Spotlight: AX 2012 POS Development - Application Triggers

Well I hope everyone has had a great weekend and your looking forward to another Dynamics AX filled week. There is so much to cover about this powerful release of Microsoft Dynamics AX, with AX 2012. I'm really looking forward to our continued path down creating a BI story with AX 2012. Further, I'm equally as excited to have started the EP focused development post. There we will be targeting a warranty management solution, built 100% for EP.

With that said, and going back to the fact that we have so many wonderful topics to touch on with AX 2012 - I wanted to do a blog spotlight. It's been a little while since I have done such a post, and I wanted to take the time and highlight what Eduardo Arias, of AXWonders.blogspot.com recently posted about.



Ed, post recently on a great topic, being that of POS Development for AX 2012. From the post.:
"Application Triggers are called before and after certain operations when the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 POS application is running. This is the first assembly that AX 2012 POS looks at when starting.

In addition, you can override the default Application Triggers’ operations by using the IApplicationTrigger interface provided by the Microsoft.Dynamics.Retail.Pos.Contracts.Triggers namespace in Visual Studio 2010."

Ed takes us through, in his first on a series about Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 POS Development, and dives into the topic of Application Triggers. In this Ed takes us the design, interfaces & steps - so that we can gain a very solid knowledge base around AX 2012 POS and Application Triggers.

Further, as we read along we are giving insight into the process, where to find examples, as well as a look to the next in this series of post. That being a focus around the topic of Blank Operations for AX 2012 POS Development. All-in-all it was a great start to a very interesting subject. I think it's a very timely entry into the blogsphere, and as Ed points out - there is not a lot of coverage for this topic yet. With that, many thanks Ed for adding to the community, and please keep it coming!

Till Next Time!
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Blog Spotlight: SumitsAXfactor dive into AX 2012 & The Financial Dimension Framework

Well happy Friday to everyone! Followers of my blog know, that I love to point out other bloggers, and people out in the Dynamics Community that help drive and add value to Ecosystem as a whole. Today's post, I wanted to do just that, and highlight: Sumit Loya's - SumitsAXfactor Blog.



Recently, I wrote about Using Financial Dimensions when Creating Products. This topic was building upon creating products, and releasing products through the Document Services framework for AX 2012, specifically highlighting the use of the EcoResProductService.



In this post, I covered the use of InventItem_InventTable object, and it's ability to work with Aif class structures for creating Default Dimensions for released products.

Well Sumit Loya has taking the dive into working with the new Financial Dimensions Framework to a much needed, and really, missing level within the community. The topics that he covers, and concepts are timely, and needed, and are not covered really in any current released documentation.

Because of this fact, I've compiled the following list, that helps highlight the effort Sumit has put into covering these topics, that everyone will find very, very useful in your AX 2012 project work.:

• Ledger Accounts and Financial Dimensions
• Getting Ledger transactions in Ax 2012
• Find Active Dimensions for a Legal Entity [Ax2012]
• Dimension Provider Class and Run-time dimension ranges [AX 2012]
• Getting Individual Dimension Combination Values–Dimension Storage class [AX 2012]
• Defaulting Financial Dimensions [AX 2012]
• Defaulting Ledger Dimensions [AX 2012]
• Replace a Financial Dimension in Default Dimensions [AX 2012]
• Replacing Financial Dimension in Ledger Dimension

By far, Sumit has really given us all some great post here, and has a great resource for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and the use of the Financial Dimensions Framework in AX 2012. I would like to thank him for taking the time and sharing with the community at large, his examples, and his how-to's. On projects that I've personally been on, these are most useful, and so again Thanks Sumit for your contributions, please keep it up!

Well that's all for this Friday, I hope you all have a blessed weekend, and a wonderful start to next week! Till Next Time!

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Spotlight: Dive into IDMF for AX 2012

From time to time I like to spotlight some great content that is being posted out there in the big wild social media landscape that is the Dynamics Ecosystem.

Today I thought I would spotlight, AXWonders.blogspot.com. This blog is ran by a fellow Sunriser, Eduardo Arias. He is a Senior Technical Architect like myself, and has a passion for AX. I recommend you bookmark, and subscribe to his blog feeds.

What I wanted to specifically spotlight was his recent dive in IDMF for AX 2012. I've talked a good bit about the value this has in the past, specifically around AX 2009 and the fact that this was being updated for AX 2012. Well last week the news came out that it has been release, which you can find more about this on InformationSource.



From the post: "There has been a lot of talk about the Intelligent Data Management Framework (IDMF) in AX 2012, and for a good reason! This is because the Intelligent Data Management Framework allows the system administrators optimize the performance of Microsoft Dynamics AX installations, which is something that we all should be concerned about when implementing AX 2012."

I wanted to make sure and tell Eduardo Arias thanks for sharing with the rest of us, and giving us some highlights from the recent release of IDMF for AX 2012! Keep it up!

That's all for now, but check back soon as more to come!

Till next time!

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Spotlight: Dynamics AX Musings

I thought I would start off this week, with a blog spotlight. It's so important for the growth of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Community at large, for those that have been working with the product, and can give in depth knowledge tidbits, to write and share their knowledge.

With that, I would like to highlight: Dynamics Ax Musings

This is the blog by Joris de Gruyter who is a true veteran of the Dynamics AX world.

Joris starting really sharing his knowledge last year, and has spear headed such wonderful projects, like the open-source, codplex project, Dynamics AX Build Scripts (And's it's TFS impacts), as well as sharing with us a great series of post on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

His in-depth cover of very specific, developer and technical engineer related topics, are exactly what is needed, and I hope you would bookmark his blog, and check for regular updates, as well as encourage Joris to continue in his efforts to help spread the good word of the brave new world Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 represents for all of us!

A great series that Joris just finished up was on AX 2012 Models & Events

• Part 1: Model Architecture
• Part 2: Events
• Part 3: The Power Combo

Joris really helps bring home some of the great new features, that makes Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, a truly powerfully simple, Generational Shift in ERP!

That's all for now, but check back soon as so much more to come! Till Next time!



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Blog Spotlight: Dynamics AX 2012 Upgrade frustrations of Alex

I thought I would close out Monday, with a nice spotlight on a great new blogger. His name is Alex, and he is blogging about his adventures, with upgrading an instance of Dynamics AX 2009, to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

A direct link to his blog can be found here.: Alex on DAX

What caught my eye, and the blog entry in which I make mention of, above, is this one.: AoD: Dynamics AX 2012 Upgrade frustrations



What great about the posting, is its open approach of going through this process. The upgrade process, for sure has changed, and a lot of great stuff. There is also a lot of new things, and that means new headaches, specifically that Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is still considered in beta.

It's to be expected that you run into issues, with such a task, that has a lot of i's to dot, and t's to cross. I would expect, in the current release, to still have issues with the upgrading process, however the Beta team, and connect from Microsoft, are great resources. I would suggest Alex, if you are apart of the TAP program, or Beta program, that you use Connect, and see if there is already someone, who just might have ran into this already.

If not, I'm sure Microsoft would love to have the details of what your hitting, how to re-create it, so that it can be worked through and fixed. That's actually the best advice I can give anyone, who is needing feedback and help through processes, before AX 2012 releases to the public, in Sept.

I would like to thank Alex for taking the time, and sharing with the rest of us, and suggest he continue his writing efforts, and that you take the time to book mark his blog.

That's all for now, but this week, a new dive into Dynamics AX 2012, architect / technical style, as well as partner highlights, and more. Of course, this all leads up to the week of Sunburns & Sandals!



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A new Dynamics AX BI focused blog!

There is a new blog from Microsoft, focusing specifically on Dynamics AX BI. The blog can be found here.: Dynamics AX Business Intelligence

This is perfect timing as I have an article coming out soon, that will be focusing on BI.

This blog is off to a really good start, showing off some great screen cast, like the following.:

ScreenCast 4: AX SSRS Reporting Concepts
URL: ScreenCast - AX SSRS Reporting Concepts on YouTube

•Report Libraries
•Report Models
•Report Designs
•DataSets
•Designs
•AutoDesign & Precision Designs
•Designs versus RDL

There is a total of 16 ScreenCast now, since they started the AX BI blog.

I can't wait to see what all is wrote on this very focused blog. I have wrote over the year, on and off about BI with AX. I am sure I will be highlighting this blog again very soon!

Thanks Microsoft, this is a much needed voice in blogsphere!

Check back soon as more coming!

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More on App-V

So recently, I posted about the fact that Microsoft Dynamics AX, Rich Client, has been certified to work with Microsoft App-V. You can read that post here.: Microsoft App-V and...

With this, we have a lot of new possibilities with deployment options in locations that are local or geographically seperated.

