Development Matters Blog

Subscription on Custom Microsoft Dynamics AX Reports
Note: This is not supported by Microsoft

1. Select one custom report or standard Microsoft Dynamics AX report without analytical (OLAP ) data.

2. Save Credentials which will be used for Report execution. You need to set this on Report-Properties – Data Sources:

a) Make sure to use Connect using Credentials stored securely in report server.
b) Enter user name and password under which this report will be executed (Note: please use DOMAIN\username format).
c) Select checkbox “Use as Windows credentials when connecting to the data source”.
d) Click Apply.

3. Create a shared folder in which you will save the file with your subscription:

You will need to give rights to users which can be set up on the Subscription tab so that users can write files to the folder.
After you have shared folder try to access that folder in format: \\\

4. On the opened report, select option Subscriptions on the top level bar:

5. Create a new subscription or edit existing one:

6. Setup report delivery options:

a) In Delivered by list select Windows File Share option.
b) Enter the name of the file which you are going to deliver.
c) Check the box to add the file extension on delivered file.
Define the path where the file is going to be delivered. Note: Please use UNC path for this in example: \\\
d) Chose format type in which the file will be delivered.
e) Enter the credentials for the user which will execute this report and will have enough rights to write that file to selected location. Please refer to point 3.
f) Select desired Overwrite option.
g) Setup Subscription Processing option.
a. Create schedule

h) Make sure that you have Report parameters value according to this: subscriptions do not maintain the default company. Uncheck the “Use Default” in the AX_CompanyName parameter and set the Company name.
i) Click OK to close page (You could be asked to confirm password entered in point e))

Merit Solutions has been selected by Microsoft as 1 of 6 Worldwide Partners to participate in their Partner Business Systems (PBS) Pilot Program, effective July, 2010. The Partner Business Systems is part of the Microsoft Dynamics Partner Readiness Strategy, which represents Microsoft’s commitment to deliver subsidized advanced training, guidance and systems to set a trajectory for profitable growth.  Partner Business Systems helps partners monitor, manage and scale their businesses.

Merit Solutions has been chosen as the pilot partner for Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Microsoft SharePoint integrations.

What is Partner Business Systems?

• CRM and  ERP applications that help Partners automate, manage and track key business processes
• Systems that incorporate Microsoft’s best practice sales, implementation and financial processes
• BI tools that provide insight into business results and critical KPIs, both leading and lagging
• Web services that ease integration and collaboration with Microsoft

Why Partner Business Systems Matters:

• Partners need complete insight into business critical KPIs
• Partners’ systems need to capture key performance data
• Partners need proper infrastructure to enable scalability and growth
• Collaboration capabilities are needed across the Dynamics eco-system
• Partner Business Systems improves business insight/oversight and enables scalability
• Partner Business Systems automates and supports best practice business processes

Here is sample code which can be used to automatically copy Dynamics AX application files to an archive. This step is really important if you want to ensure that you safely backup your Application files.

To restore your application, you should copy the application files from the backup to the proper application directory and then start service and compile all objects in the application.

This is the sample batch file which you can run using Task scheduler or any other similar program.

@echo on

for /f “tokens=1,2,3,4* delims=.:/- ” %%i in (‘date /t’) do (

  for /f “skip=1 tokens=1-4 delims=/-,().” %%x in (‘echo.^|date’) do (

  set weekday=%%i&set month=%%j&set day=%%k&set year=%%l))

REM stop aos service

net stop “Dynamics AX Object Server 5.0$01-XXXXX”

REM maps to folder where backups are stored

net use z: /d /y

net use z: \\Backup

REM creates folder with day and time stamp

z:

cd \

mkdir %weekday%%month%%day%%year%

REM copies app folder to the backup location

XCOPY “c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Application\Appl*.*” z:\%weekday%%month%%day%%year%\app\ /K /O /Y /F /I /E

REM start aos service

net start “Dynamics AX Object Server 5.0$01-XXXXXX”

You should replace the “Dynamics AX Object Server 5.0$01-XXXXX” with your service name.

When you restore a database from a production environment to a test / dev environment, you should run these scripts to ensure that your database is synchronized with the Application environment and proper object server.

