January 7, 2011 in Blog by Amer

Upcoming Microsoft Dynamics AX Webcasts from Microsoft

The great Microsoft Dynamics team is conducting some sessions in the coming period. Those online sessions will cover topics in all Dynamics products including Microsoft Dynamics AX.

The first coming event will be “Management Reporter and Performance Management with Microsoft Dynamics AX“ that will be held in the 12th of Jan. The next session will be “See the New Payroll for Microsoft Dynamics AX“, and I’m really excited to attend this session to see the new Payroll. The Payroll session will be in the 1st of Feb.

To see full list of those webcasts and to register, click here.

June 24, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Some Cool Statistics about Microsoft Dynamics AX

A study was done by Job Graphs (http://www.jobgraphs.com/) for Microsoft Dynamics AX as a global software product. I leave you with the graphs.

Modules demand trend

Salary Comparison

Role Wise Comparison

Experience based demand trend

Dynamics AX World Wide Demand

Source: http://jobgraphs.com/dynamics-ax/

June 14, 2010 in Blog by Amer

How to Use Number Sequence Engine Efficiently with Dynamics AX Forms

If you wanted to write a an X++ code to generate a number sequence and assign it to a field, you might use the following X ++ statement.

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yourTableBuffer.Field = NumberSeq::newGetNum(NumberSequenceReference::find(TypeID2ExtendedTypeId(TypeId(YourExtendedDataType)))).num();

And for the continuous number sequence (notice the “true” parameter):

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yourTableBuffer.Field = NumberSeq::newGetNum(NumberSequenceReference::find(TypeID2ExtendedTypeId(TypeId(YourExtendedDataType))), true).num();

But, what you could do if you have that field in form and you want to generate a number sequence while the user creates a new record is the class NumberSeqFormHandler.

NumberSeqFormHandler is a great class that doesn’t only take care of generating a new number sequence for your field… but also it takes care of removing or inserting that number in the Number Sequence List table when the number is not used (in case that the record hasn’t been inserted although the number has been already generated).

To use the NumberSeqFormHandler class, you have to declare a NumberSeqFormHandler object in the class declaration. Also you have to create a method at the Form level like the following:

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//Form level method
NumberSeqFormHandler numberSeqFormHandler()
{;
    //you should have been declared numberSeqFormHandler variable in the ClassDeclaration of your form
    if (!numberSeqFormHandler)
    {
        numberSeqFormHandler = NumberSeqFormHandler::newForm(NumberSequenceReference::find(TypeID2ExtendedTypeId(TypeId(YourExtendedDataType))).NumberSequence,
                                                             element,
                                                             YourDataSourceName,
                                                             fieldnum(YourTableName, Field));
    }
 
    return numberSeqFormHandler;
}

Then you need to actually call the NumberSeqFormHandler class methods like:

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//Form methods
public void close()
{
    if (numberSeqFormHandler)
    {
        numberSeqFormHandler.formMethodClose();
    }
    super();
}

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//DataSource method
public void write()
{
    element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceWrite();
    super();
}

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//DataSource method
public boolean validateWrite()
{
    boolean ret;
 
    ret = super();
    ret = element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceValidateWrite(ret) && ret;
 
    return ret;
}

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//DataSource method
public void linkActive()
{
    element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceLinkActive();
    super();
}

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//DataSource method
public void delete()
{
    element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceDelete();
    super();
}

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//DataSource method
public void create(boolean _append = false)
{
    element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceCreatePre();
 
    super(_append);
 
    element.numberSeqFormHandler().formMethodDataSourceCreate();
}

By this you will have your form works efficiently with the Number Sequence engine of Dynamics AX  and you don’t have to write any code at the table level… so remove all that code that you might have written at the initValue method of your table.

One last important thing, NumberSeqFormHandler works with Continuous and non-Continuous number sequences. But if you want to “regenerate” the unused numbers that have been previously generated, you have to set your number sequence as Continuous of course.

