AX Retail - Require the user to enter in a price for a zero priced item

In the event you have a zero priced item (intentionally or unintentionally), you may want the user to key in the price if its zero. This can be setup store by store and is located in the POS Functionality Profiles record.

Requiring the zero priced item to have a new price can be helpful at the beginning of a project, but can also create a lot of headaches so make sure you have a process in place to identify zero priced items rather than rely on this setting. It shouldn't be used as a catch all magic button for those issues.

I always struggle to remember where the setting is so I'm posting about it for next time I put it in the search engine.

Personal Windows OS toolbar overlaying full screen RDP session issue

This is a basic one folks but addressed something that was driving me NUTS.

I was using Remote Desktop Connection (RDP) and had the bottom of the screen cutoff by my actual physical desktop toolbar even when in full screen (Figure 1 below).

The fix, for me at least, was to go into the RDP settings, move the sizing from full screen to a fixed size, then move the slider back to the full screen setting (Figure 2 below)

I literally was doing all sorts of things before this to fix the issue with no success. It was the only thing that consistently addressed the issue.

Figure 1 - My desktop toolbar overlaying the RDP full screen session

Figure 2 - Adjust the display configuration

A guide to debugging the Microsoft Dynamics AX Debugger

Debugging the AX Debugger can be a little bugger'. Here are a few things to check for as to why you aren't able to debug some code.

• Make sure your user is added to the Debugger group on the instance your in
• IMPORTANT: You'll want to log out and back into your instance. This means actually logging out and not just close and reopen AX and/or the RDP session. 
• This might be the issue if the debugger pops up but is greyed out and AX seems to have acknowledged the breakpoint but breezed right past it
• Make sure your breakpoints are set and enabled and not 'disabled'. 
• There is a button next to the set breakpoints in the toolbar that allow enable/disable
• Assure the code where your breakpoint is is actually being hit.
• This is a make sure its plugged in type response but you'd be surprised how common it is...
• In your user options under Development tab, make sure the 'Debug mode' is set to 'When Breakpoint'
• The breakpoint might be set in a spot that the debugger can't hit. For example, the clicked method on a button.
• adding a line of code for 'breakpoint;' rather than using the red dot breakpoints will allow you to debug these methods
• If the code is running in the CIL, you may need to make the code run on the client. 
• Go to your user options > 'Development' tab and uncheck 'Execute business operations in CIL'. 
• If the code is running in batch, you'll need to debug this process via Visual Studio. The breakpoints in AX are for client processes only generally. 
• You may need to adjust the breakpoint check boxes in the Dynamics AX Configuration Utility under the Developer tab. There are two settings there: 'Enable user breakpoints to debug code in the business connector' and 'Enable global breakpoints to debug code running in the Business Connector or client'
• Check the AOS debugger settings. Dont remember what this check box(es) are called but there is something on the AX AOS config that can be a factor. 

AXUG Summit 2016

This years Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG) Summit http://www.axugsummit.com/home in Tampa, FL from October 11th-14th will be great!

I'm presenting the below sessions there.

This year will be a vastly different experience for the presenters. ConferenceHarvester.com is being used and its pretty cool. It assures that all presenters are well prepared. There are even training videos about how to present. They'll also assist in sending out tweets during your presentation.

For the AX users, there will be significantly more speakers from Microsoft and AX customers over previous years, which tended to be partner heavy.

All in all, very impressed! Hope to see you there!

Issue with Excel word being replaced (HSA converted to HAS automatically)

I was having an issue typing HSA in Excel and it being constantly 'corrected' to 'HAS'. I literally could not type HSA, which stands for health savings account (HSA).

You can correct this by two steps: 1) Create the word in the custom dictionary and 2) remove the autocorrect option for HSA/HAS combination.