Here are some samples scripts you should run:

Select * from BatchServerGroup
–Update BatchServerGroup set SERVERID = ’01@NewAOS’ where SERVERID = ’02@OldAOS’

Select * from BATCHSERVERCONFIG
–Update BATCHSERVERCONFIG set SERVERID = ’01@NewAOS’ where SERVERID = ’02@OldAOS’

Select * from SYSCLUSTERCONFIG

select * from SYSSERVERCONFIG
–Update SYSSERVERCONFIG set SERVERID = ’01@NewAOS’ where SERVERID = ’02@OldAOS’

Select * from SYSSERVERSESSIONS
–Update SYSSERVERSESSIONS Set AOSID = ’01@NewAOS’, Instance_Name = ’01′ where AOSID = ’02@OldAOS’

Select * from Batch
–Update BATCH set SERVERID = ’01@NewAOS’ where SERVERID = ’02@OldAOS’

select * from SYSCLIENTSESSIONS
–delete SYSCLIENTSESSIONS

Beside these, you should also check the Dynamics database for Enterprise Portal, Analytical Server BI setup and reporting server configuration. This could be done through SQL Server access or trough AX Administration setup.

Here is the list of Forms, tables and Columns which you should check.

List of forms in the Dynamics Databases that holders server specific information

You should also visit this page for further information regarding different scenarios you could need when restoring a Backup of a Microsoft Dynamics AX SQL Database to another Domain or Environment.

In an effort to keep our web content relevant, up-to-date, and informative, we have recently gone through and updated our Microsoft Dynamics Development Services landing pages.

Below is a brief snapshot of the new content, along with the links to individual pages:

Microsoft Dynamics AX Custom Application Development: With a team of highly-qualified Microsoft Dynamics AX developers, Merit Solutions provides custom application development to both ISVs and Microsoft Dynamics AX clients, extending your team in regards to requirements analysis, technical design and development, and quality assurance testing of all software products. In the end, we measure success by our ability to deliver custom applications that will help organizations optimize performance and reduce costs.

Read more about our Microsoft Dynamics AX Development services.

Microsoft Dynamics GP Migrations: Users migrating to Microsoft Dynamics GP often want to improve the structure of existing processes and line-of-business applications. Typically these businesses have grown and become more complex in their business process needs. Using the migration tools available from Microsoft, Merit Solutions can help organizations plan and implement an efficient migration from systems like QuickBooks, Peachtree, and legacy systems. Our methodology preserves data, enhances security, improves reporting, and minimizes business disruption by designing and following an efficient migration plan.

Read more about our Microsoft Dynamics GP Development services.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integrations: For companies interested in integrating front- and back-end business operations, Merit Solutions provides seamless Microsoft Dynamics CRM integration that brings together sales, marketing, accounting, supply chain, and more. We have extensive experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrations to Microsoft Dynamics, SAP, Oracle, and other 3rd party ERP Systems. Merit Solutions also provides cost-effective integrations with external sites, hosted either in-house or at the hosting partner.

Read more about our Microsoft Dynamics CRM Development services.

Microsoft SharePoint Development: Merit Solutions provides Microsoft SharePoint development and deployment services to companies in need of extended portal functionality. Our integration, training, and consulting services help companies through new intranets, workflows, collaboration, document management, and custom portal solutions. We also have extensive experience developing SharePoint-based features and solutions, including 21 CFR Part 11 SharePoint Document Management.

Read more about our Microsoft SharePoint Development services.

We hope you enjoy the new content. Feel free to make suggestions by commenting on this blog article!

Wheaton, IL — April 13, 2010 — Merit Solutions, Inc., a 2009 Microsoft Dynamics President’s Club member and provider of Microsoft Dynamics business applications and custom software development, is proud to announce the successful go-live of Oy Finn-Tack Ltd’s (Finn-Tack) new Microsoft Dynamics AX customizations. Over the last 28 years, Finn-Tack has grown to include three production plants, two warehouses, and 900+ retailers worldwide. In order to facilitate future growth and increase customer satisfaction across locations, Finn-Tack recognized the need to offer credit options to some of their customers.

After discovering limitations in their current system that would not meet their business process needs, Finn-Tack turned to the Merit Solutions Development Team. Through custom coding, the team was able to extend Microsoft Dynamics AX to enable a revolving credit option to Finn-Tack’s customers. This meant their customers could now make purchases as often as they wanted, up to a certain credit limit. It then allowed them to decide when to pay off invoices, with minimum monthly payment installment options.

