Using the Professional Services Tools Library (PSTL) and Extender
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
What are the possible ramifications of using the PSTL if I am using Extender?
The PSTL tool allows one to modify/combine account numbers, checkbooks, vendors, customers, salespersons, territories, employees, sites, and items. The PSTL tool does not modify Extender tables.
This means if you are using any of the above objects as key fields in Extender, you will break the link to your existing data. So for example, if you used customer ID as a key field for an Extender window, when you entered your Extender data, the data was saved using the key field of AARONFIT0001. You now use the PSTL too to change AARONFIT0001 to AARONFITZ. The PSTL tool will make all the appropriate changes to your Microsoft Dynamics GP tables, however it does not update any Extender tables. The record in Extender is still using AARONFIT001 as the key field, which will result in an orphaned record in Extender. It will still remain in the table, however since the customer ID is now AARONFITZ, it will no longer retrieve the existing data.
So when using PSTL be sure to check for any Extender objects, and make sure that none of those objects are being used as key fields in Extender. If you are wanting to modify customer IDs, look to see if there are any windows using customer ID as the key field. If you are wanting to modify Vendor IDs, look to see if there are any windows using vendor ID as the key field.
The same issue will also apply to any lookups in Extender. You can create lookup fields that link to existing Microsoft Dynamics GP objects. So for instance, you could add a lookup to employee ID on an Extender window. That gets saved as a string in the Extender table, and if you change the employee ID to something else, the saved data is still using the old ID. When you attempt to access the Extender record, you will get the message, “This employee does not exist” and it will force you to select a valid one before you save the record.
The PSTL tool allows one to modify/combine account numbers, checkbooks, vendors, customers, salespersons, territories, employees, sites, and items. The PSTL tool does not modify Extender tables.
This means if you are using any of the above objects as key fields in Extender, you will break the link to your existing data. So for example, if you used customer ID as a key field for an Extender window, when you entered your Extender data, the data was saved using the key field of AARONFIT0001. You now use the PSTL too to change AARONFIT0001 to AARONFITZ. The PSTL tool will make all the appropriate changes to your Microsoft Dynamics GP tables, however it does not update any Extender tables. The record in Extender is still using AARONFIT001 as the key field, which will result in an orphaned record in Extender. It will still remain in the table, however since the customer ID is now AARONFITZ, it will no longer retrieve the existing data.
So when using PSTL be sure to check for any Extender objects, and make sure that none of those objects are being used as key fields in Extender. If you are wanting to modify customer IDs, look to see if there are any windows using customer ID as the key field. If you are wanting to modify Vendor IDs, look to see if there are any windows using vendor ID as the key field.
The same issue will also apply to any lookups in Extender. You can create lookup fields that link to existing Microsoft Dynamics GP objects. So for instance, you could add a lookup to employee ID on an Extender window. That gets saved as a string in the Extender table, and if you change the employee ID to something else, the saved data is still using the old ID. When you attempt to access the Extender record, you will get the message, “This employee does not exist” and it will force you to select a valid one before you save the record.
