Dilip's blog on DYNAMICS AX

Free Online Event - Dynamics AX 2012 Moving Average Costing

2013-04-02T08:01:00.000+11:00

Please read here for more.. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_dynamics_danmark_-_partner/archive/2013/03/26/microsoft-invitation-to-free-online-event-dynamics-ax2012-moving-average-costing-in-ax2012.aspx

Tip - How to retrieve Security Policy Metadata info stored in ModelSecPolRuntimeEx (Dynamics AX 2012)

2013-04-02T07:24:00.002+11:00

Dear Friends,

Thought to share with you about this table in Dynamics AX 2012 which stores the runtime metadata for all the queries involved in Security Policies. I figured out it's a good starting point for debugging your Security Policies.

The resultset retrieved from the below query will tell you about the PrimaryTable, ConstrainedTable, Query Name, and more importantly, the column ModeledQueryDebugInfo which contains the raw sql statement that is used behind the scenes. (Just copy-paste the below SQL and run in your Management Studio to see the results)

SELECT [PRIMARYTABLEAOTNAME], [QUERYOBJECTAOTNAME],
[CONSTRAINEDTABLE], [MODELEDQUERYDEBUGINFO],
[CONTEXTTYPE],[CONTEXTSTRING],
[ISENABLED], [ISMODELED]
FROM [dbo].[ModelSecPolRuntimeEx]

As per msdn, The ModelSecPolRuntimeEx table stores the runtime metadata that is necessary to apply security policies.

The sun is shining brighter for Dynamics AX Techies!! :)

2013-03-31T15:22:00.002+11:00

Dear All,

Wish you a Happy Easter!

As I was tweeting this morning, I happened to stumble upon this news and thought to share it over here!

For Dynamics AX professionals and for the aspiring ones, it's going to be a brighter future. Suddenly, there's a good demand all over the globe for techies experienced in Dynamics ERP (Dynamics AX being the most sought after ERP).

Have a look at this news http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/032613-microsoft-dynamics-268111.html

Some of the takeaways from the above news are:

a. Full-time technical architects working on Dynamics stand to earn a 14% salary increase

b. Technical architects also pull down some of the largest salaries among Dynamics professionals, with salaries of $148,000 for those versed in Dynamics AX, $115,000 for NAV, $144,000 for CRM and $115,000 for GP, the survey says.

Freelancers can earn up to $1,100 per day.

c. The average freelance wage increase over the next year is 12%, and that is so attractive that 39% of full-timers would leave their current jobs to freelance.

d. A larger percentage (48.1%) describe themselves as satisfied with their jobs and 8.5% describe themselves as very satisfied.

e. Nearly half (45%) of those looking to change jobs would consider moving to another country, with the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada and Germany scoring as the top choices.

f. Most jobs related to Dynamics offer laptops, bonuses, a mobile phone and health plans as standard perks. A significant chunk (20% to 50%) also offer life insurance, dental insurance, life insurance and free Internet access, and they give workers the option to work from home.

So, all looks exciting at the moment for people working on Dynamics AX :), Happy Daxing!!

SSRS Troubleshooting ERROR [IM014] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] The specified DSN contains an architecture mismatch between the Driver and Application

2013-03-27T09:38:00.001+11:00

Dear All,

I realized this post was sitting in my drafts folder for a while now. This is not going to be an AX post but an interesting experience on troubleshooting SSRS Configuration connecting to an external database.

For one of my customer, I have developed a series of SSRS Reports to extract data from a third party provider - Intersystems, http://www.intersystems.com/trakcare/index.html who specializes in HealthCare Information Systems.

To give a bit background, Intersystems uses Oracle database for their healthcare systems and inorder to extract data from their systems, I had to create a Linked Server connection in SQL Server which talks to Intersystems ODBC Driver (DSN). The IT team at my customer end had installed the 3rd party ODBC Driver on the box where SSRS was installed.

I was able to connect to their database using BIDS and the report rendered without any issues. However, when I publish the SSRS report to Report Server and then try to browse the report via report URL, it throws out this error "ERROR [IM014] [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] The specified DSN contains an architecture mismatch between the Driver and Application”

Solution:

Since we are using SSRS reporting we would need both 32-bit and 64-bit ODBC drivers of Intersystems as In SSRS, the Report Manager and Report server are 64-bit components and BIDS Environment (Development Studio of SSRS) is 32-bit.

