Jan/08 Newsletter – Tech Tip

Sandler*Kahne Software and Dynamics SL7

There are a number of installation and environment topics that are important when using our products with Microsoft Dynamics SL7.  They are summarized below:

Hotfixes:

Some of our user interface (multiple grids, splitter bars, etc.) required a small change in the SL application.  Microsoft has provided these changes and they MUST be installed when using our SL7 products.  Without these hotfixes installed some of our applications will not load.

For SL7GA: Hotfix 14991
For SL7SP1: Hotfix 15206

Menus:

Our installation process (Database Maintenance – 98.290.00) creates a menu group – corresponding to each of our applications.  For eBanking the menu group is SK-EBANKING, for Work Order Procurement – SK-WOPR, for Project Work Order – SK-PWO, for PREP – SK-PREP and for Shop Floor Control – SK-SFC.  We add the SYSADMIN user to our group.  To implement your other users you’ll want to add them to these groups and then provide screen/report access rights for the appropriate applications within the module.

There currently is a bug (15325) in the SL7 menuing system when using the “All Modules” wunderbar option.  The problem is that SL is looking for third party applications to be in the SL7 main folder (and ours are not).  If this is an issue for your implementation, please contact Microsoft and request that this bug is fixed.

Windows Authentication:

When using SL in this environment, you must run the Database Maintenance (98.290.00) – Synchronize All Ownership and Security scenario AFTER you have run the SK Database Maintenance scenario.  Without this sequence applications will fail.

Trust:

Since SL7 is written in .NET, new security requirements are enforced.  Each workstation has to provide a “trust” relationship with the network share.  If this is not done, the applications will not execute on the workstation.  All of our products have been digitally signed.  In Windows Explorer, when you right-click on one of our applications (.exes) and access properties you’ll see our digital signature on that tab.  To provide this “trust” a workstation install MUST be done on each workstation using our applications.  This very simple process records the SK digital signature to the workstations security area, so that SK applications are now “trusted”.  This workstation install process runs a small program that was installed to the <SL Main Folder>\SKSoft.  The name of the trust program is SK-Set Trust.exe.   The details on running the workstation install are found in our installation instructions.

When using more than one Sandler*Kahne Software product on a workstation:  This “trust” portion of the workstation install only needs to be run on a workstation once for any of our products.  However, since some of our workstation installs do more than just the trust operation, it is important to run the workstation install for each module.