WebDev Masters

 Aghreni offers skill enhancement courses in 

· PErL, PHP, Ruby & java/J2ee

· Unix/linux

· Mysql

· Web development

· User interface design

·  Veritas

· Usability engineering

· Project management

· Leadership

· Software development techniques

· Software testing techniques

Microsoft Dynamics GP is Microsoft Windows and MS SQL Server application, it is heavily integrated with Microsoft Sharepoint and MS Office stack of products. If your Sales Processing system is based in Linux Redhat and is MySQL & PHP application, then you should know the answers on the connection technology to Microsoft Great Plains. In this small article we assume that you have PHP and MySQL developers in IT staff and all you need to do is to get some help in building the bridge to GP accounting backoffice

1. GP Sales Order Processing Module. If you originate your Sales Orders in PHP frontend, then all you need to do is transfer shipped sales lines to GP SOP invoice, where you will be aging your AR and potentially deploying such modules as Business Portal based Electronic Document Delivery for emailing invoices to your customers

2. GP Purchase Order Processing Module. Here you typically integrate your vendor invoices, assuming that your business rules require vendor to drop-ship items directly to your customers. This scenario is often considered as typical for eCommerce platforms

3. PHP lookup to Great Plains. There are multiple options available, the most reliable and platform independent call could be realized through XML web service. Other way to consider would be HTTP request/response technology, however it is rather legacy or old-fashioned.

4. Integration Tool. With Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0, you can deploy GP Integration Manager SOP and POP eConnect connector, which should give you reasonable throughput, comparing to traditional IM connectors, where GP workstation was used as OLE server. However you should also consider eConnect direct C# or VB.Net programming to create SOP and POP invoices in real time from your PHP application – you should consider the best technological scenario on how to call .Net application with parameters from PHP

5. Emailing scenarios: Great Plains Electronic Document Delivery module is part of GP Business Portal and it does excellent job in scheduling SOP invoices deliveries. However if you plan to purchase and implement GP Business Ready Standard, BP is not available. Here you have to consider Microsoft Dexterity customization, which should allow you to build custom screen where you select invoices for emailing and it should also deploy SMTP client to send out invoices. Invoices should preferably be printed in PDF in custom GP ReportWriter SOP Blank Invoice forms

6. Cross Platform Reporting. MS SQL Server should be considered as the center for reporting, it allows you to create Linked Server connectors. ODBC is way to make a link back to MySQL

Over the years, ASP has become one of the most preferred server-side programming technologies for dynamic web pages and applications.  Tremendous power and flexibility makes it an ideal tool for a broad range of projects.  However, if you ask the average Linux developer their opinion about it, they will likely tell you one of the following:

- ASP cannot be run on a Linux-based server

- ASP is only available for Windows platforms

- All ASP modules for Apache call for code to be rewritten in Perl

With this application installed on the server, a Linux programmer can easily use ASP to complete their projects.

What is Sun Java System Web Server?

Sun Java System Web Server is a web server application similar in nature to Apache and Microsoft IIS.  It is currently one of the leading web servers on the corporate market, providing a streamlined infrastructure that supports virtually all web technologies and applications.  Many argue that the Java System Web Server performs notably faster than Apache and delivers better security than IIS.  Not only does it support the Linux platform, but other operating systems such as AIX, Solaris, Unix and Windows.  For ASP developers, this is a major advantage as they are no longer restricted to the Windows environment and can now broaden their talents and reach to different platforms.  Best of all, Sun released core components of the application as open-source under the BSD license, which means that the Java System Web Server can be freely obtained from the Sun Download Center.

Achieving ASP Compatibility

Sun Java System Web Server does not offer native support for ASP by default.  In order to make the two compatible you will need to use a special set of extensions.  These extensions are called Sun Active Server Pages, and version 4.0.4 must be installed on the system to obtain ASP functionality.  This tool can also be acquired from the Sun Download Center.  Unlike the web server, utilizing these extensions requires that you sign up for an account with Sun Microsystems.  The good thing is that creating an account is fast, free and easy.  Once you create your account and download the appropriate files, all it takes is a matter of minutes for the installation and automatic updates you need to run ASP.  From there, restart the web server and everything should be good to go.

Summary

ASP can now be used effectively in a wide range of web environments thanks to the cross-platform capabilities of Sun Java System Web Server.  This powerful web server offers developers the best of both worlds, blending the reliability and security of Linux with the power and flexibility of ASP.