Dynamics AX 2012

Vendors and Vendors look ups list in Dynamics Ax 2012

February 9, 2014 by alirazazaidi

Creation of Vendor in Dynamics Ax 2012 is very easy. There are too much options available which can be used as per client customization. My background is technical side, so during development and testing links to these looks is too much time consuming. There are two ways to create values for these lookups. One way to create or set before creating Vendors and second one during entry / creation of vendor by right click on look up and display all values and then add values for example if I have to create a new entry for Vendor group I have to perform following steps.

A new popup dialog open enter, click on new button and enter required value.

Other way which is more appropriate to creates all these lookup values in step up menu of Account receivable.

For example,
• Vendor groups. Account payable Area pageSetup vendorVendor groups.
• Payment Terms. . Account payable Area pageSetupTerms of payment.
• Buyer Group.
• Chain
• Line of Business
• Employee responsible.
• Segment.
• Sub Segment.
• Number sequence group.
• Sales Groups.
• Vendor tolerance group.
• Vendor exception group.
• Tax exempt Number.
• Model of delivery.
• Destination Code.
• With holding tax.
• Site.
• Warehouse
• Charges group.
• Item Vendor group.
• Purchase Pool.
• Multi Line Discount.
• Total Discount group.
• Line Discount.
• Supplementary item group.
• Payment terms.
• Method of payment.
• Payment specification.
• Payment schedule
• Cash discount.
• Bank account.
• Payment ID.
• Payment day.
• Retail
• Vendor Type.
• Hierarchy
• Bar Code number sequence.
• Service Category,
• Style prefix.
• Size prefix.
• Color prefix.

Exploring the Functional Side of Dynamics Ax 2012: How to create Legal entity.

January 20, 2014 by alirazazaidi

Today I decide to start Exploring the functional side of Dynamics AX 2012. The starting point certainly to create legal entity and explore the further options.

To Create a legal entity you have to open the legal entity form by the following link

Organizational Administrationè ==>Organization==>Legal Entities.
To create a new legal entity click on new button and start enter the information. For example, in my case I am going to create a legal entity with Name “Lahore” and with company Name “Systems Ltd.”
After entering information of Legal entity Name, Organization Name and region area Name press on ok button to save it.
Newly created Legal entity is shown in right side bar as follow.
From right side window I can update further detail information for legal entity. There are following fast tabs are on the form

From General Tabs You can update following important information for legal entity

Language.
Search Name
Time Zone.

Address Fast Tab:

From Address Fast tab: you can address information.

Click on Add button or Click on Edit button you can find more options.

You can add Contact information from Contact fast There

There are 4 types of contact you can create

Phone Number
Email Address
URL
Telex
Fax.
If there are many contact number, you can make one of them primary by clicking check box on grid.
From Tax Registration fast tab you can enter information regarding Taxation. Because Dynamics Ax is one of big ERP. It also option of Zakat.

From Tax 1099 you can enter withholding tax information.

Statutory reporting fast tab, you can enter the registration information which will be used for statutory reporting.

Banking information can be add Banking information fast tab.

Foreign trade and logistics Fast tab you can address shipment address

If there is any Sequence number associated with legal entity that can be shown from here.

reference : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh242184.aspx

Power script commands and Dynamics Ax 2012 SSRS reports.

January 13, 2014 by alirazazaidi

When you install dynamics Ax 2012, default reports automatically deployed. But sometimes we have to deployed the reports manually. Dynamics Ax provides build in PowerShell commands to perform various operations. For testing these commands, you have to run Power shell Management Shell as Administrator.

$reports = Get-AXReport -ReportName *
$reports

Above power shell scripts helps to get the list of Dynamics Ax 2012 SSRS reports available for deployment.

We can also filter the list of report . Dynamics Ax 2012 provide the only two filter options Report Name and changed date. You can use following statement.

$reports | Select-Object Name,ChangedDate

For example if we want all reports similar to ABC classification we can filter something like this

$reports | Select-Object Name,ChangedDate | Where { $_.Name -like "ABC*" }

If reporting Server is install and configured with Dynamics Ax 2012, we can use following statements to deploy all available reports.

If we want to deploy a single required report we have to use following statement.

Publish-AXReport –Id SSRSConfigID -ReportName CustTransList

In my case SSRSConfigID will be machine name

Publish-AXReport –Id dynamicsworld -ReportName CustTransList

If we have to deploy all reports then we can use following statement.

Publish-AXReport –Id SSRSConfigID –ReportName *

Above statement also works if we did not use SSRSConfigID.

Publish-AXReport –ReportName *

 
if you configured the multiple AOS and multiple reporting server then following command works

Publish-AXReport -Id SSRS_2712 –ReportName * -RestartReportServer -ServicesAOSName  <MACHINE NAME> -ServicesAOSWSDLPort 8101

Organization Model framework overview In Dynamics Ax 2012

January 9, 2014 by alirazazaidi

Every organization which is small or large, have some sort of organizational structure. For example in a large organization it is possible that company have several sub-companies and then they have departments, then sub departments and they have the people in department.
Like other ERPS, Microsoft Dynamics AX provides the Organization Model framework and functionality.
“The organization model represents internal control, data security access, and performance reporting structures designed to divide responsibility for human and operations resources and work processes.”
If we explore the organization model in at component level of dynamics follower diagram described it at application stack.