After few hours of research on this error and by going through the forums and InterSystems website, it seems like they have a 64-bit ODBC Driver available. The 32-bit driver which we are currently using is the version released in 2008.

I downloaded the 64-bit Cache 2008.2.6 from their FTP site and installed it on our SSRS box ftp://ftp.intersystems.com/pub/cache/odbc/ and this fixed the error

Applying Custom filters to Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal Grid

2013-03-20T22:52:00.003+11:00

Dear All,

Hope you are doing well.

Recently, I did an Enterprise Portal code upgrade for one of my customers. They are on Dynamics AX 2009 and as I was investigating, I found that the web forms of Dynamics AX 4.0 were not upgraded by their previous vendor, so I undertook the task of upgrading their 20+ web forms (Dynamics AX 4.0) to Dynamics AX 2009 web controls.

I had to replace the existing standard filters which comes with EP AxGridView to custom textbox filters. And, for this reason I had to apply the filters via code. I got a good idea by seeing this useful blog on how to achieve it http://blogs.msdn.com/b/epblog/archive/2008/11/17/filtering-a-dataset-from-code-behind.aspx

There was a small hiccup while referencing FilterCondition and Typ as I didn't knew the namespace, so before we use the filterObject and conditionType objects, dont forget to declare the below highlighted namespace.

using Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Data.Ax;

Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Data.Ax.filterObject
Microsoft.Dynamics.Framework.Data.Ax.conditionType

Troubleshooting XDS Security Policy in Dynamics AX 2012

2013-03-15T17:43:00.001+11:00

[Update] Troubleshooting XDS Security Policy in Dynamics AX 2012

Dear Friends,

I'm stuck up with this issue while implementing custom security policy with DAX 2012. Hope to gather some feedback from my blog post if anyone has come across this issue before. If not, any suggestions are welcome. If I come across a solution, I will come back and update this post.

I have posted this query in Microsoft forums over here

Hi,

Greetings!!
A brief background - We are using custom security roles and policies (using XDS Framework) in this implementaion. We have created a security policy query on DimensionAttributeValueCombination table as shown below, it's a simple filter on LedgerDimensionType and DisplayValue (Please see the ranges in Screenshot 2)

Screenshot# 1 (Security Policy Query) :

Screenshot# 2 (Query Ranges/Filter):

Now, going one level up, to security Policy, Please see the below screenshots for the definition of our Security Policy and Constrained tables within it.

Screenshot# 3: (Security Policy)

Screenshot# 4: (Security Policy(Constrained Tables))

As you might have already seen in Screenshot# 3, the security policy is attached to ContextType RoleName and we have added a test user to that security role. So far, all good.
Now, when the user with the above security role logs in to AX and navigates to GL > Trial Balance, as expected the accounts are filtered based on the query ranges i.e. it brings all accounts which ends with -1-003 and -1-007 as expected. All good here.
But the trouble starts, when we go to forms like Free Text Invoices under AR, The user with the above role can create a new free text invoice header from AR > Free Text Invoices, but when they go to create an invoice line and select the main account from the drop down, the system just hangs, Also we have experienced similar issue when we try to select an account from GL > General Journal

Screenshot# 5: Free Text Invoice

I tried to debug and see the SQL query behind the scene via SQL Profiler and it tells me that the Security policy is in force and it's trying to do an insert into DimensionAttributeValueCombination table, but failing to do so because of the Security query, for testing purpose if i remove the security role from the user's login or try posting the free text invoice as a system admin, it works (because obviously the security policy is not in force)
Is there anything being done wrong above? I also tried disabling the security policy via code i.e. going to CustInvoiceform and using xds.SetXDSContext(0." ") to bypass the security, but this is not working. I also tried disabling the security policy in table methods before insert or validatewrite, but no results.
I checked the forums before posting here and found some interesting posts on XDS Framework, but haven't been answered fully. Like the one where we can have a dynamic query would be nice to have.
http://community.dynamics.com/ax/f/33/t/97472.aspx

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/f/33/t/100072.aspx

http://community.dynamics.com/ax/f/33/t/88603.aspx

Any recommendations or suggestions are welcome. TIA

Update (20/03):

****************************************************************************

I have found a workaround, by taking a different approach to the scenario and instead of attaching the Security Policy to the Role directly, I changed the ContextType to “ContextString” from the previously defined “Rolename” and put a ContextString called “DNTestSec”.