Before we had only RDP for non-local users that need to make use of the Microsoft Dynamics AX Rich Client. Now with App-V there is a new option!

Well with this, and being this is mostly a technically focused blog, it would make sense that we spend time and look to those that have done general Applications through App-V. And look to these examples to see what has worked, what is needed, what kind of gotchas exist, etc. etc.

So with that, I am doing a blog spotlight. That is, The Lazy Admin. He has a post, that goes into great detail about App-V, and real world information. A direct link to that post can be found here.: App-V Real World Experience

This is a great blog for one, but a great article on a topic most any company with an AX investment should be looking at and seeing if this is a technology that can be made use of for you and your company needs.

That's all for now... check back soon as more to come!

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DAXGuy: SSIS for Bulk insert into Dynamics AX 2009

DAXGuy posted today, about a recent Proof of concept he was working on for inserting a lot of records from an outside LOB application into Dynamics AX. He was able to insert 100,000 records in 13.6 seconds!.

A direct link to DAXGuy's post can be found here.: Dynamics AX 2009 Bulk Data insert using SSIS



This is actually an interesting post. What we have to look at is the fact that this bulk insert is being done on a custom table, with not a lot of X++ logic. So for example if you were creating Sales Orders, Forecast data, etc. there is extra logic that is ran on the delete's, insert's, etc. methods of these tables.

Such a Bulk insert works for custom table data, that is targeted and focused. However if you needed to take and do bulk insert for forecast data, for example, or Sales data, you would either need to recreate the logic in SSIS package that is done for the insert's and delete methods on the given tables your operating on, or make use of the .Net BC.

This in turn is where we run into an issue. I believe the work DAXGuy is a great example, and I am glad he posted it. It brings up though a point with Dynamics AX about loading massive amounts of data.

Bottom line, if it's custom tables being loaded, then it can be fast. However if out of the box tables, with a lot of underlying X++ business logic embedded into the creation of the data for said tables exists, you hit a road block.

You can either choose to by pass the logic, if your instance does not need it. Then the bulk inserts and massive data imports can be done. However if needed, then you either have to recreate through your choosen data import engine, like SSIS, or make use of the code.

This is where a slow down takes place.

Let me leave this post, with thanks to DAXGuy. A great post, with detailed steps on making use of SSIS for bulk insert. Let me also leave though, that this leads into a post I had planned, with working with threads.

That's all for now, check back soon though as more to come!




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Blog Spotlight: Dynamics AX Daily

From time to time, I get to find new sources that are being created on the web for helping foster and build up the Dynamics AX community.

One such recent one, is the Dynamics AX Daily blog.

This blog appears to have been started this Jan., of 2010, and as it's name suggests post daily about Dynamics AX. Specifically related to the technical side of Dynamics AX. This includes code samples, tech tips, AOT based post, etc.

This post are specific post, to the point. For example, look at the following post.:
X++ real vs numeric(32,16)

From that post.:
"It is an interesting fact that X++ real type is not fully compatible with the table field real type. The problem is that in the database numeric(32,16) data type is used to store fields of the real type[in X++]. Numeric(32,16) data type stores numbers with no more than 32 digits total and no more than 16 digits after the decimal point..."



Now I have not ever ran into this issue with any real pratical use, but it's very interesting.

For sure it's worth bookmarking this new Dynamics AX technical source. It's to the point, and interesting at the very least.

Thanks to whomever is behind this blog, and for helping build up the Dynamics AX community! That's all for now, check back soon as next week I have a whole lot of great post coming out!




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X++ Team: Removal of legacy functions

This past Tuesday, the X++ team blog has a new entry on it. There they list legacy functions that are slated to be removed with AX 6.0 and going forward. It is stated they wish to not continue these into the new IL runtime stack.

The blog post can be found here.: X++ Team Blog: Removal of legacy functions

The team is asking for comments, concerns, etc. in this list of functions that will be removed. If you have any, please go to the post and leaves comments.

If the list is left in tack, then these will be removed and any AX 6.0 or beyond code that tries to implement these functions will fail to compile.

I also think that is helps firm the fact, that the IL runtime stack is mentioned. This is the MSIL, or what the CLR, Common Langauge Runtime, compiles C#, VB.Net, etc. code to. So this is one more confirming statement that the C code that AX's current kernel is compiled in, is moving to MSIL.

That's all for now, thanks X++ team for the post!