Step 1 - Add HSA to the custom dictionary

1. In Excel
2. File > Options (Figure 1) > Proofing > 'Custom Dictionaries' 
3. Select the dictionary you'd like to add the word to (Figure 2)
4. Click 'Edit word list'
5. enter 'HSA' in the word field 
6. Click 'Add' 
7. Click 'Ok'

Step 2 - Autocorrect removal for HSA/HAS

1. In Excel
2. File > Options (Figure 1) > Proofing >  'AutoCorrect Options'
3. Type the word you are trying to type (HSA for me) in the 'Replace' field
4. Look for the replace/with combination you are hitting (HSA/HAS for me)
5. Highlight the record, click 'Delete', then click 'Ok'

Figure 1

Figure 2 

Figure 3

AX POS Error: Step 4: Creating Device Token failed

When I was trying to activate a cloud POS (CPOS) terminal, I was getting the error: 'Step 4: Creating Device Token failed' or something similar to that. I didn't take a screen shot of the image unfortunately. But it was similar to that.

The error is because the CPOS wasn't able to hit the AX '7' database. The CPOS uses a single AxDB database, in my case in the 'all in one' server, which the CPOS needs to have access to.

The environment was the AX 7 Update 1 using upgraded data from the AX 7 RTW release.

The Update 1 data changed in regards to some setup information. Event Viewer gave me some information into this essentially saying that the axruntimeuser wasn't able to access the DB. This, among other things, led me to believe the channel database setup was wrong.

To reconfigure the channel database 'connection string', you'll need the connection string (duh). I used Visual Studios Server explorer to create a connection to the database with the AxDB database for the CPOS, then clicked 'Properties'. The connection string will be right there. (Figure 1)

Paste this value into the appropriate connection string (Figure 2). Mine was the 'Default' one. Run the 1070 job (I think that's the channel job... if not, run that one).

You'll need to cycle the Retail Server application pool also (Figure 3 below).

There were a few other random settings I had to change from RTW configs to update 1 but the above was the main one. I think there were only 3-4 other places.

Hopefully this helps someone else jump past this issue!

Project Maderia Updates

Project Madeira is a new Office 365 product which is aimed as a SMB (Small-Medium sized Business) ERP offering based on Microsoft Navision (as you will see from the default demo Cronus data :-) )

Its still in Beta and not officially implemented as a 'Release to Web' (RTW) version (as of August 2016) so there are constantly changes being made on a monthly basis. It can be hard to keep up, especially if you are working on ISV extensions to the product.

Make sure to book mark the below link to see an actively updated list of what is new to the product on a month by month basis. Very informative!!

What's New in Project "Madeira"

AX 2012 R3 Retail Error when running a retail distribution job: 'Failed to create a session; confirm that the user has the proper privileges to log on to Microsoft Dynamics'

[Going through old notes in my retail folder and posting here]

I was attempting to run a Retail Data Distribution job in AX 2012 R3 to a POS and got the below error. It was 'Failed to create a session; confirm that the user has the proper privileges to log on to Microsoft Dynamics'. I recently ran the generate classes and create staging tables functions so there was new code in place. 

I did a little debugging as the error was not retail specific and it was odd it was being thrown where it was. Sure enough, the CIL wasn't recognizing my current user which is why it wasn't working... Obviously this isn't a bug but rather something within AX. Come to find out, I had previously built the classes and staging tables for the jobs in the USR layer, deleted them, then rebuilt them in the proper layer/model. That threw some issues into the system.

A compile, usage data clear allowed me to get the new error in Figure 3. Obviously that told me to do a full CIL build. I did that, problem solved!

 Figure 1 - The error in question

 Figure 2 - Line 51 is where the error was being thrown.

Figure 3 - The actual error in question. Its actually quite helpful!

Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Retail Error when running Distribution schedule job: 'Class RetailCDXChannelSpecificData_AX63 does not exist

Are you getting an error when attempting to run an AX 2012 R3 Retail data distribution scheduler job (Figure 1)? Is it 'Class RetailCDXChannelSpecificData_AX63 does not exist'? Does it look like the one in Figure 2 below? Do you like things actually working correctly? Hey, friend! If your answer was Yes to the questions above, I might be able to hook you up.

To fix the issue, navigate to the Retail Channel Schema (hint: its on the Scheduler job setup in the field 'Retail Channel Schema'. You can right click on this field for the job in question and go straight to the record and form to generate those magic classes the error has told you all about.