(Step 1)

I then attached this ContextString to the role and query. (Please see below Step 2 and Step 3)

After making this changes, the below code makes sense, as it can enable/disable security at run-time because it can find the ContextSecurity string. (Below is a standard ax code which you can find in one of the DirParty* forms in AOT)

In conclusion, the limitation is we can't have both RoleName and ContextString both enabled on a SecurityPolicy, because as soon as you enable "ContextType" property as "RoleName", ContextString gets disabled.

And with the above limitation, the only way to control security on-demand is through code using ContextString as shown in the above steps.

****************************************************************************

Troubleshooting Sharepoint 2010 Log Files 0 Kb size

2013-03-12T17:20:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends,

This post is not on Dynamics AX, but about troubleshooting sharepoint log files.

This morning, I changed the credentials for one of my service "Sharepoint 2010 Tracing Service" to a domain account from the initially set local service account.

The change went successful which means I was able to start the service with the new account. However, the Sharepoint log files were just showing 0 KB. The log entries were not getting populated in the log file.

Solution:

Had to add the service account to Performance Log Users Group under (Computer Management > Local Users and Groups > Groups)

Please see the blog below for a detailed reference.
http://www.christianfredh.com/blog/post/Fixing-issue-where-SharePoint-2010-logs-is-0-kb.aspx

Troubleshooting Tip Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Portal - Return of the Error An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

2013-03-12T17:12:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends,

Hope you are doing well.

Four years ago, I had an issue installing Enterprise Portal in a distributed environment mentioned in my blog post here.

The error is "An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host"

Fast forward to 2013, I'm helping a customer setup Enterprise Portal with SQL Server on a different box, and again hit the same error this time with SQL Server 2008 R2.

There's an article on technet about this error and troubleshooting http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee355087(v=ax.50).aspx

And, in the above link we have 2 solutions one for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. In my current scenario, I'm on SQL Server 2008 R2. So, if you are on SQL Server 2008, Navigate to the below link to download the AMO Objects required to be installed on the EP box

http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=16978

Hope the above link and screenshot will help someone out there troubleshooting EP Setup.

Download IBM WebSphere MQ Adapter for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Released

2013-03-09T12:50:00.003+11:00

Dear All,

As I was tweeting today, I found this interesting piece of news which I thought to share in my blog. Couple of years back, I worked on a big retail implementation where I had to integrate Dynamics AX 2009 with IBM MQ Websphere via Connectivity Studio (an add-on written in X++ and provided by To-Increase) and we wrote custom interface in X++ using IBM MQ Dll's

Fast forward, with AX 2012, now IBM has released it's own adapter. This will be very useful for businesses planning to do an integration with Dynamics AX and IBM MQ,

Good work IBM on shipping this out-of-the box adapter!!

You can read about the release here..
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24033822

Happy MQ'ng with DAx :)

Download whitepaper on Dynamics AX 2012 Resource Scheduling

2013-03-09T12:39:00.004+11:00

Hi All,

Microsoft has published a new white paper on new and improved capabilities for scheduling workers in the Project management and accounting module in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2

This white paper describes new and improved capabilities for scheduling workers in the Project management and accounting module in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.

You can click here to download

Dynamics AX 2012 R2 CU1 Available now

2013-03-09T12:29:00.002+11:00

Dear Friends,

The Dynamics AX Sustained Engineering released Cumulative Update 1 for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 on February 25, 2013. This cumulative update is available via Partner Source and Customer Source. Please refer the below blog link..

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dynamicsaxse/archive/2013/03/01/announcing-cumulative-update-1-for-microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-r2.aspx

Configure Dynamics AX 2012 Mobile Connector

2013-02-28T07:31:00.001+11:00

Hello!

Microsoft has published a whitepaper demonstrating how to configure an environment so that users can connect to AX 2012 using mobile application

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36776

Some of the pre-requisites required for this to work are:

a. Active Directory Federation Services
b. Azure Services
c. Dynamics Ax Mobile Connector

The setup seems to be an interesting one, When I get some time, I definitely will have a go at it. Keep watching this space for more updates.

Till then,

Happy Daxing :)

Dynamics AX 2012 and SQL Server 2012 SP1 compatibility announced

2013-02-23T07:56:00.001+11:00

Dear Friends,

Sharing a quick note.

They Dynamics Sustained Engineering Team in Microsoft has published the compatibility between Dynamics AX 2012 and SQL Server 2012 SP1.

Please read on ....

https://community.dynamics.com/ax/b/dynamicsaxsustainedengineering/archive/2013/02/19/announcing-compatibility-certification-of-sql-server-2012-sp1-with-dynamics-ax-2012.aspx#.USfZmKWnqxV

About SysListPanelRelationTable Class in Dynamics AX

2013-02-20T09:31:00.001+11:00

Hi there!

Recently for one of my clients, I built a custom SSRS Security Maintenance form for their Financial Reporting.

The requirement was to built a custom security form wherein the users were mapped to Financial Dimensions (also known as Programs in our client's terminology) and the security should flow into SSRS Reporting so that the programs are automatically filtered based on the user's login.

Ok, so the main point I want to highlight here is when I was developing this form, I leveraged the class SysListPanelRelationTable in AX. You can have a look in AOT/Forms/Tutorial_ListPanel to see how the class is implemented. The other example of this class implementation is Standard AX User/User Groups form in Administration menu.

So, in my implementation I used the same class, however the tables I used were different i.e my own custom table and standard Dimension Table, The key here to understand is the table and field relationships while passing them as parameters to the newForm constructor

Review - Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Services Book

2013-02-19T20:43:00.001+11:00

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

A few weeks back, I had a brief overview posted about Dynamics AX 2012 Services book.

I took some time to go through the book and I would give it a rating of 4.5/5 as the chapters are structured in a logical way and the language is quite clear and lucid to understand, along with screenshots and code snippets wherever necessary. This book will definitely help any developer on understanding and using AIF Services Framework in Dynamics AX 2012

The book talks about the following key areas:

Services and SOA Architecture Overview and Concepts
Whats New (AOS WCF Service Host, WCF Adapters)
Type of Services (Document Services, Custom Services, System Services, Query Service, Metadata service, User session Service)
AxBc Classes
WCF Concepts, ABC's of WCF
Service Deployment
Types of Bindings
Document Services (Step by Step)
Create Custom Services
SysOperation Framework, SysOperation vs RunBase Batch
Multithreading
WebServices (using VS and X++ Dev tools), Consuming the webservice
System Services

Update - Facing Issue with Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Portal deployment

2013-02-11T23:19:00.001+11:00

Update:

Finally, we figured out the issue. All The custom objects were successfully deployed but the role centers fooled us, meaning we had to manually go to the role center page and Edit the web part zone and then attach the custom web menus

Thanks again to all of you for your helpful comments. Appreciate it.

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

This time it's not a solution but I'm stuck a problem which I thought to share here and get some responses. Any feedback welcome!

I'm at a customer place where they are on Dynamics AX 2009 SP1 and i'm n the process of building a TEST Instance of EP from a LIVE one.

I have performed the following:

a. Backup of Live AX Database and Restored it to TEST AX

b. Backup of Live AX Application and restored it to TEST AX

c. Setup AOS to point to TEST AX

d. Setup WSS 3.0 SP2

e. Create a new web app and site collection using Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal template

f. Run Dynamics Setup to install Role centers and enterprise portal without creating a new site i.e. by unchecking configure sharepoint and create a new site while going through the setup

All the above works, and later on I used Axupdateportalutility so that all the web customizations get deployed to TEST Instance, but this never happens, Although axupdateportal runs successfully and it writes everything in the log file which is around 300 kb and finally it says success.

But, none of the customized pages or role centers gets deployed to the test instance, The standard EP portal renders fine but the problem we have is with the custom pages.

Initially we tried on a 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2 with WSS 3.0 SP2 on it, but I found there are some issues like Manage deployment doesn't work, so we have to use axupdateportal from an elevated command prompt. I have done all the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the below blogs, but still no luck..

