Rules to maintain alternate windows when you make customizations in Dexterity in Microsoft Dynamics GP

This article describes the rules that are used to maintain alternate windows when you make customizations in Dexterity in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Applies to:   Microsoft Dynamics GP
Original KB number:   929211

More information

When you make customizations in Dexterity in Microsoft Dynamics GP, you may have to change existing windows in the core Dynamics.dic dictionary. These modified windows become alternate windows when they are transferred to the extracted dictionary. The windows are transferred when a chunk file is created. In alternate windows, scripts may be added to existing fields, windows, or form events.

You can experience difficulty when you maintain an alternate window because you cannot easily know what scripts have been added to the window. If the window changes significantly between versions, you may have to remake the changes that you made to the original window. If a previous script change is not maintained, the code may not work correctly.

To make it easier to maintain an alternate window, follow these rules:

• Never change or add scripts on an alternate window.
• Only make layout changes to an alternate window.
• Use triggers to add scripts to fields, to windows, and to form events.
• Determine whether the alternate window is being used. If the window is not being used, stop the trigger scripts to prevent illegal address errors.

Use triggers to see and to maintain all the scripts easily because triggers are global procedures. If the alternate windows do not upgrade correctly, you can remake the layout changes that you made to the original window. If you do not add a particular field, one or more of the scripts that handle triggers will not compile successfully. Therefore, use triggers to avoid missing any fields.

References

For more information about how to create a chunk file from a development dictionary, see How to create a chunk file in Dexterity in Microsoft Dynamics GP.