Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Development Cookbook

By Mindaugas Pocius

This book contains a list of useful Dynamics AX modifications – recipes – along with all required code and in-depth explanations. Most of the recipes are presented using real-world examples in a variety of Dynamics AX modules. The step-by-step instructions along with many useful screenshots make learning easier. This book is for Dynamics AX developers, and is primarily focused on delivering time-proven application modifications. Although new X++ developers could use this book along with their beginner guides, this book is focused more on people who are willing to raise their programming skills above the beginner level, and at the same time learn the functional aspects of Dynamics AX. So, some Dynamics AX coding experience is expected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Release date: Dec 16, 2009
• ISBN: 9781847199430

Book preview

Table of Contents

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Development Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Preface

What this book covers

Who this book is for

What you need for this book

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code for the book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Processing Data

Introduction

Creating a new number sequence

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Renaming the primary key

How to do it...

How it works...

Merging two records

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding document handling notes

How to do it...

How it works...

Using a normal table as temporary table

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Copying a record

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Building a query object

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using the OR operator

Using arrays fields

See also

Using a macro in a SQL statement

How to do it...

How it works...

Executing a direct SQL statement

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Enhancing the data consistency check

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Exporting to an XML file

How to do it...

How it works...

Importing from an XML file

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating a comma-separated value file

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Reading a comma-separated value file

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Deleting all company transactional data

How to do it...

How it works...

2. Working with Forms

Introduction

Creating Dialogs

How to do it...

How it works...

Handling dialog events

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating dynamic menu buttons

How to do it...

How it works...

Building dynamic form

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding form splitters

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating modal forms

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Changing common form appearance

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Storing last form values

How to do it...

How it works...

Using tree controls

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Building checklists

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Adding a Go to the Main Table Form link

How to do it...

How it works...

Modifying the User setup form

How to do it...

How it works...

Modifying application version

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

3. Working with Data in Forms

Introduction

Handling number sequences

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Creating custom filters

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating custom instant search filters

How to do it...

How it works...

Building selected/available lists

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Preloading images

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Creating wizards

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating default data wizards

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Processing multiple records

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Coloring records

How to do it...

How it works...

Adding images to records

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Displaying an image as a part of a form

Saving a stored image as a file

4. Building Lookups

Introduction

Creating an automatic lookup

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating a lookup dynamically

How to do it...

How it works...

Using a form for lookup building

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Building a tree lookup

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Displaying a list of custom options

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Companies

Domains

User groups

Users

Tables

Table fields

Classes

Interfaces

Another way of displaying custom options

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Building a lookup based on record description

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Browsing for folders

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Manual folder browsing lookup

Adding a Make New Folder button

Selecting a file

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Picking a color

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Choosing a font

How to do it...

How it works...

5. Processing Business Tasks

Introduction

Creating new general journals

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more

Posting general journals

How to do it...

How it works...

Processing project journals

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating and posting ledger vouchers

How to do it...

How it works...

Changing automatic transaction text

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating purchase orders

How to do it...

How it works...

Posting purchase orders

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating sales orders

How to do it...

How it works...

Posting sales orders

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating company-specific document layout

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating electronic payment format

How to do it...

How it works...

Building a Display dimensions dialog

How to do it...

How it works...

6. Integration with Microsoft Office

Introduction

Creating Excel files

How to do it...

How it works...

Reading Excel files

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating Word documents from templates

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating configuration documents using Word

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Exporting data to Microsoft Project

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Sending email using Outlook

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Index

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Development Cookbook

Mindaugas Pocius

---

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Development Cookbook

Copyright © 2009 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing, nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2009

Production Reference: 1111209

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-847199-42-3

www.packtpub.com

Cover Image by Parag Kadam (<[e-mail]>)

Credits

Author

Mindaugas Pocius

Reviewers

David Probst

Fred Shen

Acquisition Editor

Douglas Paterson

Development Editor

Ved Prakash Jha

Technical Editor

Pallavi Kachare

Copy Editor

Leonard D'Silva

Editorial Team Leader

Akshara Aware

Project Team Leader

Lata Basantani

Project Coordinator

Srimoyee Ghoshal

Proofreader

Chris Smith

Indexer

Rekha Nair

Production Coordinator

Dolly Dasilva

Cover Work

Dolly Dasilva

About the Author

Mindaugas Pocius is currently a freelance Dynamics AX technical and functional consultant and trainer at DynamicsLab Limited (www.dynamicslab.com). The company specializes in providing development, consulting, and training services for Microsoft Dynamics AX resellers and customers.

