Tool: DEV_SysTableBrowser and DEV_CreateNewProject tools now on AX 2009

3 or so years ago I created a couple of tools that provide extra capabilities for AX developers, specifically, ease up the creation of a new project with a predefined structure and name pattern, and add functionality to the way we browse tables with the standard SysTableBrowser, allowing to specify the exact fields you want to see, browsing temporary tables. Both tools were also available as Tabax plugins

You can read more about the tools, as well as Tabax, on the following pages on Axaptapedia:
DEV_SysTableBrowser home page on Axaptapedia
DEV_CreateNewProject home page on Axaptapedia

You can download the new versions of these tools through the pages on Axaptapedia, or directly from my SkyDrive: DEV_SysTableBrowser, DEV_CreateNewProject
If you are unfamiliar with these tools, I suggest you go through Axaptapedia, as it also contains a detailed description of the features provided.

A couple of things I would like to note:

• There is a kernel bug in AX 2009 that heavily impacts the SysTableBrowser user experience. It takes around 10 seconds each time you want to browse the contents of a specific table. This bug was fixed with a hotfix rollup 3, so users of AX 2009 without the hotfix might have problems enjoying the DEV_SysTableBrowser tool.
• In AX 2009 the behavior of SysTableBrowser changed a bit. Instead of re-opening the browser window each time the user changes from All fields to AutoGroup only, now 2 grids with these fields are added from the beginning, and hidden/shown based on user selection. DEV_SysTableBrowser provides much more flexibility when selecting the fields to display, so I was not able to follow the same approach. Thus, see bullet 1
• I have not added any new AOT nodes to the template in DEV_CreateNewProject tool (Data sets, Report Libraries, etc). I don't think AX developers will invest that much time into SSRS reports and EP, and in these cases they will be able to manually create the remaining group nodes in the project.

Let me know if you have comments, suggestions or ideas for these tools.
Thanks

Tool: User preferred startup menu for Dynamics AX 2009

In AX 2009, the user has no control over which menu is opened in the navigation pane and address bar when AX client is started. Most of the time you simply get the Home page, which is frustrating for a number of users. Another thing that is frustrating for them is the company account the application opens with. The latter can actually be setup using standard application functionality in the User options form. Just set the 'Start company accounts' to the account you want for the user by default. I wrote a small tool, that allows the user to select a preferred startup menu, ensuring that this menu is the one open every time AX client is started. Something similar existed in Axapta 3.0 application. You can download the xpo for this tool from my SkyDrive. Note, that it contains minor changes to a number of existing application objects. I suggest that you compare the xpo from the import dialog and ensure that you don't override any of your changes during import - the best thing would be to re-implement these minor changes manually. Below is a list of changes that I am referring to above:

• SysUserInfo table - 1 new field was added
• SysUserSetup form - 1 new control was added. Lookup method on datasource field overridden
• Info class - startupPost method changed

In order to enable the functionality, simply select one of the menus in the User options, as shown in the below screenshot. Next time you start AX, the selected menu will be open by default. Below is a short listing of "code patterns" used in the project, that can serve as examples for your future projects:

• SysTableLookup - for displaying a lookup form with a list of menus
• infolog.globalCache() - for storing a global reference to the navigator class
• TreeNode iteration - for finding all menu references in MainMenu
• QueryBuild classes - for constructing and filtering a list of menu references in MainMenu, used in the lookup form
• infolog.addTimeOut() method - for scheduling execution of another method in a set period of time

UtcDateTime in Dynamics AX 2009

In Dynamics AX 2009, Microsoft introduced a new data type, UtcDateTime, that is going to eventually replace the 2 existing types, Date and Time, which are still present in the application right now.
Obviously, the introduction of this new type requires a tutorial on how it can be used on forms, how you can filter on fields of this type, as well as what functions are available out of the box for it.
So I have made such a tutorial, and I hope it will be useful for developers upgrading to AX 2009.

