Overview
Because Jet Basics connects to your GP database instead of to the Dynamics GP client, you will need login credentials to that underlying SQL database. You may need to contact your system administrator to create that for you.
Jet Basics can connect to either a GP database that resides on a local server or a database that resides on a remote host. Connecting to a remote host requires that an administrator has already configured the host with the Jet Remote Data Service.
You’ll also need the following files and information:
- Database Information for Local Databases:
- Server Name or IP Address
- Dynamics Database Name
- Database Login Information
or - Jet Remote Data Service settings for Databases that are Hosted Remotely:
- Server Name & Port Number
- Port Number
- Database Login Information
Step-by-Step
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Once you have selected Data Source Settings from the Jet ribbon...
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On the Add Data Source window, give your data source a name, select Dynamics GP as the Database Type...
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Next, you'll need to specify the Connection Method.
If you organization has set up a Jet Remote Data Service and you have that information, select Remote Data Service and see the instructions for Configuring a Jet Remote Data Service Data Source (note: the article discusses full Jet Reports Excel add-in, but the information also applies to Jet Basics).
If, instead, you have the GP Server and login information, select On Premises.
Click OK
The Data Source Settings window will now display the information for your new (empty) data source.
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If the database login - created for you by your system administrator - recognizes your Windows login credentials, on the Authentication tab you can select Windows Authentication.
Otherwise, you'll need to select Database Authentication and specify the user name and password provided to you by your system administrator.
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On the Connection tab...
You will need to provide the name or IP address of the server on which you database is located.
Versions of GP prior to GP 2013 contained a database with the name Dynamics. Later versions of GP allow system administrators to use a name other than Dynamics. You will want to specify the correct Dynamics database by clicking the pull-down arrow and selecting the database name provided to you by your system administrator.
Finally, click the pull-down arrow for the Company and select the appropriate default company name. Even if you only have one company in your database, you must select it here.
If your database includes multiple companies, you can always change the selected company on this screen, the Jet ribbon, or even within a Jet function itself.
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On the Display tab...
You can choose your display preferences, which will determine how your tables and fields display in the various Jet wizards.
You can choose whether or not to display the tables that contain no data and if you want to display how many records are in each table (next to the table name).
Most importantly, if Friendly Names have been added to your database by your administrator, you can choose to enable them for your use, select the Friendly Names group (Great Plains), and choose the Display format you wish to use (we recommend displaying both the Physical and Friendly names). This is a very useful feature that can be a significant help in finding your data.
More information about Friendly Names can be found in the GP Update Utility article.
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Once the Data Source Settings are correct, you can test them by clicking the Test Connection button.
and should see the Test Connection Succeeded message. If there are any issues, the message should help you in troubleshooting.
Click OK and your Dynamics GP data source is now ready for use with Jet Basics.
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