Business Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

 

 

Hi There!
 
As we all very well know by now, the release of AX 2012 R2 (You can get more informtion about AX 2012 R2 on the What's New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Developers) came to a reality last December, and I wanted to share the four most important business benefits of this release.
 
You can access the original post here, which was written by the Microsoft Dynamics AX Product Team.
 
New functionality for Industries and Administrative Processes

• Manufacturing: Improve manufacturing operations for process manufacturing. AX 2012 R2 introduces new capability for management of potency, traceability and product batch sequencing to help process manufacturing streamline operations.
• Retail: Assorment management across channels in your retail operations. New multi- and cross-channel capabilities for retail organizations, including catalogue management, cross-channel workflows, and integrated sales channel management will include a new “out of the box” web storefront.
• Public Sector: AX 2012 R2 simplifies the financial budgeting process in public sector organizations. By combining the power of Microsoft Excel with the power of the workflow engine inside of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, AX 2012 R2 supports new capabilities in budget formulation with workflow approvals, flexible tracking, and reporting.
• Professional Services: AX 2012 R2 improves in the intercompany scheduling capability of project resources will specifically benefit services organization with resources and projects across multiple entities and will improve utilization of your resources.

Improve Business Insights for all Users

New and updated KPI content is offered, and updated KPIs will come with the SQL BI cubes shipped with the release. These KPIs will surface on the different role centers.

Enabling the usage of the new Power view technology (You can learn more about this from the Murray Fife's post Creating PowerView Dashboards Against Dynamics AX 2012) introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2012. This will help users to discover new insights through a highly interactive and familiar data visualization technology.

Increase Global Reach and Simplify International Operations

AX 2012 R2 has increased the global reach of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by adding localization for 11 new markets (Brazil, Czech Republic, China, Estonia, Hungary, India, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Russia), extending the reach for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to support 36 localizations worldwide.


Simplify the Application Lifecycle for Customers

This goes from simplifying single instance international ERP deployment scenarios up to simplifying setup and functional implementation with new and improved lifecycle services.

Also, in AX 2012R2, we’ll see:

• The Code Analyzer that will help us analyze the performance of custom code based on rules in the design phase of an extension by customers or partners.
• The Data Migration Framework will support import, export and migration of data to/from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 in the deployment phase. It will cover over 20 scenarios including customer, vendor, product, employee, BOM, open sales and purchase order data, which can be extended by partners and customers.
• The Diagnostics Framework will assist by analyzing data collected from the installation’s servers based on rules in the maintenance phase.

It is really exciting to see all these improvements in new release, as it will add more value to customer acros the board and it will help AX 2012 R2 to be used in other countries based on the localization improvements.

Take care and until the next post!



Delete User Layer with AX 2012 Management Shell

 

Hi there,

I hope you are ready for a great weekend. I will have to work, but this is why we love what we do, and believe that our customers should get the best of us.

Anyway, this is going to be a short post about how to delete a user layer from the model store in AX 2012. I have to say that I miss the flexibility of AX 2009 when it comes to application files and layers. The good news is that for the Microsoft Dynamics AX R2 release, we are supposed to have the code in a different database.

Ok, so going back to our topic, to delete a user layer from the model you first need to install the Management Tools from your AX 2012 setup. Once this is done, you can access the Microsoft Dynamics AX Management Shell and write the following script:

axutil delete /layer:Usr

See the picture below for more details:

 

As you can see, deleting a layer is not difficult at all and it happens fairly quick too. Also, it is very important that you have a backup of the database before performing this action.

That's all for now folks.



Zip Codes Upload in AX 2012

 

Hi there,

Today I would like to discuss how to load Zip Codes to AX 2012 from a Text file and also point out what happens in the background.



In AX 2012, this task is fairly simple as there is an abstract class (AdressZipCodeImport) that takes care of this function. In addition to the abstract class, there is another class (AdressZipCodeImport_US) for each specific country that overwrites the ReadFile() method in the AddressZipCodeImport abstract class. In AX 2012, there only 4 countries available for Zip Code upload.

AddressZipCodeImport Class:

 

 



AddressZipCodeImport_US Class:



The AdressZipCodeImport_US class ReadFile() method contains a while loop that will allocate the data from the file being read  into the LogisticsAddress variables. To accomplish this, you will have to have your zip code, city, state and county name in an Excel file where you create the required spaces between fields and then save it as space delimiter file.

ReadFile() Method:



The following is an example of this sequence:

 

The following is the ReadFile() sub string coordinates:

 

When your file is ready, you can upload it by going to Organization Administration > Setup > Addresses > Import Zip/Postal codes:

Once you run this, the data will be in the LogisticsAddressZipCode table

 

It is very interesting to see how the AX 2012 team has put a lot of thought into these common tasks as they help us be more efficient on something we don't need to really spend a lot of time figuring out.

Until the next time!



Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Basic Security Concepts

Hi there!

In AX 2012, role based security provides an extensible framework for defining access to the Microsoft Dynamics AX application and data. It changes a little bit from what we know in ax 2009.