Download the xpo for the tutorial from my SkyDrive

The tutorial consists of a single form, containing the following elements:

• a grid, displaying data from CustTable
• 4 buttons for various filtering actions
• 3 controls that allow specifying the filtering conditions for the data

. In the form, you can see how UtcDateTime based controls are displayed both in a regular group and in a grid.



Below is an explanation of the implemented functionality, in form of a Question/Answer section:

1. Q: Can I filter on the new UtcDateTime type, specifying the Date part only?
   A: Yes. You simply have to specify only the date part when applying the filter, like below. Note, that this also works fine when filtering directly from the UI (Ctrl+F).
   

   qbdsCustTable.addRange(fieldNum(CustTable, CreatedDateTime)).value(queryValue(DateFilter.dateValue()));

   What is interesting is how the kernel processes this range. In the below infolog, you can see that when viewing the query, it displays a "==" condition on a specific dateTime value.
   But in reality, as you can see from the SQL trace, a range ">= && <=" condition is applied to span exactly one day.
   Also note, that the values in the trace are displayed accounting for the TimeZone I am in, as well as for Daylight Saving Time
   
   
2. Q: Can I filter on the new UtcDateTime type, specifying the Time part only?
   A: No, this is not possible with a UtcDateTime type. The range applied when specifying a Time value is the minimum DateTime value, as seen below. Note, that in the SQL trace it is converted to "no range".
   
   
3. Q: Can I use similar query functions for UtcDateTime type?
   A: Yes. All the main existing functions for working with QueryBuildRange also support UtcDateTime. For example, in the infolog below you can see how a range on 2 UtcDateTime dates is applied. Global::queryRange method was used to achieve that. Note, again, that the SQL trace offsets the DateTime by the appropriate number of hours based on my location.
   
   
4. Q: How is the UtcDateTime stored in the database? Is it displayed the same way on forms?
   A: The UtcDateTime fields are in the database always stored in Coordinated Universal time (UTC). Whenever displayed on forms and bound to table fields, the data is converted to the user's preferred timezone. Note, that you need to take care of the conversion yourself, if the control is not bound to a field. For an example, see the init method of the tutorial form.
5. Q: What standard helper functions are present for working with UtcDateTime type in the application?
   A: The main entry point for working with UtcDateTime type is the DateTimeUtil class. It allows adding Days/Months/Years, as well as applying an offset, getting the user's preffered timezone, converting from/to other types, etc. An example from the form init method is posted below:
   

       // getSystemDateTime() returns the current DateTime set in the system, not the current machine dateTime.
       // Note that getSystemDateTime() returns a UTC date and time, not your local date time.
       // In order to receive your local DateTime value, you should use methods applyTimeZoneOffset and specify the preferred time zone.
       utcDateTimeFilter.dateTimeValue(
           DateTimeUtil::applyTimeZoneOffset(
               DateTimeUtil::getSystemDateTime(),
               DateTimeUtil::getUserPreferredTimeZone()));

6. Q: Does this mean that the support for Date and Time types has been removed?
   A: No, Date and Time are still supported. As you can see in the form init method, SystemDateGet(), timeNow(), today() are all still supported
7. Q: I don't see the actual filter values in the SQL log. Instead, all I see are "?"'s. Also, how can I limit the number of data/fields selected from the database?
   A: This is just some extra stuff, not related to UtcDateTime, but still useful to know and pay attention to.
   CustTable has a very large number of fields, and I am only displaying 4 of those in the form, so it would be unwise to always query and return all of the fields. Luckily, the datasource has a property OnlyFetchActive, which controls the query behavior by only selecting the fields actually displayed on the form. Note, that you should avoid using this with editable datasources. See comments to this post for details
   As for "?"'s in the SQL trace - that is happening due to the use of placeholders. This in general optimizes the performance of the queries, by creating a query execution plan and storing it for future use. But it is possible, and is required in some specific cases, to force the use of literals (meaning the actual values of the ranges in the query). This can be done using the literals method on the query. See method init on the form for an example.

How to quickly set up Application Integration Framework (AIF) for testing Axd documents

Purpose of this post
Part of the test effort on our team at MDCC goes for verifying the Axd documents shipped with the Dynamics AX application.