Usually organizations have hierarchical structures to define business polices, rules and implementing security policies and reporting.
Dynamics Ax 2012 organization model framework supports multiple hierarchies and the hierarchies take effects on more than one date. Multiple purposes hierarchies also supported.
The framework is designed to create organization model without writing single line of code, Only organizational knowledge is required. One just need to understand the actural or physical hierarchy of the organization to be model.
By doing some customization, the flexible framework can be extended to cater industry specific needs.
Below is a conceptual model. This will help us understand the concepts of organization model MS Dynamics AX.

At the center of the concepts is the International Organization which is used to model any internal organization and not an external organization such as vendor or customer’s organization hierarchies.
There are 3 types of internal organizations provided with MS Dynamics AX 2012.
Legal Entity:
A legal entity is an organization with a registered or legislated legal structure that is granted the authority to enter into legal contracts and that is required to prepare statements that report on its performance.
A legal entity is an external view of organization. Legal entities are required to prepare reports on recurring basis. Legal entities can own assets and liabilities.

Operating unit:
An operating unit is an organization that divides the control of economic resources and operational processes among people who have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, to improve processes, and to account for their performance.
Organizations that are relevant to other application areas can also be set up in Human resources and General ledger.

In Dynamics Ax 2012, there are several operating units are provided.
Internal view of your organization. It is responsible for internal reporting. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, there are several operating units are provided out of the box. They are
A business unit is primarily an operating organization with a focus on industries or product lines that the organization is supposed to serve.
A cost center is a type of operating unit that describes an organization used for tracking costs or expenses. It is a cost accumulator, and is used to manage costs.
A department is a type of operating unit that may have profit and loss responsibility and could be a grouping of cost centers. Departments also are often created based on functional responsibility or skill, such as sales and marketing.
A value stream is a type of operating unit commonly used in lean manufacturing. In lean manufacturing, a value stream owns one or more production flows that describe the activities and flows needed to supply a product, good, or service to the consumers of the product.

Team
A team is also a type of an internal organization, but it is an informal group of people primarily created for a specific purpose over a short duration. Teams may be created for specific projects or services.

Short introduction to AIF framework

January 5, 2014 by alirazazaidi

Usually we have to communicate with external systems with Dynamics Ax. In many business Scenario, Data is imported from other application or export form Dynamics Ax to external system. For Data Export or import Microsoft provide AIF or application Integration Framework. Consider the following Business scenarios in which Microsoft Dynamics Ax accesses information that is managed in external applications.
The arrows indicate the direction in which requests flow.

What can we do with Dynamics AX Aif Services.
• Encapsulate the Business Logic.
• Communicate with external systems.
Encapsulate the Business logic:
With the help of Microsoft Dynamics Ax services framework, we can encapsulate required business logic. For example we can create sales order, purchase order, Create Customers, vendors. These custom business logic will be publish as web service through the Application Integration Framework (AIF). AIF also participate in any Service Oriented architecture (SOA).
Communicate with external systems.
Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Integration Framework (AIF) enables companies to integrate and communicate with other systems (External Systems). This communication is based on external business processes and partners through the exchange of XML over various transport media.
AIF enables Dynamics Ax to integrate Business to business or application to application scenario.

AIF Documents
AIF provides this capabilities by enabling the exchange of data through formatted XML known as Document. These Document contains both data and business logic. These Documents are based on a document class and these document classes are defined by using Microsoft Dynamics AX.
AIF framework supports both synchronous and asynchronous transports.
In Synchronous mode, requests are tightly coupled to response. This means that submitter of request must wait for a response from AIF before processed.
In asynchronous mode, request are placed into a queue. Called the gateway queue. These queued messages are processed later time and AIF sends a response later.
Inbound exchange. AIF can be used to send data into Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Out bound exchange. AIF can also be used to retrieve data from Microsoft Dynamics Ax. This kind of exchange is called outbound exchange.

Unable to log on to Microsoft Dynamics AX” error message when opening the AX client”

January 4, 2014 by alirazazaidi

Currently somehow the other I was unable to log on my local vm, and I used another user to log on and try to connect with dynamics Ax. I got the Error “Unable to log on to Microsoft Dynamics AX” error message when opening the AX client”

On Searched found that have to made User as admin on Dynamics Ax and then log in with it.
This scenerio also occured, when dynamics ax back restored on local vm. where Development environment user is not register in other environment.
This is two step process. First have to get User sid on domain. This is done by using power shell script.

I used following script run in powershell to get user sid.

$AdObj = New-Object System.Security.Principal.NTAccount("dynamicAdmin")

$strSID = $AdObj.Translate([System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier])

$strSID.Value

Copy the Sid and paste it in following SQL statement.

update userinfo set
networkdomain = 'dynamicworld.com',

networkalias = 'dynamicAdmin',

name = 'alirazazaidi',

SID = 'S-1-5-21-221833333-146633334-54333339715198-145333

where ID = 'Admin'

After executing update statement, user successfully log in Dynamics Ax 2012 client.