In AX 2009, administrators had to, literally, create their own user groups and manually assign users to those groups.  Also, in order give permission to a user group to execute a particular operation, the administrator had to identify objects, such as tables, fields, and menu items that were required for the operation, which was a pain in AX 2009 as identifying these elements was time consuming.

However, in AX 2012, security is role-based, and many security roles are predefined by the application to make the setup portion of it easy for us. Now, it is important to really comprehend this positive change as in role-based security, users are assigned to roles based on their responsibilities in the organization and their participation in business processes.  In fact, AX 2012 introduces duties, which are a group of privileges (See a short definition below). In addition, an administrator no longer has to identify application objects and grant access to those objects. Instead, the administrator grants access to the duties that users in a role perform and that's it.

In addition, in AX 2012 all permissions for all application objects have been grouped into task-based privileges and duties.  This means that an administrator only has grant access to the Maintain sales order duty, which includes all of the permissions that are required to view, create, modify, and delete sales orders.

Another interesting change has been the concept of reusable permissions.  I don’t know if you had the chance to work with multiple companies in AX 2009, but you couldn’t allow user groups could not span multiple companies. As a matter of fact, if the same functional role was required in two companies, an administrator had to create two user groups and so on and so forth. You know where I’m going with this, right?

In terms of record-level-security, this function is still available in AX 2012, but it will be removed in future versions. In ax 2012, the data security framework I used to help secure the data and take security privileges into account. For example, an administrator can grant View access to one subset of Purchase Orders and Edit access to another subset of Purchase Orders.

There are a few definitions about the AX 2012 security terminology I would like to share with you:

A security role represents a behavior pattern that a person in the organization can play. A security role includes one or more duties.

A duty is a responsibility to perform one or more tasks.  A duty includes one or more privileges.

Privileges specify the access that is required to perform a duty.  A privilege includes one or more permissions.

Permissions include the access level to one or more securable objects that are required to perform the function associated with an entry point.

For more information on AX 2012 security you can go to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg731787.aspx

Take Care!

Naming Conventions in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Hi there!

I remember when I started developing software ... oh man, time goes fast as it was many years ago. In my first job I had a manager that would always reminded me to create clear naming conventions for my objects. He believed this was the base for any software development design as they were really important when scaling up an existing application. Yes, he was right!

Later in my life I started working in bigger teams, and one of the things that caught my attention in these environments was the fact that there were many developers that didn't care about creating consistent naming conventions when writing code.

Yes, this is horrible and makes it hard for the person who is later maintaining or scaling up the system.

There is a great quote about this:

“ Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. ” - Rick Osborne 


Luckily we don't have to work under the pressure that a psychopath will come to our homes at night if we don't write good naming conventions...But, what about the customer and/or employer who trusts us in doing a professional job?

To be honest with you, I think that dealing with a psychopath is much easier than dealing with an unhappy customer ... They support our lifestyle!

When I started working with Microsoft Dynamics AX, I rapidly understood the importance of getting into the habit of writing well defined naming conventions as the application objects are not only data types and classes (in the case of early languages), but tables, enums, macros, forms, data sets, queries, menu items, services, etc.

In addition, naming conventions contribute to consistency and to making the application easier to understand. I think that the basic rule to create good naming conventions is to do it from three basic components:

{business area name} + {business area description} + {action performed (for classes) or type of contents (for tables)}

Examples:

• CustJournalPrintOutInvoice

• PriceDiscAdmDelete

• PriceDiscAdmSearch

• PriceDiscAdmName

• PriceDiscAdmTrans

Also, take into consideration the following:

• All names must be in U.S. English.

• The default rule is to use logical and descriptive names if no other specialized rules apply.

• Identifier names have a limit of 40 characters.

• Names must be spelled correctly.

• Names must be used consistently.

• All texts that appear in the user interface must be defined by using a label.

• Do not begin a name with nonsensical or confusing prefixes, such as "aaa" or "CopyOf".

• Do not begin a name with "DEL_" unless it is a table, extended data type or enum, and it is needed for data upgrade purposes - doing this may cause unexpected results.

As you can see, by following these simple rules, we can start making a big difference in our code. Let's get into the habit ... otherwise the psychopath will get you!

Take care!

AX 2009 Workflow - Run batch jobs through a Job

When working with Workflows, sometimes  have encountered a situation where my workflow item just don't run.

This might be due to a problem on the Batch Server. To test (run) the workflow mimicking the batch server we can write the following job.

static void workflowJobs(Args _args)

{

    SysWorkflowMessageQueueManager  queueManager;

    WorkflowWorkItemDueDateJob      workItemDueDateJob;

    ;

    queueManager = SysWorkflowMessageQueueManager::construct();

    queueManager.run();

    workItemDueDateJob = new WorkflowWorkItemDueDateJob();

    workItemDueDateJob.run();

}

Another alternative is to go to AOT > Forms > Tutorial_WorkflowProcessor and click the start button.

Unable to validate the AX 2009 Workflow Webservice URL on a Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 - The request failed with HTTP status 405: Method Not Allowed.