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/emeadaxsupport/archive/2011/07/07/axupdateportal-does-not-updating-enterprise-portal.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/emeadaxsupport/archive/2009/07/23/axupdateportal-exe-does-not-update-enterprise-portal-when-not-running-from-an-elevated-command-prompt.aspx

Lastly, we tried to replicate our LIVE Environment which is running on Windows 2003 and uses WSS 3.0, by following the steps mentioned above, but still no luck, everything works without any errors and log files seems ok. But. the custom pages and role centers just wont appear. I even tried copying the sharepoint IIS folders from LIVE to TEST (Especially the ones with control templates and layouts) but have hit a wall.

Any help on this matter much appreciated. Thanks for your patience and reading it through. Cheers

DAXMates.com - Microsoft Dynamics Consulting Services for your business

2013-01-31T19:51:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends,

Hope you all are having a good time.

I would like to introduce you to our new start up (Daxmates.com) formed by bunch of Dynamics ERP Experts.

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Daxmates is a a group of Microsoft implementation experts serving the ERP community for more than 25 years of Combined Experience. Our experienced professionals not only understand the issues facing your industry and provide fresh insights with tailored services, they also are Certified Microsoft Professionals for Microsoft Dynamics.

Daxmates offers comprehensive professional services for Microsoft Dynamics AX, and Nav. Our Dynamics AX team is in practice with consultants who bring a breadth of experience and deep industry knowledge to integrate and streamline all aspects of your corporate operations.

We can be reached on info@daxmates.com or please fill the contact form here

Sharepoint 2010 Tip How to stop sending automatic task notifications email from workflow

2013-01-24T06:51:00.001+11:00

Hi!

Trust you all are doing good.

I thought to share with you today a sharepoint troubleshooting tip which helped me in solving an issue with automatic task notification emails being sent from Sharepoint workflow.

We are using a custom built Sharepoint workflow in our intranet site.
Recently, it came to my notice that the workflow keeps on sending Task notification emails apart from the normal emails configured in workflow actions. An example of such an email is shown below:

Troubleshooting:

If you are using Sharepoint, you would be knowing that on any list or library we can setup alerts, so my first guess was that there would have been some alert configured on the workflow library.

Couldn't find any user defined alerts configured, so I had to look into other areas.

After some debugging, found out that this was due to default setting on Task List which sends email whenever the ownership is assigned.

So, Go to your site > Tasks > List > Advanced Settings,

and on E-mail notification change "No" to send e-mail when ownership is assigned

Hope this troubleshooting tip will help someone out there.

Side-By-Side Comparison of Budgeting features Dynamics AX 2009 vs Dynamics AX 2012

2013-01-16T07:27:00.003+11:00

Dear Friends,

Hope you are having a good start to this Year 2013.

Thought to share with you Budgeting functionality differences between between Dynamics AX 2009 vs 2012. Below are the key areas which I have documented. Feel free to send your comments if you have any additions or modifications to this list. Thanks and Happy Budgeting with Dax 2012 :)

Budget manager/analyst role center

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Perform common tasks, and view frequently used forms and reports from a single location	NA	Provides access to the commonly used forms, fact boxes, charts, reports, activities, and work items that the budget manager needs to complete daily tasks and make informed decisions	Consolidates key forms and information in a single location

Financial dimensions for budgeting and budget control

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Select financial dimensions in the chart of accounts for budgeting	Users were allowed a limited number of financial dimensions	Include or exclude specific dimensions, including main accounts, for budgeting	Simplifies budgeting and account number entry
Select dimensions from the account structure in the chart of accounts for budget control	Budget was always available at a main account level with the option of adding dimensions	Specify dimension values to hold budget amounts without any regard to their specific usage in main accounts	Provides flexibility in selecting specific dimensions, including main accounts, for budget control

Budget Rate Types and Exchange Rates

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Create a budget rate type and associate exchange rates	NA	Define currency pairs and associate exchange rates with the default budget rate type for the ledger	Simplifies creating and maintaining exchange rates specifically for budgets

Budget Models

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Identify a budget by associating it with a budget model	Budget models were used to identify budgets	Budget models can be used to identify budgets	Simplifies categorizing budget transactions, identifying budgets, and assigning budget cycles
Use budget models to structure ledger budgets and develop budget forecasts	Budget models were used for simulations and forecasts	Budget models can be used for simulations and budget forecasts	Run simulations and compare budget forecasts
Build complex budget models using submodels for planning and reporting	Budget models and submodels were used to aggregate budget amounts	Submodels can represent departments or variety of other organization entities	Provides flexibility in budget planning and the ability to produce reports with consolidated balances

