Dex.ini Switches - Part 1

Over the years I've collected a number of dex.ini switches. I love these things. I'd been beating my head against the wall for 2 or 3 hours and somone comes by and says 'Oh, that's just an ini switch.' An .ini switch can control all sorts of things. From where to look for the help file to turning off that nagging reminder about the sample company date. Some of my favorite switches are below. Since, I can't figure out how to attach a text file to this blog, I'll make this a multi-part post and eventually cover all of them in my list.

ShowAdvancedMacroMenu=TRUE
When you get that message that says your macro failed on line 65,423 you can use this to open your macro and jump right to the line of failure for analysis. Being a frequent user of the 'Mail Merge' macro, this tool is used frequently to find out what went wrong. Another cool thing about this is that it lets you start a macro in the middle, also there's no separate .cnk to install. A simple .ini switch does the trick!

DISALLOWSNLOTAOF=TRUE
Prevents users from being able to "create" new lot numbers or serial numbers while transferring an item from one site to another. Version 10 now has a setup option that disallows this, but the box is not automatically checked. GP is good about not changing the old functionality (really, I mean this) so be sure to check your setup screens after each update or SP for new settings.

EmpLookup=2
Causes the Employee Lookup to default to Last Name

EmpLookup=3
Causes the Employee Lookup to default to First Name

EmpLookup=4
Causes the Employee Lookup to default to Social Security Number

ExplorerFormatCurrency=FALSE
Exports currency values to Excel from SmartLists as numbers instead of text.

ExportOneLineBody=TRUE
All fields and text entered in the body of the report will export to a single line when the report is printed to a file. Allows you to enter many fields vertically instead of having to enter them horizontally in the report layout. This was what we had to do back in the pre-SQL days. If you don't exactly have your arms around the SmartList Export Solutions, it's still a nifty way to 'export' Excel formulas. Be sure to change your Excel formula options to R1C1 reference style and you won't need to keep track of any Excel templates. My clients enjoy just being able to run a Report Writer report to get all of the formulas they need. That, and I already had it written so it was easier.

FormDictionaryPath=pathname
ReportDictionaryPath=pathname
These are new for version 10 and welcomed with open arms! These lines tell dexterity where the forms/reports should default to when installing a new .cnk file. Switch it to a shared location for a shared forms/reports.dic and any new dictionary applications that are installed will default to that location instead of the client installation folder.

MinPMCheck=50.00
Used in conjunction with PSTL free tool this sets the minimum payables check amount. This is used in conjunction with the 'Select Checks' feature. No check for under the amount specified will be created. In this example the minimum check would be $50.00

OldRelationshipWindow=TRUE
Just kidding, this one doesn't work anymore. For the oldies among us, remember when Report Writer would let you create invalid relationships? Like you could build a relationship between a string field and an integer field. Hey, sometimes you needed to! This switch allowed the old Relationship Definition window to work again. This switch was used prior to version 8.

OLEPath=pathname
Thanks to Matthew, I have a new solution to this one. Apparently you CAN use the UNC path so long as you have the folders pre-created for each company. Read explanation below:

You only need one line in the dex.ini to accommodate multiple GP companies. If you have three companies in GP (CMP1-CMP3) the line in the dex.ini would still be, for example,

OLEPath=\\ServerName\GPShare\OLE\

For this path to work with the three companies, you would need to manually add the company directories under the OLE directory on the share. For example, the folders would look like this:

GPShare\OLE\CMP1\OLENotes
GPShare\OLE\CMP2\OLENotes
GPShare\OLE\CMP3\OLENotes

If you're using a local drive or a mapped drive instead of UNC for the OLEPath, this directory structure is automatically created for you by GP.

If you don't have the folder structure set up first, UNC will not work. IP addresses won't work either.

REVALUEINDETAIL=TRUE
Inventory cost adjustments will flow into the general ledger in detail instead of the default behavior which is to create a single summarized journal entry.

SAMPLEDATEMMDDYYYY=00000000
To prevent the 'Sample Company' dialog box from being displayed and to use the current system date instead of April 12th, 2017

SAMPLEDATEMMDDYYYY=MMDDYYYY
To prevent the 'Sample Company' dialog box from being displayed and to use a user-specified date

SAMPLEDATEMSG=FALSE
To prevent the 'Sample Company' dialog box from being displayed, while leaving the user date at April 12, 2017.

StdInternationalInfo=TRUE
The date format will not be pulled from the International settings and will instead use the default format of mm/dd/yy.

SuppressChangeDateDialog=True
To keep an IM integration from failing if the integration is running when the computer’s clock hits midnight. The computer date doesn’t change either – so be sure to watch this if running overnight integrations.

SuppressSound=TRUE
Stop Dexterity and Dynamics from generating any sounds. This is popular if you don't want the whole office to hear the computer 'beeping' when you make mistakes. It was also popular back in the 'Welcome to Dynamics' .wav file days.

For those who want more, watch this blog, contributions and corrections ARE WELCOMED AND ENCOURAGED!

That's all for now,
Leslie