Let's take a look at the AutoComplete functionality that is available with Microsoft Dynamics GP, the details of this feature and whether or not it may be right for you in day-to-day working in Dynamics GP.
>>Basic Functionality
The AutoComplete functionality allows users to more quickly enter data into some fields in Microsoft Dynamics GP, by presenting a drop-down list that appears after the user begins typing in the information.
An example of this is a Vendor ID field when populating in the vendor id in the vendor card, transaction or inquiry type windows.
AutoComplete is available on ID type fields and could be impacted by ISV/third-party products.
AutoComplete is enabled through the 'User Preferences' window, which is by default located on the left-hand list of the 'Home' page for Microsoft Dynamics GP. You can also reach the 'User Preferences window under the main 'Microsoft Dynamics GP' menu and clicking on 'User Preferences.
In the User Preferences window, clicking on the AutoComplete button will open the AutoComplete Setup window:
In the AutoComplete Setup window, you can enable the functionality and also configure how many days you want to save the saved entries and the maximum number of entries to save per field.
Along with enabling and disabling the AutoComplete functionality via the User Preferences window, you can also remove AutoComplete entries either one at a time or all at one time.
For example, if you mistyped something into a field and it keeps showing in the AutoComplete list, to avoid choosing that incorrect option again, you can right-click on the field and choose 'Remove From List' to remove it. It will then be removed from the AutoComplete list for that window/field.
If a user decides they want to remove all of the AutoComplete entries, whether to clear space on a drive or for any reason, the user can go into the User Preferences window and then into AutoComplete. From here, click on the 'Remove Entries' button, which will purge all AutoComplete entries for that user.
>>Where files are stored
The AutoComplete field information is not stored in any Microsoft Dynamics GP databases, but actually a AutoCmpl.dat and AutoCmpl.idx file, that gets created, by default, in each user's profile such as C:\Users\UserID\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Business Solutions\Microsoft Dynamics\TWO\
Because each server or workstation with Microsoft Dynamics GP on it can potentially have a different set of AutoComplete files on it, it is possible that users will see different AutoComplete field information on different machines.
The AutoCmpl.dat and AutoCmpl.idx files are ctree plus files, which is the platform that Microsoft Dynamics GP, actually Great Plains, used to be available on, some of these type files are still used in present versions of Microsoft Dynamics GP application.
The setup information for AutoComplete, such as whether this feature is enabled or disabled, is held in the SY01402 system table, like most other User Preference information. This feature has a syDefaultType of 30. Using that, we can use this script example to enable AutoComplete functionality for all users, or disable it:
UPDATE SY01402 SET SYUSERDFSTR = REPLACE(SYUSERDFSTR, 'TRUE', 'FALSE')
WHERE syDefaultType = 30;
Adding a 'where USERID = xxxx' clause to this script would allow you to make the change for a specific user.
So, again, the 'AutoComplete' data itself is held in each user's profile folders, specific to each server or workstation they are accessing Microsoft Dynamics GP on, the setup information for the AutoComplete feature, is held in the SY01402 system table, such as whether the feature is enabled or disabled for a user.
>>Troubleshooting
Because AutoComplete is held in a user's profile folders, you may see where the user's profile will get corrupted where the customer had to rebuild the user profile, thus the user can potentially lose all AutoComplete entries they had on that machine.
Because the AutoComplete files are held in a user's profile folders, we've also seen where the network shared folder storing the roaming profiles has become full, causing the AutoComplete functionality not to work until the disk size was expanded.
>>Recommendations
Another way to avoid this is, while the default number of entries is 10,000 per field, it is suggested to lower it to something much smaller, like 300, for example, per field and/or lower the number of days for the 'Remove unused entries after # days' in the AutoComplete limits.
Hopefully this will answer some questions around AutoComplete feature in Microsoft Dynamics GP and give you information on it if you haven't really looked at it before.
Thank you!