Happy New year , Hope this year will bring more success in world of Dynamics Ax

January 3, 2014 by alirazazaidi

A little bit late , I was busy house shifting so Internet breakdown.
For me, 2013 has been a great year. It has been full of new experiences that lead me to become a better person and also a much sharper professional. I’m grateful about all that I went through, and the people I met that helped me grow.

Next year is full of challenges for all of us, and hopefully, they will make us grow again and help us become better consultants and human beings.

Best wishes for All Dynamics Ax developer’s and functional consultants.

Dynamics Ax 2012: How to duplicate the existing report for modification

November 14, 2013 by alirazazaidi

I got task to extend the existing dynamics ax SSRS report. Client also wants to sustain the existing report. They want a new report that will be replicate the original one with extended features. Data provider classes are easily duplicated by right clicking on it and select duplicate, I renamed the duplicate classes in AOT. Initially I did not change anything in renamed classes so duplicate report will work with old data set.

But I did not find any duplicate option on AOT. After R&D I found that report can duplicate in visual studio. I create a new visual studio project Report project. Open Application Explore, Expand SSRS report node and drag it into visual studio project. Visual studio automatically duplicated the existing report

You can open Application explorer in Visual Studio è Viewè Application Explorer.

. Now the duplicated report will pointed to old Data provider class. Next step I copied the names of data set fields and parameters and properties into Notepad. When I point the data set to duplicated classes, a new data set created, and parameters became duplicate. I removed the old parameters and set the new parameters with new names and their properties to as they were in deleted parameter. After this I checked that report layout is working with new data Set, Now I started modification in report and classes with requirements.

SSIS Vs BizTalk which is best tool for integration/migration with Dynamics Ax

November 13, 2013 by alirazazaidi

During last couple of years, I have integrate data with Dynamics Ax both with SSIS and BizTalk. I common question is asked to me what is difference when every thing is possible in SSIS why we need BizTalk or what BizTalk provide different from SSIS. So My answer to this question is something like

Everything what BizTalk provide can be implemented in SSIS. But major difference is batch processing. Usually SSIS package are used to migrate large set of data or dataset. BizTalk provide the operations to be perform on one message at time or real time processing. Because everything in BizTalk is XML so BizTalk is very slow on large set of data. BizTalk provide large number of adapters, while In SSIS you have to use direct connection by Oldb, or Sql db to communicate with different database and depend on OlDb connections. In BizTalk large number of Adapter provided to communicate which may or may not be depend on OlDB connection. Build in Tracking system (BAM) and its display on BAM portal is also big advantage on SSIS. For this purpose you have to made custom tracking system in SSIS which require a lot of coding. Third advantage of BizTalk over SSIS is BRE. Business rule engine. BRE provide the condition whose value can be changed and complete follow of BizTalk application. These BRE roles can be used in multiple biztalk application while these functionality can be achieved on config files in SSIS.

In conclusion when we required less data integration/migration and require complex decision making we are used BizTalk for example we have to implement complex work flow on single record. BizTalk application also used route data, read from one location, transform it and drop on other location. Simple example of this transactional data, when one transaction is occur in one system and its impact or integration will required on other system we will used BizTalk. BizTalk is rapid development tool as compare to SSIS.

When we have large sum of data , required less complexity and requirement of integrated systems are based on Same technology then we have to use SSIS. Usually SSIS used to migrate or integrate the non-transaction data or step up data. The delay of migration and integration possible or example Batch processing. SSIS is built for ETL process, it is not rapid integration tool.

Dynamics Ax 2012: How to Edit the Existing Report.

November 10, 2013 by alirazazaidi

In Ax Dynamics usually work is pop out regarding customization of what is existing In Dynamics Ax. Usually is one of them is Report customization. If you are new in Dynamics Ax, Report locate and open mode will create more headache then modifying it. Let’s explore what steps require to open report in Edit Mode.

First step is determining the Name of report. You can identify it by menu item from it is running.

For example we want to edit the following report as per MSDN link

Menus > InventoryAndWarehouseManagement > Reports >BaseData > Quantity setup

Now Go to AOT and expend InventoryAndWareHouseManagement and right click to view the properties of Quantity Setup.

From Property you can identify the Name of MenuItem and its type. The menu item for Quantity setup is InventTableQuantity.

Now expand from AOT and Expend Menu Items and then Output Node. Because there are too many menu Items in AOT Node so you have to type when you reach on InventTableQuantity right click on it and explore the properties. You can find the Object property described the report Name of Quatity Setup is InventTableQuantity.

Now third step is go to locate the Visual Studio Projects and then Edit it.

For this purpose in the AOT, expand the node for Visual Studio Projects and then expand the node for Dynamics Ax Model Project. The project name will be similar to report Name, There are too much visual studio project so type InventTablQuantyReport. Right click on it and select edit.

Report project will be open to Visual studio, where you can modify.

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