Development tutorial: Extensibility: Replaceable in Chain of Command methods

Recently we announced a new and pretty powerful Extensibility feature, wrapping methods with Chain of Command in augmentation classes. This allows to write much cleaner extensions with fewer lines of code, as well as provides some extra capabilities like access to protected fields and methods of augmented object, easier way of ensuring a single transaction scope for standard and extension code, etc.

If you are not yet familiar with this feature, you are missing out. Go read about it:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/unified-operations/dev-itpro/extensibility/method-wrapping-coc

There was one significant restriction applied (by design) to these wrapper methods:

Wrapper methods must always call next

Wrapper methods in an extension class must always call next, so that the next method in the chain and, finally, the original implementation are always called. This restriction helps guarantee that every method in the chain contributes to the result.

However, what this resulted in is a more complex implementation and "workaround-like" solutions in standard code to enable some of the commonly requested extension points, where the ISV/VAR would like to completely replace the standard logic with an alternative implementation that does the same or a very similar operation.


With Platform update 11 we have added a new attribute, which allows Microsoft (on request from multiple partnres), where it is justified, to decorate a particular protected or public method, allowing wrapper methods to not call next on it, replacing the logic of that method.

Here's how it looks:

/// 

/// Attribute used to enable or disable replacing a method in an extension class. 
/// 
/// 
/// Private methods can not be set to be replaceable even with the usage of this attribute.
/// 
public class ReplaceableAttribute extends SysAttribute
{
    boolean isReplaceable;

    public void new(boolean _isReplaceable = true)
    {
        super();
        this.isReplaceable = _isReplaceable;
    }
}

Example

OK, let's now look at an example of how this will be used.

Note. Since the attribute only appeared in PU11, that means that all application released up to and including Spring release 2017 do not have any methods marked with this attribute. It is only now with the Fall release of 2017 that you might see some methods being tagged this way.


Say, an ISV wanted to provide an alternative implementation for looking up Warehouses on a specified Site, more specifically, for the method InventLocation.lookupBySiteIdAllTypes().
One way to solve this could be to add a delegate, invoke it at the beginning of the method, and then check the EventHandlerAcceptResult to see if someone has replaced the implementation, in which case, short-circuit the method execution, so standard logic is not executed.

A potential implementation shown below:

public class InventLocation extends common
{
    public static void lookupBySiteIdAllTypes(FormStringControl _ctrl, InventSiteId _inventSiteId)
    {
        EventHandlerAcceptResult lookupBySiteIdResult = EventHandlerAcceptResult::newSingleResponse();
        InventLocation::lookupBySiteIdAllTypesDelegate(_ctrl, _inventSiteId, lookupBySiteIdResult);

        if (lookupBySiteIdResult.isAccepted())
        {
            return;
        }

        SysTableLookup sysTableLookup = SysTableLookup::newParameters(tableNum(InventLocation), _ctrl);
        ListEnumerator listEnumerator = List::create(InventLocation::standardLookupFields()).getEnumerator();

        while (listEnumerator.moveNext())
        {
            sysTableLookup.addLookupfield(fieldName2id(tableNum(InventLocation), listEnumerator.current()));
        }

        sysTableLookup.parmQuery(InventLocation::standardLookupBySiteIdQuery(_inventSiteId));
        sysTableLookup.performFormLookup();
    }
}

Lookups is one of the common examples, where people might was a complete replacement of the standard logic. Note that by definition that means only one of the ISV solutions can replace it. If two attempt to accept() the result, an error will be shown.
That would typically mean that a logical conflict exists between the two ISV solutions, and the VAR would need to decide which ones to use, or make it configurable somehow.

