Create a Customer in Dynamics GP 2010 using eConnect

A few days ago I created a simple example to create a vendor in Dynamics GP using eConnect. I received a few requests to show a sample integration to create new customers. Creating new customers in Dynamics GP via eConnect is a common request and usually proceeds the creation of other receivables documents.

The sample below creates a new customer using the eConnect .NET assembly and in-memory serialization.

To run the following code on your machine:

1. Install the latest version of the eConnect 11 SDK.
2. Create a new Console Application in Microsoft Visual Studio.

Add references to these dynamic link libraries which are located by default in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics\eConnect 11.0\API\. (Ignore the x86 if you are using a 32-bit system.)

1. Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.dll
2. Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Serialization.dll

Replace the Program.cs class in the project for the new class below.

using System;

using System.IO;

using System.Xml;

using System.Xml.Serialization;

using Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect;

using Microsoft.Dynamics.GP.eConnect.Serialization;

class Program

{

    static void Main(string[] args)

    {

        Console.WriteLine("Beginning integration test.");

        using (eConnectMethods eConnectMethods = new eConnectMethods())

        {

            try

            {

                Console.WriteLine("Creating a new customer.");

                // Modify the connection string for your environment.

                string connectionString = @"data source=localhost; initial catalog=TWO; integrated security=SSPI";

                // Create the customer.

                taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd customer = new taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd();

                customer.CUSTNMBR = "TEST001";

                customer.CUSTNAME = "Test Customer";

                // Assign the customer to a new master customer type.

                RMCustomerMasterType customerMasterType = new RMCustomerMasterType();

                customerMasterType.taUpdateCreateCustomerRcd = customer;

                // Assign the master customer type to a new collection of master customer types.

                RMCustomerMasterType[] customerMasterTypes = { customerMasterType };

                // Serialize the master vendor type in memory.

                eConnectType eConnectType = new eConnectType();

                MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

                XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(eConnectType.GetType());

                // Assign the master customer types to the eConnectType.

                eConnectType.RMCustomerMasterType = customerMasterTypes;

                // Serialize the eConnectType.

                xmlSerializer.Serialize(memoryStream, eConnectType);

                // Reset the position of the memory stream to the start.              

                memoryStream.Position = 0;

                // Create an XmlDocument from the serialized eConnectType in memory.

                XmlDocument xmlDocument = new XmlDocument();

                xmlDocument.Load(memoryStream);

                memoryStream.Close();

                // Call eConnect to process the XmlDocument.

                eConnectMethods.CreateEntity(connectionString, xmlDocument.OuterXml);

                Console.WriteLine("Successfully created customer {0}.", customer.CUSTNMBR);

            }

            catch (Exception ex)

            {

                Console.WriteLine("Exception occured: " + ex.Message);

            }

            finally

            {

                eConnectMethods.Dispose();

            }

        }

        Console.WriteLine("Integration test complete." +

                           Environment.NewLine +

                           Environment.NewLine);

        Console.WriteLine("Press <Enter> to continue...");

        Console.ReadLine();

    }

}

Execute the project and you should see the following output:

And you should see the vendor created in Dynamics GP: