Dynamics GP Password Expiration Notice

Last year, I posted a VST customization I thought I would sell to a client that would give users advanced notice that their GP Password was about to expire. That version was locked to only work in Fabrikam. Since that sale never materialized, I have unlocked it and am distributing it for free, "AS IS" with no warranties. You can download the unlocked version here! Just drop it in the GP\Addins directory. I have only tested this on version 10 of Dynamics GP.

The Dynamics GP Blogster has talked about why system administrators are not taking advantage of the password policy enforcement feature in Dynamics GP. If you or your customers are growing frustrated that your user's passwords are expiring without notice and IT is having to reset them frequently you might like this mod. It works like this...

For compatibility with SQL2005 I decided to store a Maximum Password Age with the Number of Days before expiration to begin notifying users that their passwords would expire.  I could have integrated it with windows security policy or active directory to get these values directly but I didn't do that here. With SQL2008 you would only need to store the Number of Days before expiration to start notifying because you can query the DaysUntilExpiration LoginProperty in SQL2008.  I wrote this work both ways depending on which version of SQL was running.

To capture the fields I needed I created a new Dynamics GP form in Visual Studio Tools that could be accessed from the Additionals Menu in Company Setup.  I chose to store this data in the DUOS so that I didn't have to deal with creating any new tables.  Therefore, you can setup each company to behave differently which could be a blessing or a curse.

Next, I added a NewHandler in VST on the SwitchCompanyCloseAfterOriginal event to compare the age of the users password to the maximum password age and days before notification captured in the PWExpirationNotice VST Form.  If the user is due to be notified that their password would expire soon I present them with a message box...

... and then the User Password Setup window in which they could change their password on their way into the GP Company.

The prompt and User Password Setup window are only presented on the first login for a session.  So, the users won't be nagged every time they change companies without shutting down GP first.  They also aren't forced to change their password but rather given the option to do so easily at a convenient time so that they don't get locked out later.