10 tips for the Microsoft Dynamics AX Technical Conference 2015

Out of all of the conferences and training in a given year, the technical conference is the best one by far. This is just my opinion but I've gone to them year after year and this is by far the best conference event of the year. I'd HIGHLY recommend going.

It is February 2nd-4th, 2015 (Monday-Wednesday) in Seattle, WA. There will be post event training sessions the 5th-7th (Thursday-Saturday) but they have not been announced yet. Attendance is an extra fee for these. NOTE: This is at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle, not in Bellevue or Redmond campus like past years.

Registration is now open: http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/AXtechconference/

You don't have to be a technical person to attend. There are functional sessions there as well. And I personally think all functional people should be familiar with the technical aspects of AX just like technical people should be familiar with functional aspects.

Its getting larger and larger every year and has switched venues over time because the sessions get so full. Not sure capacity this year but it may sell out as it gets closer to the event.

To note, that Sunday before is Super Bowl Sunday. There is an MS watch party event if you want to attend that. I was a Bronco's fan in Seahawks territory last year so I opted to not attend the party and go to a brewery instead. Denver got trounced but I got a number of free things from the bar as everyone was very friendly there and felt bad. Seattle is a great city! I'm hoping its not a Broncos/Seahawks rematch. Or do I?

10 tips for attending the MS Dynamics Tech Conference 2015

1. Register early for the event. You can save money if you book early. Most won't dispute the value of this conference but its a factor of cost vs benefit. Booking early reduces the cost. Plus it sells out so you want to make sure you can go. I believe you can save $300 off registration if you register before December 10th, 2014.
2. Book the hotel early. They'll fill up quickly and the rates can rise.  
3. Try to stay in downtown Seattle or as close as you can to the Washington State Convention Center. That's where most people will go out after the events and you never know who you'll run into. The best networking happens outside of the conference and the largest concentration of AX people will be by the convention center. 
4. Go to the post training events. Last year I went to an R3 retail hands on lab session and it was awesome. At times, you can get one on one time with the product team and you can ask why certain things were done certain ways and provide feedback. Assuming the 2015 sessions will be similar to 2014, you don't want to miss it!
5. Take great notes during the session. You may remember things that night from the sessions you were in but after the whole week, you'll be hazy about the first day. There is just too much info. If you're in a group, try to use a shared OneNote notebook so you can see what others learned during their sessions. Divide and conquer!!
6. Pictures are allowed during the sessions but don't post ones that they ask you not to share on social media. Keep those for your notes. The pictures will help give context to notes you may take. I tend to remember things through images so if I read written notes, I may forget details that a picture will bring back.
7. Pick your schedule ahead of time, but don't be afraid to pull an audible. You may be in a session and they talk about something that peaks your interest you were unaware of (like SQL AlwaysOn for example). If you stay strict to your plan, you could be missing out. Follow your gut. Often the unplanned sessions end up being the most valuable ones.
8. Bring a list of questions or topics your organization has struggled with. It's easy to lose track of your work tasks with so many shiny, new features being shown to you. The list will help you concentrate on what features and strategies you can employ now or in the future. There will be a number of experts there both presenting and in the crowd who would likely be able to help.
9. Don't be afraid to talk to people. Networking is important in an community as 'small' as the AX group is. After the sessions, there will be a lot of opinions from technical and functional people alike in which you can learn a lot from. Additionally, be ready to share your own experiences and original opinions. Having people to bounce ideas and thoughts off of helps enhance the sessions' presented content.
10. Don't party too hard in the evenings. It's tempting and fun I know. Especially with so many other AX enthusiasts in attendance but you'll pay for it in the AM. The sessions go fairly fast with a lot of information. If you feel like you got tackled by a sumo wrestler, the sessions might as well be in a foreign language.

Hope the above tips helps people! Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

AX for Retail POS database size caveat

When deploying the AX for Retail POS solution, there should be a SQL DB installed at the store location. SQL Express can be installed to meet this requirement without adding to the cost of deployment for licensing (since its free!). For the most part, there won't be an issue with this. However, you need to know the issues you'll encounter in a solution so you can anticipate them.

