Top 5 AIF Development Tips and Tricks

Top 5 AIF Development Tips and Tricks
1. Enable the debugger
You will notice, if you put a breakpoint into your document class, that when you run the associated action, the breakpoint will get ignored – leaving you in the dark. This is because the action is called using a ‘runas’ function call  to change the user executing the code.
To workaround this replace the runas method calls with direct calls in\Classes\AifOutboundProcessingService\ and \Classes\AifInboundProcessingService, eg:

1	/*
2	runas(message.sourceEndpointAxUserId(),

3	classnum(AifInboundProcessingService),
4	staticmethodstr(AifInboundProcessingService, processAsUser),

5	[message.pack(), messageId]);
6	*/

7	AifInboundProcessingService::processAsUser([message.pack(), messageId]);

2. Run jobs instead of waiting for batch processing
The usual way for the AIF to run is using the batch processing framework, where you setup an interval for the inbound and outbound processing  to run.  This minute or so can feel like an age when you are in the middle of developing:

AIF batch processing
So use a custom job to have the AIF run instantly at the click of a button, here is an example of the receive job:

01	static void runAIFReceive(Args _args)
02	{

03	AifGatewayReceiveService aifGatewayReceiveService;
04	AifInboundProcessingService aifInboundProcessingService;

05	;
06

07	aifGatewayReceiveService = new AifGatewayReceiveService();
08	aifGatewayReceiveService.run();

09	aifInboundProcessingService = new AifInboundProcessingService();
10	aifInboundProcessingService.run(true);  // pass true for debug mode

11

}

3. Use file adapters

When using the AIF, you will most likely be using a Biztalk, Web service or MSMQ adapter. Testing actions using one of these adapters can be a pain as you will most likely require another program to send or receive the message.
To get around this you can use a file adapter during testing, so that you can just write the message in plain XML and drop the file into a directory on your file system to be processed.
Then when you are finished testing / developing you can easily swap the file adapter out.
4. Compose messages with the Visual Studio XML editor
During development (when you use a file adapter), you can create the message using notepad or any other text editor. I recommend using the Visual Studio XML editor to quickly compose these to take advantage of intellisense, schema validation and other useful features (like inserting a guid):

5. Use the pipeline
It is unlikely (if you are integrating with a third party) that the XML schemas  of the external system match those in AX.
To transform the message into the format AX can handle you can use the pipeline to add a component to run an xslt on the inbound XML:



Enjoy...
Harry

How to fetch Values from WorkFlow Tables

How to fetch Values from WorkFlow Tables

Hi friends,

   I am facing a problem since many days and now i got the logic to fetch values from a workflow table, but still it’s for only PO and PR and i am working on the GL transaction also, here is the Code, Use copy and paste it in a job and run.

static void theaxapta_WorkflowHisory()

{

    WorkflowTrackingTable           workflowTrackingTable;

    WorkflowStepTable               workflowstepTable;

    WorkflowTrackingStatusTable     workflowTrackingStatusTable;

    WorkflowTrackingCommentTable    workflowTrackingCommentTable;

    utcdatetime     dt[];

    string100     Comment;

    int i;

    ;

    i = 1;

   select workflowtrackingtable join workflowsteptable

    where workflowsteptable.StepId == workflowtrackingtable.StepId

    &&    workflowtrackingtable.ContextRecId == PurchTable::find('NBH1112_PO000025').RecId;

   while select workflowtrackingtable

            where  workflowtrackingtable.ContextRecId == PurchTable::find('NBH1112_PO000025').RecId

    {

        dt[i] = workflowtrackingtable.createdDateTime;

        i ++;

        info(strfmt("Step Name == %1......  user Code: %2", workflowsteptable.Name,  workflowtrackingtable.User));

    }

    info(strfmt('User Approved: %1 - %2.....%3......%4.......%5..........', dt[1], dt[2],dt[3],dt[4]));

    select workflowTrackingCommentTable  where workflowTrackingCommentTable.TrackingId == workflowTrackingTable.TrackingId;

    while select workflowTrackingCommentTable  where workflowTrackingCommentTable.TrackingId == workflowTrackingTable.TrackingId

    {

        info(strfmt("Comment...=  %1",workflowTrackingCommentTable.TrackingMessage));

    }

//    select workflowTrackingCommentTable

//    where workflowTrackingCommentTable.TrackingId == workflowTrackingTable.TrackingId;

//

//    info(strfmt('Date Approved: %1', workflowTrackingCommentTable.TrackingMessage, DateTimeUtil::applyTimeZoneOffset(workflowTrackingCommentTable.createdDateTime, DateTimeUtil::getUserPreferredTimeZone())));

//

}

Note: This is rough code, you may need to update it as per your requirement.

