The following Powershell script copies the AX2009 DEV Layers to LIVE thereby checking that the services have been stopped and also copying the previous layers into old and backing up old in subfolders of old:

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::Load(“System.Windows.Forms, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089″)
$AXPATH_DEV = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl\AX09_TEST”
$AXPATH_DEV_OLD = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl\AX09_TEST\old”
$AXPATH_PROD = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl\AX09_LIVE”
$AXPATH_PROD_OLD = “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl\AX09_LIVE\old”
$LABELFILES = “axsa*.ald”
$LAYERFILES = “axcus*.aod”
function copyAXAppl
{
#DEV and PROD services must be stopped
    if((get-service -name AOS50?01).status -eq “Stopped”)
    {
        if((get-service -name AOS50?02).status -eq “Stopped”)
        {
#CREATE PROD\OLD BACKUP DIR (YYYYMMDD)
            if(-not (test-path (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”))))
            {
                new-item -path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD -name (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”) -itemtype directory
            }  
#BACKUP PROD (only CUS Files)
            (dir -path $AXPATH_PROD -name $LABELFILES ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) }
            (dir -path $AXPATH_PROD -name $LAYERFILES) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) }
#COPY PROD\OLD\{14 days old} -> PROD\OLD
            if(test-path (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date (get-date).addDays(-14) -uformat “%Y%m%d”)))
            {
                (dir -path (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date (get-date).addDays(-14) -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) -name “*.ald” ) |
                    foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_PROD_OLD }
                (dir -path (join-path $AXPATH_PROD_OLD (get-date (get-date).addDays(-14) -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) -name “*.aod” ) |
                    foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_PROD_OLD }
            }
#CREATE DEV\OLD BACKUP DIR (YYYYMMDD)
            if(-not (test-path (join-path $AXPATH_DEV_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”))))
            {
                new-item -path $AXPATH_DEV_OLD -name (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”) -itemtype directory
            }  
#BACKUP DEV (only CUS Files)
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name $LABELFILES ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath (join-path $AXPATH_DEV_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) }
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name $LAYERFILES) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath (join-path $AXPATH_DEV_OLD (get-date -uformat “%Y%m%d”)) }
#COPY DEV –> DEVOLD
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name “*.ald” ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_DEV_OLD }
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name “*.aod” ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_DEV_OLD }

#COPY DEV->PROD (only CUS Files)
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name $LABELFILES ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_PROD }
            (dir -path $AXPATH_DEV -name $LAYERFILES ) |
                foreach-object {copy $_.pspath $AXPATH_PROD }
        }
        else
        {
            [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show(“First stop ‘” + (get-service -name AOS50?02).Displayname + “‘”)
         }
    }
    else
    {
           [System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox]::Show(“First stop ‘” + (get-service -name AOS50?01).Displayname + “‘”)
    }
}

Save the script above in your Powershell profile (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb613488(v=vs.85).aspx).

Run the script using a batch file containing

powershell copyAXappl

Situation:
A report containing e.g. PurchParmLine.itemId() will not show the orange hyperlink in the print preview screen that allows the user to jump to the main table.

Solution:
To make add a link to a display method field on a report you must replace the display method field by a temporary table datasource. Populate the desired field and send the temporary datasource.

public void executeSection //e.g. located in PurchParmLine body
{
    InventTable tmpPrintItemId; //any table with the ItemId field will do
    ;
    tmpPrintItemId.ItemId = PurchParmLine.itemId();
    element.send(tmPrintItemId);
    super();
}

Now you can add a Field with Properties Table = Inventtable and DataField = ItemId, which will print the contents of PurchParmLine.itemId() and will have the orange hyperlink in the print preview that allows the user to jump to the main table.

