Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 play a central role in an organization, and therefore, there will always be the need to integrate them with other applications. In many cases, services are the preferred way to do this, and Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is now more flexible than ever when it comes to the creation and use of these services. Understanding these services will help you effectively identify where they can be used.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Services is a hands-on guide that provides you with all the knowledge that you need to implement services with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and 2012 R2. The step-by-step examples will walk you through many of the tasks that you need to frequently perform when creating and using services. This book has been updated to include features of the R2 release while staying relevant to other versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
Chapter 1, Getting Started with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Services, introduces the concept of services and explores the new features and enhancements made to services in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
Chapter 2, Service Architecture and Deployment, dives deeper into the service architecture and explores the different options that are available when deploying services.
Chapter 3, AIF Document Services, focuses on the creation, deployment, and consumption of the AIF document services.
Chapter 4, Custom Services, shows you how to create and deploy custom services and consume them using a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) application using new concepts such as attributes.
Chapter 5, The SysOperation Framework, builds upon the knowledge gained from developing custom services to demonstrate how you can run the business logic in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 using services and the SysOperation framework.
Chapter 6, Web Services, walks you through all the steps that are needed to consume an external web service in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 using the Visual Studio integration.
Chapter 7, System Services, demonstrates how powerful the system services that are provided out of the box can be and how they allow you to build applications faster.
Chapter 8, High Availability, shows you how you can go from a very basic architecture to one that allows for the high availability of services.
Chapter 9, Tracing and Debugging, guides you through the many different debugging and tracing options that are available to troubleshoot services.
Appendix, Installing the Demo Application, describes how to install and use the demo application that you need to perform most of the examples in this book.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 CU7 is used in this book, but almost all the content applies to all versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
WCF Service Configuration Editor and Microsoft Service Trace Viewer, which you can download as part of the Windows SDK and comes with some versions of Visual Studio
A full list of software requirements can be found in the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 System Requirements document available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=11094.
When you are developing for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, you will certainly come in contact with services, even when you are not doing integration scenarios. Because of that, this book is aimed at all Microsoft Dynamics AX developers, both new and experienced.
This book assumes no other knowledge than a basic understanding of MorphX and X++. Even beginners will be able to understand and complete the examples in this book. Those new to services will get the most out of this book by doing a complete read-through, but those who are experienced can jump right in. The idea is that this book can be used both to educate yourself and as a resource that can be consulted during development.
Some examples use C#.NET, so experience with Visual Studio is a plus but not a must. This book is not aimed at .NET developers.
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, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The service contract is a reflection of the DocumentHandlingService class that can be found in the AOT."
A block of code is set as follows:
public static void main(Args args)
{
SysOperationServiceController controller;
controller = new SysOperationServiceController();
controller.initializeFromArgs(args);
controller.startOperation();
}Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
T000000007 The Dark Knight 119 T000000008 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 112
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: "Go to the Service Groups node, right-click on it, and click on New Service Group".
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