NOTE: This process will generate code in AX AOT so you'll want to be in the correct layer/model for this process

When you click 'Generate classes' (Figure 3), you'll be prompted to what it will do (Figure 4) so make sure you are in the right layer and it will generate the classes you need as you'll see in the AOT (Figure 5).

You will need to do the Incremental CIL build after this or you may get weird issues, but I always do a full as I still don't trust the incrementals from earlier experiences.

Figure 1 - Running the Data Distribution Scheduler job manually

Figure 2 - A delightful little nugget of goodness raining on your parade

Figure 3 - The 'Generate classes' button in the Retail Channel Schema form

Figure 4 - The confirmation for generating the scheduler job classes

Figure 5 - The classes generated in the AOT

Figure 6 - Go grab a beer and celebrate. Or get back to work...

Dynamics AX 2012 R3 Retail Error when syncing metadata: 'The table [Table] does not exist'

You may see the error 'The table NoSaleFiscalDocumentTransaction_BRT does not exist' when attempting to sync the metadata via the 'Sync Metadata' (Figure 1) in AX 2012 R3 Retail (Figure 2)

This is because the temporary table for the tables in question need to be run. The '...T' at the end of the error (.._BRT in this case) indicates its temporary for the main table. The tables where these are created are determined through the subjobs for that PJob. So you'll need to do this when you add tables to sync back/forth between the POS and AX.

You generate these temporary tables by clicking on the 'Create staging table' button in the scheduler job form (Figure 3). You only need to do this for 'Pull' type schedule jobs. You can determine which these are via the 'Is Upload' check box. Best practices dictates that your Pjobs should always be named with the prefix 'P-...' if the 'Is Upload' box is checked.

NOTE: When you click 'Create staging table', there are AOT objects created. Make sure you are in the correct layer/model where you want these created.

Upon clicking on the 'Create staging table' button, you will see the information in Figure 4. The tables are created in the AOT. You can verify if you want. Then go back and hit the 'Sync metadata' button and you'll see the successful sync in Figure 5.

Figure 1 - 'Sync metadata' button on the Retail Scheduler parameters

 Figure 2 - The Error thrown when attempting to sync the metadata

Figure 3 - The P-Job with 'Create Staging table' button

Figure 4 - The TempDB tables created from 'Create Staging table' button

Figure 5 - What you see when you successfully sync metadata

Project Madeira Extensions: Extension Marketplace (Microsoft AppSource)

You may need functionality considered 'extra' when using Project Madeira for your implementation. 'Extras' can be considered functionality that is 1) not base to the Project Madeira application and 2) may be business vertical specific.

You can 'extend' your Project Madeira applications by implementing these 'extensions' to your code base. Do this from the main menu in Figure 1 below. From there, you can view the 'Extension Marketplace', as well as navigate to AppSource directly and auto-filter the apps by app (Figure 2). Once in AppSource, you can see all the available apps you can add to your application (Figure 3). 

Figure 1 - Adding extensions to your code base

Figure 2 - the apps you can browse from the Microsoft AppSource store

Figure 3 - The navigation to AppSource, filtered for the specific application

 

Project Madeira

Microsoft has a cloud offering in the SMB space called Project Madeira. It is currently in Beta. There is not estimation as to when it will be Released To Web (RTW). Read the welcome to Project Madeira here: https://madeira.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/madeira-get-started/ 

You can download the app to your Office365 account. As of July 2016, its fairly basic but it should expand its functionality down the road. There is no plans for on-premise deployment.

Project Madeira is based on Navision and even says 'Navision' when you get a permissions error trying to log into the application [see below].

I see this being positioned into the Quickbooks, GnuCash (my open source preference), and Peachtree area. I can see it eventually going the way of NetSuite and other Cloud-based ERP solutions once the mobile story is more enhanced and functionality is increased.

The program is still in beta so this could change radically by the time the product is released, but I figured it would be good to document where the product is at currently.

