Art Of Creation – Dynamics AX Blog
The everyday life of a Dynamics AX developer
Hi guys,
It seems like I’m going to be doing a lot of AIF in the future, so I’d like to share the first AIF error I came across:
The path C:\AIF does not exist or is not accessible from an AOS server. Always use a UNC path.
You can get this error when setting up channels.
While I immediately know what the problem was (you have to use shares), my less technical-minded colleague didn’t know what to do.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about ‘UNC path’:
The Microsoft Windows UNC, short for Universal Naming Convention or Uniform Naming Convention, specifies a common syntax to describe the location of a network resource, such as a shared file, directory, or printer. The UNC syntax for Windows systems has the generic form:
\\ComputerName\SharedFolder\Resource
So there you have it, you have to use a shared folder in stead of a local folder.
This is logical, as AIF runs on server, and the AOS can not access your local folders.
There is an option on the ’status bar’ tab of the options screen (AX button – Extra – Options), that some people think that doesn’t work: Show AOS name.
You can see what I mean on the screenshot below.
Show AOS name
Instance name
Also note that this doesn’t really show the AOS you are connected to, it merely shows the value you specified in the instance name field in your configuration.
So does this functionality work? Yes, but not as you’d expect.
I’ve noticed some people are visiting this blog looking for code that runs multiple jobs, so here’s a job that does just that.
Easy enough 
.
This method will append all text from the original file to the destination file.
While this is a very easy task, the method shows many of the things you come across when you are working with files in AX, like:
- Using the #File macro
- Asserting FileIOPermission to be able to access files
- Asserting InteropPermission to be able to use .NET Interop
- Using a set to assert multiple permissions at once
- Using .NET Clr Interop in AX (better than winapi and winapiserver)
- Optional cleaning up after you’re done using reverAssert()
Because all permissions are taken care of, this code will run client side as well as server side.
A (little) trick in between. I thought everyone was using this method, but I apparently I was wrong, so here you go.
Doing a full compile takes a long time, and because of that, it’s handy to be able to check how much of the process is done and how much remains.
Luckily, when doing a full compile, the Compiler Output form appears at the bottom of the screen where you can see what is currently being compiled.
The only problem is that most of the time, the AX client hangs and is not responsive during the compilation process, so you can’t see that information.
The solution to this is to press Crtl + Break.
You will see a window that says:
Are you sure that you want to cancel this operation?
To start the Debugger for Microsoft Dynamics, press and hold SHIFT while you click No.
While this screen is active, the Compiler Output form will update so you can check up on the status. When you’re done, be sure to click “No” to resume the full compile. Don’t click “Yes” because then the compilation will not resume and you’ll have to start again.
I was looking for a Dynamics themed wallpaper for my desktop, and couldn’t find one, so I made one myself.
It’s so much nicer to have something AX related on your desktop when you’re doing demo’s and such.
Dynamics Ax Wallpaper 1920x1080
If you like it, don’t hesitate to use it. It’s free of logo’s (except for the Dynamics one of course), so you can put your own ones on it.
When you start the Microsoft Dynamics AX Configuration Utility, you might get the following message:
An instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX Configuration is already running. Only one instance can be run at a time.
You get this message because, obviously, the utility is already running, and you can’t start two instances. So, just click ok, look in the task bar for the Configuration Utility, and go from there.
But… but… There is no AX configuration utility active!
Most likely, you are logged into a machine using remote desktop, where an other user has the configuration utility active.
You can check this in using the Task Manager.
1. Right click the Task Bar and start the Task manager,
2. On the processes tab, make sure you see the processes for all users (there’s a checkbox or a button at the bottom) ,
3. Now look for the process called AxCliCfg.exe,
4. You can contact the user to ask him to close the Configuration Utility, or you can kill the process yourself.
Dynamics AX uses a lot of file extensions, but luckily, there is a logic to them, so you can easily identify their purpose.
Most of these files are located in the application folder (AX 2009):
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl\[your_application]
The extensions have 3 characters:
The first character indicates the owner of the file:
a: application
k: kernel
The second character indicates the content of the file:
l: label
o: object
t: text
d: developer documentation
h: help
And the third character indicates the type of file:
d: data
i: index
c: cache
t: temporary
Using this logic, we can easily name all file extensions, and understand their purpose.
In the application folder:
ALD extension: Application Label Data files
These files contain the labels and label comments for a specific language of a label file.
ALC extension: Application Label Cache files
These files contain the application label cache. These files can be deleted when the AOS is stopped.
ALI extension: Application Label Index files
The .ali files contain an index to the .ald files. These files can be deleted when the AOS is stopped.
ALT extension: Application Label Temporary files
These files contain new labels before they are committed to the .ald file.
AOI extension: Application Object Index file
The AOI file contains an index to the AOD files. You can delete this file when the AOS is stopped. Be sure to delete this when you have copied layers from one AX installation to an other.
ADD extension: Application Developer Documentation Data files
These files contain the documentation that is found under the Application Developer Documentation node. These files are localized, just like label files.
ADI extension: Application Developer Documentation Index files
This is the index to the ADD file.
AHD extension: Application Help Data files
The AHD file contains the documentation aimed at the end user. In the AOT, this is found in the “Application Documentation” node.
AHI extension: Application Help Index files
This is the index to the AHD file.
AOD extension: Application Object Data file
This is the ‘AX layer file’, each of these files represents one layer.
KHD extension: Kernel Help Documentation files
These files contain the kernel help documentation you can find in the AOT in the tree node System Documentation.
KHI extension: Kernel Help Index files
The KHI file is the index to the Kernel Help file.
Located in Server/bin:
KTD extension: Kernel Text Data file
This file contains system text strings. These are used in the interface of AX and for system messages.
