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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived) / How to upgrade Excel R...
Microsoft Dynamics GP (Archived)

How to upgrade Excel Reports to GP 2015?

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Posted on by DinB 3,924

I have a list of Excel Reports and ".odc" files that were deployed in the GP 2010 environment. The ".odc" files have data connection information pointing to the GP 2010 database. How can I upgrade all those reports to GP 2015?


I can re-reploy the out of box Excel Reports in GP 2015, but there may be some reports that may have been modified in GP 2010. So I want to upgrade the existing Excel Reports, instead of re-redeploy them.

Just to clarify, this is regarding the Excel Reports that are deployed from following window:

Microsoft Dynamics GP >> Tools >> Setup >> System >> Reporting Tools Setup
Please advise.

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  • Suggested answer
    Beat Bucher GP Geek GPUG All Star Profile Picture
    Beat Bucher GP Gee... 28,058 Moderator on at
    RE: How to upgrade Excel Reports to GP 2015?

    Max,

    Kirk has a point here that might work.. as long as you kept the same Shared Folder name for the new location of the deployed Excel reports..

    the data connection string in your 'old' 2010 Excel file may look like this :

    X:\ROBSDATACONNECTIONS\FTW\Company\TaxDetailTransactions Default.odc

    Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=True;Initial Catalog=FTW;Data Source=SRV-CAMTL-GP10\DYNAMICSGP;Use Procedure for Prepare=1;Auto Translate=True;Packet Size=4096;Workstation ID=SRV-CAMTL-GP10;Use Encryption for Data=False;Tag with column collation when possible=False

    The first part is your Server name and this could be either supplied by a CNAME entry in the DNS, of if the issue is isolated within a single (or a couple) of users, you could just create a pointer in the 'hosts' file in Windows to direct the old GP server name to the new IP address of the 2015 data server. Or, like in this case, map the new shared folder thru a network drive..

    This technique will only work as long as you kept the same structure on the new server.

    The danger with this is that you may mix-up new ODC definitions with older Excel 'content' files, which may not reflect updated fields / new fields.

    Alternatively I'd suggest a much more elegant solution that was published several years back by Microsoft and would actually update the connection string in your Excel workbooks. Read more about it here :

    msdn.microsoft.com/.../dd941886%28v=office.11%29.aspx

    There are possibly dozens of different methods to achieve the same goal, google it with the proper terms and you'll likely find a lot more.

    To not get plagued again in the future with another GP update on a different server, I've long decided to go with DNS Alias for my live GP system.. thus when the Excel reports are deployed, the ODC file will already include the canonical name of the server (i.e. DYNAMICSGP) and not the true server name (i.e. SRV-CAMTL-GP13).

    PS: my suspicion is that the first line (the actual link to the Connection file) is only used at the time of the deployment of the files on the server.. the prefix  "X:\ROBSDATACONNECTIONS" is very unlikely existing in your environment.

  • Suggested answer
    KirkLivermont Profile Picture
    KirkLivermont 5,985 on at
    RE: How to upgrade Excel Reports to GP 2015?

    Max,

    Can you create a CNAME record in your DNS to redirect requests to the old server to the new one? I have heard this recommendation from Beat Butcher when moving SQL servers quickly to avoid having to reset GP passwords and I think it might work in this situation. I can't quite remember the order of precedence to be sure this is true but I believe you can edit your local hosts file to test this change on a single workstation before going live.

    Best regards,

    Kirk

  • DinB Profile Picture
    DinB 3,924 on at
    RE: How to upgrade Excel Reports to GP 2015?

    There about 500 ".odc" files in multiple companies. I do see the connection strings in the ".odc" file but it will be too much work to update manually.

  • Suggested answer
    KirkLivermont Profile Picture
    KirkLivermont 5,985 on at
    RE: How to upgrade Excel Reports to GP 2015?

    Hi Max,

    I typically update the connection string in excel to reflect the new location. How many reports do you need to update?

    Best regards,

    Kirk

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