Hi,

I was having some issues yesterday validating an URL in Windows Server 2009 R2 - 64. I have done this a few times already and the process have been really smooth and straight forward. However, in the environment I'm working on right now I the The request failed with HTTP status 405: Method Not Allowed error.

I found this post that helped me solve the problem, which basically was changing the property value of the MicrosoftDynamicsAXWorkflow50 application pool in IIS Manager to "Enable 32-Bit Applications".

Here is the link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/emeadaxsupport/archive/2010/01/05/unable-to-validate-the-ax-2009-workflow-webservice-url-on-a-windows-server-2008-r2-x64.aspx

Loop through SELECTED records on an AX Form - AX 2009

We have the ability to loop through SELECTED records on a AX form in X++.

There are many ways to accomplish this in AX, but based on my requirements I made the choice of looping through the selected records in a button's click() method.

CustInvoiceJour                     localCustInvoiceJour;

FormDataSource                      form_ds;

Common                              common

;

 //super();

//Set form data source

form_ds = CustInvoiceJour_ds;

for(common = form_ds.getFirst(true)?form_ds.getFirst(true):CustInvoiceJour_ds.cursor(); 

     common;

     common = form_ds.getNext())

    {

        localCustInvoiceJour = common;

        …Implementation…

    }

Code to refresh system tables in AX 2009 - SysClientSession Table

The following code will refresh the system tables in AX 2009. I had an issue with the SysClientSession table this morning and I found some documentation about from Microsoft where they suggest running a script to allow the syscronozation of systables.

The kernel uses the SYSTABVERSION parameter value in the SQL SystemVariables table to synchronize its list with the DataBase

The following were the errors I got:

1- The database reported (session 1 (-AOS-)): [Microsoft][SQL Native Client][SQL Server]Invalid object name 'SYSCLIENTSESSIONS'.. The SQL statement was: "SELECT A.SESSIONID,A.SERVERID,A.VERSION,A.LOGINDATETIME,A.LOGINDATETIMETZID,A.STATUS,A.USERID,A.SID,A.USERLANGUAGE,A.HELPLANGUAGE,A.CLIENTTYPE,A.SESSIONTYPE,A.CLIENTCOMPUTER,A.RECVERSION,A.RECID FROM SYSCLIENTSESSIONS A WHERE (SERVERID=?)"

2- Internal Error occurred executing stored procedure when creating session for the AOS.

Please backup your DB before running this script.

update SqlSystemVariables set value = value - 1 where parm = 'systabversion'

Once you do this please restart your AOS and the problem should be fixed.

AX 2009 Data Import / Export

The following post is about shows how to:

1-   Export data from a company in AX using a definition Group

2-   Creating a new company that will take the new data

3-   Importing the data exported from step 1 into the new company created in step 2 using a definition group as well.

In a current project, I needed to freeze the Test1 environment due to some focus testing of a certain functionality we implemented. At the same time, we needed to allow the uses to keep testing other customizations without affecting Test1.

In addition, to make the user’s lives easier, we decided to have the same data that they were using in Test1 in our Test2 instance. So, we exported the data from our Test1 environment, and then imported it to a new company in our Test2 environment.

The following steps will show this process step by step:

1-   First select the company you want to export the data from as the AX current company by clicking in company name in the right lower corner of your AX interface. 2-   This would open the “Select Company” form as shown;

3-   Select  Administration (module)

4-   Under periodic->Data exports /import ->Click Export to

5-   The “Export options” form will appear

6-   Select a definition group. You can either create a new definition group to include what you need, or just choose ALL to get all the tables. NOTE: In some cases, the already defined “ALL” definition group will not have all the tables, so in this case you would have to create a new definition group. In my case I created a new one name “ALL_NewDef” that included the latest tables.

7-   Enter a file name and select where to save it

8-   Click OK. At this point the company date export process should be done (after processing of course), and the files (.dat & .def) should have be saved on your computer.

Now, let’s create a new company

9-   Make sure that the selected company empty and click area node Administration

10- Click company Accounts under Common forms

11-   Press (Ctrl + N) in order to Create new company

12-   Make sure you select the newly created company as the current company

Import company file already exported in the prior steps and click Administration

13- Under periodic->Data exports /import ->Click import; The “Import options” screen will appear

14- Select the “import definition group” drop down list and choose ALL (otherwise create your own)

15-   Select the .dat file (exported before) and Click Ok to start the process

The import process may take some time according to the size of transactions in the original (exported) company.

In addition, you can choose to delete all the transaction data before the import when you are importing a .dat file o an existing company account to update the data.

Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - Usability

This is a great video on AX 2012 usability. It explains the different industries where AX 212 is making a huge impact. Check it out!

https://community.dynamics.com/product/ax/axnontechnical/b/axvideos/archive/2011/08/15/inside-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-usability.aspx

Register now to join Steve Ballmer at the Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012 virtual launch event

Register to this free virtual event from the following link

http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax2012launch/?fbid=0ufugE7brGO#register