This book delves into the technology and tools in Dynamics AX 2009. New and experienced developers are the intended target audience, and consultants will also benefit from reading this book. The intention is not to give guidance on application functionality but rather to offer as much technical information between the two covers as possible. It is also beyond the scope of this book to include details about installation, upgrade, deployment, and sizing of production environments. Refer to the extensive installation and implementation documentation supplied with the product for more information on these topics.

To get full value from this book, you should have knowledge of common object-oriented concepts from languages such as C++, C#, and Java. Knowledge of Structured Query Language (SQL) is also an advantage. SQL statements are used to perform relational database tasks such as data updates and data retrieval.

Note

If you don’t have the Dynamics AX license that provides developer rights, you won’t be able to perform most of the actions in this book. A virtual PC version of Dynamics AX 2009, with developer rights, is available for partners to download at https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/methodology/vpc/vpcimageax2009.htm.

Historically, Dynamics AX envelops more than 25 years of experience in business application innovation and developer productivity. Microsoft acquired Dynamics AX in 2002; the success of the product has spurred an increasing commitment of research and development resources, which allow Dynamics AX to continuously grow and strengthen its offering.

The development team that created Dynamics AX 2009 consists of three large teams, two of which are based in the United States (Fargo, North Dakota, and Redmond, Washington) and one based in Denmark (Copenhagen). The Fargo team focuses on finance and human resources (HR), the Redmond team concentrates on Microsoft Project and CRM, and Copenhagen team delivers Supply Chain Management (SCM). In addition, a framework team, distributed over the three sites, develops infrastructure components. Finally, a worldwide distributed team localizes the Dynamics AX features to meet national regulations or local differences in business practices, allowing the product to ship in 24 main languages in 38 countries.

To clarify a few aspects of the origins of Dynamics AX, the authors contacted people who participated in the early stages of the Dynamics AX development cycle. The first question we asked was, How was the idea of using X++ as the programming language for Dynamics AX conceived?

Of course, there were several perspectives among the developers on this breakthrough event.

Many hypotheses exist regarding the origin of the original product name, Axapta. Axapta was a constructed name, and the only requirement was that the letter X be included, to mark the association with the predecessor XAL. The X association carries over in the name Dynamics AX.

Part I, is mainly for people new to Dynamics AX. It describes the application architecture from the perspective of development, deployment, and administration. The chapters in Part I also provide a tour of the internal Dynamics AX development environment to help new developers familiarize themselves with designers, tools, the X++ programming language, and the object-oriented application framework that they will use to implement their customizations, extensions, and integrations.

Part II and Part III are largely devoted to illustrating how developers use the Dynamics AX application framework. Through code samples written for a fictitious bicycle sales and distribution company, Part II describes how to customize and extend Dynamics AX. The examples show how the fictitious company customizes, extends, and integrates the application to support its online make-to-order sales, distribution, and service operations.

If you are an experienced Dynamics AX developer, you might want to skip the tour of the development environment after reading Chapter 1, and move straight to Part II or Part III, which consist of chapters that can be read in random order. Or use the book as a reference for subjects that you are especially interested in.

boolean b = true;  ;  ttsbegin; // Transaction is not initiated here
update_recordset custTable       setting creditMax = 0; // set implicit transactions on
if ( b == true )          ttscommit; // COMMIT TRANSACTION  else
    ttsabort; // ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

You need the following hardware and software to build and run all the code samples for this book:

Because the requirements typically evolve with service packs that support new versions of underlying technologies, we recommend that you check for the latest updated system requirements at http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/ax/using/2009systemrequirements.mspx.

This book was reviewed and tested against the RTM version of Dynamics AX 2009. Any changes or corrections to this book will be added to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. For details, see the "Support for This Book" section in this introduction.

As technologies related to this book are updated, links to additional information will be added to the Microsoft Press Technology Updates Web site. Visit this site periodically for updates on Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and other technologies: http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/updates.

All code samples discussed in this book can be downloaded from the book’s companion content page at the following address: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/books/13345.aspx.

On the companion Web site you’ll find an eBook that contains several bonus chapters. Chapter 1, "Introduction to Upgrade," Chapter 2, "Code Upgrade" (also Chapter 18 of this book), Chapter 3, "Data Upgrade," and Chapter 4 "Upgrade Additional Topics."

The upgrade information you find in this eBook gives you a solid overview of the Dynamics AX 2009 upgrade process, tells you about the tools that are available to walk you through the upgrade process, and gives you some tips and best practice guidelines; it does not give you detailed procedures—simply because version upgrade is such a large topic. A wealth of procedural and other information on the upgrade process is available with the Dynamics AX product; we have included a list of those resources at the end of this introduction. You can download the eBook from http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/books/13345.aspx.

As new or updated material becomes available that complements your book, it will be posted online on the Microsoft Press Online Developer Tools Web site. The type of material you might find includes updates to book content, articles, links to companion content, errata, sample chapters, and more. This Web is available at www.microsoft.com/learning/books/online/developer, and is updated periodically.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this book and the companion content. As corrections or changes are collected, they will be added to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. To view the list of known corrections for this book, visit the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb

Microsoft Press provides support for books and companion content at the following Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/support/books

If you have comments, questions, or ideas regarding the book or the companion content, or questions that are not answered by visiting the sites mentioned earlier, please send them to Microsoft Press via e-mail:

[email protected]

You may also send your questions via postal mail to

Please note that Microsoft software product support is not offered through these addresses.