Chapter 2. Where Is My Data and How Do I Get to It?
Now that we have looked at the latest trends in reporting and have an understanding of the many challenges that go along with report development, we are ready to start gathering our data and writing our report. As any developer or consultant that has been tasked with filling user requests for reports is aware, ultimately the very first question after deciding on the reporting tool is "Where is my data and how do I get to it?"
Knowing where to begin is a critical first step in the development process. The aim of this chapter is to provide helpful tips for finding and locating data in the Dynamics GP 2010 ERP system and company databases. Although we'll discuss some reporting tools that do not require us to know the SQL database structure for Dynamics GP companies, it is still helpful to understand how GP stores its data.
In this chapter, we will discuss the following:
- Differences between the DYNAMICS database and company databases
- Conventions that are helpful to know and understand when it comes to Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 data and how it is stored
- Using Resource Descriptions as a tool for finding data from within GP 2010
- Utilizing additional tools, such as the GP 2010 SDK and Support Debugging Tool, to find our data