December 17, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

GDC Session-II: Microsoft Dynamics AX with other Microsoft Technologies and Products

Although I was putting a great expectations on the result of this session, this session was hardest. All because of the Workflow!

The recommendation from Microsoft before the DGS was to not the exceed of level 100 of technicality. Although I did not exceed this level, talking about workflow to people who saw Dynamics AX for two or three times in their lives is exactly like if I’m talking in Turkish J!!!

What then happened is when I tried configure the workflow template generated in the session using Workflow for Dummies.. the configuration just crashed. What a luck!

Fortunately I continued with a hotter topic that is how to use Dynamics AX web controls and ASP.NET controls to interact with Dynamics AX on the Enterprise Portal.

After that I closed the session by creating a report in SQL Server Reporting Services and the saving it in the Report Library of Dynamics AX AOT.

You could download the power point presentations from here.

December 17, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

GDC Session-I: Introduction to Dynamics AX Architecture and Development Environment

In the morning of Sunday 14^th of December, 2009 the first session  of Microsoft Dynamics AX was started with more than 40 attendees. The session title was: Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX Architecture and Development Environment.

I started by introducing Dynamics AX functionally and technically. I then turned to show the basic and components architecture diagrams. After this I spent lots of time describing the different tools of MorphX. Finally I started the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 desktop client. From there I have shown quickly the AOT, forms, methods, X++… etc.

Download the presentation files down from here.

December 13, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

Dynamics AX 6.0 – X++ Editor

I have read a very interesting article talking about the new editor of X++ that will be shipped as part of the new version of Dynamics AX, 6.0.

The new editor looks more “fashionable” than the current one. You could specify font styles, colors, sizes… etc. Also types of words that you write in the editor are now more colorful. Integers, operators, and others are now recognized in different colors.

Mainly, these are the features of the new Dynamics AX editor:

• Support for multiple fonts and styles (comments are in a different font in italic)
• Differentiated coloring of strings and numbers
• Operators coloring
• Change tacking margin

Here are some pics for it

December 13, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

Dynamics AX Community @ Saudi Arabia :D

Microsoft is planning to establish a new technical group concerning Microsoft Dynamics AX and attracting the Microsoft Dynamics AX/Axapta developers, application consultants, technology consultants, architects, support engineers, consultant team leads, and even project managers’ in Saudi Arabia.

The community will be announced during the sessions of Gulf Develoeprs Conference ’09 (with in the current three days).

We are interested in your feedback about the community. Download from here a feedback form and kindly send it back to me  to: amer@amer-ax.com.

September 10, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

Microsoft Gulf Developers Conference ’09

As part of the events that Microsoft held in Gulf region, Saudi specially, for developers who use or might be interested in Microsoft development platforms, technologies, and products… a new conference will take place in Riyadh in the 13th of December, 2009 for three days. This conference will be called as: GDC ’09.

“With the current release of latest new Microsoft technologies (e.g. Win7, Expression3, SL3), and the intense anticipation for upcoming Microsoft technologies (e.g. Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 & VS2010), GDC’09 is expected to attract the attention of many developers in the region. ” from Microsoft site.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is also part of the interests. For Microsoft Dynamics AX sessions, I have been chosen to cover the technical part and the development tools of Microsoft Dynamics AX at a glance.

I have decided to divide the sessions into three, like the following:

1.    Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics AX Architecture and Development Environment

·         This session will give the developers a great overview of the technology used in Dynamics AX through describing tiers of architecture and development tools. The excitement in this session would come when the “fresh Dynamics AX developers” notice the ease, beauty and flexibility of developing inside such environment and using those tools.
 

2.    Microsoft Dynamics AX with other Microsoft Technologies

·         Aligning Dynamics AX with other Microsoft technologies will be shown clearly in this session. Adding value to Microsoft Dynamics AX like BI reporting, web interface and workflow is available out of the box and all are using Microsoft products like SQL Server platform, SharePoint technology and .NET framework.

3.    Integrating Microsoft Dynamics AX with External Systems

·         By this session, the cycle of Microsoft Dynamics AX development will complete. In addition to developing inside Dynamics AX and out-of-the-box integration with Microsoft products, integrating with external systems (Microsoft and non Microsoft technologies) is described here with available ways, tools and technologies.

I will put a schedule for my sessions 0nce I get them. I will also update the plug with what will happen during the events.

August 10, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

A Primer on Workflow Management Using Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

A very nice article has been posted in MSDynamicsWorld.com by Scott Hamilton about workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. It shows by more than one example how workflow could be effectively implemented so it serves organization processes needs.

This article is excellent for those who haven’t experienced the workflow yet in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. It doesn’t require any technical background.

Have fun.

July 28, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, a view from the above

Microsoft has added a very useful functionality in the new release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 that is: Workflow. I have explored many articles by Microsoft and others about Workflow in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. For the technical articles part, all of them are describing the workflow in a technical format that prevents the reader from seeing the whole picture of this functionality that has been delayed a lot. This is so important to be known.

Microsoft did not implement the workflow inside Microsoft Dynamics AX itself, they preferred to use WWF (Windows Workflow Foundation) that has been released with the .NET Framework 3.5.  WWF is a new feature that builds and executes workflows inside .NET applications. WWF workflow engine, the one that runs the workflow inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, is published and configured in the IIS.  The following diagram shows you how this happens:

Workflow engine in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009

By this, Microsoft has gained the advantage of the new functionalities that would be added later on WWF without upgrading Microsoft Dynamics AX itself (for most of the cases at least).  And this is a great example of what you can do when using .NET business connector of Microsoft Dynamics AX.

In the following picture, you could see that workflow runtime, currently, is residing inside IIS.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Workflow Runtime

Someone might ask: why did’nt Microsoft lunched the workflow runtime on the AOS of Dynamics AX.  Actually Microsoft is planning to do so in the soonest (this might be in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2010). But they have made it on IIS because the AOS is written in a native code, not in a managed code.  And since WWF is part of “very managed” .NET environment, it’s time and effort consuming for them to make such integration. So they simply put the workflow runtime on the IIS till they completely convert the AOT into managed code.

You guys could benefit from a video that has been recorded in PDC 2008. Josh Honeyman, a Senior Development Lead at Microsoft, shows how workflow is implemented in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 and its future. To watch the video, press here.

July 25, 2009 in Blog, Dynamics AX by Amer

My first post, your first smile!

Salaam all,

Thank you for visiting my Microsoft Dynamics AX blog or my personal website: http://www.amer-ax.com . I will be focusing in my topics here on the developmentcustomization side in Microsoft Dynamics AX and other Microsoft technologies and products that integrate with Dynamics AX. I will reveal some of the powerful secrets that are not shown or, at least, not clearly appeared to Dynamics AX developers (whatever the reason is).

I hope that u will get use of the topics I’m going to cover. And, please, if you have any issues in that field, or in Microsoft  Dynamics AX in general.. just contact me at: amer.adnan@gmail.com or amer@amer-ax.com. I’ll be there whenever you like.

Thank you again,,,
Amer Atiyah
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia