Updating modified forms and reports for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 and prior

If you've done an upgrade of Microsoft Dynamics GP, you've probably then had to update any modified forms (windows) or reports you also have.

I wanted to publish this blog with step-by-step information on the 'Update Modified Forms and Reports' process found in Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities, but also the alternative methods we have for updating these forms and reports dictionary files, if needed.

First, along with the Microsoft Dynamics GP system and company databases, it's highly recommended to make backups of your forms and reports dictionary files.

I would also recommend exporting all modified forms and reports, along with any VBA components, into a .package file, via the Customization Maintenance window within Microsoft Dynamics GP application, for reasons I'll explain below.

To use the 'Update Modified Forms and Reports' process within Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities, use the following steps:

1. Launch Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities and login as the 'sa' login.

2. Select the ‘Update Modified Forms and Reports’ option in GP Utilities and select the ‘Process’ button.

3. In the 'Locate Launch File' window, browse out to the Dynamics.set of the previous version of Microsoft Dynamics GP that you upgraded from; this should have the correct path pointing to the Reports and Forms dictionary files for the modules mentioned above, that you need to upgrade. Click Next.

**If you upgraded from Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016, for example, to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015, point to the Dynamics.set from Microsoft Dynamics GP 2015. This way it can use the Dynamics.set file to determine which features/modules you actually have modified forms and/or modified reports for.

**If you're simply upgrading to a higher build of Microsoft Dynamics GP, not a major version change, make a backup of the Dynamics.set along with any modified forms and reports dictionary files. Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities will actually create a backup directory with a copy of these files in it, to use for this purpose.

4. The modules with modified reports and forms will be detected by Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities and a list of those modules will be present in the next 'Update Modified Forms and Reports' window. Put a check-mark next to the module(s) you want to upgrade modified reports and forms for (such as 'Microsoft Dynamics GP').

5. In the 'Product Details: xxxxxxxxxxxxx' window, browse to the main dictionary file for the feature/module (such as Dynamics.dic) from the previous version of Microsoft Dynamics GP that you are upgrading from, not the new version you're upgrading to. Click OK.

6. Click the 'Update' button to start the upgrade of modified forms and reports.

7. In the Upgrade Process window, you should see the 'Finished updating Microsoft Dynamics GP Reports/Forms' message when it finishes. Click the 'Close' button.

8. If there were no errors and you see a green check-mark next to the module, such as Microsoft Dynamics GP, that you just updated modified reports/Forms for, then the upgrade was successful and the modified reports/Forms should be available in the new version of Microsoft Dynamics GP.

9. If you still get the red ‘x’ next to the modules with the modified reports/forms, or the updated forms and reports dictionary files don't get created, you can click on the module and then click the ‘Details’ button to get a log report of why they may have failed. In the new Microsoft Dynamics GP code directory, in the ‘Data’ folder, there will also be an 'Update1#xxxx_Microsoft_Dynamics_GP.log' file with information as to why the modified forms or reports may be failing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're not able to get the modified forms or modified reports dictionary files updated via the 'Update Modified Forms and Reports' process in Microsoft Dynamics GP Utilities, you can use these alternative methods:

A. If you have package files of the modified forms and reports made from the prior version, you can import the package files into Customization Maintenance on the new version, which will create the updated forms and reports dictionary files on the fly.

    Package files can be created in the Customization Maintenance window found by clicking on 'Microsoft Dynamics GP' > Tools > Customize > Customization Maintenance.

    In this window, you can select everything and export it into one package file, or make different package files for modified forms and modified reports.

    If you have a package file of modified forms and reports, you can import it into the Customization Maintenance window on the new version of Microsoft Dynamics GP that you've upgraded to, which will create all forms and/or reports dictionary files on-the-fly, at the location the Dynamics.set file is showing these files to be located.

B. Manually import the modified reports into Report Writer:

1. Take the Reports.dic or a copy of the Reports.dic from the prior version of Microsoft Dynamics GP and put it on the machine's Desktop or another location.

2. Launch the new version of Microsoft Dynamics GP that you upgraded to, and login as 'sa'.

3. Open the Report Writer window by clicking on Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Customize > Report Writer.

4. In the ‘Product’ dialog box, select one of the modules in which you have modified reports setup; we’ll start with ‘Microsoft Dynamics GP’ for the Reports.dic file. Click OK.

5. Next, click the ‘Reports’ button to open Report Writer.

6. In Report Writer, you will see a list of ‘Original Reports’ and a window for ‘Modified Reports’; the ‘Modified Reports’ list may be empty as we don't have a reports dictionary updated yet.

7. Click the ‘Import’ button, then in the ‘Import Reports’ window, for ‘Source Dictionary’, click the ellipse (…) button and browse to the Reports.dic file mentioned in step #1 above. Click Open for that Reports.dic and then you should see a list of your modified reports for the ‘Microsoft Dynamics GP’ module under the ‘Source Dictionary Reports’ column.

***NOTE: If you do not see any reports listed under the modified reports, or get an error that the dictionary cannot be opened, this means that the Reports.dic may be damaged/corrupted and we need to find another one to use***

8. Double-click or highlight each of the modified reports and click the ‘Insert’ button so that all modified reports show under the ‘Reports to Import’ column. Click the ‘Import’ button.

9. Now, in Report Writer, you should see your modified reports listed under the ‘Modified Reports’ column.

10. Click each of the modified reports and then click the ‘Validate’ button to verify none of the reports have any validation issues.

--If any reports have issues, we’ll need to check that report to find out why it failed the validation.

--If none of the reports show any issues, they should be fine working in new release of Microsoft Dynamics GP.

11. Repeat this for the other modules you have modified reports for and then users will need to verify inside of the new Microsoft Dynamics GP that the modified forms and reports actually do work.

***NOTE: There isn't any way to manually import modified forms into Modifier. You must use a package file or 'Update Modified Forms and Reports' process.

Once you get the modified forms and/or modified reports into the new release of Microsoft Dynamics GP that you have upgraded to, you'll want to still verify whether or not these modifications still work since there is often table and other changes when moving to a new version or build of Microsoft Dynamics GP, and that users have access to the modified version of these objects that they should.

This is a question and issue that we commonly see in support cases, so hopefully by putting the information out, we'll remind everyone to make backups of their modified forms and modified reports dictionary files, like you do with the Microsoft Dynamics GP system and company databases, and give some alternative methods, should you have issues with getting these modified forms or reports to the new versions of the Microsoft Dynamics GP application.