Now, let's try to see what could be done with the new attribute, if Microsoft were to apply it on this method.

public class InventLocation extends common
{
    [Replaceable]
    public static void lookupBySiteIdAllTypes(FormStringControl _ctrl, InventSiteId _inventSiteId)
    {
        SysTableLookup sysTableLookup = SysTableLookup::newParameters(tableNum(InventLocation), _ctrl);
        ListEnumerator listEnumerator = List::create(InventLocation::standardLookupFields()).getEnumerator();

        while (listEnumerator.moveNext())
        {
            sysTableLookup.addLookupfield(fieldName2id(tableNum(InventLocation), listEnumerator.current()));
        }

        sysTableLookup.parmQuery(InventLocation::standardLookupBySiteIdQuery(_inventSiteId));
        sysTableLookup.performFormLookup();
    }
}

The ISV can now in his model wrap this method in an augmentation class, provide his own implementation, and avoid calling next():

Important. 
We recommend to always make the call conditional, so that your own logic that is not calling next is only invoked for your specific case. This will make you a good citizen, that can co-exist with other ISV solutions also wrapping the same method.

[ExtensionOf(tableStr(InventLocation))]
public final class MyPU11InventLocationTable_Extension
{
    public static void lookupBySiteIdAllTypes(FormStringControl _ctrl, InventSiteId _inventSiteId)
    {
        const str MySpecialWarehouseCtrlName = 'MySpecialWarehouseCtrl';
        if (!_inventSiteId || _ctrl.name() == MySpecialWarehouseCtrlName)
        {
            // Your own logic
            _ctrl.performTypeLookup(extendedTypeNum(InventLocationId));
        }
        else
        {
            next lookupBySiteIdAllTypes(_ctrl, _inventSiteId);
        }
    }
}

Pretty easy and neat, huh?

Missing an extension point? Log it!

Again, remember, that in order to skip calling next, the method needs to be marked by Microsoft as Replaceable.
If you need a particular method to be Replaceable, or if you in general need an extension point that is not available in the latest available release, please follow the instructions outlined here to create an extensibility request for us.

Links

To review the list of features included in Platform update 11, see the What's new or changed topic and refer to the KB article for details about the customer found bug fixes included in this update.

Development Tutorial: Extensibility: Adding a table display/edit method and showing it on a form in PU11

In my previous post I described the capabilities of the Dynamics 365 FOE platform update 10, when it comes to working with display/edit methods.

In Platform Update 11 a few improvements came out, which I will describe below (with an example).

Let's use the same example as in my previous post, and add a new display method showing the internal product name for a selected product - we'll compose it by appending some text to the product search name.

Step 1 - Create a table extension and add a new display method to it - New recommended approach

All the approaches described in the previous post are still applicable, but are, in my opinion, not as intuitive as the below, so I'd recommend to always use the below approach.

[ExtensionOf(tableStr(EcoResProduct))]
public final class MyPU11_EcoResProductExtensionOfTable_Extension
{
    [SysClientCacheDataMethod]
    public display Name myInternalProductName()
    {
        return "PU11: " + this.SearchName;
    }

    // This is same as in PU10
    [SysClientCacheDataMethod]
    public static display Name myInternalProductNameStatic(EcoResProduct _ecoResProduct)
    {
        return "PU11 static: " + _ecoResProduct.SearchName;
    }
}
K/code>

OK, so what do we have here?
A simple instance method, no redundant arguments, access to table fields and methods through this.
Just as with overlayering, there's really no difference.

Note. The logic of the method is not really important - you'd have your fields used here, most probably, but for the sake of the example I just use SearchName field.

Step 2 - Add the method to a form through a table field group

So now let's see another thing, which was not possible before PU11.

Let's create an extension for the metadata changes of the EcoResProduct table, and add a new Field Group. After that we'll put our new display method in it, as shown below.

Select the new display method as the source for the new field group field.

As you can see from the image above, you can now use the drop-down, and it will show you all the display/edit methods created in Extension/Augmentation classes as well as the standard ones.

The syntax is the same as described last time:

• :: for static methods
• . for instance methods (new)

All that's left is to add the new field group onto a form.

Step 3 - Add the methods to a form through extension

Same as before, we create a form extension, and add the new fields to it.

