Hints & Tips for locating data in Microsoft Dynamics™ SL

Here is a list of references available to you…

Report Assistants – This is a set of documents that describe the state the data needs to be in during the processing cycle to display on each report. Microsoft has prepared these documents for the most commonly requested modules – there is not a document for every module in Dynamics SL. Report Assistants are available from PartnerSource. Please note that the latest versions of these documents are for Dynamics SL 6.5. While Dynamics SL 7.0 added a few additional fields, increasing the size of existing fields received the most attention. Using the Dynamics 6.5 version of the documents with Dynamics SL 7.0 should be sufficient.

Each document contains the following sections to help you quickly create new reports.

Sort and Select - Describes the differences between sort and select statements.

Possible Values - Reviews the possible values that can be used for both sort and select statement fields.

Data Fields - Displays basic information about the data field illustrations for each module data entry and maintenance screen.

Report Information - Provides information about basic module report information: master table, sort order, report name as stored in Crystal, and sort/select field examples. 

You may download the Report Assistants from PartnerSource here.

Schema Help Files – The on-line help system in Dynamics SL contains all of the application tables and fields, the respective attributes for each field and details regarding possible values for each field.

Follow these steps to access the on-line help system.

1. Click on the Help option from the toolbar.

2. Select Help Topics.

3. Highlight the option 7.0 Schema and click Open to view the full 7.0 schema or highlight the option 6.5 to 7.0 Schema Changes and click Open to view only the changes and additions to the schema since 6.5. 

Query Analyzer – You can use query analyzer at any time to query on a specific table to see what the data looks like at that specific point in the processing cycle. Although this can be time consuming, we find it to be a nice tool to keep in our toolkit when creating new reports and debugging customer issues. Always use caution when using Query Analyzer.

ISV solutions – There are a number of ISV solutions available to assist you in querying the database. For a list of ISV solutions, refer to the ISV Exchange link on the Plumbline website at: (http://www.plumblinesolutions.com/affiliates.asp).