For larger AX implementations, data growth can be an issue at the store DB as retail rollouts or data grows the size of the store side DB.  SQL Express 2012 has a DB limit of 10 GB as of 6/29/2014. 

There are a few options to address this each with their own pros and cons. One way to correct the issue is to buy a license for all SQL Server instances at all of the stores. It's a good solution if you're Scrooge McDuck or Mr Monopoly and don't care about costs. Another option is to limit what stores see what data (e.g. by region). Understand this has a con as well in that not all stores will have visibility to all of the other stores data. Yet another option is to customize the deployments to look at two different databases for the data. This is really tricky and I don't think justifies the cost compared to other alternatives. But its an option! There are other options like a central SQL box and virtualizing the stores DBs referencing that one SQL DB but then you'll still have other concerns like IO, network speeds, etc.

This blog post won't discuss a solution as there are many with each one fitting certain situations. There are even more possibilities out there I haven't even thought about. But hopefully this post will help some people start to think about the limitations proactively and start to brainstorm on their own.

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Here are some more technical details around limitations for those interested:

1. Constrained to a single CPU (in 2012, this limitation has been changed to "The lesser of one socket or four cores", so multi-threading is possible
2. 1 GB RAM (Same in 2008/2012)
3. 4 GB database size (raised to 10GB in SQL 2008 R2 and SQL 2012)

The 4 GB database size limit applies only to data files and not to log files. However, there are no limits to the number of databases that can be attached to the server

However, as mentioned in the comments and above, the database size limit was raised to 10GB in 2008 R2 and 2012. Also, this 10GB limit only applies to relational data, and Filestream data does not count towards this limit (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb895334.aspx).

How To: Remove Collaboration Workspaces created from AX 2012 Enterprise Portal (EP)

AX has the ability to create collaboration workspaces for various records in AX (e.g. project, opportunity) automatically from within records in AX and have them available on a SharePoint workspace site.

The workspaces will show up in the workplace home page setup location in Figure 2 below using the template also in that configuration. You can get to the settings by going to System Administration > Setup > Enterprise Portal > ‘Collaboration workspace settings’.

That’s great that they’re there and they’re very useful, but once those workspaces are no longer needed, how can we get rid of them?

 

Figure 1 – The SharePoint AX EP site with collaboration workspaces added

Figure 2 – Legal entity settings for collaboration workspace system generation

While there is no ‘correct’ way to do this, keep in mind that the idea of this is to make AX managed SharePoint subsites for collaboration. That being said, the sites used were intended to be created, linked, and deleted from within AX. It doesn’t mean that they have to be.

To SharePoint administrators, they might go into SharePoint designer, open the link where the collaboration site is (Figure 3), right click on the site, and select ‘Delete’ (Figure 4). This works but it will create an inconsistency with data between AX and what actually exists. This will yield an HTTP 404 Not Found error when users attempt to get to the specific information that doesn’t exist (Figure 5).

The above would work but you SHOULD go into and update the individual records’ information that refer to this URL. That way, it the system won’t indicate that a site doesn’t exist.

Alternately, the site can be either deleted or ‘unlinked from within AX. Unlinking is nice as it will keep the subsite available for repurposes or archival reasons. For archives though, I’d still keep it… Removing the workspaces is as easy as the below. The bullet points I made should explain how it all ties together.

Navigate to Sales and Marketing > Common > Opportunities > All Opportunities, select the opportunity with the collaboration workspace. On the ‘General’ tab in the ribbon, click the drop down for ‘Collaboration workspaces’. There are four options (Figure 6):

·         Create collaboration workspace

o   Creates a collab workspace for the record.

o   This is a ground up workspace using the template specified in the

 

·         Link collaboration workspace

o   Allows a user to link an existing collab workspace to that AX record

 

·         Delete collaboration workspace

o   Deletes the entire collaboration workspace from SharePoint

o   The site will not show up in the EP list in Figure 1

o   If another record in AX is also using that collab workspace and the user attempts to delete the workspace, AX will only unlink the collab workspace from that record, not delete it

o   The Internal/External URL fields will become blank

 

·         Unlink collaboration workspace

o   Does not delete the collab workspace from SharePoint but removes the association with that specific record

o   The site will still show up in the EP list in Figure 1

o   If the workspace is linked to other records in AX, the association will still exist for those other records

o   The Internal/External URL fields will become blank

Some extra side notes:

Each object, in this case an opportunity can only have one collaboration workspace URL associated with it: an internal and external.

