#GPPT #BPST #VSIT Solution to Registration issues on Winthrop Development Consultants products

If you are using GP Power Tools, Batch Posting Service Toolkit, or Visual Studio Integration Toolkit and are having registration issues there is most probably a very simple solution.

This article assumes that your GP Power Tools or Batch Posting Service Toolkit subscriptions are current. Visual Studio Integration Toolkit is free, its subscription is always current.

The quick answer is to just update to the latest code. Read on for more details…

To understand the big picture needs a little explanation of the timeline.

Registration Changes Timeline

Below are the important points:

When Winthrop Development Consultants first released its products, we partnered with Mekorma and leveraged their registration engine and sales/marketing infrastructure.

August 2015 Special Introductory Offer on GP Power Tools (Build 20). It was sold as a single product without modules at a heavily reduced price. This offer was extended to include the first subscription renewal at the same price.

July 2016 Marked the end of the special offer deal and the separation of GP Power Tools (Build 21) into the modules we have today: Administrator Tools, Developer Tools, Database Tools and the System Features. The registration system was changed to handle the multiple modules.

Using the Mekorma Product Manager for Winthrop products was causing compatibility and update issues because both Mekorma and Winthrop products were trying to share the same registration client tool.

November 2017 saw the first release of Winthrop’s new registration system. This system still used Mekorma’s registration server for GP Power Tools (Build 23) and Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 7). However, Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 12) now used Winthrop’s registration server based on Soraco’s QLM (Quick License Manager).

As the Mekorma Product Manager was no longer used by Winthrop products, it was automatically removed from the system by the installers when no actual Mekorma products were installed. Due to this, it was important to update all Winthrop products at the same time on all workstations in a system.

May 2018 Winthrop Development Consultants announced that it would end its partnership with Mekorma and start distributing its product directly from July 2018 onwards. To help with the transition new product builds were released with an updated registration system that would automatically swap over to use Winthrop’s registration server from July 2018. These were GP Power Tools (Build 24), Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 8) and Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 13). These are the minimum builds which can now be registered, any older builds can not be re-registered once expired. Blogs, newsletters and websites explained that all customers needed to update their systems to stay registered and have a smooth transition.

In June 2018, due to some teething issues with the registration system (read as “users doing unexpected things”) and the addition of support for SPLA or Hosting licensing, there were some hotfix builds released for all products.

July 2018 saw Winthrop Development Consultants start directly distributing its products including handling of all sales and support queries. The partnership with Mekorma had now ended (and yes, we are still friends). Due to some issues caused on systems where the June 2018 hotfixes had been installed but not on all machines, new builds were released which also changed the internal numbering scheme so that it was no longer possible to have mismatched hotfixes installed. These were GP Power Tools (Build 25), Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 9) and Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 14).

February 2019 and new builds of all products have been released. These were GP Power Tools (Build 26), Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 10) and Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 15).

May 2019 saw the release of GP Power Tools (Build 27).

August 2020 and new builds of all products have been released. These were GP Power Tools (Build 28), Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 11) and Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 16).

August 2022 and new builds for all products have been released. These were GP Power Tools (Build 29), Batch Posting Service Toolkit (Build 12) and Visual Studio Integration Toolkit (Build 17). These are the current builds and should be installed to get all the latest features, enhancements and fixes. They also fix a critical security vulnerability in the installer software.

Look at the products’ About windows to check your version, accessible from the Additional Menu of the About Microsoft Dynamics GP window.

Note: Partners must be using registration keys with their registered site name and not demo keys with Two, Inc. for NFR registration to work.

So that brings us to now and the following summary:

GP Power Tools (GPPT)

Support Debugging Tool Build 19 or before: Discontinued and not supported.
Build 20: Special Introductory Offer build without separate modules, can no longer be registered.
Build 21 to Build 23: Cannot be registered as it uses wrong server.
Build 24: Minimum build which can be registered.
Build 25: Minimum build which can be registered for SPLA or Hosted sites. Can handle offline registrations when there is no internet connection.
Build 26: Fixes minor issues with registration, standardizes formatting and countries.
Build 27: Adds many new features, enhancements and fixes.
Build 28: Adds many new features, enhancements and fixes, as well as, improved installer and table creation and registration systems.
Build 29: Consolidates all the existing features with many enhancements in usability and functionality. Also fixes Installer Security Vulnerability.

Batch Posting Service Toolkit (BPST)

Build 7 or before: Cannot be registered as it uses wrong server.
Build 8: Minimum build which can be registered.
Build 9: Minimum build which can be registered for SPLA or Hosted sites. Can handle offline registrations when there is no internet connection.
Build 10: Fixes minor issues with registration, standardizes formatting and countries.
Build 11: Improved installer and table creation and registration systems.
Build 12: Improvements to installer and registration systems and fixes Installer Security Vulnerability.

Visual Studio Integration Toolkit

Build 11 or before: Cannot be registered as it uses wrong server.
Build 12: Should not be registered. Has a bugs that cause problems with registration system. [Edit] After upgrading to current build, log a support request to get the registration system information fixed to allow registration to work.
Build 13: Minimum build which can be registered.
Build 14: Minimum build which can be registered for SPLA or Hosted sites. Can handle offline registrations when there is no internet connection.
Build 15: Fixes minor issues with registration, standardizes formatting and countries.
Build 16: Improved installer and table creation and registration systems.
Build 17: Improvements to installer and registration systems and fixes Installer Security Vulnerability.

The following articles will help make the update process easier:

If you have already updated and still can’t get keys, then check with your partner or directly with Winthrop if your subscription is current.

The Portal Pages for each of the products are below:

Thanks for your support during this transition stage.

David

18-Sep-2018: Updated to mention that demo Two, Inc. keys cannot be used for NFR registration for partners.
27-Feb-2019: Updated for new builds of all products.
10-Mar-2020: Added note that after updating from Visual Studio Integration Toolkit build 12, the registration system information will need to be fixed before the new build can register.
11-Aug-2020: Updated for new builds.
13-Aug-2022: Updated for new builds of all products.

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

Winthrop Development Consultants Blog

Winthrop Development Consultants Blog

This blog will keep you up to date with Winthrop Development Consultants and David’s experiences, tips and tricks as a developer and consultant in the Microsoft Dynamics GP community.