Copy - paste utility

The lack of IntelliSense in the MorphX IDE ( and being too cheap to invest in AxAssist ) made me browse for an alternative. I found ArsClip which is a nifty little tool for copying and pasting; and not just for programming. It can hold your Copy and with the right setup Ctrl-Shift-V will show you a list of you previous Copy ready to be inserted.

x++ and C# compared

One indicatation that Dynamics AX developers need to learn C# in order to take full advantage of future versions of AX is when MS starts documenting differences in coding practices.

Personally, X++ was the first programming language which I've felt pretty comfortable with even though I've done som Java programming ( and the mandatory html coding which most programmers start out with ).

I see the need for AX developers to hone ( or just begin on ) their C# skills with the introduction of EP ( version 2009 ) and the reporting service integration with e.g. the role center. I've done som Hello Word-ish programming in C# using Visual Studio 2008 and I must say that I like it. One area where X++ and MorphX out ranks C# and VS is form development. After having created some rather basic forms in C# using VS it was a pleasure returning to MorphX's drag and drop design.

From what I can gather future version of AX will include a brand new approach to the layers and id ranges on elements but these advantages a side - MorphX still could adopt some of the features from VS, in my opinion. One thing I really like about VS is it's IntelliSense (Thanks Morten)"smart typing" ( I don't know what else to call it - but it's the feature when you start typing something VS automatically completes the string ) - it can be done; AxAssist does it for you - but why not integrate the functionality into MorphX as a standard? Well - perhaps in AX 6?

ODBC with FoxPro

I recently had the pleasure of adventuring into the ODBC connection territory. I discovered that many others previously had done the same ( obviously ) but there was a surprising lack of how-to and other documentation. After some extensive searching I found Brandon's blog in which he meticulously documented an implementation of ODBC. Many excellent observations are included in his description, including AOS considerations, i.e. code-execution placing vs. maintenance of Windows ODBC connection ( he runs the code on the AOS server so that the system ODBC connection driver only needs to setup there and not on the client which would reduce maintainability as changes to the connection potentially would have to be distributed to all clients ).

If you are implementing an ODBC connection for the first time on AX 2009, I highly recommend reading Brandon's step-by-step description.

So implementig an ODBC connection should be a run of the mill type of assignment, had it not been for one small detail... FoxPro. One of Brandon's main consideratations was exactly that the ODBC connection should be created on the AOS, but the systems requirements for the AOS in the case in question on which the ODBC connection would be created stated that the OS ( Windows Server 2008 ) should be 64-bit, and FoxPro only runs 32-bit and since the AOS instance in AX2009 runs in 64-bit mode - it cannot access the 32-bit FoxPro drivers ( and as far as I could tell there never will be a 64-bit implementation of the ODBC drivers for FoxPro ).

So maintainability aside - I had to distribute the ODBC connection to all clients force the class which handles the code to run on the client. This can be done since the AX2009 client still runs 32-bit ( and in 32-bit mode on 64-bit OS ).

Task completed - but the journey probably would have been longer and more tedious had it not been for Brandon's blog.

Hope my expericences with FoxPro ODBC connection in connection with AX2009 helps someone, just as Brandon's blog helped me.

Happy hacking

Import csv job

Here is an import job for importing tuples from a csv file:

static void importJob(Args _args)
{
    FileIOPermission        permission;
    AsciiIo                 file;
    Filename                fileName = @"c:\test\test.csv";
    CustTable               custTable;
    container               line;
    #define.fieldDelimiter(";")
    #define.recordDelimiter("\n")
    #define.read("r")
    ttsBegin;
    permission  = new FileIOPermission(fileName, #read);
    permission.assert();
 
    file = new AsciiIo(fileName, #read);
    file.inFieldDelimiter(#fieldDelimiter);
    file.inRecordDelimiter(#recordDelimiter);
 
    if(!file || file.status() != IO_Status::Ok)
    {
        throw error(strFmt("@SYS76826", file));
    }
 
    while(file.status() == IO_Status::Ok)
    {
        line = file.read();
     
        custTable.AccountNum = conPeek(line, 1);
        custTable.insert();
    }
    ttsCommit;

     


}
Happy hacking

Opening a form on start up of AX

I've recently implemented a variation of Palle Agermark's post on how to run a form on start up of AX. He opens a form through calling the Display menu item. I needed was to call a form with conditions, so I created a class which would handle the conditions in question and instead of calling the menu item I called the main method of the class




Thanks to GregP for his helpful tips and insisting that he could get it to work.

EDIT: There is a small aber dabei ( which roughly translates "there is a but", I just happen to like the German term better ). In order for the AutoRun to function, development rights for the user-group are necessary, as the function we utilize is typically used to automate installation/configuration. Giving the user group full development rights though is not an option in this scenario, so after some fiddling about I found that the only security setting the user group needs is SysLastMinuteCheck




which, by the way, only can be set giving the user group full development right and then removing all but this SysLastMinuteCheck.

How to tell if a form was opened with 'Go to main table' function

I found this sample code really helpful in connection with a customization,where the customer wanted to alter the 'Go to main table' function.

Respect to original poster (though I can't remember where I found it - but the idea is not mine)

On main datasource:
public void executeQuery()
{
query q;
querybuilddatasource qbds;
querybuildrange qbr;
int fldLookupField;
str sLookupValue;
;
if ( element.args().caller() &&
!element.args().dataset() &&
element.args().lookupField() &&
element.args().lookupValue()) //jumpref
{
sLookupValue =element.args().lookupValue();
fldLookupField =element.args().lookupField();

q=this.query();
qbds=q.dataSourceTable(this.table());
qbr=qbds.addRange(fldLookupField);
qbr.value(sLookupValue);
this.query(q);
}
super();
}

Invoking a method on a field in a form's datasource

I needed to call the modified method on a form's datasource's field to invoke the logic, which updated a couple of fields on the form. I had defaulted a value in the field on the table's initValue()-method but this - of course - means that the modified method is not in play.
Therefore I needed to call the method in code, for which I had two options, either calling the form controls method by setting AutoDeclaration to Yes and then calling modified or calling the datasource table's field's method which I chose.

e.g. ProdTable_ds.object(fieldnum(ProdTable, ItemId)).modified();

but where to place the code? After some time I found out that if I placed it on active() of the datasource the form showed the correct information.

/Happy hacking