July 8, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Create Dynamics AX Workflows in Three Easy Steps by Workflow for Dummies Wizard

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, to get my life easier with developing new Dynamics AX Workflows I have created an easy to use wizard that generates AOT objects for one Approval workflow in Dynamics AX 2009, without writing a single line of code. I have used this wizard since more than a year to develop all the workflows that I had to develop.

I have been asked many times by Dynamics AX technical and functional consultants to share that with them. And here I am sharing it with the Dynamics AX community.

By following three steps, Dynamics AX Workflow for Dummies simply:

1. Adds a Workflow Template
2. Adds a Workflow Category
3. Adds a Workflow Approval
4. Adds a workflow state field to the selected table
5. Enables the workflow for the selected form
6. Creates needed classes like the document class for the workflow document
7. Creates a query (Workflow Document)

Here are the steps that you have to follow: (pictures speak quietly)

Generated AOT Objects Parameters

After clicking Finish, you would get a Dynamics AX Project:

In order to configure the generated Workflow template, go to the module that you have selected in the wizard, and open the Workflow Configuration under the Setup menu of that module. This is what you will have:

If you are interested to have it, just comment on this post and write me your email or send me an email to amer@amerax.net and I will be more than happy to send the project to you.

I also would welcome any feedbacks on this.

March 19, 2010 in Blog by Amer

Workflow Task or Approval… What Should I Use and Why?

A question might come to your mind, what’s the difference between a Dynamics AX 2009 Workflow Task and a Workflow Approval in AOT. They both are having almost the same properties and you could attach them to a workflow template.

Workflow in AOT

The workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is managed in a way that enables the workflow designer (who does the workflow configuration, a functional consultant in most of the cases) divides one “stage” approval into multi steps.

For example, if a Leave Request needs to be approved by the HR department, then the case might be in a way that approval must be processed by an HR Assistant and NOT the HR Manager in case that the leave does not exceed three days. But if the Leave Request is for more than three days… the HR manager must approve it also.

To enable this scenario, the workflow should be fixable so that the workflow designer is able to add as many steps per one approval “stage” as he likes. This is done by adding a Workflow Approval to the Workflow Template. When you go and configure this workflow template in the Workflow Configuration, you will be able to add as many steps as you wish… and you could also configure each step by specifying who this step will be assigned to and in what condition. And the workflow approval stage will not be completed unless all the steps are completed.

Now for the Workflow Task, this cannot be done. A Workflow Task represents only ONE STEP of a Workflow Approval. The workflow designer cannot add steps to this Task; he only could assign a person and a condition for this step/task. Task is nothing but a single unit of work.

The following image describes what I said:

Task and Approval in Dynamics AX 2009 Workflow

Another differnce is that a a task does not have a fixed outcome. However, you can add any number of custom outcomes to the task, such as Completed or Skipped.