See also msdn How to

Do you want PROD data in your TEST System? Easy, just restore a backup of PROD into your TEST-DB. Run the following script to clean up some AOS specific data:

Update [AX09_TEST].[dbo].[BatchServerGroup] set SERVERID = ’01@SRVAOS1′  where SERVERID = ’02@SRVAOS1′
–01: DEV, 02: PROD, 03: MIG

Update [AX09_TEST].[dbo].[BATCHSERVERCONFIG] set SERVERID = ’01@SRVAOS1′  where SERVERID = ’02@SRVAOS1′
–01: DEV, 02: PROD, 03: MIG

Update [AX09_TEST].[dbo].[SYSSERVERCONFIG] set SERVERID = ’01@SRVAOS1′ , SERVERGUID = newid() where SERVERID = ’02@SRVAOS1′
–01: DEV, 02: PROD, 03: MIG

Update [AX09_TEST].[dbo].[Batch] set SERVERID = ’01@SRVAOS1′  where SERVERID = ’02@SRVAOS1′
–01: DEV, 02: PROD, 03: MIG

delete [AX09_TEST].[dbo].[SYSCLIENTSESSIONS]

–the following has nothing to do with the restore to TEST
–remove obsolete [SYSCLIENTSESSIONS] from PROD

select * from [AX09_LIVE].[dbo].[SYSCLIENTSESSIONS] where STATUS = 0

delete [AX09_LIVE].[dbo].[SYSCLIENTSESSIONS] where STATUS = 0

SysQuery::getTotal works fine, but the trick is how to handle temporary data sources where getTotal does not work:

if(!formDataSource.curser().isTmp())
{
    recordCount = SysQuery::getTotal(formDataSource.queryRun());
}
else
{
    while(!formDataSource.allRowsLoaded())
    {
        formDataSource.getNext();
    }
    recordCount = formDataSource.numberOfRowsLoaded();
}

Now recordCount contains the number of Records in the FormDataSource irrespective of the Tmp status of the data source. Of course the whole tmp-data source has been loaded in the process, which might be an issue in some cases.

I don’t like that the function Global::str2con(str _value, str 10 _sep = ‘,’) converts strings to numbers, if it can. It does this on a field by field basis, i.e. the resulting container might be a mixed bag of strings and numbers, which is difficult to process.

I added my own function to avoid this:

public static container str2strCon(str _value, str 10 _sep = ‘,’)
{
    #define.SC(“¶”) //special character
    int length = strlen(_value), sepLength = strlen(_sep);
    int i = 1;
    int j = strscan(_value, _sep, 1, length);
    container ret;
    ;
    while (j)
    {
        ret += (substr(_value, i, j-i));
        i = j+sepLength;
        j = strscan(_value, _sep, i, length);
    }
    ret += strreplace((substr(_value, i, length-i+1)),#SC,_sep);
    return ret;
}

While we’re at it:
The reverse function con2str does not guarantee reversibility – if a component of the container contains the separator, then the reversing function (str2Con) will result in a larger container. So I added a similar function strCon2str() to generate strings from a container while removing the separator character from strings in a container. This guarantees the reversibility of the function. My str2strCon() function above restores the separator character in the component-strings.

static str strCon2str(container c, str 10 _sep = ‘,’)
{
    #define.SC(“¶”) //special character
    str ret, s;
    int i;
    ;
    for (i=1; i<= conlen(c); i++)
    {
        s = conpeek(c,i);
        ret = (ret?ret + _sep:”") + strreplace(s,_sep,#SC);
    }
    return ret;
}

My only trick to find the resource number of an image is to use the resource browser.

In one installation I missed the resources browser (which should be found in the Menu: Tools –> Development tools –> Embedded Resource)

I didn’t find out why the menu option was missing but the workaround is easy:
in the AOT you can look for the form SysImageResources, which still works fine:

Issue description

As many of you might have found out, you can get the sheet name using the formula

=MID(CELL("filename");FIND("]";CELL("filename"))+1;99)

The issue with this solution is however that the sheet name does not refresh immediately when changing sheet.

The following screenshots show how this as well as a proposed function you can add as add-in:

Sheet 1: all good!

Sheet 2: field A1 has not refreshed

Sheet 2: after a press of F9 A1 is recalculated (Note that setting the recalculation options to “automatic” does not help.)

Proposed solutions

Create custom function “SHEETNAME

Create a new Excel File

Go to the VB-Editor (Alt-F11)

Create a new module containing the following code:

Function SHEETNAME(reference)
    SHEETNAME = reference.Parent.Name
End Function

Go back to the normal Excel View

Save As, pick Type “Excel Add-In (*.xlam)”, the path will change automatically, Save

Add the Add-In in Excel Options:

Browse for the file you created an add the Add-In

Now the new function “SHEETNAME” can be used.

Usage

=SHEETNAME(reference)

It’s however reasonable to add an IFERROR to capture the error caused by not having the custom function – of course the updating issue of the standard method will occur.