As many people find it hard to setup AIF, I have tried to help them by creating an automated way of doing the initial setup, which can be used for testing the documents using a 1-box setup and FileSystem transport adapter.

Download link
From the following link, you will be able to download an X++ class that initializes all the entities required for AIF to work, like the endpoints, transport adapters and channels, services, their actions and action policies.
Note, that since I am working on the Inventory team, I am filtering out the services accordingly. You can easily extend/modify this to suite your specific needs by changing the filter or adding new ones in classDeclaration and method main

Download xpo

Example from the standard application
To give a specific example, I encourage you to try sending a selected item electronically in form of an XML file right after executing the job.
To do that, navigate to Inventory Management\Common forms\Item details and press Send electronically button. Fill in the values for endpoint, filter on a specific item(s), and press OK.

Your screen should look similar to this:

Processing the document
The document is successfully placed into the queue for processing and sending through the gateway. If you have a batch job for processing AIF services up and running, you will soon see a file in the outbound files folder setup on the outbound channel.
If you would like to learn, how to set up the batch jobs for this, follow the below link: Start and stop the asynchronous AIF services

In order to avoid having to set the batch jobs up, I have added 2 extra methods to the class for starting the processing of inbound and outbound messages.

public static void ProcessOutboundDocuments()
{
    new AifOutboundProcessingService().run();
    new AifGatewaySendService().run();
}
public static void ProcessInboundDocuments()
{
    new AifGatewayReceiveService().run();
    new AifInboundProcessingService().run();
}

Just call the DEV_AifInitialSetup::ProcessOutboundDocuments method from a job, and the document will be automatically processed and sent on its way to the outbound documents folder.

Output
The resulting XML file for the item should look similar to the following:

Microsoft Dynamics Convergence 2009 New Orleans

Well, I cannot start with any statement other than a quote by Steve Ballmer as of today. Of course, most of you have already read this one place or the other:

In light of the further deterioration of global economic conditions, Microsoft announced additional steps to manage costs, including the reduction of headcount-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing. As part of this plan, Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today. These initiatives will reduce the company’s annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million. ...

Nevertheless, Microsoft Dynamics product line continues to grow, expand the feature set and customer base, and I am very confident it will have great success on the market in the future as well, even in the largest economy recession in many years.

Therefore, I would like to invite all of you to Convergence 2009, taking place March 10-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Microsoft Dynamics Convergence is one of the most exciting events in our business. It is an opportunity to listen to Microsoft plans for Microsoft Dynamics and related products, learn about all the possibilities your company can gain with these products, as well as meet with other business decision makers, Microsoft employees, and industry experts to gain knowledge, increase their understanding of Microsoft Dynamics business management solutions, as well as get some business insights how to thrive in the challenging economy.

Here are some links to get you started:

The session catalog (containing 225 sessions) is now live on the Convergence marketing site.

The Complete Guide to Convergence for Partners (PartnerSource access is required to access this link) is a valuable planning resource on PartnerSource. There are tips, tools and templates to help partners create the most worthwhile Convergence experience for their company and their customers’ companies.

I hope that many of you will be able to attend, and have a fun time there.

TableBrowser.NET (a small .NET BC tutorial)

Here is a Visual Studio solution, demonstrating how the Dynamics AX database can be queried through the .NET Business Connector, and how the results of this can be presented to the user in a user-friendly manner.

Here is a screenshot of how it looks:


You can download the solution on axaptapedia.com.

The class to investigate in the solution is the DynamicsAX class. It provides a pretty good interface for reading data out of Dynamics AX.

After opening the solution, make sure to replace the BusinessConnectorNet.dll, pointing it to your AX installation path (if it is not in GAC)

SysMultiTableLoookup - dynamic lookups based on multiple tables

Wow! MSDN for Microsoft Dynamics AX is getting better every day. This is terrific news!! I still remember the days, when all the information was extremely hard to find. It had its own charm though :)
Anyway, this topic is really not about MSDN. It is about lookup forms.

First of all, for the record: I (and the Best Practices document as well) recommend creating custom lookup forms in AOT instead of dynamically coding them in the overridden lookup methods on controls/datasource fields.
But, in reality, this is true only for lookup forms with very large complexity. I won't go into a discussion of why that is the way it is here. :)

Now, back to what I was planning to write about:
In order to build a lookup form from code, developers use the SysTableLookup class.
You can go to MSDN (mentioned above) to read a How-to article on creating a run-time lookup form, as well as take a quick look at the SysTableLookup method descriptions.

SysTableLookup class has evolved over the multiple releases, providing more and more flexibility and control to the application developers.
I would like to publish another extension to this class, SysMultiTableLookup, which I hope will prove useful to members of the AX community.

Short list of features:
- Backward compatible, should cover everything that is present in AX 2009 version of SysTableLookup class
- Allows including multiple tables into lookups with different join types
- Completely based on the Query that you build, no extra parameters (except for the control) are needed to initialize the class
- Allows adding aggregated fields to the lookup
- Displays fields based on Boolean Enum as check boxes
- Allows to specify alternative labels when adding fields to the lookup

New download link, as Axaptapedia seemed to mess up the file

You can download the project from axaptapedia.com.


It has (to some extent) been tested on Axapta 3.0 SP3, AX 4.0 and AX 2009.

Also included in the project is a tutorial form, showing 4 examples of dynamic lookups using the new class. After importing the project, make sure to try out the form, and use it for future reference for code examples and other inspiration.

SysInfoAction class description - Improve your Infolog

In the last couple of weeks I have been asked about this a number of times, so I decided it would be a good idea to describe what the class can do for you.

In just a few words, this class helps you interact with your users better, helping them perform some desired action (predefined) on request. This will save some time for the user, providng for a better user

There is a number of classes already present in the system.
Just to name a few used the most:

JournalInfoAction - allows navigating to the specified journal line. This is used, for example, when checking the journal lines before posting.
SysInfoAction_Editor - opens the editor in the specified method on the specified line/column. Primarily used for development purposes.
SysInfoAction_FormRun - opens a specified form, setting focus to a specific control, if required. There are many extensions of this class, allowing for more control over what is to happen.
SysInfoAction_MenuFunction - same as the one above, but the input is a menu item that is to be launched on user action.
SysInfoAction_newWindow,SysInfoAction_AOTproperties - both are used to ease up the dev's life a bit. The first one opens the specified AOT object in a new window, the latter one - the properties for the object.

And so on...

I had to create one extension of this class yesterday as well, while doing a small tool we use inside our team. The requirements were to launch a specific external application, specifying a number of files as command-line arguments. WinAPI ShellExecute can do exactly that. So I create a simple wrapper around the WinApi::ShellExecute method that is accessible as an infolog action.

Here is an example of how this class can be used:



You can download the class from axaptapedia.

The output of the infolog, in this case, would look similar to this:




One other thing worth mentioning about these classes is the method infolog.infoActionObject(). This is not used as often, but provides a greater control over the infolog action by allowing interaction with an open object, like a form.
This is used in AX journals (Inventory Transfer journal, for a specific example, if you wish). Whenever you check the lines of the journal (before posting), you get an infolog in case of errors, which allows to navigate to the specific line with the error. The navigation occurs in the journal lines form currently open, which is much better than opening a new form for each line.
In order to use this, simply specify the object that needs to be available when executing the infolog action, using the method mentioned above, like the following:

infolog.infoActionObject(this); //if called from the method on a class/form, for example

For more information, check out the article on Axaptapedia (I hope it will get expanded over time :))

Another useful Editor Script for developers

In AX the principle of upcasting is used quite a lot. Some examples coule be the RunBase hierarchy or the InventMovement class hierarchy. Basically, the base (or super) classes contain the main part of the hierarchy logic, while subclasses only override a couple of methods performing actions specific to this class.

When browsing the AOT, trying to find a specific line of code (debugging without the debugger, basically), you often find yourself in a situation when you lookup a definition of a method from a derived class, and end up in this method of the base class instead (because upcasting was used in the code in question). And every time you need to see the same implementation in the child class, you need to go back to the AOT and open it from there manually.