With field groups it is as easy as with overlayering - you can just drag and drop the new field group from the DataSources\EcoResProduct node onto the Design of the form, and it will create the new group and sub-controls, and set the appropriate properties on them, as shown below:

Add new field group onto the form extension

As easy as that.

You can also add the fields bound to the new display methods directly, as shown before. Except now you can also use the instance display/edit methods, which wasn't available earlier.

Add an instance extension display method to a form

Limitations

• The drop-down for display methods does not show the extension methods, as with field groups. This should be addressed in one of the upcoming updates.
• You are still not able to declare the display method on the form itself, or on the form data source.

Conclusion

Some last words: The future is bright! :) 

The tooling is getting better with every release, and thanks to the monthly updates and binary compatibility of the releases, new innovation from Microsoft is just a month away!

Links

You can download the project from the example from my OneDrive.

To review the list of features included in Platform update 11, see the What's new or changed topic and refer to the KB article for details about the customer found bug fixes included in this update.

Development Tutorial: Extensibility: Adding a table display/edit method and showing it on a form in PU10

One of the super common tasks for an application developer working to address customer requirements is adding display methods showing some additional customer-specific information on existing forms.

Usually you would overlayer the corresponding table and form and insert the missing method. Overlayering is not an option soon, however it is possible to do the same using only Extensions.

As an example, let us add a new display method showing the internal product name for a selected product - we'll compose it by appending some text to the product search name.

Step 1 - Create a table extension and add a new display method to it - Option 1

As you know, there are two ways to create extension classes now, so let's see both ways in action.
Here we'll look at the "old" way, where we create an actual extension class (as in .NET), so it must be static, and the display method must be static as well, and take the record as the first argument.

Here's how it looks for my example:

/// 

/// Extension class for EcoResProduct table.
/// 
public static class MyPU10_EcoResProductTable_Extension
{
    [SysClientCacheDataMethod]
    public static display Name myInternalProductName(EcoResProduct _ecoResProduct)
    {
        return 'IntName: ' + strReplace(_ecoResProduct.SearchName, ' ', '');
    }
}

As you can see, we can define the above method and it will compile even though normally declaring a static display method is not allowed by the compiler.
We can also decorate the method with attribute, like I have done here by applying the display method caching attribute.
The logic of the method is not really important - you'd have your fields used here, most probably, but for the sake of the example I just use SearchName field.

Step 2 - Create a table extension and add a new display method to it - Option 2

So, another "new" way to extend a table is through an augmentation class, using the ExtensionOf attribute. This is shown below for my example:

/// 

/// Extension class for EcoResProduct table.
/// 
[ExtensionOf(tableStr(EcoResProduct))]
final class MyPU10_EcoResProductExtensionOfTable_Extension
{
    public static display Name myInternalProductName(EcoResProduct _ecoResProduct)
    {
        return "Alt: " + _ecoResProduct.SearchName;
    }
}

As you can see, this again is a static method - declaring it as an instance method will compile and would allow you to reference the record through this, but you will not be able to use it as a display method on the form as of today.
The method also needs to take the record as the argument.
It, of course, can also be decorated with the SysClientCacheDataMethod attribute, as in the first example.

Step 3 - Add the methods to a form through extension

Note - Limitation

You cannot as of today add the newly created display methods to a field group on the table. It will compile, but the control will not show up on the form if you add the field group to it.

First off, we'll need to create an extension of the EcoResProductDetails form in the desired model.

Then we'll add a new tab page to it and place two new String controls into it.

Now, the trick is with how to specify the display method name in Properties.

See the example below:

Specify properties for form string control to bind it to a table data method

As you can see, the trick is to specify the full name, including the class name and the method name with the static method delimiter in the format:

<class name>::<static method name>

This is only supported for table methods, so you won't be able to do the same for a Form Data Source, for example.

Result

Here's how our new awesome display methods look at run-time:

Additional information shown through display methods on Product details form

Download the project

You can download it from my OneDrive here.

What's next

In an upcoming platform update we hope to provide a much more intuitive way of adding display methods, however the above approach will keep being supported.

Stay tuned for an update!

Tutorial: Visual Studio Debugger capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics AX '7', or the case-sensitive horror of C# syntax

Introduction

With the move to Visual Studio with the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 7, the debugging experience also moved to use the standard Visual Studio debugger.
That means that we get some goodies that were previously not available in the MorphX debugger.

One example of that is the Immediate Window, which allows you to write expressions that are evaluated in the context of the currently hit breakpoint in X++ code.
This basically gives you the ability to call methods, look up variable values, ultimately allowing to change the current state. That is obviously a very useful feature.
Unfortunately, the current version does not fully support X++, meaning there are certain quirks when it comes to using it.

In this post I will describe the capabilities and syntax you need to use, so you can overcome some of the learning curve that comes with the new debugger.

Restrictions

Here's a list of the quirks you'll have to account for:

• There is no native support for X++, so you need to use C# syntax.
• Intellisense for X++ is not provided. This is a consequence of the way the expression evaluator works.
• X++ is case insensitive, while C# is not. This means that references made to identifiers need to be in the case that was used at the place of definition.
• Not all expressions allowed in X++ are applicable. One unfortunate example is select statements. You can however use static find() methods if they exist
• Since it's not X++, you cannot use X++ types, like str, boolean, utcdatetime. Instead, use the C# equivalents. EDTs are not preserved during compilation either, so, again, use base types. Base enums is the only exception, but, again, you need to use C# syntax
• When invoking methods from class Global, you will need to use the full notation, Global.methodName()
• Single quotes are used to represent characters in C#, so you should only use double quotes for representing strings
• The Expression evaluator has no knowledge of labels, so you will need to use workarounds, like SysLabel.labelId2String("@WHS1399"), if necessary.
• Intrinsic functions like fieldNum() are not available - you'll need to use a workaround, as I will show below, using Microsoft.Dynamics.Ax.Xpp.PredefinedFunctions
• You may end in a situation where the types you want to use are not loaded. You can use the ReflectionCallHelper to load these types – As soon as they are loaded you will be able to use them normally. Use the following command in the immediate window to load a particular type: Microsoft.Dynamics.Ax.Xpp.ReflectionCallHelper.getType("Global")

Now, with that out of the way, let's look at some examples.

Examples

Immediate Window capabilities in Microsoft Visual Studio for Dynamics AX 7

Let's walk through these examples line my line, and I'll explain what happened in each case:

1. worKLine - as you can see, it's not a problem for the compiler, because X++ is not case sensitive, but it is a problem for the debugger, which is. So worKLine with capital K will not be recognized, while workLine will be treated just fine. This is the reason for one of the most confusing moments with the new debugger - hovering over the worKLine variable in the code editor will not show its value, even though everything looks fine and compiles. 
2. Even more evident is the following example, where workLine.wMSLocationId value cannot be shown when hovering over it. Nor can it be recognized as an existing field in the Immediate Window. That's because it was defined as WMSLocationId on the table. Again, casing is very important in the new debugger, so pay attention when you write code
3. Finally, success, we use the right record variable name and the right field name - so we got our result, the value of that field in the current record.
4. We are trying to invoke a method which resides on the Global class exactly the same way it is done in the code we are debugging, but that won't work, the method is not recognized.
5. Now we try to invoke it using the full notation, Global::exceptionTextFallThrough(); - That does not work either, because we must use C# syntax, and :: is only X++
6. Finally, we use the right notation, invoking Global.exceptionTextFallThrough() - that works. The method does nothing and returns no result, and we are informed about that
7. Trying to get the value of a Base Enum using X++ notation will not work
8. Using the "correct" C# notation will return the right result, WHSWorkStatus.Open
9. Microsoft.Dynamics.Ax.Xpp contains a number of helpful classes to compensate for lack of full X++ support. TrueFalseHelper is one of them, and its method TrueFalse() will use the X++ logic for evaluating if an expression is true or false. We use it here and pass in the record buffer. It returns true, because the record has been selected. In real C# that would fail, as the record cannot be implicitly converted to bool, along with most other X++ types, like str, integer, etc. 
1. Another example from this namespace is EqualHelper.Equal() which can compare two X++ types
10. Yet another example is the PredefinedFunctions class. You can see all the available methods in the Appendix. Here we invoke the tableName2Id(), passing in the string containing WHSWorkLine. Remember 'single quotes' do not work, only "double quotes". In this case all looks good, but the function is not recognized. That's again because of the casing. This class is very inconsistent about the casing of its methods - so you just have to remember the ones you commonly use, or use the robust "trial-and-error" approach.
11. Finally, using the right casing we get the expected result, the ID of WHSWorkLine table