Enjoy,

Harry.

Add a button to go to Main Transaction

Add a button to go to Main Transaction

Hi guys,

The following code for adding a button on your forms to go to the main transaction form/table, to do this type of magic you have to add a button on you form and copy paste the following code in the click method of that button.

void clicked()
{
    Common buffer;
    selectableDataArea company = curExt();
    Args args = new Args();
    SysDictTable dictTable;
    FormRun formRun;
    WorkflowTrackingStatusTable trackingStatus;
    ;
    trackingStatus = WorkflowTrackingStatusTable::findByCorrelation(WorkflowTrackingStatusTable.CorrelationId);
    if (trackingStatus.RecId)
    {
        changecompany(trackingStatus.ContextCompanyId)
        {
            dictTable = new SysDictTable(trackingStatus.ContextTableId);
            buffer = dictTable.makeRecord();
            select buffer where buffer.RecId == trackingStatus.ContextRecId;
            if (! buffer)
            {
                 info('You cannot go to the origin of the workflow instance. The record no longer exists or you do not have sufficient access.');
return;
            }
            dictTable.formRef();
            args.lookupRecord(buffer);

            args.name(dictTable.formRef());
            formRun = ClassFactory.formRunClass(args);
            formRun.init();
            formRun.run();
            formRun.detach();
        }
    }
}

This a very simple code to go to main Transaction Table, in above methods you can add your comment also to make it more user friendly, this a good practice to give error or empty records messages to End user to make your coding efficient and more user friendly.
-Harry

Reporting Framework in AX 2012

Hi friends,

    Today i want to share reporting concepts in AX 2012 with you guys.....

We will start with understanding basic concepts in Reporting Framework to examples.

Reporting Framework Terminologies,

As you all know, the reports in AX 2012 have moved to SSRS reporting, so MS has introduced a robust reporting framework wrapping over the basic SSRS reporting functionality. There are many terms used in reporting framework in AX that I will try and explain here:

·         Report Definition Language: RDL is an XML application primarily used with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. RDL is usually written using Visual Studio. AX has Report Definition Language Contract classes that can generate and build the RDL for an AX SSRS report. This contract provides a weakly typed representation of parameters. It contains methods that can be used to get or set values. It also contains a map of parameter names and the SrsReportParameter class. The base class is SrsReportRdlDataContract.

·         Report Data Provider (RDP): A framework that helps in building, processing and rendering data to reports. Most of the reports require RDP classes that help in implementing business logic required to process data and provide data in readable, presentable and required formats design. The base class is SrsReportDataProvider. This class has two main sub classes,SrsReportDataProvderBase and SrsReportDataProviderPreProcess. We will discuss about these classes in future posts.

·         Report Data Contracts: The Report Data Contracts framework is used to provide and manage the parameters to an SSRS report. The report data contract contains all the other relevant instances like Report Data Provider contracts, print contracts, RDL contracts and query contracts that will be used by a report.

·         Printing Contracts: The framework that manages report printing (to different mediums). The base class is SrsPrintDestinationSettings. There are other supporting contracts that are used for printing, we will discuss about them in future posts.

·         Query Contracts: This framework manages the queries used to process report data. This framework is also responsible for providing dynamic filters (similar to our ‘Select” buttons on report dialogs that open the Query specification form to filter data on report queries).

·         Report Controllers: Report controllers control the report execution and dialog forms. Report controllers can be used to modify report dialogs, validate report parameters and other validations necessary before report execution. The base class is SrsReportRunController. Reports utilizing report controllers can only be used for printing data on client side. Reports controlled by controllers cannot be used in Enterprise Portals.

·         Report UI Builders: UI Builders are used to modify the report dialogs at run-time or to add additional parameters and write custom business logic to report dialogs. Ex: You want to perform some task based on data modified for one parameter, that affects other parameters or build a custom lookup etc (something that was provided by RunBaseReport framework class in previous versions. The base class is SrsReportDataContractUIBuilder.

-Harry