Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Solution Demo Package V1.0 released

Microsoft has released latest/new version of the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 demo machine. Download is available on both partner and customer source.

Customersource:https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/AX/downloads/service-packs/AX2012DemoToolsMaterials

Partnersource: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/sales-marketing/demo-tools/virtual-machines/AX2012DemoToolsMaterials

Simple and easy to digest demo videos from Microsoft sellers. Please refer to the section: Demo Videos on the above link for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3.

Source: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/sales-marketing/demo-tools/virtual-machines/AX2012DemoToolsMaterials

Happy DAXing!!

Long running SSRS reports in Dynamics AX 2012

Quite often we come across a problem that our developed report works fine on development and test environments. However, when deployed to LIVE, customers are having issues that report is timed out!! The reason is that our development environment do not have huge data like our LIVE system so it timed out after 10 minutes. Default timeout of AOS and SSAS interaction is 10 minutes so if your report is taking more time to fill up datasource/temptable then you will have time out error after 10 minutes.

This issue is more common in reports like trial balance and customer aging reports which takes longer to fill report temp tables.

There are two possible solutions

 - Increase the default time out setting for all

 - To perform following to mitigate time out error

By performing following steps you will be able to increase the time out for reports that takes longer than 10 minutes. Recommendation is to always execute these reports in batch as it will keep your AX client busy and you won't be able to perform any other task during that processing.

1.      Extend your RDP class from SSRSReportDataProviderPreProcess instead of SSRSReportDataProviderBase

2.      Update your table type (from table properties) from InMemory to TempDB

3.      Perform full compile of IL

4.      Restart the AOS

5.      Introduce controller class to run the report (if not already there)

6.      Point your menu item from actual report to controller class

You will have following differences after this modification

1.      Will not have "A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time" error.

2.      Will not see the report window immediately. AX will fill up the temp table and then display report window.

3.      Still should put such jobs in batch as it will keep your AX in the process and won't allow to perform any other operation. 

Pass multiple records from one form to another

I came across a requirement to pass multiple records from one form to another. It might would be a very common practice now. However, I thought to blog it for if anyone still not cleat with this part.

Instead of passing datasource as an argument in the property, Override clicked() method of button and prepare your args to pass as shown. I am taking an example of SalesTable to pass to another form

void clicked()

{

    int         recordsCount;

    SalesTable  salesTable;

    container   con;

    Args        args;

    str         multiSelectString;

    args = new Args();

    // gets the total records selected

    recordsCount = salesTable_ds.recordsMarked().lastIndex();

    salesTable= salesTable_ds.getFirst(1);

    while (salesTable)

    {

        // storing recid of selected record in container

        con = conIns(con,1, salesTable.RecId);

        // converting container to string with comma separated

        multiSelectString = con2Str(con,’,’);

        salesTable= SampleTable_ds.getNext(); // moves to next record

    }

   

    // passing string

    args.parm(multiSelectString);

    // calling menu item

    new MenuFunction(menuitemDisplayStr(NewFormMenuItem), MenuItemType::Display).run(args);

}

Now in the above method we have already prepared our args in a container and have passed that to a new form of menu item "NewFormMenuItem"

In order to retrieve passed arguments in the recipient from. Override the init() method of new form as shown

public void init()

{

    container   con;

    int         i;

    str         multipleRecords;

   

    super();

   

    // to get string value from caller

    multipleRecords = element.args().parm();

    // string to container

    con = str2con(multipleRecords,”,”);

    // for sorting

    for(i = 1;i<= conLen(con) ;i++)

    {

        salesTable_ds.query().dataSourceTable(Tablenum(SalesTable)).addRange(fieldNum(SalesTable,RecId)).value(SysQuery::value(conPeek(con,i)));

    }

} 

If you have some more improved versions of this task please share.

Happy DAXing!

Set Value On a Control in List Page through ListPage Interaction class (Dynamics AX 2012)

I recently had a requirement to display sum of total volume (a display method) of all the selected records on a List page form. There were two major development tasks in this requirement

1. To loop through all records that user has selected on List Page.
2. To set value on a custom control of List Page after calculation.

You can easily loop through list of selected records with in interaction class by using MultiSelectionHelper class. However, I found it a bit tricky in setting up the control value of List page as previously I only used this class to enable/disable or make visible true false of controls or buttons on list page.

Here is the code for your reference if you ever need to do the same.
For sure there will be many other more effective ways of doing this. If you ever had to do and know the best way please share with me as well.

protected void setSumOfTotalVolume()

{

    ReqPO               reqPO;

    Volume              totalVolume;

    Common              externalRecord;

    FormDataSource      frmDs;

    FormRun             formRun;

    FormRealControl     frmCtrl;

    MultiSelectionHelper helper = MultiSelectionHelper::construct();

    helper.parmDatasource(this.listPage().activeRecord('ReqPO').dataSource());

    reqPO = helper.getFirst();

    while (reqPO.RecId != 0)

    {

        totalVolume += reqPO.totalVolume();

        reqPO = helper.getNext();

    }

    //Assign value to control on list page

    externalRecord = this.listPage().activeRecord('ReqPO');

    if(externalRecord.isFormDataSource())

    {

        frmDs   = externalRecord.dataSource();

        formRun = frmDs.formRun();

        if(formRun)

        {

            frmCtrl = formRun.design().controlName(formControlStr(ReqTransPOListPage,TotalVolumeField));

            if(frmCtrl)

            {

                frmCtrl.realValue(totalVolume);

            }

        }

    }

}

You should also call this method from interactionclass.selectionchanged() method to update value on every record selection.

Hope it will be help full for if you have a similar requirement in future.

Happy DAXing !!