I have on purpose taken the full screenshot, so you could see some of the other windows open in Visual Studio while debugging:

• Locals window, which is similar to the Watch window, but shows the values for all local variables without you first adding them to the list. 
• The Infolog window will show all the infolog messages, which is very convenient
• The Callstack is pretty much the same as in X++, with the downside of showing the full types, meaning you see a lot of useless type namespace information which X++ developers are not used to
• The Breakpoints window shows all of your breakpoints, and you can for each one decide to configure it further, disable it or remove it. You can now make the breakpoints conditional, however since it uses the same Expression evaluator, I had trouble with it, so I stopped using it after a while. The counter condition works fine though, so you can use that in various complex loops and stuff, setting the breakpoint inside the loop.
• Autos window, which is supposed to show the current line variables plus any from the previous line is useful, because it shows the global state variables on top of that, ttslevel in particular. Company, Partition and UserId are of lower interest.
• Watch window - that's as expected, you add variables, their values are shown and can be edited on the fly. Note all the above restrictions apply here as well, so watch the casing and syntax.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Visual Studio debugger is much more powerful than what we had in AX 2012 and prior, however it also has a number of limitations due to lack of support for X++ language. Note, that it's not just X++, other languages which you can use in VS also have problems here and there.

Let me know how you find the new debugger. What features do you like? Something you miss from the old days?

Appendix

This appendix lists the predefined functions in the Microsoft.Dynamics.Ax.Xpp.PredefinedFunctions class. Pay special attention to the casing for the below methods.

Note. The methods starting with q deal with containers.