Mindaugas started his IT consultant career back in 2001 while still in his Information Technology Master Studies in Lithuanian university. Since then he has become a recognized Microsoft Certified Professional for AX in all major areas: Development (including Enterprise Portal), Configuration & Installation, Financials, Project, Trade & Logistics. He is also a Certified Microsoft Trainer for Dynamics AX and has delivered numerous Dynamics AX Development and Financial trainings across the Europe.

From 2001 till 2009, Mindaugas participated in over 15 Dynamics AX implementations, ranging from small 10-15 to international 100-500 user projects. He has had a wide range of development, consulting, and leading roles while always maintaining a significant role as a business application developer.

I would like to thank my family for their support during the writing of this book, for their understanding of my long hours spent on this work. I would also like to thank all the people who made this book possible.

About the Reviewers

David Probst has a background in Economics and Computer Science and has been working professionally on Microsoft Dynamics AX since 2001, focusing on specific modules including CRM, Service Management, Shop Floor Control, and Environmental Sustainability.

Fred Shen started to work with Dynamics AX in 2004. He was a team member on the very first AX project localizing AX for the Chinese market. After that, he worked for a leading service provider of business, information technology, and communications solutions—Fujitsu Australia. In 2008, he joined Epartners Australia as a senior technical consultant.

Fred Shen is also one of the webmasters in MBSCN.NET, the Chinese Microsoft Dynamics user group. He was recognized as a Dynamics AX Most Valuable Professional for the contribution he has made to the Chinese Dynamics AX communities.

Preface

As a Dynamics AX developer, your responsibility is to deliver all kinds of application customizations, whether they are small adjustments or bespoke modules. Dynamics AX is a highly customizable system and requires a significant amount of knowledge and experience to deliver quality solutions. A single goal can be achieved in multiple ways, and there is always a question—which way is the best?

This book takes you through numerous practically proven recipes to help you with the daily development tasks. Each recipe contains detailed step-by-step instructions along with application screenshots and in-depth explanations. The recipes cover multiple Dynamics AX modules, and as a result, the book gives a developer an overview of the functional aspects of the system too.

What this book covers

The book's content is presented in six chapters covering the following areas:

Chapter 1, Processing Data focuses on data manipulation. It explains how to build data queries, how to check and modify existing data, and how to read or write comma-separated and XML files.

Chapter 2, Working with Forms covers the various aspects of using Dynamics AX forms. In this chapter, dialogs and their events are explained. Various useful features like splitters, saving last values, changing form appearance, dynamic controls, and others are also explained.

Chapter 3, Working with Data in Forms basically supplements the previous chapter and explains about data organization in forms. The examples in this chapter include instructions on how to build form data filters, process multiple records at a time, create data wizards, checklists, and the use of colors and images.

Chapter 4, Building Lookups covers all kinds of lookups in the system. The chapter starts with a simple automatically generated lookup, continues with more advanced ones, and finishes with standard Windows lookups like the file selection dialog or the color picker.

Chapter 5, Processing Business Tasks explains the usage of Dynamics AX business logic API. This chapter discusses topics on processing journals, purchase, and sales orders. Other features like posting financial vouchers directly, modifying transaction texts and creating electronic payment formats are included too.

Chapter 6, Integration with Microsoft Office shows how MS Word, Excel, Outlook, and Project can be used with Dynamics AX.

Who this book is for

This book is for Dynamics AX developers primarily focused on delivering time-proven application modifications. Although new X++ developers could use this book along with their beginner's guides, this book is more focused on people who are willing to raise their programming skills above the beginner's level and at the same time learn the functional aspects of Dynamics AX. So, some Dynamics AX coding experience is expected.

What you need for this book

All the coding examples were done in virtual Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Image from Microsoft Learning Download Centre. The following list of software from the virtual image was used in this book:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (Service Pack 2)

Dynamics AX 2009 RTM (kernel version: 5.0.593.0, application version: 5.0.593.0)

Microsoft Office Excel 2007

Microsoft Office Word 2007

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007

Microsoft Office Project 2007 (installed manually as an additional component)

Notepad

Internet Explorer 7

The mentioned software does not necessary have to be in a virtual image. The recipes could be implemented in any Dynamics AX 2009 RTM environment with no previous modifications.

