fedotenko.info

This is a blog of Dennis Fedotenko - a well known proffessional in Ax functionality and development. He writes rare, but usually his articles can be a key for understanding principles behind ax functionality.

Dennis has a great reputation in Russian Ax community, and now he translated some of his articles to English.

San Diego

If you live in San Diego or know that area well, please contact me mbelugin@gmail.com

Это тоже не стоит транслировать на акфорум :)

Mental framework

Review of the book “Managing your supply chain using Microsoft dynamics ax 2009”

After about 5 years of Ax development I’ve recognized that the model of Dynamics Ax functionality which I have in my brain is like photosynth – some areas, I worked with, covered by consistent pictures, but others are represented by random shots without high level overview.

The majority of existing materials about Ax – like trainings, documentation, so on, use “hands on” approach – little introduction and very detailed description using screenshots, particular sequences of steps in term of buttons, etc.

So I feel that there is a gap between short intros of documentation and very detailed contents (for example Russian docs contains of 2 volumes >1000 pages each).

That’s why I was very interested when Dr. Scott Hamilton sent me kindly the book, which was written to give “mental framework for putting together the details” learned from various sources . So below are my impressions.

The book contains 426 pages, and most of them are text description of Ax functionality: no screenshots, no concrete steps – just text, tables and business process flowcharts. Thus, the information density is quite high.

The book consists of 15 chapters, each dedicated for some functional area. All chapters are in scope of SCM (you can see TOC at Amazon). Each chapter contain description of a functional area, case studies and executive summary.

New features of Ax2009 (such as sites and purchase requisition) are reflected.

What I like about the book

• The book met my expectations about abstraction level it have no redundant details, which can be obtained from products docs and training, and contains enough for making mental model of SCM modules.
• There are lots of tables showing how ax behavior depends on parameter combinations – it helps to understand the space of different implementation scenarios.
  
• As I mentioned before the most important features of ax2009 are described

What can be done better

• Some case studies are very brief – I’d prefer to include more detailed business scenarios and more implementation details. (But maybe I should read some book about common business practice instead – could you recommend me such a book?)

Overall impression

I’d buy the book if I haven’t one. I recommend it for everybody who want to have a consistent view of Ax SCM functionality.

PS. there is also a new book by Dr. Hamilton - Managing Lean Manufacturing using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

AxForm.info for English-speakers

AxForum.info is the one of the largest Russian communities related to Dynamics systems.

Though it has a section in English there are lots of info in Russian there. Some of English speakers read the forum via online translators.

If you have and idea how to make AxForum.info more suitable for English-speaking people, please post to that thread

Bulgaria

Does anybody from bulgaria reading this blog? Please, contact me mbelugin@gmail.com

вот это не надо транслировать на аксфорум :)

Search for C#

It is obvious for somebody, but it can help somebody novice.

Since version 4 Dyanmics Ax requires .NET framework installation, so you can rely on the fact that .NET FW exists. There is also constantly improving intargetion of .NET in X++, so you can use .NET framework as a huga library of various utilities. For example, Ax uses System.Text.RegularExpression for checking e-mail format.

So sometimes, you can search the internet for code snippet, performing some task, you need, but if you type "http .net" you can get lots of irrelevant results since .net is an often part of web page address. Type "http C#" instead and you probably get what you want.

SQL Server 2008 R2 what's new

Interesting announce of new features in SQL Server 2008 R2

PowerShell + Ax

Just added a small article to axaptapedia about administering Ax with PowerShell.

AxPath plugin for Tabax which works with Ax3, Ax4, Ax2009

Now you can download AxPath.dll (with sources) which works with Ax 3, Ax 4, Ax 2009. Previously it worked only if Ax3 was installed.

Ivan fixed it to work with Ax2009, now I have extended it to probe registry keys for Ax2009, Ax4, Ax3 (in that particular order) and work with the version found first.

If you do not know what AxPath and Tabax are - look at http://axaptapedia.com/AxPath, http://axaptapedia.com/Tabax

AxPath plugin originated by AndyD from http://axforum.info

First experiments with XRefs and MSAGL

Tryng to get more visual represenation of cross references using MSAGL (Microsoft Automatic Graph Layout)

This is only calls inside Tax class. Methods which are called from external places are merked with ">". Methods ahich are called from descendats - with "*"

view complete xps

Simple job generates .dot file from xrefs which can be read my MSAGL.

