First of all, I would like to thank you for buying this book.
My aim in writing this book has been to try and make the process of learning AX programming easier for developers who are new to AX. There may be several ways of achieving this. I have simply focused on the areas that I feel are most important. I have briefly mentioned, or even left out, areas that you most likely don't need in the beginning of your AX development career.
Another way in which I have tried to simplify the learning process has been to write less about background processes and how things work in theory, instead giving good examples that you can apply in your daily work.
I hope that you will enjoy reading this book and that it will put you on a fast track to become an efficient Dynamics AX developer.
Welcome to the wonderful world of AX programming!
Chapter 1: Getting to know Dynamics AX 2009 - This chapter takes you through the development environment in AX and explains some of the development tools that are included with AX. You will also write your first AX program, if you have never done so before.
Chapter 2: X++ - This chapter covers the basics of AX's programming language X++ and explains in brief how data types, statements and loops, operators, classes and methods, and macros work.
Chapter 3: Storing data - This chapter takes you through the process of creating extended data types, tables, and relations.
Chapter 4: Data User Interaction - This chapter shows you how to create forms where users can read, update, insert, and delete data. It also shows you how to create reports, menu items, navigation pages, and menus.
Chapter 5: Searching for Data - This chapter explains the different options to use when you need to search and retrieve a set of data from the database. It shows you how to create a query, how to create a view, and how to write different select statements.
Chapter 6: Manipulate Data - This chapter shows you how to insert, update, and delete data using table methods to manipulate one record at a time and set based manipulation to manipulate a set of data.
Chapter 7: Integrate Data - This chapter shows you how to read and write data to and from different kind of files and to and from a database using ODBC. It also provides an example of how to write a generic import and export program in AX.
Chapter 8: Integrate with standard AX - This chapter shows you how some of the main modules in AX (Inventory, Ledger, Account Receivable, and Accounts Payable) are built by looking at their entity schemas and by providing examples of how to perform typical tasks within these modules.
Chapter 9: Creating a New Module - This chapter shows you how to create a new module in AX by creating number sequences, parameter tables, license codes, configuration keys, and security keys.
Chapter 10: Working with .NET and AX - This chapter explains how you can use .NET classes in AX with the Common Language Runtime and how you can write .NET code that uses AX classes by using the .NET Business Connector for AX.
Chapter 11: Web Services - This chapter shows you how to create a web service that expose AX logic, how to publish the web service to Internet Information Services (IIS), and how to make AX consume a web service.
Chapter 12: Enterprise Portal - This chapter takes you through an example of how to expose AX data to web by using the Enterprise Portal and SharePoint.
Appendix A: Links - This appendix will provide you with references to websites and help files in AX, so that it easier for you to find them again later.
Appendix B: Debugger - This appendix will act as a quick guide on how to use the debugger tool.
All of the examples in this book have been created using the Virtual PC (VPC) image called Pre-Sales Demonstration Toolkit For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.
I would recommend that you either use the VPC or an AX installation that is not in use by anyone else when you follow the examples in this book so that you don't step on anyone's toes.
The VPC can be downloaded here if you are a Microsoft Partner with access to Microsoft PartnerSource: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/documentation/howtoarticles/presalesdemokitmdax2009.htm?printpage=false&stext=AX 2009 VPC
If you have access to the Microsoft CustomerSource instead:
If you prefer to install MS SQL Server, Dynamics AX 2009, Visual Studio 2008, and all the other required software to follow all the examples in this book, you should take a look here to find the standard system requirements for Dynamics AX 2009:
http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/en/us/using/ax-system-requirements-2009.aspx
This book is targeted at developers who are new to Dynamics AX, and at consultants who know the functional side of AX but would like to learn how AX works behind the scenes. Experienced AX developers might also pick up some good pointers here and there.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "You can find information about global functions here such as strlen()."
A block of code is set as follows:
static void HelloWorld(Args _args)
{
print "HelloWorld";
pause;
}New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Under the Development tab page, you can enable the Sort alphabetically checkbox to sort the properties alphabetically".
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