May 31, 2010 in Blog by Amer

How to Create a Primary Key for a Dynamics AX Table

This topic might not be new to most of you guys, but I always wondered how can I create a primary key to a Dynamics AX table?

You could easily create index in any table in Dynamics AX and you could specify that this index is “not duplicated”, which means that values of the field(s) should be unique among the table values. But this does not mean that you this index is a Primary Key index!

To create a Primary key you have to set the PrimaryIndex property in the list of that table properties.

When you choose the PrimaryIndex property you have to set that index as “not duplicated”. Once you do that, you will have the icon of that index changed to be like this:

January 18, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Microsoft Dynamics AX Industry Solution Event – Riyadh 17-01-2010

Today I attended the Microsoft Dynamics AX Industry Solution Event which was held in Marriott hotel in Riyadh. Microsoft Arabia MBS team was managing the show. Also five of Microsoft Dynamics AX partners in Saudi were there showing the business capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.

Mr. Emad Bakila, Microsoft Arabia MBS manager, started the event by describing Microsoft vision and strategy of Microsoft Dynamics in the market. He spoke about Microsoft Dynamics ERPs and Microsoft Dynamics AX roadmaps, high level features of Microsoft Dynamics AX, business market needs, adaptation of those needs with Microsoft Dynamics ERPs… etc.

After this partners started one by one to show features of Dynamics AX, each of them was showing one business field.

Partners and what they were speaking about is like the following:

 Finally, Housam Wafai from Microsoft Arabia, described the implementation methodology of Microsoft Dynamics ERPs: Microsoft Dynamics Sure Step. Also at the end, he was showing a 15 minutes video showing the amazing capabilities of Dynamics AX like the BI tools, communication stuff, workflow… etc. I will try to get that video and update you guys with this.

Here are some pics from sessions of today (click to enlarge):

December 17, 2009 in Blog by Amer

GDC Session-II: Microsoft Dynamics AX with other Microsoft Technologies and Products

Although I was putting a great expectations on the result of this session, this session was hardest. All because of the Workflow!

The recommendation from Microsoft before the DGS was to not the exceed of level 100 of technicality. Although I did not exceed this level, talking about workflow to people who saw Dynamics AX for two or three times in their lives is exactly like if I’m talking in Turkish J!!!

What then happened is when I tried configure the workflow template generated in the session using Workflow for Dummies.. the configuration just crashed. What a luck!

Fortunately I continued with a hotter topic that is how to use Dynamics AX web controls and ASP.NET controls to interact with Dynamics AX on the Enterprise Portal.

After that I closed the session by creating a report in SQL Server Reporting Services and the saving it in the Report Library of Dynamics AX AOT.

You could download the power point presentations from here.

December 17, 2009 in Blog by Amer

GDC Session-I: Introduction to Dynamics AX Architecture and Development Environment

In the morning of Sunday 14^th of December, 2009 the first session  of Microsoft Dynamics AX was started with more than 40 attendees. The session title was: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX Architecture and Development Environment.

I started by introducing Dynamics AX functionally and technically. I then turned to show the basic and components architecture diagrams. After this I spent lots of time describing the different tools of MorphX. Finally I started the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 desktop client. From there I have shown quickly the AOT, forms, methods, X++… etc.

Download the presentation files down from here.

December 13, 2009 in Blog by Amer

Dynamics AX Community @ Saudi Arabia :D

Microsoft is planning to establish a new technical group concerning Microsoft Dynamics AX and attracting the Microsoft Dynamics AX/Axapta developers, application consultants, technology consultants, architects, support engineers, consultant team leads, and even project managers’ in Saudi Arabia.

The community will be announced during the sessions of Gulf Develoeprs Conference ’09 (with in the current three days).

We are interested in your feedback about the community. Download from here a feedback form and kindly send it back to me  to: amer@amerax.net.