Create a Vendor in Dynamics GP 2010 with eConnect using In Memory Serialization

Developing several integrations between Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 and various third-party systems the last few weeks reminded me to update my previous article on In Memory Serialization for eConnect 10.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 uses eConnect version 11 which includes significant updates. Notably, the COM+ component has been changed to a WCF service.

In this example, I am creating a new vendor record in Dynamics GP using the same in memory serialization technique. Why write a file to disk unnecessarily?

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 vendor.

                taUpdateCreateVendorRcd vendor = new taUpdateCreateVendorRcd();

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

                PMVendorMasterType vendorType = new PMVendorMasterType();

                vendorType.taUpdateCreateVendorRcd = vendor;

                // Assign the master vendor type to a new 

                // collection of master vendor types.

                PMVendorMasterType[] masterVendorTypes = { vendorType };

                // Serialize the master vendor type in memory.

                eConnectType eConnectType = new eConnectType();

                MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();

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

                // Assign the master vendor types to the eConnectType.

                eConnectType.PMVendorMasterType = masterVendorTypes;

                // 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 vendor {0}.", vendor.VENDORID);

            }

            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: