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Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

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Posted on by Vanes2g

Hi Everyone,

We are trying to decide the best option for installing the GP 2018 Web client or the desktop client, as we are in the middle of the GP upgrade project from GP2015 to GP2018 8.4.

Do you know which features are currently not working on the web client compared to the desktop client?

Also, what would be the infrastructure required to support 100 users? We will need to implement a 01 Web Server + 01 or 02 Session servers, or can everything reside on the same Web Server?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Vanes2g

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Microsoft Dynamics GP

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Vanes2g 15 on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

Hi Beat,

Thank you so much for the detailed review; It will help a lot with the decision.

Thanks,

Vanes2g
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Beat Bucher GP Gee... 28,021 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

I've seen some customers that used the 'original' web client from 2015 (which was Silverlight based) be very disappointed when they upgraded to the HTML5-based web client.. in the old one, you had somewhat a feeling of GP that merely looked like the fat client.. not so much anymore in the HTML5 web client, which aside of all the cons that David mentioned, doesn't allow to move / toss windows aside to see other windows content.

In order to get multiple windows open from the same company in the web client, you need to login multiple times by opening multiple browser tabs or windows.. That is the only benefit of using the web client, as it counts only 1 license for those multiple 'logins' into the same company.

Other than that, I don't see any benefits of using the web client, as it's clunky and very limiting. You can't even use any keyboard shortcuts that fat clients are used to, because those are intercepted by the Web browser and interpreted differently...

There are more cons than pros on the web client and many customer I know just decided to ditch it.
Vanes2g 15 on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

Thank you, David, for this detailed review.
David Musgrave MVP ... 13,932 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

The web client only allows a single window to be used at a time, you cannot have windows side by side. It does not support VBA or WinForms or .Net dialogs with Visual Studio Tools. But GP Power Tools - Developer Tools do work fine on the web client.

Also there are a number of features in my GP Power Tools which are not supported on the web client because the web client cannot do them, such as company color themes, window position memory, macro logging, capturing screenshots, splitters between explorer panes in windows, Desktop Alerts, and more. There is a section in Chapter 2 of the User Guide manual.

If your users are used to the rich desktop client, they might not be happy with the web client.

If they have only ever used the web client, they don't know what they are missing.

David
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Derek Albaugh on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

As the System Requirements only mention Datacenter edition for Windows Server, I'd defer to that.

If you absolutely can't use a Datacenter edition for Windows Server, I know Dynamics GP itself is also supported on Essentials and Standard edition along with Datacenter edition, but for the larger number of concurrent users and transactions per day, the Datacenter edition seems to be the edition recommended for use on those those.

docs.microsoft.com/.../MDGP2018_System_Requirements

I will say that I'm not aware of ever seeing a case where something didn't work because someone was using the wrong edition of an operating system that was at the correct version.

Thanks
Vanes2g 15 on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

Hi Derek,

Thank you for your fast response. On the system requirement article, I see that The Web Application and Session Servers only support Windows 2019 Datacenter Edition. Is it still current for the 18.4 version? Can we use Windows Server 2019 STD edition instead?

Do you know if we need additional licenses for Dynamics Web components?

Thank you,

Vanes2g
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Derek Albaugh on at

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RE: Which GP features have been missed on the GP 2018 Web client compared to the desktop client?

Web Client does not support Integration Manager or VBA code, otherwise all the same features in the Dynamics GP desktop client are present in the web client, as Web Client is pointed to and uses a desktop client's Dynamics.set file when launched.

For the system requirements for Web Client, to support 100 users, I'd recommend looking at the following:

docs.microsoft.com/.../mdgp2018_system_requirements_web_apps

As for whether everything can reside on one server, or a multi-server configuration of an IIS/Web Server and then 1-2 session host servers, you'd almost need to test to confirm, but with 100 users, my best guess would be depending on how many transactions are being run by those users.

The System Requirements article gives minimum specs such as minimum available RAM on the server, Processor and Bandwidth Consideration per active Web Client user, so that may also help determine whether one server would be sufficient or starting out with an IIS/Web Server and one session host server.

Thanks