Budget Cycles

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Create a budget cycle time span with one or more budget cycles that can be used across legal entities	NA	Map the budget cycle time span to a fiscal year or determine the number of accounting periods that each budget cycle will represent	Provides flexibility in implementing budget control for part of a fiscal year or over one or more fiscal years

Budget Control Configuration

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Define parameters and dimensions for budget control	NA	Dimensions and default parameters for budget control are defined in one location	Centralizes budget control options
Select the default over-budget permissions for user groups	NA	Users can determine the amounts to add and subtract for the calculation that determines the budgets funds that are available	Simplifies customization of the calculation for the budget funds that are available
Determine the source documents and accounting journals for budget control	NA	Enables budget checking for source documents and account journals at a header level or at line item entry	Controls processing of the specified source documents and accounting journals
Assign budget models to budget cycles and budget cycle time spans	NA	Implement one or more budget models and budget cycles so that, for example, a capital expenditure budget model and an operating budget model could be used for budget control	Provides flexibility in implementing budgets
Define budget control rules	NA	Defines of rules for specific dimensions, over-budget permissions, and parameters	Provides flexibility in defining dimension values and parameters for budget control
Select main accounts for budget control	NA	When main account is not selected as a budget control dimension, users can select specific main accounts for the application of budget control rules	Facilitates implementation of budget control for dimensions and main accounts
Define budget groups	NA	Set up budget checking for pooled dimensions and accounts	Provides flexibility in implementing budget control for dimensions and dimension values
Edit, activate, restore and turn on the budget control configuration	NA	Users can control the active budget control configuration as well as edit a draft version	Simplifies the implementation and administration of budget control

Budget control on source documents and accounting journals

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Enable budget checks as line items are entered or postpone the budget check until an action, such as an approval, is taken on the source document	NA	Source documents include purchase requisitions, purchase orders, vendor invoices, travel requisitions, and expense reports	Controls or prevents over-budget processing
Enable budget checks as each general journal line is entered or postpone the budget check until the journal is posted	NA	Accounting journals include daily journals, allocation journals, project expense journals, and fixed asset journals	Controls or prevents over-budget processing

Budget register entries

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Use budget register entries to formulate and manage budgets	Ledger budget tables provided static storage for budget records	Define one or more codes for the following budget transaction types: original budget, transfer, amendment, encumbrance, pre-encumbrance, carry-forward, project, fixed assets, demand forecast, supply forecast, apportionment (Public sector), and preliminary budget (Public sector)	Provides the ability to track, categorize, and audit budget transactions
Use subledger budget transaction types when budget forecasts are transferred to the general ledger	Users were unable to track the transfer of budgets from subledgers to the general ledger	Transfer forecasts for projects, fixed assets, demand forecasts (inventory sales), and supply forecasts (inventory purchasing)	Simplifies the transfers of forecasts to the ledger
For public sector, use preliminary budgets and apportionment budgets	NA	Define codes for apportionment and preliminary budget transactions	Provides public sector organizations with the ability to use preliminary budgets for budget control and apportion part of an approved budget
Create posting definitions for budget transactions	NA	When budget transactions are processed, posting definitions can create ledger entries for multiple accounts	Budget transactions can be automatically posted to the ledger

Workflow for budget transactions

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Set up budget transaction workflows	NA	Budget transactions associated with the workflow are automatically routed for review	Simplifies routing and reviewing budget transactions

Budget transfer rules

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Define budget transfer rules	NA	Budget transfer rules determine when budget transfers between dimensions can occur	Facilitates and controls budget transfers

Budget transfers, allocations, and recurrences

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Transfer budget amounts	NA	With budget control turned on, users can transfer budget amounts while entering other budget transactions or from source documents and accounting journals	Provides flexibility in transferring budget amounts
Allocate budget funds by dimension or period	Users could only allocate funds by period or dimension during budget entry	Spread a budget amount across dimension values or fiscal periods using a single transaction	Simplifies creation of budget allocation transactions
Enter a recurrence pattern for budget transactions	Users could create recurring budget expenses	Create recurring budget transactions	Simplifies creation of recurring budget transactions