Well, not any more.
Here is a small editor script, that you can use to navigate to an overridden method of a derived class.

I created 2 versions of the same script, one using xReferences, the second using Dictionary class. The xRef one, generally, works faster once the xRefs for the class hierarchy is updated (happens the first time you use the script). So I am not posting the second script version. If anyone is interested in that version specifically, let me know and I will send you the code.

I made a couple of small changes to the script since my previous post (which I deleted), making it possible to import the script without compilation errors into AX prior to verion 2009. Sorry for that :)

You can copy-paste the code for the script from axaptapedia.com (There is a problem with copying over the code from blogger site directly)

You can read more about Editor Scripts and how to use them here

Enjoy, and get back to me with any comments or suggestions, posting them as comments or e-mailing me directly

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Keyboard shortcuts

A whole lot of new and handy shortcuts have been introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. To name just a few, that are very important for developers:
Ctrl+Shift+P opens the Projects
Ctrl+Shift+I (from AOT or projects) opens the import project window, etc.
Alt+F1 will return you to the main Dynamics AX window (especially useful for those fond of Tabax)

A fellow tester from Dynamics AX Client team, David Kidder, created a document containing the shortcuts available, grouping them according to where they are used in the application.

One thing I would like to highlight is that you don't need to work for Microsoft to create this list. You can get the list of all available shortcuts in the system by launching the client (Ax32.exe) with the -internal=GENERATEKEYHELP command line argument. The xml file with the shortcuts, AxKeyDump.xml, will be placed into the Client\Bin folder of Dynamics AX.

It is an extremely useful document, and I suggest everyone prints it out and hangs it by their desk.
The download link can be found below:
AX 2009 Keyboard Shortcuts.docx

Warning: The file is in Microsoft Word 2007 format, but I am sure all of you have that (or the converter) by now.

UPD: Also check out the cool looking poster with shortcut keys for end users to hang by their desk.

AX 2009 RTM Demo Data released

Finally, the new demo data for AX 2009 has been released. Partners and Customers can download it now from the links below:
Partner Source - download (Requires partnerSource login)
Customer Source - download (Requires CustomerSource login)

You will find two different data sets:
• Contoso Base: Contoso base demo data, with almost no transactional data
• Contoso Trans: Contoso transactional demo data, with 2 years of transactional data from Jul 1, 2006 to Jul 1, 2008 for some modules.

Demo Company Overview

The Demo Data set for Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 is no longer based on the Global Trade and Manufacturing Company. Based on market feedback we have created a new Contoso Entertainment systems group of companies. It comes with 2 fiscal years of transactional data that enable us to demo our stronger Business Intelligence story and Role Center pages, while allowing us to easily expand the demo data story in future releases as we expand Microsoft Dynamics® AX’s functionality footprint.
Contoso Entertainment Systems (CES) is a home electronics manufacturing, distribution and retail company that includes a Professional Services department. Its headquarters are in the USA with a key distribution subsidiary based in Germany and it works with the relevant currencies. CES distributes televisions, projectors, Digital Video Recorders and Players, and audio receivers. It manufactures speakers and assembles home theatre systems. CES’s customers are primarily based in North America and Europe and include Major Accounts (such as hotel chains), Wholesalers (of differing sizes), Retail stores (that are self-owned and operated), as well an internet storefront.
The legal and physical structure of CES is setup as follows:
• CEC – Contoso Entertainment Consolidation, based in USA
• CEU – Contoso Entertainment USA, Headquarters based in USA
o Site 1: Production of all speakers
o Site 2: Assembly of home theatre systems and Services
o Site 3: Production of Standard speakers
• CEE – Contoso Entertainment Europe, Distribution subsidiary company based in Germany
o Site 4: Distribution, Assembly and Service of all products
• CVC – Virtual company that includes table collections from CEU and CEE.

