AX separated instances on Windows taskbar

This one is a little trick that I find very useful.

If you have to work with multiple AX instances, you will surely get annoyed by the way windows group the icons on the taskbar.

Multiple instances of the same program are not grouped separately, thus it get very hard to switch between a window or another.

Having separated AX instances on the taskbar is much better, imho

To accomplish that you have to create an hard link to the AX32 executable on the filesystem, like that:

1. Open command prompt (CMD.exe)
2. Go to the AX installation folder (usally C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Client\Bin)
3. Create N hard link for every different instance of AX:
   
   mklink /h ax32_DEV.exe ax32.exe
   mklink /h ax32_PROD.exe ax32.exe
   
   
   
   
4. Create a shortcut to the newly created file (ax32_DEV.exe) wherever you want, and edit the shortcut to open the specific AXC file pointing to the desired AX instance.
   
   
   
5. Open AX from that shortcut

That should work with Windows 7, 8, Vista and XP

Have fun

Dynamics AX 2012 FAST synchronization

Database synchronization on AX 2012 is usually pretty slow.

This is due to the Ax database becoming bigger and bigger. Actually an Ax 2012 R2 installation has something like 5000+ tables.

Slowliness on the synchronization process can be a problem when it come to update a production environment, since it will take the system unavailable for 20-30 minutes.

Deploying changes via model store using the AXUTIL temporary schema technique is very useful, but then you still have to waste a lot of time synchronizing the database.

However, to speed things up, you can synchronize only tables that are actually changed since the last update.

You really don't need to synchronize all those 5000 tables every time you update the system.

So here is a tool to come to rescue.

Ax keep track of changes you made to the aot on the Model* tables. With the query below you can find the last date on which a table or table field has been changed.

 SysModelElementData modelElementData;  
   SysModelElement   modelElement;  
   SysModelElementData modelElementDataRoot;  
   SysModelElement   modelElementRoot;  
   delete_from tmpFrmVirtual;  

   while select modelElement  
     group by modelElement.RootModelElement, modelElementRoot.Name, modelElementRoot.AxId  
     join maxOf(ModifiedDateTime) from modelElementData  
     where modelElementData.ModelElement == modelElement.RecId  
      && (modelElement.ElementType == UtilElementType::TableField || modelElement.ElementType == UtilElementType::TableIndex || modelElement.ElementType == UtilElementType::Table)  
      //&& modelElementData.Layer == UtilEntryLevel::cus + 1  
      && modelElementData.modifiedDateTime > DateTimeUtil::newDateTime(transDate, 0)  
     join modelElementRoot  
       where modelElementRoot.RecId == modelElement.RootModelElement  
   {  

So with that query you can filter down tables modified within the last X days, and synchronize only those tables.

I've built a tool that does exactly this, you got a screenshot below:

In the date field you can filter tables modified since this date. Pressing OK the synchronization of the selected tables will occour.

That way, I can usually synchronize the system in about... 10 seconds?

XPO project download link HERE


P.S.: please note that this is not a complete replacement for the DB synchronization, but a procedure that synchronize only a small subset of the database!
There are cases in wich a modification of a table is not tracked in the SysModel* tables, for example if you change a string extended data type lenght, or completely delete a table layer. So use at your own risk.

Enhanced table browser

If you find it hard to find fields on the Ax Table Browser, this tool may help you.

It will simply show the visible fields on the right, and you can check/uncheck those that you want to see.

If you experience some problem after installation, clear Usage data for the form

XPO download HERE

Sending PEC (Certified E-mail) with AX

A PEC (Certified E-mail) is not very different from a usual e-mail.

You just have to use SSL to secure the connection while sending the mail.

Usually I use the class System.Net.Mail to send mails with Ax, and this one has a useful property named EnableSsl that could work. But with a PEC, no, this isn't working.

That's because, to send a PEC you need an Implicit SSL, while System.Net.Mail only supports “Explicit SSL”.

 Reference: HERE

 And, as stated in the MSDN:

The EnableSsl property specifies whether SSL is used to access the specified SMTP mail server.

The default value for this property can also be set in a machine or application configuration file. Any changes made to the EnableSsl property override the configuration file settings.

The SmtpClient class only supports the SMTP Service Extension for Secure SMTP over Transport Layer Security as defined in RFC 3207. In this mode, the SMTP session begins on an unencrypted channel, then a STARTTLS command is issued by the client to the server to switch to secure communication using SSL. See RFC 3207 published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for more information.

An alternate connection method is where an SSL session is established up front before any protocol commands are sent. This connection method is sometimes called SMTP/SSL, SMTP over SSL, or SMTPS and by default uses port 465. This alternate connection method using SSL is not currently supported.

So, if you want to send a mail with Implicit SSL, you have to use a deprecated class from the old 2.0 .NET Framework, that is System.Web.Mail

Using this class is not difficult, and you can find a working sample down here:

 static void SendPECMail(Args _args)  
 {  
   System.Web.Mail.MailMessage  newMail;  
   System.Collections.IDictionary fields;  
   System.Collections.IList    attachementCollection;  
   System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment attachment;  
   try  
   {  
     new InteropPermission(InteropKind::ClrInterop).assert();  
     newMail = new System.Web.Mail.MailMessage();  
     fields = newMail.get_Fields();  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver", "smtps.pec.aruba.it");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport", "465");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing", "2");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", "lmattiuzzo@pec.it");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", "password");  
     fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl", "true");  
     newMail.set_From("lmattiuzzo@pec.it");  
     newMail.set_To("santa@klaus.com");  
     newMail.set_Subject("subject");  
     newMail.set_BodyFormat(System.Web.Mail.MailFormat::Html);  
     newMail.set_Body("body of your message");  
     newMail.set_Priority(System.Web.Mail.MailPriority::High);  
     attachementCollection = newMail.get_Attachments();  
     attachment = new System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment(@"c:\file.pdf");  
     attachementCollection.Add(attachment);  
     System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail::set_SmtpServer("smtps.pec.aruba.it:465");  
     System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail::Send(newMail);  
     CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();  
   }  
   catch( Exception::CLRError )  
   {  
     throw error(AifUtil::DEVgetClrErrorMessage());  
   }  
 }  

AX Project Finder Tool

Here's a small and handy tools that let you search for projects inside AX.

Just start typing something on the search bar and you will get a list of the projects found.

With a double click you can open the selected project

How it works:

with the call of:

projectListNode = SysTreeNode::getSharedProject(); 

you get the AOT node for the shared project. Then all the child of this node are looped, and the name is checked against the input text

treeNodeIterator = projectListNode.AOTiterator();  
   treeNode = treeNodeIterator.next();  
   while(treeNode)  
   { ... }  

 void FindProject()  
 {  
   ProjectSharedPrivate  projectType;  
   TreeNode treeNode;  
   ProjectListNode projectListNode;  
   TreeNodeIterator treeNodeIterator;  
   str aotName;  
   ;  
   ListboxResult.clear();  
   projectListNode = SysTreeNode::getSharedProject();  
   treeNodeIterator = projectListNode.AOTiterator();  
   treeNode = treeNodeIterator.next();  
   while(treeNode)  
   {  
     aotName = treeNode.AOTname();  
     //return;  
     if(DEVString::contains(aotName, projectName.text()))  
     {  
       ListboxResult.add(aotName);  
     }  
     treeNode = treeNodeIterator.next();  
   }  
 }  

Download link below

Project Finder Download