Here is the list of actions you can do to date:

• Business Areas
• Finance
• Banking
• Sales
• Purchasing
• Users/General
• emails/logging
• Office Addins
• Financials
• Dimensions
• Account Schedules
• COA and GL
• Receivables
• Automatic Paymnets and reconciling bank accounts
• Collections
• Sales Tax
• Payables
• Payments
• Bank accounts
• year closing
• Sales
• Create Quotes/Sales
• Invoicing
• Selling products
• Correct or cancel unpaid invoices
• Sales returns/cancellations
• Create customers
• Purchasing
• Create POs
• Purchasing products
• Correct or cancel unpaid purchase invoices
• Purchase returns for cancellations
• Create Vendors
• Inventory
• Create Items
• Adjust inventory
• Adjust item costs
• Post inventory cost to GL
• Relationship Management 
• Dynamics CRM connection
• Marketing and Contact Mangement Setup
• Contacts
• Interactions
• Segments
• Sales Opportunities
• Across Business Areas
• Number Sequences
• Extended Texts
• GL Management
• Send Documents by Email
• Use Allocation Keys in General Journals
• Schedule a report to run
• Report Layouts
• Workflows
• Incoming Documents (Manage/Setup/Process)

How to: Create a new Yammer Group on Yammer

From time to time you will need to create a 'group' within your organization. That 'group' will need to talk. I'd suggest doing two things to help in communication: 1) Create a distribution group via email and 2) create a Yammer group. There are more yes, but these two are key.

If you need to create a Yammer Group:

1. Navigate to Yammer
2. Once in your group, you should see a grey bar on the left hand side
3. At the bottom of that bar, you should see a plus sign (+) and 'Create a new group'. 
4. Click and enter the name of the group
5. Add the user to the group. 
6. Let people know in either hte yammer or email distribution group to invite whoever else might be relevant. 

Figure 1 - 'Create a new group' under the Office 365 Yammer Group

Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG) Twitter Promotion Optimization

Here are a few ways to make sure your Dynamics AX User Group (AXUG) tweets on Twitter are viewed by the most people possible:

1. When tweeting about your chapter, include: @AXUG and #AXUG.
2. Follow other AXUG chapter leaders and members of Dynamics Communities
3. Use the following hashtags
1. #MSDynAX - Microsoft Dynamics AX products
2. #AXUG - AX User Group Hashtag
3. #AXUGSummit - The AXUG Summit official hashtag
4. #AXUG<YourCity> - To link specific posts to your chapt
5. Use a # that links to the key topics in your tweets such as #EDI, #Retail, #Manufacturing, #SupplyChain, etc
6. Include other twitter users at the meeting in the tag via '@'

Make sure to follow Scott Steinmetz on twitter at @ScottAXUG

Dynamics AX R3 very large text in modules in RDP

When logging into Dynamics AX 2012 R3 (or other versions) via RDP, you'll sometimes see very large text in the modules and object names (Figure 1). The big text is annoying and doesn't really make navigation a delightful experience.

You can fix it through the below:

• Right click on the Dynamics AX icon on your desktop
• If you don't have an icon, do the following:
• Go to the Start menu
• Type Dynamics AX
• Right click on the icon in the search window results
• Click ' Open File Location'
• Create a shortcut from that Dynamics AX program link to the desktop (right click and create shortcut to desktop, copy paste, etc)
• Select 'Properties' (Figure 2)
• Under 'Compatibility' tab, check the 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings' checkbox (Figure 3)
• Reopen Dynamics AX via this icon (Figure 4)

Figure 1 - AX with 'big' navigation names

Figure 2 - Right Click on AX icon and select properties

Figure 3 - 'Compatibility' tab and 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings' box

Figure 4 - The corrected AX navigation

Skype for Business Error: 'The request failed. Please try again. Make sure that you are signed in to Skype for Business'

I was attempting to create and send a meeting invite through Outlook 2016 with a Skype meeting attached to it. The meeting was for one hour. I was inviting one other person not from my company. 

Error:

Sometimes you will get the error 'The request failed. Please try again. Make sure that you are signed in to Skype for Business' when you are trying to add the Skype meeting to the invite, before you send it out. I was getting this message AFTER the call in information was added and when I was trying to send the message.

