develop and customize dynamics ax safely and effectively

Develop and customize Dynamics AX safely and effectivelyPeter VilladsenPrincipal Program Manager

BRK4026

Developer Experience

• Ax Applications are typically mission critical.

• Development is complex.• Understanding the problem space is

prerequisite for developing.• Requires modern best practices in software

development: SCC, encapsulation, patterns, test etc.

Characteristics of Dynamics AX development

Metadata + Code == Application

• Application development for AX7:• Takes place in the X++ language, with some C# when needed.• Takes place entirely within Visual Studio.• Is based on a solid metadata foundation.• Is supported by a strong lifecycle management support infrastructure.

The Developer Experience

• X++ is a type-safe Object Oriented Programming language, in the style of C# and Java.

• It features several innovations that allow it to better support the development of ERP systems.

• X++ is backed by a full stack of compiler, debugger, profiling tools, cross reference tools etc.

• X++ generates MSIL code.

The X++ language

• X++ provides abstractions for:• Classes, tables, views, queries, extended data types, enumerations, …

• X++ provides all the common OO features:• Inheritance, polymorphism, static/instance methods, encapsulation,

late binding, …• X++ has first-class data access support:• Select, insert_recordset, update, delete_from etc.

• Has a few bleeding edge features:• Extension classes, Class augmentation, Type Providers.

The X++ language

• Visual Studio is the environment for developing AX7 applications.

• Strong integration is provided:• Supports the concepts of models and packages.• Full support for editing both code and metadata through designers.• X++ editor featuring intellisense, colorization etc.• Backed by cross reference database for navigation.• Full support for the Visual Studio debugger.• Seamless error message handling.

Visual Studio

• It is quite possible to add keyboard code snippets for boilerplate code etc.

• It is also possible to add your own AX extensions.• Global Add-ins• Add-ins per artifact type

Visual Studio Extensibility

AX7 Visual Studio Extensibility optionsPeter Villadsen

• A new, high-performance compiler has been provided.

• It powers the compilation, but also other scenarios• Best practices• Analysis of breaking changes.• Ad-hoc tools.

• Metadata and some intellsense is powered by a background process, the xppcAgent.

Visual Studio: X++ compiler stack

Demo

The Dynamics ‘AX 7’ Visual Studio Development Tools

The development environmentAX 7 Development Environment

Visual StudioLocal runtime

Metadata (model store)

‘AX 7’ Extensions:

• Project system• X++ code editor• Designers• Application Explorer• Design time meta-model• Best practice integration• …others AOS hosted by

IISDeployment Package(metadata and binaries)

Business Databas

e

Deploy to cloud environment

Metadata APIRuntime

Debug/Run (F5)

Build

Model binaries (File system)

Batch manager service

• A Dynamics ‘AX 7’ model is a group of elements (metadata and source files) that typically constitute a distributable software solution (including customizations of an existing solution). A model is a design-time concept. • For example: A warehouse management model, a project accounting model, …etc.)

Concepts: Model

• A Dynamics ‘AX 7’ package is a deployment and compilation unit of one or more models. It includes model metadata, binaries, cubes and other associated resources. One or more ‘AX 7’ packages can be package into a deployment package, which is the vehicle used for deployment on UAT and production environments.

Concepts: Package

Packages, Models and VS ProjectsProjects, models and packages

'AX 7' Project

1 'AX 7' Model 1(Example: Application

Suite)'AX 7' Project

2'AX 7' Project

3

'AX 7' Project

6 'AX 7' Model 3(Example: Unit tests)'AX 7'

Project 7

Package 1 (Assembly and

associated runtime files)

'AX 7' Project

4'AX 7' Project

5

'AX 7' Model 2(Example: Expense)

Package 2 (Assembly and

associated runtime files)

Depends on

Application ExplorerIn model view, Application Explorer is organized by models.Each model is a child node of the AOT root node.The package that a model belongs to is shown in parenthesis next to the model name.

Microsoft Confidential

Packages on disk• Packages are folders located

in the model store folder of the Dynamics ‘AX 7’ application.

• The default model store folder is typically “c:\packages\”.

• Here you can see the folders of the ApplicationSuite package and the ApplicationFoundation package among others.


Models on disk• Model folders are contained in their

package folder.• A model folder contains type-

specific folders. • For example all tables in a model

belong to the folder AxTable.• The image on the right shows the

FleetManagement model folder.• The FleetManagement model folder

belongs to the FleetManagement package folder.