Budget reports and inquiries

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Use reports and inquiries to view budget transactions, budget control statistics, and budget funds	Actual versus budget report	Use parameters to sort and categorize the budget data in these reports and inquires: Budget funds available report Actual versus budget report and inquiry Budget detail report Budget control statistics inquiry	Provides the ability to view, analyze, track, and audit available budget amounts, actual versus budgeted expenditures, budget transactions, and budget control statistics

Web services interface for budget transactions

Goal	Dynamics AX 2009	Dynamics AX 2012	Importance
Create, retrieve, and update budget transactions from third party applications	NA	Generate and import XML for budget transactions	Allows the use of budget transactions created with external budget formulation tools

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Services Book - Brief Overview

2013-01-11T07:17:00.001+11:00

Dear Friends,

First of all Wish you a Very Happy New Year!

Thanks once again to Packt Publishing team for forwarding me this book for review.

Introduction

This book is exclusively on Dynamics AX 2012 Services and it covers the following:

Dynamics AX 2012 service architecture.
Build your own services using wizards or X++ code
Consume existing web services and services you’ve created yourself

Using the AIF Document Service Wizard
Deploying services using a variety of protocols
Consuming your services in .NET
Using system services in your applications
Using the SysOperation framework to create batch processes

Cover Image

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at Dynamics AX developers, both new and experienced with services and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. A basic understanding of MorphX and X++ is assumed, but the step-by-step instructions are easy to follow even for beginners. Some examples use C#.NET, so experience with Visual Studio is a plus but not a must.

Book Link

http://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-dynamics-ax-2012-services/book

Book Authors

I know Klaas and Kenny as fellow bloggers on Dynamics AX. Both have been in Dynamics AX space for a while and have contributed immensely to Dynamics AX ecosystem via their blogs. Thanks guys for the good work on this book.

Klaas Deforche

Klaas Deforche started working as a developer on Microsoft Dynamics AX in 2007 for the Belgian ICT company RealDolmen, primarily working with Dynamics AX 4.0. He gained experience with AX 2009 while working on projects for some well-known Belgian fashion retailers, especially on the integration side of things. He is currently working on AX 2012 projects for customers in the healthcare sector. Klaas likes to share his knowledge with the community, which is why in 2009 he started his AX-oriented blog artofcreation.be.

Kenny Saelen

Kenny Saelen works for the Belgian ICT company RealDolmen. He started as a developer on Microsoft Dynamics AX in 2004 primarily working on a European customer implementation with Dynamics AX 3.0. At RealDolmen, he gained experience with Dynamics AX 2009 while implementing AX internally, followed by a project for a books wholesale company. Currently, he is working as a technical architect for a worldwide customer implementation with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, mainly working towards integrating Dynamics AX with other technologies such as Sharepoint, Biztalk, and AgilePoint. He can be reached through his blog ksaelen.be.

Free Microsoft E-Books Windows Server 2012, SQL Server 2012, Programming windows 8 and more...

2012-12-29T10:21:00.001+11:00

Good morning Friends!! :)

I was browsing through some community forums and I hit upon this pile of free e-books..so thought to share it over here in my blog..

* Windows Server 2012
* SQL Server 2012
* Programming Windows 8
..

You can find more e-books and articles over here

Merry Xmas!!

2012-12-24T20:30:00.000+11:00

Dear Friends,

Wish you and your family A Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year in Advance!!! Keep Daxing.... :)

Troubleshooting SSRS Report Error - An item with the same key has already been added

2012-12-19T12:05:00.001+11:00

Error:

While building one of the SSRS Reports, I ran into this error "An item with the same key has already been added" while loading my datasets from Visual Studio.

Solution:

Thanks to this blog, it came to my rescue.

Configuring and Implementing Sharepoint 2010 RBS (Remote Blob Storage) with SQL Server 2012 - Part 2

2012-12-19T05:19:00.001+11:00

Good day Friends!

A while ago, I blogged on Configuring and Implementing Sharepoint 2010 RBS (Remote Blob Storage) with SQL Server 2012 - Part 1

In Part1, I gave an introduction on RBS, Benefits of implementing RBS in your enterprise, Installing the required components of RBS, Configuring and Setting up RBS for Sharepoint Content database.