 

Issue:

I'm not entirely sure what the issue is and I wasn't able to find it online. It was for sure an issue with adding attendees to the meeting. Restarted Outlook, restarted Skype for Business, same old song and dance. Did not restart my computer as I just need to move forward. 

Resolution:

I found I was able to create the Outlook calendar meeting and add the Skype information to the meeting successfully. The issue is with adding a user to the meeting. 

Don't add other attendees to the meeting. Just create the meeting for yourself with the Skype information. Then, once the meeting is created and closed, forward that calendar invite to the attendees. That worked like a charm for me. 

Hope this helps some people out!

Dynamics AX Modern POS New Feature: Welcome to Retail POS introduction screen

When first logging into your Dynamics AX Modern/Cloud POS, you will notice a new 'Welcome to Retail POS' video. This is a great new addition to the Modern POS experience and will allow users who are not familiar with the software to get some navigational overview.

This video has several videos to watch with a voice doing a narrative (Figure 1). The user can then click 'Start Exploring Now' and jump directly into the POS.

From here, there will be a little bubble that pops up with helpful information while the app is fully accessible for the user (Figure 2). The information guide bubbles will sometimes even have arrows to help the users see the features the bubble is describing (Figure 3). When the buttons are clicked on, another will pop up.

This cadence will keep occurring for the users regardless if its their first time logging into the MPOS or not. You will need to navigate to the corner settings button (Figure 4). Here is where you can select one of the two options below:

• Don't show me the app introduction next time
• Don't show me the app tour next time

Just have the users flip these flags. You can also make it so all the MPOS devices to have this not turn on. That's key for when your users are already trained and can start the

As this is a new feature, things may change in the future but, until then, that's it.

Figure 1 - The welcome tour video

Figure 2 - The guide bubbles in the POS

Figure 3 - A guide bubble pointing to a new feature.

Figure 4 - The 'Settings' icon in the upper right corner of the app

Figure 5 - A look inside the MPOS 'settings' view

Dynamics AX Cloud POS (CPOS) activation error: DA1023 - Could not resolve employee's identity

When activating a new Dynamics AX Cloud POS (CPOS) instance, you may encounter the error 'DA1023 - Could not resolve employee's identity. Probably due to the user's external identity is not being mapped to an employee' (Figure 1 below). It fails on Setup 4 of 11. This can also occur in the Modern POS (MPOS).

You don't need to close out of the POS to resolve this issue. Once you fix the issue, which this blog post will explain, you can just hit retry. Assuming the data was pushed to the target retail channel, you should be good to go. 

You need to navigate to your worker in the AX application and edit the record. From there, hit the 'RETAIL' button in the navigation bar (Figure 2). There will be an option under the 'EXTERNAL IDENTITY' called 'Associate existing identity'. What this will do is link your login ID to an AX worker. In this case, I'm 000160. You will have to select the identity (Figure 3)

Once complete, run the 1060 job to push it to the retail channel (Figure 4). You should make it a best practice to click on the job's 'History' tab or navigate to the 'Download' form to make sure the data ran properly.

Navigate back to your 'Activate [Modern/Cloud] POS' screen and click 'Retry'. It should activate successfully as long as you have no other issues!

Figure 1- The error

 

Figure 2 - The 'Associate existing identity' option on the worker

Figure 3 - Associating the existing identity to a worker

Figure 4 - Run the 1060 retail job

Deprecated features in Dynamics AX 7

With the release of the new Dynamics AX (also known as AX 7), there are a number of features that were added as well as deprecated.

To get a full list of deprecated features in the new AX, you can visit this location: https://ax.help.dynamics.com/en/wiki/deprecated-features-in-dynamics-ax-7/

As of Feb 23rd 2016, the list of deprecated features is below. But make sure to use the link above as that will be the most accurate and up to date list. The below is just a historical look at the features.

Additionally, it was announced at the 2016 Microsoft Dynamics Technical Conference that WMII will be deprecated and replaced with the Advanced WHS module and the Enterprise POS (ePOS) will be replaced with the Modern POS (mPOS) and Cloud POS (cPOS) in AX 7. These deprecated features will still be supported in pre-AX 7 releases but will not be supported in AX 7.

