Dynamics AX Easter Egg

Jacob posted this easter egg on his blog - funny little thing
I know it's a "bit" off-season, but funny nonetheless

static void easterEgg(Args _args)
{;
    info(conPeek(new HeapCheck().createAContainer(), 4));
}

AX6, Reports and SSRS

As mentioned in a previous post on the sample content of the Technical Conference on AX, many tracks have SSRS and the transition from X++ reporting to SSRS reporting as a theme, and I anticipate that SSRS will be the de-facto reporting language in future versions of AX.
However, as Saveen Reddy mentions on his blog, the transition from X++ to SSRS is no novelty. The gap between the two technologies is too big, despite many white papers, blogs and documents, and consultants and developers need to ramp up their skills in order to offer customers the full benefits of their AX investment.
Luckily Saveen Reddy, lead programme manager for Dynamics AX Business Intelligence, acknowledges this difficulty in making the transition and has a series of posts on his blog, which might help developers and consultants alike "being productive", as he calls it.
The plan is a 4 phase series, which is already posted, so there is ample opportunity for us all to start learning SSRS and how it collaborates with Dynamics AX 6, for as Saveen Reddy states in no uncertain terms:
'And again why should you care? I’ll repeat again: the future of AX Reporting is SSRS. Internalize that message. I cannot emphasize it enough. X++ will continue to see much less investment in the future. Becoming very familiar with SSRS is your best bet to stay productive with AX in the future.'
Read the first post here and see all of the published posts on SSRS and AX 6 here

More on AX 6 from the Techincal Conference Programme

During the last couple of weeks the programme for the Dynamics AX 2011 Technical Conference has been disclosed gradually. You can head about the conference here, which in itself is an interesting read.

Much more interesting is the sample session content, which indicates in which direction Microsoft Dynamics AX is heading. I have written about the X++ editor and I posted a general summary of AX 6 posts I found around the web. Going through the sample session content further hints to new functionality coming to light, e.g. 

'the new granular metadata support for forms which reduces the upgrade impact, the new metadata driven approach to making the UI context-aware based on country region, the new managed host control which enables easier integration of WPF or WinForm controls, and the ease of use for controls supporting the enhanced user experience.'

and a very interesting session which is described this way:

'Outline the programming models and developer tools in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Layout guidelines for choosing the right programming model, language (.NET or X++) and development tools (MorphX or Visual Studio) for categories of development.'

along with several session covering an upgrade of a X++ report in a SSRS context indicating what I talked about earlier, i.e. that Microsoft is pushing .NET and SSRS as the defacto standard programming languages/platforms for future versions of Dynamics AX. 

To me, it appears that Project Green is arisen in another guise. So instead of having the same kernel for the whole Dynamics portfolio, Microsoft are moving the development tools and language to their .NET framework and Reporting Services.

The new X++ editor in action

During the last couple of months Vincent published more details on how the upcoming X++ editor will present itself.

I previoulsy discussed some of the features which the community have called out for and it seems that Microsoft hear our prayers.

In this post Vincent shows some nice screenshots of the new IntelliSense, (which AxAssist provides for 3.0, 4.0 and 2009) and in this video you can see some of the new features in action.

Summary of AX6

Just thought I would post some of the links I found regarding AX6:

mpf has a series on the new AX Models, which will form the basis of deployment in future versions. The series consists of 4 parts, all of them well worth the read:

AX Models - Part 1 - Deploying models
AX Models - Part 2 - Manifest and Signing
AX Models - Part 3 - Multiple Models per Layer
AX Models - Part 4 - Working with Models Inside MorphX

Furthermore, Vincent has some nice changes made to the Editor, which can be seen here:

Dynamics AX6 - The new X++ editor

It appears that some of the things I discussed in x++ and C# compared are being implemented, which is much needed and widely wished for, as can be told by the number of comments on Vincent's post.

All in all, some nice improvements are bound for AX6 - when more details and posts appear around the net, I will add them to this post.

If you know of posts which relate to AX 6 which I havn't got on my list, please feel free to add them in the comment field, and I will add them to the list.

EDIT:
Having browsed through mpf's blog again - I found a few more posts on AX6:
AX6 sneak preview - X++ Unit test improvements
AX6 sneak preview - elements with 32 bit IDs
AX6 sneak preview - SQL AOD

Microsoft has also published their statement of direction, in which further functionality changes which will influence developers and their work are mentioned, so if you have access to PartnerSource it's a must read, as it gives an indication where AX is headed
Statement of Direction for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Preview to review of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Programming: Getting Started

As I mentioned in my post on the new feature of community content on MSDN, a new developer book has been published by Packt Publishing, viz. "Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Programming: Getting Started" by Erlend Dalen.

I have the privilege of writing a review of the book, but until I read the book from page to page, there is a sample chapter for you all the study titled "Searching for Data".
Having scanned the content of the book I am certain that it will provide the novice AX programmer with an easy accessable introduction to the programming language itself, its core syntax and structure along with step-by-step guides on how to e.g. create queries, as exemplified in the sample chapter which you can download from the link above.

One thing that I can readily tell is that 'foo' and 'bar' examples have been substituted with a business-like scenario of a car rental, so you get the feel of real life examples while learning the basics.

Enjoy the sample chapter and stay tuned for a full review.