In this post, I will try and cover the steps involved in Enabling RBS on a Second content database, Troubleshooting RBS, General Links and References and finally how it can be a part of your enterprise (along with Dynamics AX ERP)

A. Enabling RBS on a Second Content database

While enabling RBS for a second content database, Follow the similar steps which I mentioned in Part 1 except for the msiexec part, run the following command:

msiexec /qn /i rbs.msi REMOTEBLOBENABLE=1 FILESTREAMPROVIDERENABLE=1 DBNAME=WSS_Content_IntranetBlob FILESTREAMSTORENAME=FilestreamProvider_1 ADDLOCAL=EnableRBS,FilestreamRunScript DBINSTANCE=CD

Finally we need to run this Powershell Script to activate RBS on Second content database

            $cdb = Get-SPContentDatabase –WebApplication <URL>
            $rbss = $cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings
            $rbss.Installed()
            $rbss.Enable()
            $rbss.SetActiveProviderName($rbss.GetProviderNames()[0])

B. Troubleshooting

Error# 1
Initially, for testing purpose I installed and configured RBS with Sharepoint Foundation 2010 on one of my test vm's, Everything went well but when I try to upload a document, it throws the below exception:

Exception: Microsoft.Data.SqlRemoteBlobs.BlobStoreException: There was a generic database error.

Solution:

Tried completely uninstalling RBS from Sharepoint Foundation and re-configured once again the Content database for RBS but still no luck :(.

Then I turned on to my ultimate weapon ;-) SQL profiler to identify the queries running behind the scenes whilst uploading a document to sharepoint library.

As usual, SQL Profiler didn’t let me down and it showed me the stored proc which was getting executed:

exec [mssqlrbs_filestream].[rbs_fs_sp_initialize] @schema_suffix=N'1',@filegroup_name=N'RBSFileStreamProvider',@data_filegroup_name=N'PRIMARY',@allow_remote=0,@schema_version=@p5 output,@share_prefix=@p6 output

I copied this statement from the Profiler and opened a new query window via SSMS and fired the query and I got the same error, I debugged the stored proc and found that the stored proc definition just took 3 input parameters, while sharepoint was sending 4 parameters, modified the stored proc to cater for @allow_remote parameter and that did the trick!!! :). Not a pretty way to fix it up, but I guess this would be a bug with Foundation 2010 version running on my VM.

C. References

Thought to post some useful links/references which can be handy while configuring RBS:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748631%28v=office.14%29.aspx
http://blogs.technet.com/b/pramodbalusu/archive/2011/07/09/rbs-and-sharepoint-2010.aspx
http://stevemannspath.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/bang-two-pound-four-remote-blob-storage.html
http://sharepoint.nauplius.net/2011/03/enabling-rbs-on-multiple-content.html
http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=174

D. Conclusion

To summarize, I believe RBS is the answer if you want to externalize your storage rather than cluttering your database and even this concept can be extended to Microsoft Dynamics AX (Document Management) wherein we end up storing huge BLOB type data in SQL.

Book Review - Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Security How-To

2012-12-16T19:03:00.001+11:00

Last month, I posted an introductory review on Dynamics AX 2012 Security How - To

I went through this book and here's my detailed review:

As the name suggests, this is a practical hand book (running into 77 pages) and which covers on how-to (manage security in Dynamics AX 2012).

a. This book starts by covering the basic concepts about Security Architecture in AX 2012, Application Security Fundamentals, Server Security, Role based security, Custom Authentication and Pluggable Authentication

b. Next, it covers step by step instructions on How to Create a new user, Import users from Active Directory, Setting up user options and user relations

c. It also covers Adding new security roles, assigning users to different roles, adding privileges to an existing role

d. Developing Extensible Data Security policy, Configuring Permissions in AOT

Conclusion

Overall, I would rate this book (3/5) as it's just a basic book showing how to manage security in Dynamics AX 2012. It would have been refreshing if the book covered how-to's looking at a broader perspective like Securing SQL Server Database (for Dynamics AX), SSRS Security and AIF Security. Also, it would have been handy if it highlighted some real time errors/problems faced while implementing security and troubleshooting tips.