Business Analyzer

AIF, AxD, and AxBC integrations

Connector for Microsoft Dynamics

GL SSRS reports

X++ financial statements

eBilanz (XBRL for Germany)

Compliance Center

Environmental sustainability

Shipping carrier interface

Warehouse management II

Bills of materials without BOM versions

Product builder

Payroll information in Human Resources

Worker reminders in Human Resources

Enterprise Portal client

Role Center pages

Desktop client

Form ActiveX and Managed Host controls

InfoPart and FormPart metadata

Cue metadata

Cue group metadata

Danish check format

German DTAUS payment export and account statement import (totals and transactions)

ClieOp03 payment format for the Netherlands

German XML EU Sales list

German DTAZV payment format

Dutch SWIFT MT940

Business statistics

Main account list page

Generate prenotes by using a batch

Malaysia and Singapore bank cash flow report

Mexican CFD electronic invoice

Mexico realized and unrealized VAT

Rename product dimension

Private blocking of inventory and warehouse management journals

Travel requisitions

Vendor invoice pool excluding posting details

Ability to cancel changes to a vendor invoice

Change document date function in Invoice approval journal

Virtual company accounts

Microsoft Outlook integration

Dynamics AX Tech Conference 2016

As a lot of people know, I'm a huge proponent of attending the Microsoft Technical Conference every year. There is too much that is presented that you should know for success to not attend. This is for both end users and partners. I would even suggest sending people who are not heavily technical. Just make sure they are experienced to get the most out of it. It's a GREAT time to network and gain valuable insight on topics that you can't find online or in blogs.

And with AX 7 (now called Dynamics AX [version-less]) coming up, everyone should really get themselves educated on what it is even if you're not planning on upgrading or implementing it for a while.

Come out and say hi! Drop me a comment if you have questions about the event, too.

REGISTER HERE: Dynamics Technical Conference 2016

There are also some deep dive workshops after the conference, specifically focused in three areas: Retail, Presales, and Budget Planning. I've been to retail ones in the past and they're definitely worth it as well!

They deep dive into topics covered in the tech conference so I would recommend attending the sessions at the tech conference that are supplementary with the deep dive workshop you're choosing.

REGISTER HERE: Deep Dive Workshops

Here is some more information regarding these deep dive sessions:

Microsoft Dynamics Retail Conference 2016 – 2 days of L300 learning from the R&D Retail Team on the new Microsoft Dynamics AX (‘AX 7’):

• The deep dive includes presentations across the entire Retail solution (Modern POS/Cloud POS, Retail Server, Hardware station, eCommerce, Catalog & Call Center sales, Merchandising, BI/Reporting), as well as presentations highlighting solution architecture, they complete retail application lifecycle with Lifecycle Services (LCS), customization and extensibility, performance and scalability, troubleshooting, and best practices.
• Hands-on lab experiences will include omni-channel scenarios, retail application configuration, setup, and deployment, as well as extensibility, monitoring, troubleshooting, and reporting.
• Please note that content presented at the Dynamics Technical Conference is considered a prerequisite and will not be repeated during the Retail Conference. Attendance at the Dynamics Technical Conference is a mandatory prerequisite for the Retail Conference.
• You can register here for the Retail Conference 2016: http://msdynamicsttt.msnlevents.net/Content/Trainings.aspx?rsvp=25424

Advanced Presales Workshop for Microsoft Dynamics AX (‘AX 7’) – 3 days of going deep on presales

• This workshop provides presales consultants with solid grounding for demonstrating Microsoft Dynamics AX as a solution that is superior to competitive products. Participants learn through typical business scenarios, starting with foundational knowledge and persona scenarios along with exercises and case discussions by using real-world examples. The workshop covers the range of capabilities in Microsoft Dynamics AX – the learnings provide a basis for future work in vertical industries.
• The workshop is designed for consultants who have led or had a strong supporting role in previous AX projects.
• You can register here for the Advanced Presales Workshop: http://msdynamicsttt.msnlevents.net/Content/Trainings.aspx?rsvp=25398