• decimal Abs(decimal arg);
• decimal AcceleratedDepreciation(decimal price, decimal scrap, decimal life, int period);
• decimal Acos(decimal arg);
• void AddToContainer(object element, int index, object[] container);
• object Any2Enum(object a);
• Guid any2guid(object input);
• Date Anytodate(object arg);
• decimal Asin(decimal arg);
• object[] AssignPlusToContainer(object element, object[] container);
• decimal Atan(decimal arg);
• void Beep();
• void catchUCDK(int ttsCount);
• IDisposable changecompany(string newCompany);
• int Char2Num(string text, int position);
• int classget(object value, int classIdByType);
• string ClassId2Name(int classId);
• int classidget(XppObjectBase obj, int objId);
• int ClassName2Id(string className);
• int CompareStrings(string l, string r);
• int ConfigurationKeyNum(string configurationKey);
• object ContainerPack(object element);
• object ContainerUnpack(object element);
• decimal ContributionRatio(decimal sale, decimal purchase);
• decimal corrflagset(decimal real, int arg);
• decimal Cos(decimal arg);
• decimal Cosh(decimal arg);
• string curext();
• string curusrid();
• int Date2Num(Date date);
• string Date2Str(Date date, int sequence, int day, int separator1, int month, int separator2, int year);
• string Date2StrConvert(Date date, int sequence, int day, int separator1, int month, int separator2, int year, int convert_to_calendar);
• string Datetime2Str(utcdatetime d, int f);
• string DayName(int number);
• int Dayofmth(Date d);
• int DayOfWeek(Date arg);
• int Dayofyr(Date d);
• decimal Decround(decimal figure, int decimals);
• object DefaultValue(Types t);
• string dellspc(string text);
• IntPtr delprefix(IntPtr value);
• string delrspc(string text);
• string delstr(string text, int position, int number);
• decimal Depreciation(decimal price, decimal scrap, decimal life, int period);
• int Dimof(object o);
• Date EndMonth(Date arg);
• string Enum2Str(object e);
• string EnumExtension2Str(object value, string enumTypeName);
• int Enumname2id(string enumName);
• int EnumSymbol2EnumValue(string enumName, string enumValueName);
• string EnumTypeToString(Types type);
• decimal Exp(decimal arg);
• decimal Exp10(decimal arg);
• string Fieldid2name(int tableId, int field, int arrayIndex);
• string Fieldid2pname(int tableId, int field, int arrayIndex);
• int Fieldname2id(int tableId, string fieldName);
• void FillArray(int size, T value, Dictionary array, T zeroValue);
• void FillEdtArray(int size, T value, EdtArray array);
• string FldPNam(int dataset, int fieldnum);
• void Flush(int dataset);
• decimal formattedstr2num(string text);
• decimal Frac(decimal arg);
• decimal FutureValue(decimal Payment, decimal Interest, decimal Life);
• string getbuildversion();
• string getcurrentauthor();
• string getcurrentbranchname();
• string getcurrentcustomerid([Optional, DefaultParameterValue(0)] int dbFlag);
• string getcurrentdevicename();
• string getcurrentipaddress();
• string getcurrentmachinename();
• long getcurrentpartitionrecid();
• Guid getcurrentrequestid();
• string getcurrentruntimemessage();
• string getcurrentserviceunitid();
• string getcurrentserviceunittype();
• string getcurrentsessionid();
• string getcurrenttenant();
• string getcurrentuserid();
• string getcurrentuserlanguage();
• Dictionary GetFieldQCollection();
• T GetFromArray(int position, Dictionary array, T zeroValue);
• Date GetNullDate();
• utcdatetime GetNullDateTime();
• string GetNullString();
• string getprefix();
• void GroupQ(Dictionary collection);
• string Guid2Str(Guid value);
• decimal Idg(decimal purchase, decimal contribution_ratio);
• string image(object o);
• string Indexid2name(int tableId, int index);
• int Indexname2id(int tableId, string indexName);
• string insstr(string text1, string text2, int position);
• string int2str(int param);
• string int642str(long param);
• int IntervalMax(DateTime inputDate, DateTime refDate, int func);
• string IntervalName(DateTime refDate, int col, int func);
• int IntervalNo(DateTime inputDate, DateTime refDate, int func);
• DateTime IntervalNorm(DateTime inputDate, DateTime refDate, int func);
• int intvmax(Date input_date, Date ref_date, int func);
• string intvname(Date d, int col, int func);
