July 24, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Workflow validation error: The request failed with HTTP stauts 405: Method Not Allowed.

I have faced this error twice, I sloved it the first time by “Enabling the 32-bit Applications” on the application pool level of the workflow.

But in another time the installation was on Windows 2008 R2, and this made things harder. Enabling the 32-bit Application did not solve the issue. This actually happened because of the conflict in this Windows between the .NET framework 2.0 and .NET framework 4.0. It also might be caused of an authentication issue, so you better check that all one by one to get this validation problem resolved.

To solve the issue, I basically have gone through these steps: (of course I followed those steps after installing the workflow and I did not uninstall it)

• Deleted the application from the IIS (the selected node in the picture below).

• Added a “Virtual Directory” to the same site and named the new virtual directory with the same name of the deleted application.
• In the physical path of the virtual directory, I pointed to the installed worklfow folder (most probably will be in “C:Program FilesMicrosoft Dynamics AX50Workflow“). This folder contains the web services of AX workflow.

•  Then, I converted the new “Virtual Directory” to “Application” by right-clicking that directory and clicking “Convert to Application”.
• I went to permissions of that application, by clicking (selecting) the “Applicaiton” you have just converted and double clicking “Authentication” and I insured that “ASP.NET Imporsenation” and “Windows Authentication” are enabled and any other things are disabled.
• (Optional) You might disable the Kernel-mode authentication for the Windows Authentication by clicking the “Advanced settings” for the Windows Authenticaion. You cannot do that if if you have a kerberos authentication configured in your environment, if not.. then you better disable it to improve your environment performance.
• I then went to the “Handler Mapping” of the Workflow Application. I selected “WebServiceHandlerFactory-ISAPI-2.0” and then clicked “Edit”. I insured that the “Executable” path is pointing to the .NET framework version 2.0 32-bit. (Note that this Windows contains on two versions of framework handlers and in two different folders inside the “C:WindowsMicrosoft.NET” folder.) In our case, you always have to point to the “aspnet_isapi.dll” file in the “Framework” folder not “Framework64”.

By this, you will be able to browse anyone of the *.asmx files in the Workflow Application. Also you might validate your workflow configuration.

Hopefully it has been resolved to you as well.

March 11, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Unable to view/browse WSDL link in the *.svc files on the IIS 7

When I installed Dynamics AX AIF to a new server with these specs:

• Windows 2008
• IIS 7
• .Net Business Connector

After installing those compoents + AIF Webservices (from the Dynamics AX 2009 media), you will not be able to view the .svc files in the IIS.

In order to vew the *.svc files and get the link in WSDL, you have to use the Service Model Registration toll in the .NET framework folder in windows. Follow these steps in order to have it viewed:

1. Go to: Start> All programs> Microsoft Visual Studion 2008 (or 2005)> Visual Studio Tools> Visual Studio Command Prompt
2. Write: cd <<<Windows installation path>>>windowsMicrosoft.NETFrameworkv3.0Windows Communication Foundation
3. Write: ServiceModelReg.exe -i -x

If this completed successfully, you now are able to view/browse the svc (WCF services) in IIS 7.

July 28, 2009 in Blog by Amer

Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, a view from the above

Microsoft has added a very useful functionality in the new release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 that is: Workflow. I have explored many articles by Microsoft and others about Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. For the technical articles part, all of them are describing the workflow in a technical format that prevents the reader from seeing the whole picture of this functionality that has been delayed a lot. This is so important to be known.

Microsoft did not implement the workflow inside Microsoft Dynamics AX itself, they preferred to use WWF (Windows Workflow Foundation) that has been released with the .NET Framework 3.5.  WWF is a new feature that builds and executes workflows inside .NET applications. WWF workflow engine, the one that runs the workflow inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, is published and configured in the IIS.  The following diagram shows you how this happens:

Workflow engine in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

By this, Microsoft has gained the advantage of the new functionalities that would be added later on WWF without upgrading Microsoft Dynamics AX itself (for most of the cases at least).  And this is a great example of what you can do when using .NET business connector of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In the following picture, you could see that workflow runtime, currently, is residing inside IIS.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Workflow Runtime

Someone might ask: why did’nt Microsoft lunched the workflow runtime on the AOS of Dynamics AX.  Actually Microsoft is planning to do so in the soonest (this might be in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2010). But they have made it on IIS because the AOS is written in a native code, not in a managed code.  And since WWF is part of “very managed” .NET environment, it’s time and effort consuming for them to make such integration. So they simply put the workflow runtime on the IIS till they completely convert the AOT into managed code.

You guys could benefit from a video that has been recorded in PDC 2008. Josh Honeyman, a Senior Development Lead at Microsoft, shows how workflow is implemented in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and its future. To watch the video, press here.