Simplify Your ISV Product Updates

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Simplify Your ISV Product Updates

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If you’re not using Terminal Server or Citrix for your GP installation, updating workstations can be cumbersome and time-consuming.  Use the instructions in this article to make your workstation updates easier to manage.

Dexterity applications are usually delivered as a .CNK file.  In order for this file to be properly converted to a .DIC file, it must be located in the same folder as the Dynamics.exe file.  When you launch GP, you’ll be prompted to include new code, and when you click OK, Dynamics.exe will convert the .CNK file into a .DIC file to make it compatible with your Dynamics GP system.  You now have a properly synchronized .DIC file that usually contains all the ISV’s application code.  This file can be copied to any location and will function with 100% reliability without any special installation process.

The best way to utilize this .DIC file to make updates easier is to place this file on a network share and point all workstation Dynamics.set files to this shared file.

Here’s the step-by-step:
1. Install the application on the server (this creates the .DIC file).
2. Create a network share that’s accessibile from all Dynamics GP workstations (e.g. \\server\sharedfolder\).
3. Copy the .DIC file to the network share (\\server\sharedfolder).
4. Make sure all Dynamics.set files on your GP workstations point to the .DIC file on the network share (\\server\sharedfolder\isv.dic). If your shared folder is mapped to a drive letter (though we recommend UNC pathing), remember that the Dynamics.set file must be in the generic format (:D:RootFolder/folder/isv.dic).

With this type of setup, to update all your workstations, you need to only follow steps #1 and #3 (do this only when all users are out of GP) and all workstations are now updated!

If you want to do this with other ISV applications, confirm with the developer that their application contains only a Dexterity dictionary and SQL objects.  If the application contains other types of application code (such like a .dll’s, .exe’s, etc.), you may not be able to do this for those applications.

If you need to apply a GP update, you’ll still have to run that on each workstation, but at least you won’t also have to run the updates for every ISV application you have installed, because when you run the GP update, the Dynamics.set file is left alone.