Implementing Node Builder: What is Node Builder?

This post is part of the series on Implementing Node Builder.

Node Builder is a complimentary product to the SmartConnect integration tool (which I blogged about a few months ago); SmartConnect works by providing an integration layer on top of eConnect which allows non-developers to create integrations for Microsoft Dynamics GP; Node Builder allows these same non-developers to create additional eConnect nodes which can be used in SmartConnect.

An eConnect node is a specific stored procedure that knows how to populate a table or set of tables within Microsoft Dynamics GP. A node also contains all of the Microsoft Dynamics GP business rules and validation which are applied if you were to update those tables through the Dynamics GP user interface.

Node Builder is an easy to use interface that is a lot like SmartList Builder; it allows you to choose the tables you want to populate and then choose the fields which will be available to be populated with the node. Node Builder lets you define your own rules about data validation; for example, you could check that an inventory item exists before you create a specific in transit inventory transfer.

The Node Builder Overview gives more details on the capabilities.