Budget Planning Workshop for Microsoft Dynamics AX (‘AX 7’) – 3 days of intensive learning on budget planning

• This workshop helps senior consultants to plan configure,  and implement advanced budgeting scenarios. The workshop engages with organizational hierarchies, security models, workflows, and integration to Excel for working with budget plans. The workshop is based on typical business scenarios and covers planning and setup, templates, and simulation as well as budget functions and tools with real-world examples.
• The training is intended for architects and senior consultants with proven experience on AX implementation and solid knowledge of AX financials, as well as pre-sales consultants focused on financials
• You can register here for the Budget Planning Workshop: http://msdynamicsttt.msnlevents.net/Content/Trainings.aspx?rsvp=25427

Top 24 Dynamics AX 7 search suggestions with comments

I think that harvesting social data to see what people are searching for in regards to a specific topic (e.g. Dynamics AX 7) can be very telling for what is going on and what people are interested in. One of the best ways IMO is to look at search engine suggestions with things like Bing and Google search suggestions. For those that don't know, search suggestions are the things that show up when you start typing in the search window of a search engine (Figure 1 below).

Figure 1 - Example Bing search suggestions

Below is a raw list of the search suggestions that I've compiled from various sources  in bold and added some commentary as to why people may be searching for them. Its obviously not THE reason for the searches but I'll try to add some insight into why I would be interested in that.

Top 24 search engine suggestions for 'Dynamics AX 7'

1. dynamics ax 7
• Its new. Its what I searched for...
2. dynamics ax 7 release date
• The release date has been speculated during 2014 and 2015 as well as who can implement it and its changed a bit over time as new features are added. We generally say 'Generally Available' (eg. GA'ed) instead of 'released'.
3. dynamics ax 7 preview
• Often new releases are available for people to preview before they upgrade or if an organization wants to get up to speed on what is changing so they can prepare for those changes in their current implementation. Or partners want to start getting ready. They're probably adding to this.
4. dynamics ax 7 release
• See 'release date at #2
5. dynamics ax 7 wiki
• Microsoft recently launched a new 'wiki' for AX 7 Dynamics 'AX 7' Technical Preview Help Wiki. A lot has changed in AX 7 so something like this was needed. We usually use things like TechNet or MSDN but back in the day, Axaptapedia was awesome!
6. dynamics ax 7 training
• Yeah... People will need training on this. Even the people who know current versions of AX.
7. dynamics ax 7 visual studio
• In pre-AX7, MorphX, the integrated development environment (IDE), was used for all AX development. In AX 7, you will be using Visual Studio. Big change!! Check out this video on YouTube for more information: AX7 Development with Visual Studio
8. dynamics ax 7 hr
• AX 7 will introduce new functionality around 'Human Capital Management' (more info here: What’s new or changed in Dynamics AX 7). There might be more around HR but I'm not aware of it...
9. dynamics ax 7 blog
• There are a lot of AX blogs out there (see mine and all my friends blogs in the right panel of my blog), but there is also an official Microsoft blog which has official information around AX. Check it out for the latest statements from Microsoft about Dynamics AX: Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX: The Microsoft Dynamics AX product team blog. It's different from other blogs in that its from Microsoft. 
10. dynamics ax 7 saas
• SaaS = software as a service. Its a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. Basically, you could have and use AX like you would Office 365or another online software where you don't have to manage hardware or installations. You don't have to go this route with AX 7, but software in general is trending that direction.
11. dynamics ax 7 news
• Who doesn't want to know what is going on with AX 7? There are a lot of things that are changing day to day so you should keep checking your news feed!
12. dynamics ax 7 reporting
• Some new enhancements in the SSRS reporting in the headers and footers
13. dynamics ax 7 x++
• AX's coding language which is now an official .NET language
14. dynamics ax 7 mdla 
• Model Driven Layer Architecture. This is big. Check out the benefits of this on the official MSDN blog site: The Benefits of a Model Driven Layered Architecture
15. dynamics ax 7 public preview
• This means users can log into AX 7 and preview the program. Spin it up in Lifecycle Services (LCS) and give it a try! Microsoft uses these to get feedback from end users to help shape the future of the product. Help Shape the Future of ERP: Join the Microsoft Dynamics ‘AX 7’ Preview Program
16. dynamics ax 7 features
• There are a bunch of features in AX but ppl are generally searching for new features in a release. more info here: What’s new or changed in Dynamics AX 7. Or the searches are new or potentially future users of AX. There might be giant lists of AX functionality but I can't think of one giant sheet of features as ERPs are loaded with features. So its a good search!
17. dynamics ax 7.0
• 7 or 7.0... same thing
18. dynamics ax 7 RTM
• RTM=Release To Manufacturer. There are multiple builds and iterations of software and hardware (e.g AX CTP builds) but the 'RTM' build is the final build that will be released when the product goes Generally Available (GA'ed). ADDED 1/22/2016: Updates for things like LCS use the acronym RTW or Release To Web. A lot of software that is in a SaaS model have RTWs
19. dynamics ax 7 roadmap
• 'Roadmaps' are plans of direction for Microsoft. They typically tell high level where things are going with the software and there are announcements about them usually premiering at conferences like Convergence. The existing 'Long term commitment' diagram goes out to AX 8 but not past that.
20. dynamics ax 7 preview technical conference
• The annual Microsoft technical conference held in Seattle. Register here. Its the best conference to go to IMO as there is so much information there with presentations by various Microsoft people. Come hang out with me there :-) It is held in Feb and used to have a bad habit of starting on the super bowl sunday so I'd fly in early so I wouldn't miss it. This year its not thankfully!
21. dynamics ax 7 infrastructure
• The infrastructure has changed significantly in AX 7 from previous versions. Its web-based. The AX end user experience is totally different. And with that, obviously the backend has changed too.
22. dynamics ax 7 azure apps
• you can leverage Azure apps to build cross-platform scalable enterprise-level applications that connect to data both in the cloud as well as on-premise systems. More information here Everyone loves apps :-)
23. dynamics ax 7 cloud
• AX 7 is really the first step in AX being a true cloud leveraged platform in a SaaS model. The 'cloud' is normally Azure but doesn't have to be. It can be Amazon or a private hosted cloud solution as well. I recommend Azure.
24. dynamics ax 7 upgrade
• Currently Microsoft is generally not allowing upgrades to AX 7; only new implementations of AX.