KTI extension: Kernel Text Index file
This is the index to the KTD file.
Client side (not following the naming logic):
AUC extension: Application Unicode Object Cache file (as from AX 4.0)
This file is created on the client side, and is used to improve performance by caching AX objects. When you are in the situation where an AX client keeps using ‘old code’, or where something works on one client and not on the other, removing the AUC file might be the solution.
You can find this file in the directory C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\Application Data for xp, or C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local for vista.
More information about object caching on Axaptapedia
AOC extension: Axapta Object Cache file (Untill Axapta 3)
This is the ‘old’ version of the AUC file but serves the same purpose.
Further reading:
MSDN: Application files architecture
DAXcoder: Axapta Filename Extension Naming Conventions
Some months ago, I had this ‘aha! moment’, when I saw something like this in my code:
I had modified a singe select statement into a loop, but forgot to remove the ‘firstonly’ qualifier.
Then it hit me that the over example is actually the same as writing the following:
I really liked the idea of the while loop, and I think I’ve used it once or twice where I thought it was appropriate, until I bothered Googling the statement. You get 9 results from Google, which isn’t much, and the first is on msdn:
Do not use while select firstOnly.
However, this result is followed by 2 others from msdn (1 and 2), where they do use “while select firstonly”. The last one, is on a page titled “Top Best Practices to Consider”.
I can think of a couple of reasons why you shouldn’t use such a statement, one of which is performance, and an other readability, but apparently, Microsoft uses it anyway. Also, you can’t use it in cases where you need an ‘else’ branch.
I, for one, have changed my code and won’t be writing code like this anymore. “While select firstonly” was short lived.
Here a some functionalities that I think are nice-to-haves in future versions of AX from a developer point of view. I hope they make sense .
1. Select table where field in set
Consider a situation where you have a set or container filled with recId’s. When you want to loop all records that have one of these recId’s, it would be nice to be able to write something like this:
The only problem is that there is no ‘in’ operator in AX. You will either have to loop the set and select each record one at the time, or you’ll have to use the Query and QueryBuildRange classes to make this work.
The above example would be much nicer in my opinion.
2. Throwable exception classes
It would be nice to be able to create your own exceptions.
Java, for example, has Throwable and Exception classes that can be extended.
I won’t say that I completely understand these java classes (I’m not a Java guy), but I believe it would force developers to catch only exceptions they can handle, and not just all exceptions.
It would also make it possible to have more information as to why an exception has occoured when you catch it.
3. Try – catch – finally
This is a classic: the try-catch-finally is not supported in AX. When we look at C# for example, a try-catch can have a ‘finally’ block at the end. The code in this block is always executed, even if an exception occoured.
4. Events using CLR Interop
CLR Interop does not support event handling in AX. It would be nice to be able to assign an event handler to an event, so an event can trigger functionality in AX without complicated workarounds involving .NET wrapper classes, infinite loops, services or other creative solutions. (I’m thinking about things like FileSystemWatcher).
5. Code refactoring
When you rename an object in AX (Table, field, class, method, etc), there is no refactoring option. You have to manually rename all other instances of that object.
For example: it would be nice if, when you rename a field, AX had the option to automatically update all methods, forms, etc, where this field was used.
This is an article I wanted to write for some time now, and it’s about two things: Dynamics AX, and Google.
The goal here is to try to know what lives in the Dynamics AX world.
A nice feature Google search has is autocomplete. It comes in handy when you have to write hard to write words, or when you just want to search faster.
It’s also a nice way to discover what people are querying for about a certain subject, for example Dynamics AX. Here’s a list of item Google suggests when you type “Dynamics AX ” in the search box.
dynamics ax 2009
dynamics ax jobs
dynamics ax training
dynamics ax certification
dynamics ax modules
dynamics ax blog
dynamics ax workflow
dynamics ax 4.0
dynamics ax aif
dynamics ax demo
I don’t want to make an opinion piece out of this, so I’ll just break this up in groups without further comment.
General: 2009, 4.0, modules & demo
Jobs and Certification: training, certification & jobs
Functionality: workflow & AIF
Community: Blog
While you don’t know the context of these queries, it’s nice to know what people are interested in.
Try it for a few subjects, and you might find out some interesting things.
Hi all,
A new page has been added: AX links.
Be sure to check it out, there are some really helpful and interesting links in that list.
If you have bookmarks that you would like to share that are related to AX, just comment and I’ll add them to the list.
I’ve always found it annoying that when you want to create a parm method using the editorscripts, you have to fill in two fields on a dialog (variable name and type). Most of the time, you’ve already declared the variable in the class declaration of your class, so it would be nice if you could just right click on that and create a parm method from there.
Below is a (quick and dirty) editorscript that allows you to do that.
Some code from Greg Pierce’s awesome String class was used for the inner methods.
I tested it on classes, form and reports, and it works very well.
To install this editorscript, copy the code above in a new method of the class EditorScripts.
To use it, in the classDeclaration, simply select one or more declarations, then right click and choose Scripts – template – method – parmfromCD.
Sometimes, you’ll want to add leading zeros, but other times, you’ll have to remove leading zeros from a string.
Here the code that does just that:
The above example will work for any alphanumeric string.
When you’re sure you’re dealing with numeric strings, you can use this example:
You should build in a check because the str2int() function doesn’t throw an error when the input isn’t numeric.
An example I found online also removes leading zeros from a string, but it fails if the first character after the zeros isn’t numeric:
Conclusion:
The first example works best, but you should still be careful when converting the resulting string to other types, as you could get unexpected results.
Writing to the event log in Windows using AX is very easy when you use the EventLog class from the System.Diagnostics namespace. The following job demonstrates how to use the EventLog class.
A possible use for this is when monitoring batch jobs.
Tested using AX 2009, XP Pro.