As hinted above in the bullet points, multiple entities in the system can be linked to a single collaboration workspace.

Figure 3 – Opening the workspace where the collaboration workspace is located

Figure 4 – Deleting the SharePoint Collaboration Workspace subsite in SharePoint Designer

Figure 5 – The data in AX will still show the collaboration workspace but the site does not exist (HTTP 404 Not Found error)

Figure 6 – Opportunities record in AX with the options for collaboration workspaces

AX 2012 Issue: Missing module in Dynamics AX module navigation

Issue:

An end user seemed to be missing the entire Accounts Receivable module (Figure 1 below) in AX 2012.

Thought process:

My first thought was that the issue was security: if the user doesn't have permissions to any of the menu items under that module, the module won't show up. The issue is that the user was a power user and should obviously have access to almost all objects under AR. 

The giveaway:

A key indicator that the issue was specific to a single user; other users with the same role were able to to see it. That means it must be something else outside of security.

Solution:

The solution was that the module was unintentionally hidden. Make it visible (or hide it!) by going to File > 'View' > 'Modules' > Uncheck/Check the appropriate module(s) (Figure 2 below). When they are checked, they are visible. If they are unchecked, they are not visible. Once rechecking the AR module, we can see the module is back in place (Figure 3 below)

Note: This is a great way to hide modules that users may not need. It can simplify the modules list for end users who really only need to see specific things. For example, a retail power user may need to see customers, workers, etc. Since those example objects also exist in the AR, sales and marketing, and HR, the user will see the AR, Sales&Marketing, HR, and Retail modules. Since the user can get to everything they need in the Retail module, they may not want to see those other three modules. By hiding the other modules on a user by user basis, it will simplify their view of the system and seem less cluttered. 

Figure 1 - Missing Accounts Receivable module in AX 2012 navigation

Figure 2 - The accounts receivable module is unchecked, meaning that it is hidden.

Figure 3 - The Accounts Receivable module is now visible to the user

Dynamics AX 2012 R3 - Complete List of Out Of The Box Workflows

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3 comes with 75 workflow types in the base product. Identifying and leveraging these base workflow types can be highly beneficial to adding value to customers' implementations. The key is knowing what they are while analyzing a businesses needs to devise the best solution AX can offer with minimal modifications.

Just to clarify, these are the workflow types. There can be multiple workflows setups using one or more of the below workflows.

For total transparency, I used the code below to extract the list from the AOT. I hardcoded the 'en-us' but this can be set for whatever language you want.

static void daxWorkflowAnalyzer(Args _args)
{
    #AOT
    #Properties
    TreeNodeIterator          templateNodes;
    TreeNode                      templateNode;
    SysDictWorkflowType template;
 
    templateNodes = TreeNode::findNode(#WorkflowTypesPath).AOTiterator();
    templateNode = templateNodes.next();
 
    while (templateNode)
    {      
        info(strFmt("%1 - %2", SysLabel::labelId2String2(findProperty(templateNode.AOTgetProperties(), #PropertyLabel), 'en-us'),
                               SysLabel::labelId2String2(findProperty(templateNode.AOTgetProperties(), #PropertyHelpText), 'en-us')));
     