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Blogspot: Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools

Well hope everyone is doing good today! I wanted to take the time and do a blog spotlight, on a new Microsoft team blog that was created last week.

The blog is.: Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools - Blog.


From the first post.:
"This is a blog covering all information about Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools. This involves all aspects of tooling, from developer tools, to configuration and implementation tools. In general, tools that enable AX implementors to plan, configure, customize and deploy AX solutions."

So another great place to look for new information, specifically for those that install, configure, customize and develop for Dynamics AX. Which is just most ever technical person involved with AX!

There is a second blog post, that is promising some good content soon, so check it often. I will make sure and highlight anything that I can!

I would like to say thanks to those behind the Microsoft Dynamics AX Tools blog, and good luck! The more good, valuable information that can exist the better!

That's all for now. I will continue with what I started yesterday, on WCF services, and Dynamics AX. Moving from a basic concept, to issues you face, to reall Architecture look at solutions with WCF, and WCF Services vs. Web Services.





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Some blog spotlights: AX and the Cloud Example, AIF Error and AX 6.0 Xpp Editor Updates

I have been really busy, and I have some good post that I hope you will enjoy coming up soon, including a new article I will be writing for MSDynamicsWorld.com.

With that said, there have been some really great post over the past several weeks, and I wanted to make sure and highlight them.

The fist is DAXGuy's entry, on an AX example for working with the Cloud. As I wrote about early this year, What can the Cloud offer you in 2010?, 2010 for sure is going to be the year of the cloud. DAXGuy took this further with all the talking, and gave us a really good walk through example of how to get a service in the cloud up and running, and make use of it with Dynamics AX. That post can be found here.: AX on Cloud 9



From the post.:
"Lately there has been a lot of activity related to cloud computing with introduction of Windows AZURE. It truly is an interesting technology providing businesses wider opportunities. Well I decided to explore AZURE a bit and did a small POC on AX integration with AZURE... ... I was consuming a AZURE WCF Service from Dynamics AX. There is a lot of potential in this. Maybe in next generation AIF , developers will be able to generate Cloud AIF directly from AX."

Next in line, we have Dianne Siebold's weblog about AIF. Recently, she posted about the discovery of a very unintuitive error message that you might get and how to start troubleshooting it. That post can be found here.: “Request Failed” Error in AIF

The request failed with the following error: The element 'SalesTable' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2008/01/documents/SalesOrder' has invalid child element 'LanguageId' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2008/01/documents/SalesOrder'.

List of possible elements expected: 'QuotationId, ReceiptDateConfirmed, ReceiptDateRequested, RecId, RecVersion, Reservation, ReturnDeadline, ReturnItemNum, ReturnReasonCodeId, ReturnReplacementCreated, ReturnReplacementId, ReturnStatus, SalesGroup, SalesId, SalesName, SalesOriginId, SalesPoolId, SalesResponsible, SalesStatus, SalesTaker, SalesType, SalesUnitId, SettleVoucher, ShipCarrierAccount, ShipCarrierAccountCode, ShipCarrierBlindShipment, ShipCarrierDeliveryContact, ShipCarrierDlvType, ShipCarrierExpeditedShipment, ShipCarrierFuelSurcharge, ShipCarrierID, ShipCarrierResidential, ShippingDateConfirmed, ShippingDateRequested, smmCampaignId, smmSalesAmountTotal, StatProcId, TaxGroup, totalBalance, TotalCashDiscount, TotalInvoice, TotalMiscCharges, TotalSalesTax, TransactionCode, Transport, URL, VATNum, SalesLine, DocuRefHeader, MarkupTransHeader' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2008/01/documents/SalesOrder'


This is actually a very helpful tip and post when working with AIF and you start getting some strange error messages that's hard to discern what is really going on.

Finally, Vicent, who posted last October about some update highlights to the X++ editor in Dynamics has some new material up, for a part II on what's new in the X++ editor. I wrote about part I, here.: Dynamics AX 6.0 - aka 2011 - X++ Editor

Well you can find his latest entries, by going to the following link.: Dynamics AX6 – The new X++ editor (part 2)

"In a completion session, holding the ctrl key will make the drop-down dialog transparent, so you can see the code underneath:"





I want to say thanks to each of these fine bloggers for sharing their information with the rest of the Dynamics Community. It's because of such efforts that the Dynamics Community continues to grow, and is able to help those looking for solutions.

That's all for now, but as I pointed out in the start of this post, I have some really nice entries coming. Check back soon, and see you then!




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