Note: As I'm a musician, I have to thrown this in bc I think of it everytime someone says AX 7. In your search results, if you don't say Dynamics, you may see references to Roland's AX-7 Keytar. (Figure 2) Its a keyboard that is held like a guitar, hence keytar. Its a popular one and the only one I've ever played. Yeah. Enjoy that.

Figure 2 - Roland's AX-7 keytar

Helpful tip: Strategy on how to debug an AX form/report when you're at your last straw...

Here is a helpful tip for debugging an AX form or report (and sometimes other objects):

Sometimes when I'm at my wits end with a form or report that I can't seem to debug, I have a little strategy that allows me to quickly 'sledgehammer' out the problematic area. It also is helpful if people are testing a certain form or report and I want to debug at the same time without interfering with their operations.

I duplicate the object (Figure 1 below) and do my testing on the 'CopyOf[OBJECTNAME]' object that is created. Sometimes doing this allows me to make major changes like just deleting a datasource(s) outright if I feel it can help me get to the root cause.

For example, there was a situation where there was a very highly complex form with 25 datasources and complex joins and one of the grids wasn't showing data someone was expecting. We felt it was a query issue so I was looking around in the code a bit but nothing jumped out at me. I had a hunch a something was wrong with one of the datasources whether it was a join, missing data, wrong relationships, etc. From there, you can usually hack away at that sucker until you find an indicator that a change worked. This allows you to delete that copyof object, recopy the original and then go in and more strategically look in that area for what is wrong.

In the even you get close again, you can make a copy of the CopyOf object and keep the cycle going :-) Just delete all your objects when you are done!!!!!

It won't always work but it will a majority of the time and is a good way to jar you from being stuck on something.

Hope that helps!!!!

Figure 1 - Duplicate the AOT object