There is also well known graph layout package - graphviz. (.dot it it's native format)

I am not MVP anymore

Since I am MS FTE (GDL EE SDE) @ KHBP

Ax 2009 can be downloaded from MSDN

here

Sidax & Tabax for Ax2009

Here are first betas for the utilities that works under Ax2009. Tabax now can works with forms outside main Ax window.

download

How to hide Content Pane in Ax 2009

Here is a small job, which hides content pane in Dynamics Ax 2009. Content pane can be useful for end users, but when you develop something in can be irritating to see it oon top of all windows every time you click on menu item. So here is a small solution. I plan to add this feature to the future Tabax for Ax 2009

static void TEST_HideContentFrame(Args _args)
{
    #WinApi
    HWND contentPane =  WinApi::findWindowEx(
          WinAPI::findWindowEx(infolog.hWnd(), 0, 'MDIClient', ''), 
          0, 
          'ContentFrame',
          ''
    );
;
    if (contentPane)
        WinApi::ShowWindow(contentPane, #SW_HIDE);
}

https://community.dynamics.com

 

Here is announce:

Within the next few weeks you will begin to see the Microsoft Dynamics Community pages located at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/community, moving to a new location at https://community.dynamics.com. We are making this move in an effort to streamline the accessibility of all Microsoft Dynamics communities and make the user experience of interacting with community experts and your peers much easier. The newsgroups as you see them today will still be intact, but the web pages which you use today to access them will be different. Plus you'll see more streamlined content and future functionality additions, such as networking tools!

 

To get a jump start on the transition, I would encourage you to register on the new site TODAY – once you do, you can begin to interact with our non-technical role based communities which reside there today for Finanse, Sales & Marketing, and Customer Service professionals.

 

--

Liz Hallen

Online Community Product Manager

Book review: “Quality Assurance for Dynamics AX-Based ERP Solutions”

As some other bloggers, I have received the book for review. Here are my impressions…

This book is written about several aspects of quality assurance in Dynamics Ax implementation projects. I think the main focus is on customizations development because most topics related to it.

Quality in the following areas is covered by the book:

• Code
  
• User interface
  
• Security
  
• Performance
  
• Organizational
  

Detail level differs from topic to topic: for example code topics contain introductory material and detailed BP rules, user interface topic consists of very concrete checklists and security aspects are showed almost only as general word about trustworthy computing. The book is not very thick (~150 pages), but contains information only in textual form (text, tables, lists), so information density is higher than in most modern books filled with screenshots and code samples.

My overall impression - good enough as introductory book. It can be useful if you are:

• Novice developer and want to have overview about what quality in dynamics ax means
  
• Some kind of manager who want to build a development process with focus on quality (you can borrow some rules and checklists)
  
• Some other non-developer who wants to have overall outline about quality in Ax
  

I think, there are some topics, which should be covered by the future books of such direction, but haven't been covered by this book:

• Administration issuer
  
• Functional setup issues
  

Other topics (such as end-user training) which are parts of real implementation projects but haven't been represented in the book

Sidax 0.4 b 6 will show you what groups can access selected main menu items

download (85K)

What's new:

• multiple selection of main menu items


• new item named "Show access" in the main menu item's context menu. If you choose this item all groups which have access to that item will be output to infolog

BeauSQL -- SQL beautifier

Download: binaries, sources



The purpose is to make SQL traces code more structured and core readable.

This tool consists of two parts:

• DLL, which is written in Haskell - a very interesting functional programming language, and it do actual work of parsing and pretty printing


• Small class in Ax which is a thin wrapper for the DLL and button to place in SQL trace form.

This is the first version, it is very experimantal and tested under Ax 3 only.

PS. Some code was stealed from cs4 tool for BAAN

How to manage rights by code

Some times ago I nedd to copy 8 security groups and remove access to some menu items in these new copies. I wrote a job for that purpose and now I've placed it to axaptapedia here.

Google Desktop Calendar Gadget update

Just added half-transparent dates from previous and next monthes

download (81K)