acronyms are spelled out the first time they’re
Kit (SDK) used.
TAB or ALT+M Small capital letters indicate a key or a key
sequence.
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4 S T A N D - A L O N E A P P L I C A T I O N G U I D E