Model Descriptors• A package folder

contains a descriptor folder that lists all models that belong to the package.

• A model descriptor file contains metadata about a model’s properties.

• The image on the right shows 2 descriptor files of 2 models that belong to the FleetManagement package.


Full build dialogAccess the full build dialog from Dynamics ‘AX 7’ > Build models…All packages are listed, one package = one compiled assembly.Models within a package are shown in brackets.


Supported extensions as of today

Metadata• Create new elements (All AX types)• Extend tables: • Add new field, add field to field group, add

new field group, add new index, add new relation

• Extend forms:• Add a control, Add a form part, add a data

source, change the label, caption, help text, visible, and enabled properties of an existing control.

• Extend menus: • Add submenu, add menu item, add tile, hide

menu item.• Extend enums, security duties/roles.• Extend EDTs • Change label, fornhelp, and string size

properties.• Extend data entities, queries, views• Add field mappings to maps.

Source Code• Create new X++ classes• Application events

• Create event handlers (For app delegates)

• Framework events• Create data event handlers

(tables)• Create form event handlers• Create form data source and

data field event handlers• Create event handler for form

control events• Create plugins• Create static extension methods to

classes and tables.• Create static and instance methods

and add state through class augmentation.

Package dependencies graphMicrosoft Confidential

Right-click on the AOT and select View package dependencies to generate a graph depicting dependencies between packages of your application.

Demo

The X++ Metadata

Customization

Customization Concepts in Dynamics ‘AX 7’

Example-1: Overlayering customizations in base package

Assembly (Microsoft. Dynamics.Application.dll)

ISV-1 Overlay of

MS

ISV-2 Overlayof MS

VAR Overlay of ISV-1 and ISV-2

MS Application Suite Model

Overlayering model (Granular metadata and code customizations)Extension model (Metadata and code extensions) Example-2: Extension based

customizations in separate packages

Assembly ISV2.Extensio

ns.dll


ISV-1 Extensions on MS

Assembly (VAR.Extensions.dll)VAR Extensions on ISV-1 and

ISV-2


Assembly ISV2.Extensio

ns.dll


Example-3: Hybrid scenario with both extension and over-layering

Assembly ISV1.Extensi

ons.dll



Assembly (VAR.Extensions.dll)VAR Extensions on ISV-1 and

ISV-2


Assembly ISV2.Extensions

.dll)

ISV-2 Extensions

on MS

VAR Overlay of ISV-2

ISV-1 Overlay of

MS

• Pros:• Any piece of metadata or code can be modified in a granular (but

intrusive) way: You are essentially making it your own so you can do what you want with it.

• Cons• You are now responsible for the code that you are overriding. When

changes are made to that (original) code, you may have a hard time reconciling it with your changes: You sometimes have to start from scratch. Huge costs are incurred.

• Over-layering does not work in the cloud. The changes made by a partner are compiled into the assembly that is deployed. There is no separation of the IP.

• ISVs essentially have no guarantees that the application still runs correctly.

• You cannot use overlayering in the platform and foundation models.

Overlayering

Extensions: Concept and value proposition

Application Suite Package

Application Suite Extension Package

AOS RuntimeDynamics.AX.ApplicationSuite.dll

Dynamics.AX.AppSuiteExtension.dll

AxFormAxTableAxTableExtension

AxFormExtension

AxForm

AxTableEvents & Plugins

References

Code Extensions

AxClass

CompileCompile

Compile Isolation & performance

Deployment, servicing and ALM

Minimal code upgrade cost

• Pros• Lightweight compilation: You are only compiling changes.• With ALM, you’ll only manage your extension artifacts. This

simplifies and improves the performance of deployments and test automation.• Servicing is reduced to copying DLLs with no impact to

partner customizations.• There is a loose coupling between the original code and

partner code. There is a very good chance that you will not have to react to changes made: No costly reimplementation. • It is very easy to get rid of the changes made by extension:

Just remove the assembly and restart.

Extensions

• Cons• You cannot easily achieve everything; You cannot change the

implementation of a particular method, for instance. • Not all metadata is extensible yet (but we are close).• Private / protected / public ?• Does not expose virtual behavior.

Extensions

Demo

Customizations

• Always extend rather than overlayer.• Prepare your code to be extended.• Heed the best practice warnings!• Test early, test often, test automatically• Do code reviews. Always. Really.

Advice

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develop and customize dynamics ax safely and effectively

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