        templateNode = templateNodes.next();
    }
}

WORKFLOW	DESCRIPTION
Advanced ledger entry workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for advance ledger entries
Bank reconciliation journal approval workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for Bank Reconciliation journals
Budget account entry workflow	Use this type to create review workflows for budget account entries
Budget plan workflows	Use this type to create and review workflows for budget plans
Budget register entry workflow	Use this type to create review workflows for budget register entries
Case management workflow	Use this type to create a workflow for cases
Catalog import product approval	Use this type to create review workflows for imported catalog products
Catalog import approval	Use this type to create review workflows for imported catalogs
Customer bank remittance workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer bank remittance journals
Customer draw bill of exchange workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer draw bill of exchange journals
Customer free text invoice workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for free text invoices
Customer payment workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer payment journals
Customer protest bill of exchange workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer protest bill of exchange journals
Customer recurring invoice workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for recurring invoices
Customer redraw bill of exchange workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer redraw bill of exchange journals
Customer settle bill of exchange workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for customer settle bill of exchange journals
Document handling	Workflow type for document handling
Human resources actions workflow	Use this type to create workflows for personnel actions, such as to create new positions or to modify positions
Worker actions hire	Workflows for worker actions of the Hire type
Worker actions terminate	Workflows for worker actions of the Terminate worker type
Worker actions transfer	Workflows for worker actions of the Transfer worker type
Signing limits workflow	Use this template to create a workflow for review of signing limit requests
Time and attendance days total workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for time and attendance days total records
Time and attendance journal registration workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for time and attendance journal registration records
Ledger allocations journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for allocation journals
Ledger daily journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for daily journals
Ledger eliminations journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for eliminations journal
Ledger fixed assets budget journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for fixed asset budget journals
Ledger post fixed assets journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for post fixed asset journals
Customer rebate workflow	Customer rebate workflow type
Review original budget workflow	Use this type to review an original budget
Review budget revision workflow	Use this type to review a budget revision
Review project invoice proposals	Use this type to review project invoice proposals
Review project quotations	Use this type to review project quotations
Purchase agreement approval workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for purchase agreements
Commitments approval	Use this template to create approval workflows for commitment documents
Delivery due date notification workflow	Use this type to create delivery due date notification workflows for unconfirmed product receipts
Invoice received notification workflow	Use this type to create invoice received notification workflows for unconfirmed product receipts
Product receipt failed notification workflow	Use this type to create notifications workflows for failed product receipts
Unconfirmed product receipt rejection notification workflow	Use this type to create notification workflows for rejected unconfirmed product receipts
Purchase order line workflow	Use this type to create review- and approval workflows for purchase order lines
Purchase requisition line review	Use this type to create review workflows for purchase requisition lines
Purchase requisition review	Use this type to create review workflows for purchase requisitions
Purchase order workflow	Use this type to create review- and approval workflows for purchase orders
Retail catalog approval workflow	Retail catalog approval workflow type
Trade allowance workflow	Trade allowance workflow type
Vendor rebate approval	Vendor rebate workflow approval type
Freight Invoice Approval	Workflow to support invoice approval
Cash advance request	Use this type to create approval workflows for cash advance requests
Dispute management	Use this type to create workflows for credit card dispute management
Expense report auto posting	Use this type to create document automatic posting workflows for expense reports
Expense report	Use this type to create document approvals for expense reports
Expense line item auto posting	Use this type to create line item automatic posting workflows for expense reports
Expense line item	Use this type to create line item approvals for expense reports
Travel requisition	Use this type to create approval workflows for travel requisitions
VAT tax recovery	Use this type to create approval workflows for VAT tax recovery
Review timesheet workflow	Use this type to review a timesheet
Review timesheet line workflow	Use this type to review a timesheet line
User request workflow	Use this type to create user provisioning workflows for user requests
Inactivate user request workflow	Use this type to create user inactivation workflows for inactivate user requests
Vendor bank remittance journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor bank remittance journals
Vendor disbursement journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor disbursement journals
Vendor draw promissory note journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor draw promissory note journals
Vendor invoice approval journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor invoice approval journals
Vendor invoice journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor invoice recording journals
Vendor invoice register journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor invoice register journals
Vendor invoice workflow	Use this type to create review workflows for vendor invoices
Vendor invoice line workflow	Use this type to create review workflows for vendor invoice lines
Vendor redraw promissory note journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor redraw promissory note journals
Vendor category application workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor category application requests
Vendor category justification workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor category justification requests
Vendor add application workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor add application requests
Vendor add justification workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor add justification requests
Vendor status change request workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor status change requests
Vendor settle promissory note journal workflow	Use this type to create approval workflows for vendor settle promissory note journals

Business Intelligence Components Part 2: Multidimensional aggregation and allocation

In part two of the 'Business Intelligence Components' series, we'll look at the 'Multidimensional aggregation and allocation' component. For more information about this series and its context, see Part I of the series Overview and the 'Master' BI Components list

Multidimensional aggregation and allocation
This means processing data from many different data sources in a memory efficient way.