Although all recipes were tested on the mentioned software, they might work on older or newer software versions without any implications or with minor code adjustments.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text are shown as follows: We call the table's renamePrimaryKey(), which does the actual renaming.

A block of code will be set as follows:

numRef.DataTypeId = typeId2ExtendedTypeId(typeid(EmplId));

numRef.ReferenceHelp = literalstr(Employee identification);

numRef.WizardContinuous        = false;

numRef.WizardManual            = NoYes::No;

numRef.WizardAllowChangeDown  = NoYes::Yes;

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be shown in bold:

public server static NumberSequenceReference numRefEmplId()

 

{

    return NumberSeqReference::findReference(

        typeid2extendedtypeid(typeid(EmplId)));

}

The code in this book generally follows the best practice guidelines provided by Microsoft, but there are some exceptions:

No text labels were used to make the code clear.

No three letter codes in front of each new AOT object were used.

No configuration or security keys were used.

Object properties that are not relevant to the topic being discussed are not set.

Some other considerations:

Each recipe demonstrates the principle and is not a complete solution.

The assumption is that no other modifications are present in the system.

The code might not have all possible validations that are not relevant to the principle being explained.

To demonstrate the principle and simplify the demonstration, the code in some recipes is placed in a job or in the main() of a newly created class to make sure it can be executed from AOT.

The code might have more variables than required to make sure it is clear for all audiences.

Sometimes unnecessary code wrapping is used to make sure the code fits into the page width of this book and is easily readable.

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in our text like this: Click Transactions to note the existing transactions:

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Downloading the example code for the book

Visit http://www.packtpub.com/files/code/9423_Code.zip to directly download the example code.

The downloadable files contain instructions on how to use them.

Errata

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Questions

You can contact us at <[e-mail]> if you are having a problem with any aspect of the book, and we will do our best to address it.

Chapter 1. Processing Data

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

Creating a new number sequence

Renaming the primary key

Merging two records

Adding document handling notes

Using a normal table as temporary table

Copying a record

Building a query object

Using a macro in a SQL statement

Executing a direct SQL statement

Enhancing the data consistency check

Exporting to an XML file

Importing from an XML file

Creating a comma-separated value file

Reading a comma-separated value file

Deleting all company transactional data

Introduction

This chapter focuses on data manipulation exercises. Here, we will discuss how to work with query objects from X++ code. We will also discuss how to reuse macros in X++ SQL statements and how to send SQL statements directly to the database. This chapter will explain how to rename primary keys, how to merge and copy records, how to add document handling notes to selected records, and how to clean up the testing system by deleting all transactional data.

Creating a new number sequence

Number sequences in Dynamics AX are used to generate a specifically formatted number for record identification. Numbers could be anything from voucher numbers or transaction identification numbers to customer or vendor accounts.

When developing custom functionality, very often one of the tasks is to add a new number sequence to the system to support newly created tables. Dynamics AX contains a list of NumberSeqReference derivative classes, which hold the number sequence data for the specific module.

These classes are read by the number sequence wizard which detects existing number sequences and proposes to create the missing or newly created ones. The wizard is normally run as a part of the application initialization, but it can be rerun at any time later when expanding Dynamics AX functionality and new standard number sequences are required. The wizard also has to be rerun if new custom number sequences are added to the system.

In this recipe, we will add a new number sequence to the system. In a standard application, employee number is not driven by any number sequence, so we will enhance this by creating an employee number sequence functionality.

How to do it...

Open the NumberSeqReference_General class in AOT, and add the following code to the bottom of loadModule():

numRef.DataTypeId = typeId2ExtendedTypeId(typeid(EmplId));

numRef.ReferenceHelp = literalstr(Employee identification);

numRef.WizardContinuous        = false;

numRef.WizardManual            = NoYes::No;

numRef.WizardAllowChangeDown  = NoYes::Yes;

numRef.WizardAllowChangeUp    = NoYes::Yes;

numRef.WizardHighest          = 9999;

numRef.SortField              = 7;

this.create(numRef);

Run the number sequence wizard by clicking on the Wizard button in Basic | Setup | Number sequences | Number sequences, and click Next:

Delete everything apart from the line where Module is Basic and Reference is Employee (use keyboard shortcut ALT+F9 to delete lines). Note the number sequence code Basi_202, and click Next:

On the last page, click Finish to complete the wizard:

Find the newly created number sequence in Number sequences