Microsoft Dynamics GP Architecture
Updated: January 9, 2007
This web page summarizes the Microsoft Dynamics GP Architecture white paper, which describes the application's structure and how it scales to meet your evolving business needs.
The primary topics covered in this white paper include:
| • | Application structure |
| • | Performance and scalability |
| • | Customization |
| • | Data integration |
| • | Platform features |
| • | Reporting and analytics |
| • | Application extensibility |
| • | Business Portal |
Microsoft Dynamics GP is an ideal solution for organizations implementing a business management system. The architecture of Microsoft Dynamics GP Plains allows this application to grow with the organizations using it.
As the following illustration shows, Microsoft Dynamics GP contains the following parts:
| • | Dexterity runtime engine |
| • | Microsoft Dynamics GP [Great Plains] application dictionary |
| • | Microsoft SQL Server database  Figure 1: Structure of the core Microsoft Dynamics GP application |
In single-user installations of Microsoft Dynamics GP, all components are installed on a single workstation. In multi-user installations, the runtime engine and Microsoft Dynamics GP application dictionary are installed on individual workstations. A separate server manages data for the system. Additional configurations that include application servers, such as Terminal Server or Citrix, may be employed, as well.
The Dexterity runtime engine
The Dexterity runtime engine displays the functioning application to the end user. It provides the basic capabilities Microsoft Dynamics GP uses, such as the subsystems that access the SQL database.The runtime engine also provides Microsoft Dynamics GP tools and technologies, including the Modifier, Report Writer, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) environment, and COM interface.
Microsoft Dynamics GP application dictionary
The Microsoft Dynamics GP application dictionary contains the resources and business logic for the core application. Separating the business logic from the application presentation helps insulate the application from technology changes. The internal structure of the application dictionary enables users to perform the following tasks without affecting the application's business logic:
| • | Modify the appearance of forms and reports |
| • | Extract from a dictionary user-visible resources (such as strings and messages), translate those resources to another language, and replace them |
| • | Use special files to update resources in an application dictionary after it has been deployed |
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft Dynamics GP uses Microsoft SQL Server to store and manage data for the application. The following key features of Microsoft SQL Server maximize performance and ensure data integrity in Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Stored procedures
This core feature of Microsoft SQL Server helps improve the performance of Microsoft Dynamics GP. Typically, stored procedures are hand-coded to perform specific tasks that can be run directly on the SQL server. Microsoft Dynamics GP uses several stored procedures to perform data-intensive tasks, such as posting.
Microsoft Dynamics GP also implements auto-generated stored procedures. These stored procedures optimize the performance of all database operations in the application but do not require any of the tedious hand-coding.
SQL transactions
This feature helps ensure data integrity as an application processes data. If an entire transaction cannot be completed, the transaction is rolled back. This leaves the database in its previous state, as though the transaction had not been attempted.