Examples of 'multidimensional aggregations' are OLAP (online analytical processing) cubes or 'multidimensional data analysis'. Basically, taking several different data sources (e.g. cities, sales transactions, date of creation, items) and displaying these in a single analytical view which gives the users a view of the information and how they all relate to each other. Depending on the application where the cubes are being leveraged, the users may be able to drill into certain parts of the data (e.g. city) and see even more detailed information around the selected data (e.g. which stores in that drilled into city are selling how much).

Depending on how complex the above links are to display the information from the tables, memory consumption can be quite complicated. It's one thing to process the data accurately. It's another thing to process it quickly and efficiently. Therefore, it is required to allocate the multidimensional information into strategic blocks of memory so it can be equally as strategically removed. While people want all the data in the world, no one wants to wait for it.

To look at these two concepts together, think of a Rubik's cube where each axis represents a different data source. There are nine boxes on each side of the cube. Now picture a fixed multidimensional array variable where we'd declare something to the tune of  int   multiDimArray [9] [9] [9]. The 9s represent the number of blocks on each side of the cube. Think of these as values in the tables. Fixed arrays are more efficient memory wise than dynamic arrays.

I know I skimmed over a bunch of details above but again this is a high level look at these concepts. If I explain in more detail than the above, I'm defeating the whole purpose of these posts.

PART I:      Overview and the 'Master' BI Components list
PART II:    Multidimensional aggregation and allocation
PART III:   Denormalization, tagging and standardization
PART IV:   Realtime reporting with analytical alert
PART V:     A method of interfacing with unstructured data sources
PART VI:   Group consolidation, budgeting and rolling forecasts
PART VII:  Statistical inference and probabilistic simulation
PART VIII: Key performance indicators optimization
PART IX:    Version control and process management
PART X:     Open item management

Business Intelligence Components Part 1: Overview and the 'Master' BI Components list

Business Intelligence (BI) is a hot topic in today's business landscape. Everyone wants it but not everyone knows what they need. In describing a business' needs and analyzing capabilities of existing BI solutions, people often refer to a list of generic classifications of BI components.

The interesting thing about this is that someone (or organization) had compiled a list of BI components in which everyone seems to refer to in all of their BI articles. It's also found on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence). Whether all these articles are all referring to this source for their information or not is irrelevant. The important thing is this list is out there and is used verbatim and in order in many locations.

Everyone seems to be describing BI as being something along the lines of "made up of an increasing number of components. These include the following" and then including the below list from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence:

Multidimensional aggregation and allocation

Denormalization, tagging and standardization

Realtime reporting with analytical alert

A method of interfacing with unstructured data sources

Group consolidation, budgeting and rolling forecasts

Statistical inference and probabilistic simulation

Key performance indicators optimization

Version control and process management

Open item management

Funny thing is no one actually talks about what these are or why their important. They just rely on Wikipedia's BI knowledge to provide generalized talking points. ~95% of the articles mention the components in fancy wording. The other discussions I found on the specific topics got so far under the hood that most people would give up reading after paragraph one.

The following series of blog posts is meant to provide a high level look at what these components of BI actually mean in layman's terms. I originally had these in one GIANT post but it was getting ridiculous so I made this a ten part series with this being part 1.

PART I:      Overview and the 'Master' BI Components list
PART II:    Multidimensional aggregation and allocation
PART III:   Denormalization, tagging and standardization
PART IV:   Realtime reporting with analytical alert
PART V:     A method of interfacing with unstructured data sources
PART VI:   Group consolidation, budgeting and rolling forecasts
PART VII:  Statistical inference and probabilistic simulation
PART VIII: Key performance indicators optimization
PART IX:    Version control and process management
PART X:     Open item management