#Dexterity Development Environments – Part 1: Installation

This article has been a long time coming and is the first of a series of articles on how I set up my machine for developing Dexterity applications across multiple versions.

I promised I would detail how my system is set up a while back at the reImagine 2015 conference and had never got around to writing the article until now.

Disclaimer: This is the Musgravion principles of development machine setup. It is not the only method but it has worked for me for many years and has been fine tuned during my career. Feel free to use it if it works for you.

Background

I currently have ten versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP and Dexterity installed on my system; GP 2015, GP 2016 and GP 2018 including the R2 releases for GP 2015, GP 2016 and GP 2018, as well as the Modern Lifecycle versions GP v18.2, GP v18.3. GP v18.4 and GP v18.5.

When I develop products I write with a single code base for all versions. I use conditional code and conditional compilation to handle differences between versions and test on both RTM and R2 releases to make sure everything works.

For my SQL Server install, I am using SQL Server 2019 as this version works for all the versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP I am using. Starting from GP 2013, you can specify the names for the system database and sample company database. This functionality makes it possible for a single SQL instance to support all the Dynamics GP versions I want to use. Prior to allowing Named System Databases, you would have to use multiple instances of SQL Server.

I am still using Microsoft Visual Source Safe 2005 for source code control. Source Code Control should be used by all Dexterity developers and not just when upgrading. The ability to cancel changes you have made and roll back to a last checked in version is invaluable. It also allows multiple developers to work on a single development at the same time. With Visual Studio Team Services (think Team Foundation Server in the cloud), you can even have multiple remote developers working on the same project.

Microsoft Dynamics GP

I have installed all the versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP I wanted in the order they were released. To allow all the versions to co-reside on the same machine, I use the following naming conventions:

GP Version	Application Folder	System Database	Sample Company
GP 2010 (v11.0)	C:\Dyn1100	DYNAMICS	TWO
GP 2013 (v12.0)	C:\Dyn1200	DYNAMICS12	TWO12
GP 2013 R2*	C:\Dyn1300	DYNAMICS13	TWO13
GP 2015 (v14.0)	C:\Dyn1400	DYNAMICS14	TWO14
GP 2015 R2*	C:\Dyn1500	DYNAMICS15	TWO15
GP 2016 (v16.0)	C:\Dyn1600	DYNAMICS16	TWO16
GP 2016 R2*	C:\Dyn1700	DYNAMICS17	TWO17
GP 2018	C:\Dyn1800	DYNAMICS18	TWO18
GP 2018 R2*	C:\Dyn1900	DYNAMICS19	TWO19
GP v18.2	C:\Dyn2000	DYNAMICS20	TWO20
GP v18.3	C:\Dyn2100	DYNAMICS21	TWO21
GP v18.4	C:\Dyn2200	DYNAMICS22	TWO22
GP v18.5	C:\Dyn2300	DYNAMICS23	TWO23

* Optional install used for compatibility testing

Make sure that each version of Microsoft Dynamics GP has been completely set up, launched and logged into.

Microsoft Dexterity

I have installed the versions of Dexterity to matched the installed versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP. To allow the versions to co-reside on the same machine, I use the following naming conventions:

Dexterity Version	Application Folder
Dexterity for GP 2010 (v11.0)	C:\Dex1100
Dexterity for GP 2013 (v12.0)	C:\Dex1200
Dexterity for GP 2013 R2*	C:\Dex1300
Dexterity for GP 2015 (v14.0)	C:\Dex1400
Dexterity for GP 2015 R2*	C:\Dex1500
Dexterity for GP 2016 (v16.0)	C:\Dex1600
Dexterity for GP 2016 R2*	C:\Dex1700
Dexterity for GP 2018	C:\Dex1800
Dexterity for GP 2018 R2*	C:\Dex1900
Dexterity for GP v18.2	C:\Dex2000
Dexterity for GP v18.3	C:\Dex2100
Dexterity for GP v18.4	C:\Dex2200
Dexterity for GP v18.5	C:\Dex2300

* Optional install

To prepare the Dexterity environment for use, copy the Dex.ini file from the C:\DynXX00\Data folder to the C:\DexXX00\Data folder.

Open the Dex.ini copied into C:\DexXX00\Data with Notepad.exe and locate the DexHelpPath setting. If it exists, edit the setting to point to the Dexterity folder or add a semicolon at the beginning of the line to comment out the line and let the default location be used.

We have also seen some performance issues with Microsoft Dynamics GP and Dexterity with Windows 10, please see the following articles to get the best performance:

• Solving Performance Problems with Microsoft Dynamics GP and Windows 10 – Part 1
• Solving Performance Problems with Microsoft Dynamics GP and Windows 10 – Part 2
• #Dexterity Improving Performance on Windows 10

For more information, see the KB Article I created back in March 2008:

• How to set up the development environment when you use Dexterity in Microsoft Dynamics GP (KB 949622)

Stay tuned for the next article on setting up individual Dexterity development projects.

David

21-Jun-2019: Added articles for Performance issues with Dexterity on Windows 10.
02-Sep-2021: Updated for later versions of Dexterity.
19-Apr-2023: Updates for current system configuration I am using.

This article was originally posted on http://www.winthropdc.com/blog.