=IFERROR(SHEETNAME(A1);MID(CELL("filename");FIND("]";CELL("filename"))+1;99))

Sheet 1: without Add-in

Issue

Various Developments are in different stages of development, testing and release.
It can be challenging to keep track of all changes and keep the different systems in sync.

Release management option 1: Use XPOs

Process

• Development system (DEV): Development w/o special consideration of release process
  When done, move completed developments via xpo to TEST.
• Test system (TEST): Testing
  When done, move successfully tested object to PROD (or REL) using xpo
• Release system (REL): Create release layer if desired
  When done move Layer to PROD.
• Productive system (PROD): Active code base

Issues

• Manual identification and extraction of relevant objects required
• Three different code bases
• Danger of object-Ids being out of sync
• Objects can simultaneously contain modifications in different stages of development; some should be release, others not

Release management option 2: Use configuration keys

Process

• Development system (DEV): Development adding configuration keys allowing to deactivate the newly created code parts. (Do not use configuration keys for Database objects – PROD, TEST and DEV databases should be identical –> Enabling/Disabling configuration keys will never result in database issues).
  When done, move entire layer to TEST (synchronization between developers required, to ensure that all have disable their changes using configuration keys.)
• Test system (TEST): Activate Configuration Keys ready for testing; Test. Additional checks required that deactivated developments do not have unintended side effects.
  When done, move entire layer to PROD. (In some cases the code might have been release earlier, so only enabling configuration keys is required in PROD.)
• Production system (PROD): Enable configurations keys.

Advantages (referring to option 1)

• Simple identification and activation using configuration keys
• One code base
• Identical object-ids in all systems
• No issues in with objects simultaneously containing modifications in different stages of development.

Disadvantages

• Incorrectly disabled code can cause issues à additional testing required (release document needs to identify new added – but not enable code)

My conclusion

In my opinion the advantages of Option 2 outweigh the disadvantage of the additional “disabled”-testing required.

Practical aspects

Configuration key structure

Add a configuration key parent for pending objects and one for released objects. In DEV all configurations are always enabled (this can be ensured by script – see below), in TEST only some configurations in the “Release pending” group might be enabled. In PROD, no configurations in the “Release pending” group might are enabled.

After successful testing the configuration keys are moved into the released group. Note: Moving between the “Release pending” and the “Released” group does nothing in itself – it is recommended for keeping track of the status of the various objects and can be used by scripts to identify the status of configuration keys.

Enable DEV/TEST configuration keys after restore

The following code enables all config keys under ReleasePending. It is useful after a restore of the PROD database into test and can be run as manually executed job or can be included in Info.startupPost() to automatically run when the current database is TEST (SysSQLSystemInfo::construct().getloginDatabase()).

/// <summary>
/// Activate all configuration keys under ReleasePending ==> for test system only!
/// </summary>
static void enableControlledReleaseConfigs()
{
    int i;
    Dictionary dict = new Dictionary();
    SysDictConfigurationKey sDCK;
    ConfigurationKeySet configurationKeySet;
    ;
    configurationKeySet = new ConfigurationKeySet();
    configurationKeySet.loadSystemSetup();

    for (i=dict.configurationKeyCnt(); i; i–)
    {
        sDCK= new SysDictConfigurationKey(dict.configurationKeyCnt2Id(i));
        if(sDCK.parentConfigurationKeyId() == configurationKeyNum(ReleasePending))
        {
            configurationKeySet.enabled(sDCK.id(),true);
        }
    }
    SysDictConfigurationKey::save(configurationKeySet.pack());
    SysSecurity::reload(true,true,true,false);
}

I’m not saying that having disabled best practice checks is desired, but it might be helpful, when enabling version control on a system with lots of legacy development, thereby still requiring some minimal best practice checks.

The know location for enforcing all best practices in version control is here: Menu>>Tools>Development tools>>Version control>>Setup>>System settings:

Exclude certain best practice requirements by editing SysTreeNode.allowCheckIn:

After a BizTalk mishap a customer wanted to recreate the xml files for all AIF Messages in a certain timeframe. The following job does exactly this.

static void AIFMessagesRecreate(Args _args)
{
    AifMessageLog   AifMessageLog;
    AifDocumentLog  aifDocumentLog;
    AifMessage      aifMessage;
    Dialog          dialog = new Dialog("Recreate AIF Messages to file");
    int             i;
    Filename        filePath;
    DialogField     dlgFilePath;
    Query           q = new Query();
    QueryRun        qr;
    QueryBuildDatasource    qbds;
    #file
    TextIo          diskFile;
    //copied and enhanced - Source AifMessage::serialize()
    AifMessageXml serialize(AifMessage message, AifDocumentXml _AifDocumentXml)
    {
        #Aif
        AifMessageXml           messageXml;
        XmlTextWriter           xmlTextWriter;
        XmlTextReader           xmlTextReader;
        AifDocumentXmlNamespace documentNamespace;
        AifXmlEncoding encoding;
        ;
        encoding = AifUtil::updateEncodingAttribute(message.encoding());
        documentNamespace = #MessageNamespace;
        xmlTextWriter = XmlTextWriter::newXml();
        xmlTextWriter.formatting(XmlFormatting::None);
        AifUtil::writeXmlDeclaration(xmlTextWriter, encoding);
        //Write the Envelope element
        xmlTextWriter.writeStartElement2(#MessageEnvelope, documentNamespace);
        //Write the Header element
        xmlTextWriter.writeStartElement(#MessageHeader);
        xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageId, guid2str(message.messageId()));
        // The source endpoint user is not sent on outbound messages for security reasons
        if (message.direction() != AifMessageDirection::Outbound)
            xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageSourceUser, message.sourceEndpointUserId());
        xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageSourceEndpoint, message.sourceEndpointId());
        xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageDestEndpoint, message.destinationEndpointId());
        xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageAction, message.externalAction());
        if(message.requestMessageId())
            xmlTextWriter.writeElementString(#MessageRequestId, guid2str(message.requestMessageId()));
        //End the Header
        xmlTextWriter.writeEndElement();
        //Write the Body element
        xmlTextWriter.writeStartElement(#MessageBody);
        try
        {
            xmlTextReader = XmlTextReader::newXml(_AifDocumentXml);
            xmlTextReader.whitespaceHandling(XmlWhitespaceHandling::None);
            //Move past the declaration
            xmlTextReader.moveToContent();
            xmlTextWriter.writeRaw(xmlTextReader.readOuterXml());
            xmlTextReader.close();
        }
        catch(Exception::Error)
        {
            //Unable to serialize the contents of the Xml property.
            throw error(strfmt('@SYS89763'));
        }
        //End the Body
        xmlTextWriter.writeEndElement();
        //End the Envelope
        xmlTextWriter.writeEndElement();
        messageXml = xmlTextWriter.writeToString();
        xmlTextWriter.close();
        return messageXml;
    }
    ;
    dlgFilePath = dialog.addFieldValue(typeId(FilePath),'C:\\Temp\\');
    if(dialog.run())
    {
        filePath = dlgFilePath.value();
        qbds = q.addDataSource(tablenum(AifMessageLog));
        qbds.addRange(fieldnum(AifMessageLog,createdDateTime));
        qbds.addRange(fieldnum(AifMessageLog,DestinationEndpointId));
        qr = new QueryRun(q);
        if(qr.prompt())
        {
            while (qr.next())
            {
                if(qr.changed(tablenum(AifMessageLog)))
                {
                    aifMessageLog = qr.get(tablenum(AifMessageLog));
                    select firstonly aifDocumentLog where aifDocumentLog.MessageId == aifMessageLog.MessageId;
                    aifMessage = new AIFMessage(AifMessageLog.MessageId,AifMessageLog.SourceEndpointUserId,aifMessageLog.SubmittingUserId);
                    aifMessage.destinationEndpointId(AifMessageLog.DestinationEndpointId);
                    aifMessage.sourceEndpointId(AifMessageLog.SourceEndpointId);
                    diskFile = new TextIo(filePath + guid2str(AifMessageLog.MessageId) + ".xml", #io_Write, 65001); //UTF-8
                    diskFile.write(serialize(aifMessage,aifDocumentLog.DocumentXml));
                    diskFile = null;
                    i++;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    info(strfmt("%1 files saved",i));
}

AX 2009 offers the GDPdU (Grundsätze zum Datenzugriff und zur Prüfbarkeit digitaler Unterlagen) Export in the German Layer for which there is a nice Description:

However, the it left completely up to the user to start from scratch. The following is a sample GDPdU definition as a starting point for your configuration (Import using Basic>>Periodic>>Import/Export>>Import)

Definition file: GDPdU Definition.def

Data file: GDPdU Definition.dat

Error Message

The source document cannot be processed until you assign a posting definitions to the source document in the Transaction posting definition form.