The downloads for Contoso Entertainment Systems demo data offers transactional data for Basic, Administration, General Ledger, Bank, Fixed Assets, Accounts Payable, Accounts and Receivable, Inventory Management, Intercompany, Production, Master Planning, CRM, Project, Expense Management, and Human Resources modules, and is intended to demonstrate these modules’ functionality. It also offers base data (i.e. no transactions) for the Product Builder modules. There is no demo data available for Payroll and Cost Accounting modules.

A lot of work has been put into these demo data files, to allow the users to investigate most of the functionality of the applicaton.
Thanks for this.

P.S. Just received some more input on the dataset, so decided to edit the message and post this interesting info as well

EditorScripts.addIns_OpenInAOT - version 2

A long time ago, I posted an editor script for opening objects selected in the editor in AOT (link to that post)

Yesterday, miklenew from AxForum posted an editor script for AX 3.0 that opens a new AOT window with the object currently selected in the Editor, that works a little differently and also allows to open objects based on variable type. You can view the original post here.

Today I modified this code, extending it a bit and adding support for Dynamics AX 4.0 and Dynamics AX 2009 (For version 3.0 use the code posted on AxForum).

public void addIns_OpenInAOT(Editor e)
{
    #AOT
    TreeNode            treeNode = TreeNode::findNode(e.path());
    xRefTmpReferences   xRefTmpReferences;
    Column              nCol = e.columnNo() + 1;
    Line                nLine = e.currentLineNo() + 1;
    ;
    treeNode.AOTmakeXref(1);
    xRefTmpReferences = xRefCreate::makeTmp(infolog.lastxRef());

    select firstonly xRefTmpReferences
        order by Column desc
        where xRefTmpReferences.line == nLine &&
              xRefTmpReferences.Column <= nCol;

    if (!xRefTmpReferences)
        return;

    treeNode = TreeNode::findNode(xRefTmpReferences.path());

    if (treeNode)
        treeNode.AOTnewWindow();
}

As you can see, the code is very simple and utilizes the xReferences.
But the great thing about it is that updating the cross references is not required for this code to work, as it updates them on the fly for this specific AOT node.
I think this is a must have method for each application developer out there. :)

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 CTP3 release is available on PartnerSource

Finally, the CTP3 release is available for download from PartnerSource.

It is, as usual, a VPC image that you can install on a standalone computer.
Be warned, that the size of the image is huge - about 7 Gb in 3 parts.

Here is a short description of the toolkit:

The Demonstration Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Pre-Release (CTP3) contains marketing materials, demonstration scripts, and a Virtual PC image containing a full installation of Pre-Release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. You can obtain the Demonstration Toolkit on DVD from a Microsoft Dynamics Partner, or you can download the contents of the DVD using the links on this page.

Download link (Requires PartnerSource access)
It would be very interesting to hear any comments you might have about the CTP release, as well as about any major (and minor, as well) bugs you might find in this PRE-release. Feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment under this post.


P.S. (One day later)
An ISO image was also made available today. It is much lesser in size, and is an image of the installation CD + licence file for CTP3 release.
Download link (Requires PartnerSource access)

Hotkeys and Find vs Filter in Dynamics AX 2009

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 a number of changes regarding Filtering in grids were introduced. I would like to talk about one of them today.

As most of you know, in AX 4.0 the Ctrl+F hotkey was replaced with Ctrl+K, which was very confusing for customers that were using AX 3.0 at the time. (see one of my previous posts with a .dll go fix that)

Well, I am happy to tell you, that Ctrl+F is now back as a regular (not Global) Find option in AX 2009. But Ctrl+K is also available. So it was decided, that having to identical commands is not really smart. So now they actually perform different actions.

Ctrl+F is Find
Ctrl+K is Filter = Filter by Field from the context menu on the grid line.

Now, you might wonder what the difference is. I will explain it on an example:

You have a grid with items of different Item Type (BOM, Item, Service) and different Item Group (Parts, Bulbs, etc.)

Scenario 1: (Notice the dialog caption is Filter)
1. Press Ctrl+K on Item Type "BOM"
2. Press OK (the value BOM is already inserted in the search field).
3. Only BOM items are shown
4. Press Ctrl+K on Item Group "Parts"
5. Press OK (the value Parts is already inserted in the search field).
6. Now only BOM items with Item Group = Parts are shown.

