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Chapter 1: Overview

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW Objectives

The objectives are:

Describe the new interface elements in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Describe changes to the organization model. Use and update the help system. Describe the Microsoft Office Add-Ins in Microsoft Dynamics AX. View work items that are based on specific business documents in

one location. Review improvements made to the document handling feature in

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Set up alert rules to work across all organizational structures. Explain the new features and benefits of the Global Address Book

(GAB). Review the code upgrade process.

Introduction Microsoft is committed to delivering a people-ready experience to medium-sized organizations and divisions of larger enterprises that operate in the global economy.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is an innovative release that brings users improved and new functionality. The new features improve the way both users and developers interact daily with the application and also how they customize, setup and work with the application to fit their individual needs.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 value proposition

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 value proposition includes the following:

Simplifying the complete application life cycle of Microsoft Dynamics AX, from implementation, customization, integration, usability, and maintenance to upgrade and performance, to help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO).

Improving financial capabilities to support companies who operate in the global economy.

Adding more industry-enabling functionality for target industries.

Microsoft Official Training Materials for Microsoft Dynamics

Your use of this content is subject to your current services agreement

What's New - Technical in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Development

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Providing best practices in areas such as supplier relationship management (SRM), human resources management (HRM), customer relationship management, expense management, and compliance and environmental sustainability.

Supporting new online services, such as site services for case management and vendor on boarding to improve collaborative scenarios.

Part of the Role Tailored design strategy in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is to increase productivity. The Role Tailored design is used so that people can deliver just the information they need, where and when they need it. It offers perspective by providing an overview of the work ahead so that organizations can plan and prioritize efforts. The Role Tailored design is a key component of improving user productivity in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

The following sections introduce some of the key new and improved features of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The features are relevant for all audiences and users of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Some of these features are discussed in further detail in one of the Whats New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 titles; whereas other features are only presented at a high level in this chapter.

DISCLAIMER: During the writing stage of the Whats New training content, functionalities in certain areas of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 were not fully implemented. An example of this includes the changes that are still occurring to the user interface. While the content has been approved and developed with the best knowledge, certain functionalities are still subject to change.

New User Interface Elements Following the overall Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 theme of simplifying the user and development experience, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces multiple new user controls for a streamlined user experience. It also provides several benefits to developers, administrators, and end-users through the following client features and improvements.

Jewel Menu

The Jewel menu replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu which was available in earlier releases of the workspace. It also provides drop-down menus which in earlier releases were at the top of each form.



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The menus are consolidated under a button similar to the Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010 Jewel menu. To the right side of the Jewel is the Command Bar. This hosts Action Panes, Windows (workspace only), View, and Help buttons. You can turn off the Jewel and Command Bar by using the Form > Design > HideToolbar property for dialog boxes and other form patterns. In earlier releases, the HideToolbar property controlled the drop-down menus and the toolbar.

FIGURE 1.1 JEWEL MENU




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Navigation Pane

The Navigation Pane is redesigned to provide navigation options that are more visually appealing and usable. In earlier releases there were three panes which displayed Favorites, Places, and Forms, and now they are condensed into a single pane that flows and scrolls as one unit. This makes it easier to control and customize. The footer area of the Navigation Pane now displays small module buttons. This makes it possible to access more modules with one click. The Navigation Pane cannot be controlled by developers, but can be personalized by users through the View button in the command bar.

FIGURE 1.2 NAVIGATION PANE

Status Bar

The status bar provides access to actions and in earlier releases it was at the top of each form in a toolbar. The status bar can be personalized by the user, by using the User Options form (Tools > Options) and is still controlled for each form by using the StatusBarStyle property within the form design.

FIGURE 1.3 STATUS BAR



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Shared List Page Metadata

The Form.FormTemplate=ListPage restriction is added to enable developers to model list page metadata that is shared between the client and Enterprise Portal. When Form.FormTemplate is set to ListPage, the form is restricted to only include the Action Pane, Custom Filter Group, and a grid. When the form template is set to ListPage, the form cannot have code that is running on the client. Use these restrictions so that the Shared ListPage Metadata is displayed in both the client and Enterprise Portal.

Action Pane Strip

The new Action Pane strip control provides an action presentation that resembles the Microsoft Windows 7 Windows Explorer bar. The Action Pane strip control can be used at the top of forms that do not have sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane. They are also used within the form to position actions close to their related records and data fields. The Action Pane strip control uses the same metadata as a full Action Pane but displays only the first Action Pane tab. The following illustration shows how an Action Pane strip control can be seen when the ActionPane.Style property is set to Strip.

FIGURE 1.4 ACTION PANE STRIP

Parts to Provide Fact Boxes

Metadata-based parts can be referenced by forms, by using a PartReference node. The Fact Box figure shows a Fact Box component that provides information related to the record displayed by the host form or List Page.

InfoParts: Provide a simplified metadata representation that is fully supported by both the client and the Enterprise Portal. InfoParts are limited not allow code to run on the client.

FormParts: Forms to be used as Parts. FormParts have no limitations with full form metadata and code available. However, they cannot be rendered by Enterprise Portal and are for client use only.




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CueParts: Cueparts are a reference to a query and a menu item to give the user a count from a query that moves the user to a corresponding List Page or form as denoted by the Menu Item. CueParts can be grouped by CueGroups to be displayed as Fact Boxes or in Role Centers.

FIGURE 1.5 FACT BOXES

Preview Panes

The Preview pane component displays more information about the selected record in a List Page. To add a Preview pane add a PartReference node to the Form.Parts node of the List Page. To specify a PartReference as the Preview pane component, set the PartLocation property of the PartReference to PreviewPane



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Fast Tabs

A Fast Tab is a new vertical presentation style for the existing tab control. The Fast Tabs figure displays an example of the Customer details form. In The following illustration shows the General fast tab expanded and the Address, Contact information, Details fast tab, and so on are collapsed. To expand or collapse a Fast Tab you must click on the header or description of the Fast Tab.

FIGURE 1.6 FAST TABS

Fast Tabs are used in the Windows 7 and Microsoft Office when lots of data must be displayed in a highly accessible way. Fast Tabs display tab pages in a vertical sliding way to activate the options in the following list:

More than one tab page can be displayed at a time. Longer, more explanatory tab page names are provided to the user. The display of summary fields that give the user information from

the tab page without having to be expanded.

Fast Tabs are used extensively in Details forms and Simple List and Details form patterns. Fast Tabs can be seen when the Tab.Style property is set to Fast Tabs.

Summary fields are displayed without labels. Therefore, the visual noise is reduced but labels are available when you rest the mouse pointer over them. Summary fields can be specified by setting the FastTabSummary property on a control within the tab page, or ideally by adding a field to the AutoSummary group on a table so that the field is made into a summary field when it is positioned in a Fast Tab page.




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Document View

The concept of a document view is introduced into client forms to provide developers and users the ability to have a read-only representation of data that reduces the risk of accidental changes.

Developers can permanently set the mode for a control or a control container by using the ViewEditMode property at design time. You can also indicate the initial mode to open a form by using the OpenMode property on a Menu Item or MenuItemButton.

Users can switch the mode of the form between View and Edit by using the Edit record button in the status bar, the Edit record option in the Jewel menu, or the corresponding keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+E). Users have personalization options to specify the mode that their forms open in. They can use the User options (Tools > Options) form to specify a default View or Edit mode for all forms. You can personalize individual forms to specify the default View or Edit mode for that form.

Grid Check Boxes

In earlier releases, the gray box-shaped row labels were displayed on the left side of each grid row. Now they are replaced with grid check boxes that are similar to those found in Windows Explorer in Windows 7. Grid check boxes are a visible indication to users, that they can select multiple records and even select all records, if it is necessary. The appearance and behavior of these grid check boxes are controlled by using the same Grid.RowLabels and Grid.MultiSelect properties that controlled the gray box-shaped row labels that they are replacing.

FIGURE 1.7 GRID CHECK BOXES



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Enhanced Previews

When a user moved their mouse pointer over a field in earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, a tooltip was displayed that provided the user a one- or two-field preview of that record. Those previews are improved to make them more visible, available on any grid row, and available, as specified by developers, on other fields.

FIGURE 1.8 ENHANCED PREVIEW

Improved previews are displayed to the user when they rest the mouse pointer over any foreign key field or over any control on which the developer has set the Control.PreviewPartRef property to point to a Part (InfoPart or FormPart). You can specify a customized improved preview for a table foreign key field by pointing the Table.PreviewPartRef property to point to a Part.

Segmented Entry Control

Segmented entry control simplifies the task of entering complex account and dimension combinations. The following list describes how account and dimension data entry is improved.

A simple cheat sheet window shows the user-defined title for each segment.

Recent values entered by the user for the current segment are displayed.

A lookup window lets the user select from a list of valid values or all values for the current segment.

Instance specific options for a control include the ability to turn off the recent entries window.




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The ability to show only abbreviated values (six characters) for non-focused segments.

To provide improved readability, both the cheat sheet and lookup windows open up aligned to the currently focused segment.

FIGURE 1.9 DIMENSION ENTRY DISPLAY

Managed Control Host

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, you had the ability to extend the user interface by adding an ActiveX control. Support for external controls is extended by adding support for both .NET managed controls and WPF controls, through the use of the Managed Control Host in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. Managed controls are hosted using the Microsoft Dynamics AX ManagedHost control. The ManagedHost adds a window to your form in which the control resides. To add a ManagedHost control to the design node of the form, open the form in the Application Object Tree (AOT), and then right-click Design > New Control > ManagedHost.

Your code experience using a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) or Managed WinForms control will be similar to your experience in Visual Studio. You will have an instance of your control in X++ where you can set properties, call methods, and use an X++ event handler for the events raised by the control.

Other New Client Functionality

The following information describes other features that are added to improve the user experience:

Controls and menu items can use metadata properties to automatically disable or hide based on country/region context. This means that fields or navigation applicable for a specific country/region will not be available when they do not apply.

Forms used to save as a whole object, but now they save at child element levels, like Tables and Classes. This reduces metadata conflicts when merging solutions into a single layer.

Forms support exporting changes from a single layer such as Tables and Classes.

The CueGroup and InfoPart model concepts use granular metadata and layer export such as classes and tables.



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The Filter-by-Grid, Filter-by-Field, Field-by-Value, Filter-by-Selection, and Advanced Filter dialog boxes support filtering on outer joined fields by using the WHERE clause instead of the ON clause.

The Display Menu Items support referencing a query that is applied to the target form when it is opened. In the model, this provides a way to create secondary List Pages without using the wrapper class.

Organization Model Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces new organizational modeling capabilities, which will help to make your organization structure easier to manage by providing the following benefits.

More organization types Security more independent of the organization structure Addition of organization hierarchy Data sharing between organizations

About Organizations and Organizational Hierarchies

An organization is a group of people working together to carry out a business process or to achieve a goal. Organizational hierarchies represent the relationships between the organizations that comprise your business. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you can define two types of organizations: legal entities and operating units.

Legal Entities

A legal entity is an organization that is identified through a registration with a legal authority. Legal entities can enter into contracts and are required to prepare statements that report on their performance.

A company is a type of legal entity. For this release, companies are the only type of legal entity that you can create in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Every legal entity record is associated with a company ID. This is because the data security for many tables in Microsoft Dynamics AX is still based on company ID.

Operating Units

An operating unit is an organization that is used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. People in an operating unit have a duty to maximize the use of scarce resources, to improve processes, and to account for their performance.




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In Microsoft Dynamics AX, operating unit types include cost center, business unit, value stream, and department. For more information about each operating unit type, refer to the following table.

Operating Unit Type

Description

Cost center An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures.

Business unit A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives.

Value stream An operating unit that controls one or more production flows.

Department An operating unit that represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task, such as sales or accounting.

NOTE: In addition to legal entities and operating units, you can create teams as a part of the organizational structure. A team is an organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. For more information about teams, refer to the Human Capital Management documentation. Teams cannot be used in organizational hierarchies.

NOTE: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the financial statement with balance sheet only for a legal entity. For example, if you are using a new operating unit type, such as business unit, or a custom operating unit type like branch, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 does not support the creation of a balance sheet by those types of organizations.

Organizational Hierarchies

Set up organizational hierarchies to view and report on different perspectives of your business. For example, you might set up a hierarchy of legal entities for tax, legal, or statutory reporting. Set up a hierarchy based on operating units to report financial information that is not legally required, but is used for internal reporting. For example, you might create a purchase hierarchy to control purchasing policies, rules, and business processes.

Organizations in a hierarchy can share parameters, policies, and transactions. An organization can inherit or override the parameters of its parent organization. However, shared master datasuch as products, address books, and currenciesis organization-wide, and cannot be overridden for individual organizations.



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There are several steps involved with creating the organizational hierarchy.

1. Create organizations including legal entities and operating units. 2. Create a new hierarchy. 3. Assign a purpose to the hierarchy. 4. Add organizations to the hierarchy.

The Organizational Hierarchy figure displays an example of an organization chart for Contoso.

FIGURE 1.10 ORGANIZATIONAL HIERARCHY

Organizational Hierarchy Purposes

Before adding organizations to a hierarchy, you should select a purpose for the hierarchy. The purpose that you select determines the types of organizations that can be included in the hierarchy. The following table shows the organization types that are allowed by the default hierarchy purposes.

Hierarchy purposes Organizational types allowed Procurement internal control All

Expenditure internal control All

Organization chart Departments

Signature authority internal control Legal entities

Vendor payment internal control All




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Hierarchy purposes Organizational types allowed Audit internal control Legal entities

Security All

Help System A new Help system is used to supply Help documentation for the application and development workspaces. You can add new help content by adding properly formatted HTML files to the help server. No compilation, rebuilding, or AOT deployments are necessary to add Help documentation.

Help System Features

The following list describes the features of the new Help system.

New HTML-based help content is provided by a single deployment to the help server.

AOT changes are not required to add or change content. Modifications can be displayed side by side with existing content, or

you can replace content supplied by other publishers. Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) or a customer. Feature parity in content enables any publisher to use label

replacement, integrated search, and other features of the Help system.

Microsoft Office Add-Ins Now, business users that use Microsoft Office Add-ins in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 can interact with data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. For example, in earlier releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX, users could only export data out of Microsoft Dynamics AX. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Microsoft Office add-ins lets a user export and import data. The four main uses for the Microsoft Add-ins are as follows:

Lightweight reporting: From any grid in the client or Enterprise Portal, export data, extend and build upon it in Excel, then update as conditions change.

Editing data in Excel: Update Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data by using the Excel add-ins.



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Import data using Excel: Excel can be used as a template to gather reference and master data to be imported into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Templates and documents: Incorporate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data in Word or Excel documents (for example: collection letter, quotation, sales forecast, project forecast, aging report, and so on).

The following sections provide more information about each feature of the Microsoft Office add-ins.

Lightweight Reporting

The Excel add-ins provide a lightweight reporting solution. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 users have an export to Excel option in list pages from the client or Enterprise Portal. When the data is in Excel additional columns can be added, filters can be added, and data can be refreshed to populate those columns. With the data in Excel it can be manipulated using Excel options including: adding calculated columns, creating pivot tables, adding conditional formatting, and so on. The features of using the Microsoft Office Add-ins as a lightweight reporting tool include the following:

Exports can be created from any list page or grid in the client or Enterprise Portal.

Exports can be extended with additional data. o For example: Phyllis, the Accounting Manager, needs a list of all

customers and the customer group they are in. Customer group is not included on the customer export to Excel, but can be added.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 style query filters can be added to limit data being passed to Excel from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Export can be refreshed as conditions change. Columns not bound to data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

(Unbound columns) can be added to the Excel spreadsheets. Office integration can now export to the Terminal Services Client

computer.

Edit Data in Excel

Using the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins any data published as an available service can be edited. To do this connect to an AOS, specify a document service, drag the fields of interest onto the excel workbook, update data to populate the workbook, edit the workbook, and then click update data. The features of editing data in Excel include the following:

Connection management is used to define the connection between Excel, and the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 AOS.

Real time data integration from Microsoft Office.




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Document services integration. o Information from any Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 service can

be read, updated, and sent to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with full security and business logic intact.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins uses lookups and query infrastructure from Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Matrix fields can be defined to aggregate data. o When matrix fields are updated the value is incremented equally

among the records making up the aggregate.

Improved Export to Excel for Remote Desktop Services

Many implementations use hosting on a Remote Desktop Server (earlier known as Terminal Server). In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, when you exported grid data to Excel by using the Export to Excel option in the Action Pane, the Excel data would be exported to a copy of Microsoft Office Excel hosted alongside the Microsoft Dynamics AX client. In that scenario, you could not manage the data on your local computer, and would have to save the Excel worksheet and copy it to your local computer. By default in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the Export to Excel option will export the Microsoft Office Excel data to your local computer. The option exists to direct the export to the hosted copy of Microsoft Office Excel.

Import Data Using Excel

Data model changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 have made some imports more complex, especially those that use the global address book. A list of how Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins simplifies these processes follows.

Imports to multiple related tables are simplified by using AIF document services. o For example: when you enter a customer, both the customer and

party information are in a single Excel list object, validation is performed, default data is populated, and record ID "patching" happens automatically.

Data imports can be done either interactively or published to a folder for an Integration port to detect. o Interactive data import allows for synchronous interaction with

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This is a simpler mode of operation, but can be slow for large imports.

o Data import through publishing to a folder provides an asynchronous import where AIF inbound ports can be used to scale out performance. Additionally the Excel client will be responsive as soon as it generates files telling Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 what to update, not when the update is completed.



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Data imports can be brought offline, and lookups can be performed against local caches. o For example: if customer groups and customers are in the same

Excel template, and a new customer group is created, and it can be referenced by the customer, then both tables can be imported/updated.

Templates and Documents

Office templates let you incorporate Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 data in Word or Excel documents, and they are now extended in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. They support a header line pattern, support drag-and-drop fields, previews, and are easier to localize for different languages.

Header line pattern is supported. o Microsoft Office Add-ins are extended to use the Word table

construct so that elements can be repeated. o For example: A collection letter is authored by using a Word

table to show a list of overdue invoices that grows based on the number of invoices in the notice.

Localization is simplified. o Document properties in Microsoft Office are used to locate the

correct document based on the user locale or programming settings.

o For example: A German collection letter is sent to a German customer, and an English collection letter is sent to an English customer.

Drag-and-drop designer activates the content controls to be visible on a document surface.

Previews are available through Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Office Add-ins to let the designer see what the final documents will look like without having to associate a document with a process then generate that document in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Install Office Add-ins

Use the Microsoft Office Add-ins for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to integrate the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 client with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word. When you install the Microsoft Office Add-ins, a new Microsoft Dynamics AX contextual tab is created on the ribbon in Excel and Word. The user can use the controls on this tab to create and update data in an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document.




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Work Items The concept of work item queues is introduced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to provide an alternative assignment and management model for task elements in workflows. Workflow tasks can now be managed by a team by using a shared work list.

If you use either internal teams, or external partner organizations, to process business transactions, such as purchase requisitions, purchase orders, or new vendor justifications using workflow, you might have to set up work item queues to help these teams manage the flow of the transactions as they come in from your company and as they are processed by the appropriate organization. The work item queue provides the infrastructure needed to perform the following tasks:

Users belonging to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the available workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

Users can reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

Procedure: Create a Work Item Queue

To use work item queues, you must follow these steps:

1. Create a queue for a specific document type. 2. Assign the queue to a queue group. 3. Add users to the queue. 4. Activate the queue. 5. Create a workflow and add a task element. 6. Set up the assignment to a specific queue. Then, when a record of

that document type is submitted to workflow, a work item will be created and assigned to the queue.



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Document Handling Document handling is improved in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to include support for URLs and a document file web service.

Document Type URL

The following improvements can ease the document handling process for companies that are geographically dispersed and that want to maintain their paper-based documents in one location:

A URL can be attached to a transaction and a workflow definition can be configured to route paper-based document files for review.

A new document file web service is added that can be used to retrieve document file metadata and route the data to the appropriate parties by using workflow.

Document data can be entered, and the document file can be attached to the new transaction. This creates an audit trail for the original document.

Alerts You can set up alert rules that can react to all data within Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and are not restricted to a single legal entity. When you set up an alert rule, it will be automatically associated with a company if the data is specific to a company.

Alerts Features

Alerts are re-factored in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to work with the new organization model, financial dimensions framework, and relational database schema changes. Changes to alerts include the following:

Alert rules are created at the company level if the data is associated with a company.

Alerts number sequence setup is included in Organization administration > Setup > Application parameters.

Global Address Book Address reference data, that includes country/region codes, states, counties, ZIP/Postal Codes, city, district, and address formats, are changed from company-specific data to global data in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This means, they are defined one time for the system and not one time for each company.




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Address Transition

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 all the data associated to an entity's address was stored in the entity table. For example, the table for customer (CustTable) stored the name, address, and contact information.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the global address book was introduced, which lead to a transition to a common repository of this data. While the address information was still stored in the entity tables, it was synchronized to the global address book tables.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, the transition is complete by removing the synchronization and duplicate fields from the entity tables. Address data is stored in the common address book tables.

Data Normalization

The majority of transactions and journals have address information for example: sales orders have delivery addresses, and invoices have billing addresses. In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX the address was usually stored on the header and each line for each transaction. It was also stored with the journals or packing slips that were generated from the transaction.

This pattern caused significant repetition of data. For example, entering a 10-line quotation and moving it step-by-step to an invoice meant the same address could be stored 88 times. In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, address duplication is reduced by storing the address one time and having each transaction or journal table reference the address record.

Address Defaulting

An address defaulting methodology is also implemented that lets users select which address should be used as the default for a transaction. The customer, vendor, company information, and prospect forms let the user specify a default address for a specific purpose. Depending on the transaction, there are different defaulting flows for addresses.

Global Address Book Import

Addresses in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 are now normalized. This means that to import data with an address both the address and data tables need to be updated. The Microsoft Dynamics AX Import/Export tool examines each table independently. Therefore, it has problems when it is loading nested and related tables.

To resolve this, Application Integration Framework (AIF) document services are updated in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to correctly import to the global address book. The Microsoft Dynamics AX add-in for Excel is added to simplify calling the AIF document service.



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Code Upgrade Developers that must perform a code upgrade for existing applications should first try to identify all references to the defined code patterns and then follow the instructions in the related sections to upgrade their code. The code upgrade can be done in any sequence but in the end, the following steps are required.

Identify the pattern your code uses today. Add new fields in data model to represent new foreign keys to party. Add "DEL_" to the old foreign key fields. Create a data upgrade script to populate the new fields from the old. Update the user interface to use the new control appropriate for the

pattern defined. The new controls will take advantage of the new foreign keys that you added to your data model.

Update the references and business logic in your X++ classes and table methods to use the new code patterns defined in the defined patterns section of this document.

Update existing reports to use the new data model including the specific views created for reporting.

Microsoft provides code upgrade documents for each module in PartnerSource. These documents describe in detail how to implement a module, such as Global Address Book (GAB), and how to upgrade the code to the new Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 coding patterns.

SQL Server-Based Model Store

The AOD files that were used in earlier releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX are replaced in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 with components called model files (identified by the *.axmodel extension) in a SQL Server database that is named the model store.

If customizations have been made to the Microsoft Dynamics AX source system, you must create the model store when you install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. You will then copy the AOD files from the source system into the application directory in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. You will then use the Import AOD file tool to import the customized AOD files into the model store. During the code upgrade, the old model files will be compared to the data model in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. This lets you discover and resolve code conflicts between the source and target systems.




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Summary Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps mid-sized organizations and entities of large enterprises address the challenges of operating in a fast changing global economy.

The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers functionality that is relevant and necessary for organizations by adding functionality to help ensure they have productive people, adaptable business processes, and a connected ecosystem.

The Overview chapter covered several high level improvements including the following:

User Interface Elements Organizational Model Help System Microsoft Office Add-Ins Work Items Document Handling Alerts Global Address Book Code Upgrade



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Test Your Knowledge Test your knowledge with the following questions.

1. Match the terms on the left with their purpose on the right:

_____ 1. Jewel Menu _____ 2. Navigation Pane _____ 3. Status Bar _____ 4. Action Pane Strip _____ 5. Fact Boxes _____ 6. Fast Tabs _____ 7. Grid Check Boxes

a. Provides access to actions that were previously at the top of each form in a toolbar.

b. Replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu c. A visible indication to users that they can select

multiple records or even select all records. d. Used at the top of the forms that do not have

sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane.

e. Provides information related to the record displayed by the host form or List Page.

f. A new vertical presentation style. g. Displays Favorites, Places, and Forms in a single

pane that flows and scrolls as one unit.

Fill in the blanks to test your knowledge of this section.

2. Replaces the companies that were used in previous versions. _____

3. Used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. _____

4. A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives. _____

5. Represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task. _____

6. An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures. _____

7. An operating unit that controls one or more production flows. _____

8. An organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. _____




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9. Which of the following is not a feature or benefit of the new Help system?

( ) HTML-based content is published by a single deployment to the help server.

( ) AOT changes are required to add or modify content. ( ) Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an ISV or a customer. ( ) Feature parity in content allows any publisher to use label


10. Which of the following is not supported by the Microsoft Office Add-Ins? (Select all that apply)

( ) Importing and exporting data using Excel ( ) Importing and exporting data using Word ( ) Use of templates with Excel ( ) Use of templates with Word

11. Which of the following are benefits of the work item queue feature: (Select all that apply)

( ) Users belonging to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the configured workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

( ) Lets users reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another work item queue.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

12. TRUE or FALSE: You can attach a URL to a transaction and configure a workflow definition to route paper-based document files for review.

( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

13. Select the features that alerts have been re-factored to work with Alerts. (Select all that apply)

( ) Organization model ( ) Financial dimension framework ( ) Relational database schema changes ( ) Document handling

14. The global address book prevents all duplicate data throughout the system.

( ) True ( ) False



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15. Describe the process that must be followed when you have made customizations to the Microsoft Dynamics AX source system for upgrading the code.




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Quick Interaction: Lessons Learned Take a moment and write down three key points you have learned from this chapter

1.

2.

3.



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Solutions Test Your Knowledge

1. Match the terms on the left with their purpose on the right:

b 1. Jewel Menu g 2. Navigation Pane a 3. Status Bar d 4. Action Pane Strip e 5. Fact Boxes f 6. Fast Tabs c 7. Grid Check Boxes

a. Provides access to actions that were previously at the top of each form in a toolbar.

b. Replaces the Microsoft Dynamics AX menu c. A visible indication to users that they can select

multiple records or even select all records. d. Used at the top of the forms that do not have

sufficient actions to justify the use of a full action pane.

e. Provides information related to the record displayed by the host form or List Page.

f. A new vertical presentation style. g. Displays Favorites, Places, and Forms in a single

pane that flows and scrolls as one unit.

Fill in the blanks to test your knowledge of this section.

2. Replaces the companies that were used in previous versions. Legal Entity

3. Used to divide the control of economic resources and operational processes in a business. Operating Unit

4. A semi-autonomous operating unit that is created to meet strategic business objectives. Business Unit

5. Represents a category or functional part of an organization that performs a specific task. Department

6. An operating unit whose managers are accountable for budgeted and actual expenditures. Cost Center

7. An operating unit that controls one or more production flows. Value Stream

8. An organization whose members share a common responsibility, interest, or objective. Team




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9. Which of the following is not a feature or benefit of the new Help system?

( ) HTML-based content is published by a single deployment to the help server.

() AOT changes are required to add or modify content. ( ) Updates to Microsoft Dynamics AX content will not affect content

published by an ISV or a customer. ( ) Feature parity in content allows any publisher to use label


10. Which of the following is not supported by the Microsoft Office Add-Ins? (Select all that apply)

( ) Importing and exporting data using Excel () Importing and exporting data using Word ( ) Use of templates with Excel ( ) Use of templates with Word

11. Which of the following are benefits of the work item queue feature: (Select all that apply)

() Users belonging to a queue can claim work items that are not assigned to anyone else and take the configured workflow actions on the work items in the queue.

() Lets users reassign work items from one work item queue to another work item queue within the same work item queue group.

( ) Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another work item queue.

() Queue owners can reassign work items from one queue user to another queue user within the same work item queue group.

12. TRUE or FALSE: You can attach a URL to a transaction and configure a workflow definition to route paper-based document files for review.

() TRUE ( ) FALSE

13. Select the features that alerts have been re-factored to work with Alerts. (Select all that apply)

() Organization model () Financial dimension framework () Relational database schema changes ( ) Document handling



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14. The global address book prevents all duplicate data throughout the system.

( ) True () False

15. Describe the process that must be followed when you have made customizations to the Microsoft Dynamics AX source system for upgrading the code.

MODEL ANSWER:

1.) You must create the model store when you install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 2.) Copy the AOD files from the source system into the application directory in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. 3.) Use the Import AOD file tool to import the customized AOD files into the model store.




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