Quick fix

Simply disable posting definitions here: General ledger >> Setup >> General ledger parameters

Yes, CIL code can be debugged in visual studio, but it’s much easer to just disable CIL and use the Morph-X debugger:

File>>Tools>>Options>>Development>>Execute business operations in CIL ==> No

Joris on Dynamics AX Musings wrote this Blog Entry: Custom Query Range Functions using SysQueryRangeUtil

I am slightly annoyed with myself that I have not been aware of this even though it has been available since AX 2009. The following functions can be used in any query or filter. Note that the functions are case sensitive and need to be put in brackets e.g. (currentUserId()).

Current user (or roles thereof)

• currentUserId()
• currentEmployeeId()
• currentBusinessRelationsAccount()
• currentContactPersonId()
• currentCustomerAccount()
• currentVendorAccount()

Dates (all but dateRange are relate to the current date and time)

• currentSessionDate()
• currentSessionDateTime()
• day(int relativeDays = 0)
• dayRange(int relativeDaysFrom = 0, int relativeDaysTo = 0)
• greaterThanDate(int relativeDays = 0)
• lessThanDate(int relativeDays = 0)
• monthRange(int relativeMonthsFrom = 0, int relativeMonthsTo = 0)
• yearRange(int relativeYearsFrom = 0, int relativeYearsTo = 0)
• dateRange(date startDate, date endDate)

Constants

• currentStaticMasterPlan()

AX2012 only

• currentDate()
• currentLanguageId()
• currentUserLanguage();
• currentWorker()
• currentWorkerRecId()
• currentLegalEntity()
• currentParty()
• advancedLedgerEntryCurrentUserFilter(boolean _createdBy)
• advancedLedgerEntryTxtOpenDraftAll(anytype _advancedLedgerEntryTransactionStatus)
• currentRoleHasAccessToPrivate(boolean _useCache = true)
• currentStaticMasterPlanVersion()
• dateRange(date startDate, date endDate)
• lessThanUtcDate(int relativeDays = 0)
• lessThanUtcNow()
• greaterThanUtcDate(int relativeDays = 0)
• greaterThanUtcNow()
• documentStatusPurchOrderOrGreater()
• getActiveMasterPlanVersionByPlanId(ReqPlanId _planId)
• isDirAddressPolicyOff()
• isPrivate()
• pmfInventTableIsBOM()
• pmfInventTableIsBOMFormula()
• projActiveAll(ProjActiveAll _projActiveAll)
• projActiveAllWIPEliminated(anytype _ProjTableActiveAll)
• projLevels(ProjLevels _projLevels)
• projPostedTransType(ProjPostTransViewType _projPostedTransViewType)
• projUnpostedTransType(ProjUnpostedTransViewType _projUnpostedTransViewType)
• salesQuotationTemplateGroupFilter(SalesQuotationFilter _salesQuotationFilter)
• salesQuotationTypeListPageFilter(SalesQuotationTypeListPage _salesQuotationTypeListPage)
• sessionGuid()
• workflowDelegationFilter(WorkflowDelegationView _filter)

As you see AX 2012 has many more predefined special ranges, many of which are not very self explanatory. These are used in the filters of the pre-filtered list pages.

And as Joris showed, you can easily extend the list…

Pattern for efficient (i.e. use transaction for multiple deletes and use doDelete), stable (i.e. don’t make one huge transaction but commit and restart transaction periodically) and verbose (count down the number of remaining records) job to delete many records in a table.

static void deleteJob(Args _args)
{
    #define.TABLE(myTable)         //set
    #define.CONDITION(true)        //set
    #define.TRANSACTIONSIZE(100)   //set
    #TABLE #TABLE;
    int i = 1;
    ;
    while (i>0)
    {
        i=0;
        info(strfmt("%1",(select count(RecId) from #TABLE where #CONDITION).RecId));
        infolog.viewUpdate();
        ttsbegin;
        while select forupdate #TABLE where #CONDITION
        {
            #TABLE .dodelete();
            i++;
            if(i>=#TRANSACTIONSIZE)
                break;
        }
        ttscommit;
    }
}