• int intvno(Date input_date, Date ref_date, int func);
• Date intvnorm(Date input_date, Date ref_date, int func);
• bool IsNonEmpty(string s);
• int LicenseCodeNum(string licenseCode);
• bool Like(string arg1, string arg2);
• decimal Log10(decimal arg);
• decimal Logn(decimal arg);
• string LookupLabel(string pattern);
• int Match(string pattern, string text);
• object Max(object[] args);
• object Min(object[] args);
• Date Mkdate(int day, int month, int year);
• string MonthName(int number);
• int Mthofyr(Date d);
• Date NextMonth(Date arg);
• Date NextQuarter(Date arg);
• int nextTraceSequence();
• Date NextYear(Date arg);
• bool NullDate(Date d);
• bool NullDateTime(utcdatetime d);
• bool NullGuid(Guid g);
• string Num2char(int figure);
• Date Num2Date(int days);
• string Num2Str(decimal number, int character, int decimals, int separator1, int separator2);
• string ObjectToString(object o);
• void OrderQ(Dictionary collection);
• decimal PercentAdd(decimal amount, decimal percentage);
• decimal Periods(decimal payment, decimal interest, decimal future_value);
• decimal PeriodsRequired(decimal Interest, decimal FutValue, decimal PresValue);
• decimal Power(decimal arg, decimal exponent);
• decimal PresentValue(decimal Paym, decimal Interest, decimal Life);
• Date PreviousMonth(Date arg);
• Date PreviousQuarter(Date arg);
• Date PreviousYear(Date arg);
• decimal PricePerPeriod(decimal principal, decimal interest, decimal life);
• object[] qdel(object c, int position, int numElements);
• int qfind(object c, object[] parameters);
• object[] qins(object c, int position, object[] parameters);
• int qlen(object[] container);
• object qpeek(object c, int position);
• object[] qpoke(object c, int position, object[] parameters);
• decimal Rate(decimal future_value, decimal current_value, decimal terms);
• string remove(string text1, string text2);
• decimal Round(decimal dbl0, decimal dbl1);
• void SecAuthzCheck(string className, string methodName);
• int sessionid();
• void SetInArray(int position, T value, Dictionary array, T zeroValue);
• int setprefix(string prefix, ref IntPtr ptr);
• decimal Sin(decimal arg);
• decimal Sinh(decimal arg);
• int Sleep(int duration);
• decimal Sln(decimal cost, decimal salvage, decimal life);
• int Sound(int frequency, int duration);
• Date Str2Date(string text, int sequence);
• utcdatetime Str2Datetime(string text, int sequence);
• object Str2Enum(object e, string s);
• object Str2EnumExtension(object dummyParm, string valueName, string enumTypeName);
• Guid str2guid(string input);
• int str2int(string text);
• long str2int64(string text);
• decimal Str2Num(string text);
• int str2time(string text);
• string StrAlpha(string text);
• string strcolseq(string text);
• int StrFind(string text, string characters, int position, int number);
• string strfmt(string text, object[] parameters);
• Types StringToType(string t);
• string StrKeep(string text1, string text2);
• int Strlen(string text);
• string StrLine(string s, int count);
• string Strlwr(string text);
• int StrNFind(string text, string characters, int position, int number);
• string StrPoke(string arg1, string arg2, int position);
• string StrPrompt(string _string, int _len);
• string StrRep(string text, int number);
• int StrScan(string text1, string text2, int position, int number);
• string Strupr(string text);
• string Substr(string text, int position, int number);
• Date systemdateget();
• Date systemdateset(Date d);
• string Tableid2name(int tableId);
• string Tableid2pname(int tableId);
• int Tablename2id(string table);
• string TabPNam(int dataset);
• decimal Tan(decimal arg);
• decimal Tanh(decimal arg);
• string Time2str(int time, int separator1, int separator2);
• int Timenow();
• Date Today();
• decimal Trunc(decimal arg);
• void truncate_infolog();
• int TryStart(ref IntPtr ptr);
• void ttsabort();
• void ttsbegin();
• void ttscommit();
• int ttscount();
• int Typename2id(string typeName);
• Types Typeof(object o);
• string uint2str(int param);
• IDisposable Unchecked(int uncheckValue, string className, string methodName);
• int WeekOfYear(Date arg);
• void Where(exprNode node, Common table);
• int Year(Date d);

Development tool: Copy 'Find references' results to clipboard (to Excel) in Visual Studio for AX 7

Problem

With the release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 the development moved to the Visual Studio environment.

This had a lot of advantages, like the ability to use any 3rd party add-ons of various sort (which we actually have not seen that many of being applied to AX so far), all the VS goodies that come out of the box, a more familiar IDE for new developers, etc.

But it also has its disadvantages, like the Cross-References display window.

• First of all, the indicator of whether a particular reference is writing or reading is gone. 
• And we now display the xRefs using the standard Visual Studio "Find Symbols Results" window, which has one huge drawback as well - no way to filter on the data displayed, or copy that data somewhere else to do that.

Solution

I was bothered by this lack of functionality for a while, so I went out to find if there's an existing solution. I came across this post, which seems like a sufficient solution for the problem, in my opinion. Kudos to the author!

I have modified the project a bit to better suite AX needs, as I planned to browse the data in Excel, which has rich filtering capabilities and more convenience in navigation, and uploaded it to GitHub so anyone can use and extend it. You can also just download the executable, if are OK with the out-of-the-box functionality I will describe below.

Project on GitHub:

https://github.com/IvanKashperuk/CopyFindReferencesToClipboard

Executable on my OneDrive:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApLM1du7Goflm-VNJqQpHz6GRkS_VQ

Installation guide

Once you have the executable, place it in a folder on your environment running Visual Studio for AX, say, C:\Tools or whatever you prefer.

Now, from Visual Studio, go to Tools and select External tools..., as shown below:

External Tools... under Tools menu in Visual Studio

Now add a new tool by clicking Add, and specify the Title, Command and Initial directory.
The Command  should contain the path to the CopyFindReferencesToClipboard executable

Add the CopyFindReferencesToClipboard tool

User guide

Using the tool is very simple. Say I wanted to find all references to the WHSLoadLine.Qty field.

I would navigate to that field and select Find references from the context menu. 

Find references to the WHSLoadLine.Qty field

This would bring up the standard Visual Studio dockable window Find Symbol Results, containing all the references to the selected table field.

Now, all you need to do is go to Tools and select the newly added tool from the list, as shown below:

Run the tool to copy the references to clipboard

After a few seconds you will get a message box to pop up telling you the references have been copied to clipboard successfully, which means you can now to and paste the data to Microsoft Excel.

Note. Since the tool uses UI-level automation to copy the cross-references, the Find references window needs to be open and visible for the tool to work.

Now, you can do whatever you want with that data in Excel.

The way I typically use it is by just showing the data as a Table, after which:

- Exclude test related files (Actual tests and Test frameworks we used)

- Filter out only elements in a certain area, like WHS

- Build pivot tables/charts, if I am doing complexity analysis for a change / feature

- etc.

Here's how it looks:

Analyze the cross-references in Microsoft Excel

Feeback

Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Development tools: Editor scripts in Microsoft Dynamics AX 7 or Visual Studio X++ code snippet library

As you know from some of my previous post, I'm a bit fan of developer productivity. Over the years I've delved into creating new Editor Scripts in Axapta, some of the more complex ones shown below:

http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2008/08/another-useful-editor-script-for.html
http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2010/01/editor-script-for-simplifying-search-in.html
http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2008/05/editorscriptsaddinsopeninaot-version-2.html

That's why I was very happy to read a blog post by Martin Drab aka goshoom the other day. Martin describes the use and the simple steps to create new code snippets for Visual Studio that apply to X++ language. Here it is: http://dev.goshoom.net/en/2016/06/custom-code-snippets/

Now, as you can see from the blog post, it's not exactly the same in terms of capabilities as the Editor Scripts in AX 2012 and prior. The code snippets in VS are specifically targeted at inserting some new code into the editor or refactoring existing code in the editor, but not interacting with AOT and AX metadata.

They are however still quite handy, especially if you get used to the hotkey combination Ctrl+K, Ctrl+X (or S for surrounding your code with whatever the snipped inserts).

That's why I decided to create a public code snippet library through which we could potentially share some useful code snippets with each other.

To start it off I have ported some of the more commonly used template editor scripts from AX 2012.

Here is the link to the Visual Studio X++ code snippet library.

Share your cool code snippets here in the comments, and I will upload them to the share (just to have some moderation process in there)

If you have some comments or suggestions as to a better place to store these, let me know through the comments below.

Thanks!