This is a reposting of an article I originally wrote on my Developing for Dynamics GP blog.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Menus for Visual Studio Tools is now Visual Studio Integration Toolkit from Winthrop Development Consultants (http://winthropdc.com/VSIT)
Some brilliant news for Microsoft Visual Studio developers who use Visual Studio Tools to integrate with Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0.
Menus for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 has now been released.
While I was in Fargo, ND for the Microsoft Dynamics GP Technical Airlift 2008 last May, I spent some time with the Dynamics GP Developer Support Team. During this time I discussed the main support topics being raised for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP (part of the Developer Toolkit). One of the biggest issues was that a Visual Studio developer was still required to create a Dexterity customization to add menu items to the application navigation menus. In many cases that was the only function that the Dexterity customization included.
After the conference I was attending a 3 day Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 training course run by Steve Gray from 4penny.net. On the morning of the last day of the course I came up with a concept that would allow a Visual Studio Tools developer to call into a generic menu navigation API (Application Programming Interface) created in Dexterity. By the end of the day I had a working prototype of the Dexterity code which could provide up to 20 menu items. Thanks to Steve and Leslie for encouraging me to run with my idea.
Since then the functionality and features have been improved based on feedback from the support and development teams in Fargo and from a number of beta testers. It now includes support for 100 menu items, form level security, sub menus and much more.
For more information on the tool, please see my previous blog posting:
Also, have a look at this great posting on Mariano Gomez’s blog for an introductory look at the product:
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my colleagues on the Asia Pacific Microsoft Dynamics GP support team (Allan, Amy, Marian, Rob & Rochelle) and my Manager (Neil) for supporting me while I was developing the code.
I would also like to thank the members of the working group (from support and development) who helped with all aspects of getting the final product ready for release. They include Scott, Steve, Corey, Brian, Erik, Rob, Andrew, Alice, Dave, Patrick, Emily, Ryan, and Sally.
Finally, a thank you to the beta testers, Steve, Micheal, Mariano, Habib, Nigel, Loren, Edwin, and Vaidy.
More Information
For more information, please see the Visual Studio Integration Toolkit portal, which replaced the Menus for Visual Studio Tools.
I hope you find Menus for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 and GP 2010 to be a useful and time saving product.
Please provide feedback on your experiences as comments on this posting.
David
13-Oct-2008: Created post on Using Menus for Visual Studio Tools from VBA.
24-Jun-2010: Added Updated Links including Menus for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010.
03-Nov-2010: Added links to related articles.
16-May-2013: Changed More Information and Downloads to go to Menus for Visual Studio Tools Portal Page.
This article was originally posted on the Developing for Dynamics GP Blog and has been reposted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.
Winthrop Development Consultants Blog 
PingBack from http://blogs.msdn.com/developingfordynamicsgp/archive/2008/07/30/visual-studio-tools-menus-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp.aspx
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Hi Congrats to Microsoft Visual Studio developersDavid.
Its great achievement ,It is very useful for Non-Dex guys….
Regards
Vijay
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Yay!
Thanks David. Brilliant work.
I know I’ll be using it on one project right away.
Regards
Habib
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Just implemented this on a client project. A real life saver. Thanks for all of the effort!
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Posting from VSToolsForum.com
http://vstoolsforum.com/forums/p/563/1288.aspx#1288
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Posting from DynamicAccounting.net
http://msdynamicsgp.blogspot.com/2008/09/menus-for-visual-studio-tools-for.html
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Posting from Vaidy’s Blog
http://vmdyngp.blogspot.com/2008/09/menus-for-visual-studio-tools-dyanmics.html
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Posting from Mark Polino on Microsoft product names
http://mpolino.blogspot.com/2008/09/microsoft-product-names.html
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Dear David,
Great Work !!! It is really a good innovation no doubt.
Hope Microsoft will relase a new version by adding a LineFill event for scrolling windows in DTK soon.
Kind Regards,
Sajeesh
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Hi Sajeesh
Thanks for the feedback. I have responded to your comments about the LineFill event against the first Menus for Visual Studio Tools posting.
David
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After the release of Menus for Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 , my good friend Mariano
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Great…. I remember you briefly mentioning this at a session during Convergence in Florida… but you held off on any details. Glad to see it came to fruition.
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Any chance of a Dynamics 9.0 version?
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Hi Bob
The Menus for Visual Studio Tools has only been released for v10.0. For v9.0 you will still need to create your own Dexterity dictionary. For v11.0, the plan is to have a different method built into Visual Studio Tools.
David
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Has anyone else had a problem with an error for “microsoft.dexterity.applications.root” — productid when attempting to deploy this solution on a client using SP3 of GP?
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Lee,
We haven’t run into anything like this so far and haven’t heard of anyone else running into it either. It should work, there isn’t anything special in 10.0 SP3 that would cause it not to work. You could try the newsgroups to see if anyone else has seen this. You would probably want to try Microsoft Dynamics GP Developer Public Discussion. Otherwise, you would need to log a support incident at https://mbs.microsoft.com/support
Dave
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Is it possible to use Menus for Visual Studio Tools to add a new menu to a form, such as the PM_Transaction_Entry form?
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Jerri,
You can do that natively within VSTools – you don’t need this customization.
From your form object, use the AddMenuHandler method
<theform>.AddMenuHandler(Handler,"Menu Name Here");
This will make a "Menu Name Here" menu appear in the forms Additional menu.
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Thanks for your reply. I’m currently using the AddMenuHandler, but I really don’t like the "Additional" menu. I’d like the ability to put a more professional menu on the forms for our product.
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That is the standard method for any 3rd party product – use a form notification which has the menu under the Additional menu. If you look at SOP, you’ll see several different menu items added by different products. The same thing that your vstools app would do.
Otherwise if you physically want to add your own item to the menu strip, you have to modify the form with Dexterity. There is no programatic way to do this with vstools or Dexterity.
patrick
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OK, thanks for the info. One more question, is there a way to sort the items that get added to the "Additional" menu?
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No. The are listed in the order the triggers add them.
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Hi David,
“Hi Bob
The Menus for Visual Studio Tools has only been released for v10.0. For v9.0 you will still need to create your own Dexterity dictionary. For v11.0, the plan is to have a different method built into Visual Studio Tools.
David ”
Could you give me an example of this?
Thank you very much!!
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Hi Diego
What do you need an example of?
The Dexterity Integration Guide manual explains how to add menus to Dynamics using Dexterity and the sample applications have actual code.
David
PS: We will be creating a Menus for Visual Studio Tools for v11.0.
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Hello David,
I was wondering if you can have two different addIns sharing the same menu, let's say in the Card Sales Menu?
If yes, can you please give me some guidelines on how to achieve it?
Thanks a lot.
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Hi Jesus
if you create your code, so that the tag can be passed between the apps then both applications could use the same menu on the Cards Sales menu. Only one application needs to create it, but then both can respond to the same tag.
But what I don't understand is why you would ever want that? Which application would you want to open?
What is wrong with each .net application add its own menu entry?
David
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