Book Image

Extending Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations Cookbook

By : Simon Buxton
Book Image

Extending Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations Cookbook

By: Simon Buxton

Overview of this book

Dynamics 365 for Operations is the ERP element of Microsoft’s new Dynamics 365 Enterprise Edition. Operations delivers the infrastructure to allow businesses to achieve growth and make better decisions using scalable and contemporary ERP system tools. This book provides a collection of “recipes” to instruct you on how to create—and extend—a real-world solution using Operations. All key aspects of the new release are covered, and insights into the development language, structure, and tools are discussed in detail. New concepts and patterns that are pivotal to elegant solution designs are introduced and explained, and readers will learn how to extend various aspects of the system to enhance both the usability and capabilities of Operations. Together, this gives the reader important context regarding the new concepts and the confidence to reuse in their own solution designs. This “cookbook” provides the ingredients and methods needed to maximize the efficiency of your business management using the latest in ERP software—Dynamics 365 for Operations.

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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Sections
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
Starting a New Project
Starting a New Project
Introduction
Creating the Visual Studio Team Services project
Connecting Visual Studio to Visual Studio Team Services
Creating a new Model and Packages
Configuring project and build options
Creating a Label file
2
Data Structures
Data Structures
Introduction
Creating enumerated types
Creating extended data types
Creating setup tables
Creating a parameter table
Creating main data tables
Creating order header tables
Creating order line tables
3
Creating the User Interface
Creating the User Interface
Introduction
Creating the menu structure
Creating a parameter form
Creating menu items
Creating setup forms
Creating details master (main table) forms
Creating a details transaction (order entry) form
Creating form parts
Create tiles with counters for the workspace
Creating a workspace
4
Application Extensibility, Form Code-Behind, and Frameworks
Application Extensibility, Form Code-Behind, and Frameworks
Introduction
Creating a handler class using the Application Extension factory
Hooking up a number sequence
Creating a create dialog for details transaction forms
Creating a SysOperation process
Adding an interface to the SysOperation framework
5
Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
Introduction
Creating aggregate dimensions
Creating aggregate measures
Creating aggregate data entities
Creating and using key performance indicators
6
Security
Security
Introduction
Creating privileges
Creating duties
Creating security roles
Creating policies
7
Leveraging Extensibility
Leveraging Extensibility
Introduction
Extending standard tables without customization footprint
Creating data-event handler methods
How to customize a document layout without an over-layer
Creating event handler methods
Extending standard forms without customization footprint
Using a form event handler to replace a lookup
Creating your own query functions
8
Data Management, OData, and Office
Data Management, OData, and Office
Introduction
Creating a data entity
Extending standard data entities
Importing data through Data Import/Export Framework
Reading, writing, and updating data through OData
9
Consuming and Exposing Services
Consuming and Exposing Services
Introduction
Creating a service
Consuming a Dynamics 365 for Operations SOAP service
Consuming a Dynamics 365 for Operations JSON service
Consuming an external service within Dynamics 365 for Operations
10
Extensibility Through Metadata and Data Date-Effectiveness
Extensibility Through Metadata and Data Date-Effectiveness
Introduction
Using metadata for data access
Using Interfaces for extensibility through metadata
Making data date-effective
11
Unit Testing
Unit Testing
Introduction
Creating a Form Adaptor project
Creating a Unit Test project
Creating a Unit Test case for code
Creating a test case from a task recording
12
Automated Build Management
Automated Build Management
Introduction
Creating a Team Services Build Agent Queue
Setting up a build server
Managing build operations
Releasing a build to User Acceptance Testing
13
Servicing Your Environment
Servicing Your Environment
Introduction
Applying metadata fixes
Applying binary updates
Servicing the build server
Servicing the Sandbox - Standard Acceptance Test environment
14
Workflow Development
Workflow Development
Introduction
Creating a workflow type
Creating a workflow approval
Creating a manual workflow task
Hooking up a workflow to the user interface
Creating a sample workflow design
15
State Machines
State Machines
Introduction
Creating a state machine
Creating a state machine handler class
Using menu items to control a state machine
Hooking up the state machine to a workflow

Configuring project and build options

Before we can get stuck into writing some code, we need to set up some parameters. Many settings described here are good for all projects, but some you may wish to change, depending on the scenario.

Getting ready

This follows the previous recipe, but can apply equally to any Operations project. Just load up Visual Studio and the project you wish to configure.

How to do it...

This will be split into two parts: generic options for all projects, Operations options; and project specific parameters.

Before we do either, we should always have the Application Explorer open, which is hidden by default. This is the Application Object Tree (AOT) of prior versions. This is opened from the View menu.

Dynamics 365 for Operations' options

To configure the generic options for all projects, follow these steps:

  1. Select Options from the Dynamics 365 menu.
The form is actually the Visual Studio options dialog, but it takes you to the section specific to Operations.
  1. The default option in the left-hand tree view is Debugging; the options here are usually fine. The Load symbols only for items in this solution option affects debugging and should be left checked for performance of the debugger. We would uncheck this if we want to trace code that calls code outside of the current package.
  2. Select the Projects option on the left and check Organize projects by element type. When adding new elements to the project, it will automatically create a sub folder in the project for the element type. This makes organization much easier to maintain.
  3. The other two options should be left blank. Although the Synchronize database on build for newly created project option can be useful, this database synchronization takes time, and it is usually preferable to do this as required. That is, before you run it.
  4. The Best practices node lets you choose which best practice checks you wish to be executed on build. This detail is beyond the scope of this book as the checks required are case specific.

The project-specific parameters

These are usually fine as default for development, but we often want to test our code using the sample data that comes with the virtual machine.

To set up the common parameters, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on the project in Solution Explorer and choose Properties.
  2. To save time whilst debugging, you select which object you wish to start with. To start with the form SalesTable, set the Startup Object Type option to Form, and Startup Object to SalesTable.
    1. Set Company to USMF or any other company you wish to start with when debugging.
    2. Leave Partition as initial. These are now only supported for certain unit test scenarios.
    3. If you wish to always synchronize the database on build, you can set Synchronize Database on Build. My advice is to do this manually, as required after the build completes.

    There's more...

    You may notice that we can change the Model in the project's parameters. Our advice is, don't do it. To change the project's Model also means that the folders have to be moved in the local packages folder.

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