Scenario 2: (Notice the dialog caption is Find)
1. Press Ctrl+F on Item Type "BOM"
2. Input "BOM" and press OK (you have to input the value you are searching for every time).
3. Only BOM items are shown
4. Press Ctrl+F on Item Group "Parts"
5. Input "Parts" and press OK.
6. Now only items with Item Group = Parts are shown, including both BOM and other Item types.
So, basically, all previous filtering on the grid was removed before applying the new search criteria.

As a side note, I would also like to mention, that some changes were made to hotkeys in the Editor: Now, Editor Scripts are opened using Alt+R hotkey, instead of Alt+M, as in previous AX versions. (Alt+M was reserved for the global menu toolbar, which is one of the new features in AX 2009 as well)

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 - some of the new development features

Alexei Eremenko from Microsoft Russia has posted a number of articles about the new features that will be available in DAX 2009.
The original link, which is in Russian (but the main thing to look at is the code, which is universal): http://blogs.msdn.com/aeremenk/archive/2008/01/15/7118429.aspx

I would like to make a brief review of the features he talked about for the English-speaking population and another feature I liked that Alexei did not mention.

Let's start with the support for union in SQL statements (but only when using Query* classes).

    query = new Query();  
    query.queryType(QueryType::Union); // The other value of QueryType is "Join"

Another Exception type has been introduced, which now actually allows to catch the DuplicateKey exception:

   Table t;

    try   
   {      
        while select forupdate t
       {
            test.Field1 = ‘xyz’;
            t.update();
        }
   }
   catch ( Exception::DuplicateKeyException, t )
   {
       infolog(‘Record already exists - ‘ + t.Field1 );  
   }

The bulk DML statements now allow using inner/outer joins, and you can access the result of the update_recordset operation to get the number of rows that were updated:

update_recordset batchJob setting
      Status = BatchStatus::Canceled,
      EndDateTime = thisDate,
      Finishing = 1
  where batchJob.Status == BatchStatus::Cancelling
  notexists join batch
  where (
          (batch.Status == BatchStatus::Ready ||
               batch.Status == BatchStatus::Executing ||
               batch.Status == BatchStatus::Hold ||
               batch.Status == BatchStatus::Cancelling)
          && batch.BatchJobId == batchJob.RecId
          );

  rowsUpdated = (batchJob.RowCount() > 0); // get the number of updated rows with rowCount()

And, the feature I enjoyed, is that we now have crossCompany support in X++. Meaning you can access data from tables from a number of companies in one query.
Here are code snippets to explain what I mean:

static void DataBaseAccess_CrossCompany(Args _args)
{   
    InventTable inventTable;   
    container   companyContainer = ['IN1', 'QMS'];   
    ;   
    while select crossCompany : companyContainer inventTable       
        where inventTable.ItemId == "B-R14"   
    {       
        print inventTable.ItemId, " -- ", inventTable.dataAreaId;   
    }   
    pause;
}

This code will print ItemId from 2 companies, even though InventTable has the property SaveDataPerCompany set to Yes.

The same functionality is available with the Query classes:

static void DataBaseAccess_CrossCompany_Query(Args _args)
{   
    Query                   query = new Query();   
    QueryBuildDataSource    qbds  = query.addDataSource(tableNum(InventTable));
    QueryRun                queryRun;
    InventTable             inventTable;
    ;
    qbds.addRange(fieldNum(InventTable, ItemId)).value(queryValue("B-R14"));

    query.allowCrossCompany(true);
    query.addCompanyRange("IN1");
    query.addCompanyRange("QMS");

    queryRun = new QueryRun(query);
    while (queryRun.next())
    {
        inventTable = queryRun.get(tableNum(InventTable));
        print inventTable.ItemId, " -- ", inventTable.dataAreaId;
    }
    pause;
}

If you don't add any specific company ranges, the data will be retrieved from all companies you have access to.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 has a lot more to offer, of course. But enough for today.