Learn more about Finn-Tack’s Microsoft Dynamics AX Customizations.

Microsoft Dynamics AX is a compelling and attractively priced solution to companies now facing a technological crossroad and need to update legacy systems.

To lower the cost and make migrations easier when upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics AX, we utilize the straightforward migration methodology supported by Microsoft tools. Using the Sure Step migration process together with the new Migration Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX,  we can help companies speed up the implementation process.

Our proven processes lessen the risks inherent in many implementations, providing increased transparency, delivering improved accuracy, and easing the pain that can take place when migrating to a new system.

I recently had a problem with the CEO role center, specifically the KPIs on that role center which were always loading. I have set up IE security as it was described in this MSDN article.

KPIs and Business Overview keep loading all the time and never end.

If the whole Role Center content in enterprise portal comes up except the Business Overview webpart and it keeps displaying the loading progress image for a long time with no error message in the event log, it may be because IE security setting prevents the webpart from asynchronously getting the data. To resolve this issue add the EP site to the intranet site zone in IE or disable IE Enhanced Security Configuration from Add / Remove programs -> Add / Remove Widnows Components. It still did not show the KPI web parts, but just kept loading it. I have used win2008R2.

The other problem I had with this Installation was that I was not able to modify any role center page. Whenever I would try to modify it I would receive an error message from SharePoint: Error occurred contact your administrator.

A strange thing was that when I tried to view the Role Center through Google’s Chrome browser, I could see the KPIs and modify the role center web parts. That was really frustrating.

In the event viewer I had a message:

An unexpected error has occurred.
Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that <machineKey> configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.

Then I saw this other article on MSDN.

EP Site creation is successful and able to view most of the pages. But when trying to access lookup or sorting on grid (any postback to the page) it gives an unexpected error and in eventlog it has:

An unexpected error has occurred.
Validation of viewstate MAC failed. If this application is hosted by a Web Farm or cluster, ensure that <machineKey> configuration specifies the same validationKey and validation algorithm. AutoGenerate cannot be used in a cluster.

Check and make sure the Machine name or the host header does not contain any non alphanumeric characters such as “_”or “-“ etc. The machine name should just contain only alphanumeric characters.
For example mey1 is a valid machine name. mey_1 is not. If you have any other character in the machine name, then validation of viewstact MAC fails. So to resolve this issue, check and make sure the machine name contains only alphanumeric characters and EnableViewStateMac is set to true in the web.config and in case of load balancing, the same machine key is used in the web.config of all participating web server machines.

And see that I have the character _ in my computer name.

When I changed the name of my computer so I have only alphanumeric characters, I was able to see the KPIs from IE and I was also able to modify my role center pages with IE.

My opinion is that this step should be included on the AX Installation guide and put it on first place there, because it is very hard to change the name of computer when you install all of EP in AX 2009.

Merit Solutions is proud to announce a 10% discount on all Microsoft Dynamics AX Development projects engaged by October 31, 2009! Maximize your investment in Microsoft Dynamics AX while reducing your operating costs. Reap the benefits of hybrid fixed-price offshore custom development while enjoying the security and simplicity of working with a local 2009 President’s Club Member. Contact Merit Solutions to take advantage of this opportunity – or visit us at the AXUG Summit in Booth 512!

I found a nice article on the Art of Creation Dynamics AX Blog. It discusses things you can try (in the order the author does it) to resolve issues while developing for Dynamics AX.

Here are a couple of ideas discussed:

Close the debugger
Sometimes, when the debugger is active, AX will keep executing ‘old’ code. Close the debugger to make sure the latest code is executing.

Synchronize data dictionary
You may have made changes to application objects that haven’t been synchronized with the database. Open the AOT, right click on the Data Dictionary node and choose Synchronize.

Refresh AOD, Dictionary and Data
You can flush cashed information using three option in the Tools > Development tools menu: refresh AOD, refresh Dictionary and refresh Data. This can be useful when you just imported an xpo file, or when you are developing for the enterprise portal.

Remove .aoi file
When the AOS is stopped, you can delete the .aoi file from the application files. This file will be rebuilt when the AOS starts.

Use the link above to see the rest!