Acumatica Development – Adding GI’s to a Custom Project for Deployment

When a user creates a new GI on their environment the system will auto assign a Screen ID.  This is fine unless you are developing a Custom Project package for deployment to another site.  If you do not change the screen ID to be unique then your deployment might fail.

I have 3 points.

1. How to create a new GI and modify its screen ID.
2. How to change a GI screen ID that is already packaged in a project.
3. Potential overwrites.

How to create a new GI and modify its screen ID

1. Create the GI as you normally would.
   
   Notice the auto assigned screen ID: GIFR0242, after you save the GI.

2. Export the GI contents to XML.
   

3. Edit the XML by finding the screen ID and changing it to a unique ID.  At Crestwood we use CWGI as a prefix and we maintain a list of unique 4 digit numbers for our client.  For this example we’ll just change the ID to CWGI
   
   

4. Save the XML file.

5. Now with this same GI focused on the screen click on the same clipboard icon and select Import from XML and import the same file that you just edited.  This will overwrite the GI with the new Screen ID.
   

Now you can add the GI to your custom project package.

How to change a GI screen ID that is already packaged in a project
Sometimes you need to change a screen ID for a GI that was already imported into a custom package.  To change the ID you can open the Project and Edit Project Items.

Then click on Generic Inquiries on the left and on the right side of the screen find the GI that you want to change.

The Screen ID will be located near the end of the Source text.  You will be able to make your change there and click save at the top of the Edit Project Items screen.

Watch Out for Potential Overwrites

Be aware that your client can at any time (with proper permissions) edit the GI that you deployed.  Since the GI is embedded in a package the potential for a client modified GI to be overwritten is pretty high.  You’ll need to train your clients to be aware of this and if they want to customize your GI’s they should simply copy from your GI and paste /create a new version of the GI.  Then when the custom package is re-published their new version will not get overwritten.