.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode, .csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; } .csharpcode,.csharpcode pre { font-size: small; color: black; font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace; background-color: #ffffff; /*white-space: pre;*/ } .csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; } .csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; } .csharpcode .str { color: #006080; } .csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; } .csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; } .csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; } .csharpcode .html { color: #800000; } .csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; } .csharpcode .alt { background-color: #f4f4f4; width: 100%; margin: 0em; } .csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }

After reading http://www.expta.com/2013/04/updated-blistering-fast-hyper-v-2012.html, http://www.expta.com/2013/02/windows-server-2012-deduplication-is.html and http://weikingteh.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/how-to-enable-data-deduplication-in-windows-8/ I enabled deduplication on my notebook, saving me lots of space on my precious SSD.

It’s a pity that you cannot enable it on your boot drive, as this happens to be my largest SSD, but my secondary SSD with just 128 GB also benefited from the deduplication. I might reorganize my drives at some later stage.

Here a short summary of the steps required for enabling deduplication on a windows 8 Notebook:

1. Download Windows Server 2012 deduplication package
2. In powershell run the following to install the package
   dism /online /add-package /packagepath:Microsoft-Windows-VdsInterop-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.9200.16384.cab /packagepath:Microsoft-Windows-VdsInterop-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~6.2.9200.16384.cab /p
ackagepath:Microsoft-Windows-FileServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.9200.16384.cab /packagepath:Microsoft-Window
s-FileServer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~6.2.9200.16384.cab /packagepath:Microsoft-Windows-Dedup-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~6.2.9200.16384.cab /packagepath:Microsoft-Windows-Dedup-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~6.2.9200.
16384.cab
3. The to enable deduplication run this powershell command
   dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Dedup-Core /all
4. Disable Periodic Processing because our main focus will be the deduplication of VHDs
   Set-DedupSchedule -Name "BackgroundOptimization" -Enabled $false
5. Set minimum age to zero as VHD Files will always have recent modifications.
   Set-Dedupvolume D: -MinimumFileAgeDays 0
6. Run Deduplication only when Hyper-V stopped
   Start-DedupJob –Volume D: –Type Optimization

Result:

Probably every AX consultancy has programmed a module to send customer documents by email using addresses defined on the customer. With CU7 you can finally can do this in Standard AX:

Define a primary e-mail on the customer

In the print dialog select “Customer primary contact”

Result: The e-mail is sent to the primary e-mail address defined on the customer.

The settings are now saved in the print destinations and do not need to be changed anymore. When the primary e-mail address is changed, the next e-mail will automatically be sent to the new address.

Even better, once the print settings have been saved, all sales orders will pick up their respective customer emails without further settings needed.

Follow the instructions here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsupport/archive/2013/02/05/emailing-customer-invoices-from-a-batch.aspx, you will be able to automatically send you confirmations and invoices by email using email addresses defined on the customer.

Even better: Define e-mail addresses for different documents by applying customizable purposes:

Select purpose in the print dialog:

Final Note: If the defined e-mail is missing you will get the following error.

This list was exported using the following job:
static void workFlowDescription(Args _args)
{
#AOT
Treenode                workflowTypesNode, workFlowNode;
int                     i;
int                     nodeCount;
str                     workflowName;
SysDictWorkflowType     sysDictWorkflowType;
SysDictWorkflowCategory sysDictWorkflowCategory;
;

workflowTypesNode = treenode::findNode(#WorkflowTypesPath);
nodeCount = workflowTypesNode.AOTchildNodeCount();

workFlowNode = workflowTypesNode.AOTfirstChild();
for (i=1; i<=nodeCount; ++i)
{
workflowName = workFlowNode.AOTgetProperty("Name");
try
{
sysDictWorkflowType = SysDictWorkflowType::newTypeName(workflowName);
sysDictWorkflowCategory = new SysDictWorkflowCategory(sysDictWorkflowType.category());
info(sysDictWorkflowCategory.label() + ";"
+ sysDictWorkflowType.label() + ";"
+ sysDictWorkflowType.help());
}
catch ( Exception::Error)
{
exceptionTextFallThrough();
}
workFlowNode = workFlowNode.AOTnextSibling();
}
}