Tool: Dynamics AX 7 browser power & Table browser add-in for Google Chrome

Microsoft Dynamics AX "7" is, as you all know, a Cloud release, which means that the one and only client available for AX "7" is the web browser.

Nowadays browsers are pretty advanced, meaning that you get pretty much the same look and feel, as in a "rich" Win32 client. It has its drawback as well, of course, but we are not here to talk about those.

On the positive side, it now allows for a number of entry points that will take you directly into the flow or form you want to execute, because most of the information about where you want to go is provided through the URL itself.

I have already previously posted about the Warehouse Mobile Devices Portal emulator form and how you can access it. Here it is again:

https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/?cmp=USMF&mi=action:WHSWorkExecute

You basically specify your Dynamics AX URL, followed by which company you want to connect to, and which menu item to open - in this case, an Action menu item WHSWorkExecute. Easy, right?

Well, you can do the same trick to open other menu items, and that is what this blog post is about - Table Browser.

As some of my old readers know, I'm a big fan. If you are not one of those, and are running previous versions of AX, check out the blog post below, it's awesome!

http://kashperuk.blogspot.dk/2007/09/devsystablebrowser-version-20-is-out.html

Well, Dynamics AX "7" also has a little something to help you browse tables now.
Here is a cool little add-in for Google Chrome, which allows you to open the table browser for a selected table in a selected company (settings are persisted, so you don't need to enter the company name each time):

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ax-table-browser-caller/nahbldacmaibopfiiaoboloegpobpccn

I've just tried it out and it's pretty neat, so take it for a spin and let me know what you think!

To finish off, let's just take a quick look at what the add-in actually does, which is - opens a pre-defined URL similar to WMDP link above:

https://usnconeboxax1aos.cloud.onebox.dynamics.com/?mi=SysTableBrowser&TableName=WHSWorkTable&cmp=USMF&limitednav=true&lng=en-us

We specified that we want to open the Display (which is the default) menu item SysTableBrowser, passed in an argument TableName WHSWorkTable. We also specified the company, as before, as as well the display language. We've also added in the limitednav=true flag, which removes some of the navigation panels and buttons, so you cannot navigate away from this page to another form or menu.

Technical Note. Check out UrlUtility.getQueryParamValue('TableName'); This could potentially be used in some of your customizations

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

DEV_SysTableBrowser version 2.0 is out!

I have been asked by a number of my blog readers to move this tool to Dynamics AX 3.0, so here is the updated version of this tool. Now it works on both DAX 3.0 and 4.0 (tested on 3.0 SP5 KR2 and 4.0 SP1 and SP2).

Also, I added a couple of things I considered useful to this new release:
- The user field select dialog option has now, by default, all the non-system fields selected, so that users don’t get surprised when no fields are selected. I agree – it does look strange :)
- Now it’s possible to select display methods along with table fields in the user field select dialog. This feature was already working with FieldGroups, so I decided it could be a nice add-on to the User Field List option
- I also fixed a couple of old (and new, brought to us by 4.0 SP2) bugs that existed in the tool
- After reading some of the last posts on AxForum, I decided to add the ability of browsing temporary tables into my project as well, so that others may use them if they want :) (this will also include browsing temp tables data shown in forms from Tabax when the next version comes out)
- Now you can also use the browser for debugging purposes, launching it from code (this works for temp tables as well). Just write:

SysTableBrowser::browseTable(table.TableId, table);

where table is a cursor (second parameter can be omitted for non-temp tables). In this case the browser will open and code execution will stop until you close the browser (if not in a transaction). Third parameter controls if code execution should be stopped.

- There are two variables in method new of class SysTableBrowser
saveQueryRun = true; // Enables/Disables queryRun saving when new options are specified
savePosition = true; // Enables/Disables cursor position saving when new options are specified

The options allow to save the user filters and cursor position when changing setup options.
Both operations could result in performance problems on large tables.
If that happens (or you just don't need them), just turn them to false. :)

The download link is: DOWNLOAD

See extended installation instructions and tool description on: HOMEPAGE

What was a little disappointing is that a number of bugs I wrote about earlier were not fixed since SP1. Here are the 2 I mentioned before, again:
- UPDATE_RECORDSET command, when used in the table browser, crashes DAX.
- The left top edge position (the coordinates) of the table browser gets reset when any of the options are changed. I fixed this by specifying 0 instead of -1 for the leftMode and topMode properties of the design. So when you download this tool, the browser will stay in one place, which is nice ;)

Also, 1 new bug I found is for the Russian localization team.
- Changing the view (in the Unmodified version of the browser was causing the full table list to open, prompting the user for a selection of the table). This is caused by a small validation in the SysTableBrowser::main() method. SysSetupFormRun is supposed to be the classId of the calling object. And it is not, because some system wide changes were made to the SysSetupFormRun::construct() method. Anyway, I fixed this small bug as well.

OK. That’s all about the tool and the bugs. I have also been asked by a couple of my readers to write a tutorial on using the SysListPanel class.

That’s exactly what I am going to write about in my next blog entry. After all, there is a new class extending from the SysListPanel class in the DEV_SysTableBrowser project.

Add-On: Extended SysTableBrowser

Hello, readers.
Today I provide you with another tool for Dynamics AX developers. It is a modified version of the SysTableBrowser (See picture 1).

picture 1

Download

Important:

After importing the project refresh the AOD (Tools\Development Tools\Application Objects\Refresh AOD)

Modifications:

1. The table browser does not change its position when a different setup is selected. (Unlike standard system behavior in DAX 4.0)


2. The AutoReport option was extended, and now you are able to select any of the table field groups (See Credits).


3. Another selection option was added, providing the means to select any of the table fields to be shown in the grid. To do this, just press the ‘Select Fields’ button and select the fields you want displayed (See picture 2).


4. Added a list of presets for the SQL window. (SELECT, UPDATE, DELETE). The list can be easily extended to include other presets you often use.


5. Extra logic was added to the ExecuteSQL button, which executes the SQL string that the user has put into the SQL window. If it is a simple select (for example, generated by the SELECT preset), the ds query is executed instead of the sql string. This will bring back the sorting and filtering options that disappear after using the sql string query.
   
6. Added the ability to sort columns by name or by id. In some cases (when, for example, you cannot find a specific field) it really helps out! (See picture 3)

picture 2
picture 3

Possible future improvements:

1. Add display methods of the selected table to the list of fields in the select dialog.

Credits:

The modification was inspired by a similar one performed by Nicolai Hillstrom for Dynamics AX 3.0. I moved it to DAX 4.0 and added some extra features I considered useful. One of them is implemented here (even thought I wasn’t able to download it and see how it is programmed).