The Code House

parts

mariota — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 21:26:39 GMT

Parts are mainly used to display additional information about the main form's content or record.

parts come in mainly 3 flavours:

1) info parts:

Info parts are ui controls that have a standard look and feel.

using metadata, you can specify the query and the fields that you want to be displayed in an infopart.

then you create a menu item to reference this infopart and add that menu item to the parts section of a form.

2) form parts:

form parts are ui control that are user defined and developed.

They do not follow a standard look and feel.

In other words, you can pretty much have any form be a form part and use it to display information related to the records currently displayed in a form.

in order to create a form part.

create a form part control(aot->parts->form parts) and reference the form you want to encapsulate in a form part

create a menu item to reference that formpart you just created

add that menu item to the parts section of a form.

3) cues and cue groups

cues are usually used as to display aggregation type of additional information related the record displayed in the main form. for example:

you want to display the number of invoices related to a customer that is currently being displayed in a form(list or details).

to create a cue you need the following:

1) create a query and a list page. the query and the list page will define the aggregation you intended to display continuing on our previous example:

create a query\list page of the invoices related to a customer; basically given a customer record list me the invoices, or in other words the customer tables at the top of the query joined to the invoice table.

2) create a menu item to open that list page with the query defined int the menu item

3) create a cue and reference the menu item created in step2

4) cues are displayed within a cue group(a set of aggregate information)

5) create a menu item and reference the cue group

6) add the cue group to the parts section of the form

Table hierarchies

mariota — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:54:08 GMT

Table hierarchies is a new concept introduced in ax2012.

It allows the ax developer to have elements that conceptually share same fields\properties to extend the same table.

this is how you create a table hierarchy

a) create the parent table

1) create a table

2) set the following properties on the table 'support inheritance = yes'

3) create an int64 field, name the field 'instancerelationtype'

4) set the following properties on the table 'instancerelationtype= instancerelationtype'

b) create childtable1

1) create a table

2) set the following properties on the table 'supports inheritance = yes' 'extends = <parenttablename>'

repeat to create childtable2

now you have a table hierarchy with 1parent and 2children

note the following:

1) now when you create a record in one of the children table, you get a record in the parent table

2) if you try to create a record in the parent table, you will be prompted to select a record type from the children tables

3) in order for tables to participate in table hierarchies, they need to have no fields

4)in order for tables to leave hierarchies or change hierarchy structures, they need to have no fields and no children.

mario

All my posts and articles are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. Use of included samples are subject to the terms specified at Microsoft.

What are model driven list pages

mariota — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:37:43 GMT

Model driven list pages are new types of list pages introduced in ax2012.

In a model driven list page, is targeted towards designing once(in the ax win32 development environment) and deploying to multiple framework(win32 client and enterprise portal or ep).

Moreover, the model driven list pages are tailored towards forcing the developer into seperation of ux(declarative) and business logic(code) and therefore, limit the addition of code in the ui model.

In order to add business logic, model driven list pages accept a class called the interaction class and as the name suggests this class :

1) Extend listpageinteraction class

2) Can Implement one or more of the default handlers hooked to the ui that fire at certain stages of the form's lifetime including:

-initialized

-initilializequery

-selectionchanged

...and many more

here is how you create a model driven list page:

create a form

modify the formtemplate property on the form to listpage, notice a grid gets added automatically to the design

select the datasource node and set the query property to the query that will drive the data for this list page

optional:

create an interaction class and set the interactionclass property on the form

drag and drop fields onto the grid

add ep and client menu items to point to that list page.

now the list page is available to consume on the rich client and on ep.

more details and example to follow next week hopefully...

mario

All my posts and articles are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights. Use of included samples are subject to the terms specified at Microsoft.

What is a FormBuildControl

mariota — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:42:36 GMT

A FormBuildControl is the base class for all form design time components, mainly:

FormBuildGroupControl
FormBuildGuidControl
FormBuildstringControl
FormBuildInt64Control
FormBuildIntControl
FormBuildListBoxControl
FormBuildListControl
FormBuildMenuButtonControl
and so on...

these classes are useful in case you want to edit the form through code, basically build the form at runtime rather than in metadata.

an example of a use of these classes is:

create a form.

override the init() of the form and add the following code

public void init()

{

FormBuildDataSource
fbds;

FormBuildGroupControl
fbgc;

FormBuildStringControl fbsc;

//add a custtable datasource to the form

fbds =
this.form().addDataSource('dyndatasource', 'custtable');

//add a group control to the form

fbgc =
this.form().design().addControl(FormControlType::Group, 'dyngroup');

//add a string control inside of the datagroup that is bound to the accountnum field of custtable datasource

fbsc =
fbgc.addDataField(fbds.id(), fieldNum(CustTable, AccountNum));

super();

}

Tis will add a custtable datasoruce to the form and then a datagrop to the form and inside that datagroup add a datafield that is bound to the custaccount field.

enjoy!

mario

What is a formbuilddatasource and what is it used for

mariota — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:28:35 GMT

A FormBuildDataSource object is used to access the design datasource element on the form.

you can use the formbuilddatasource to access datasources already on the form ex:

FormBuildDataSource fbds;

fbds = this.form().datasource(1);

will get your the first datasource on your form.

or to add a datasource

FormBuildDataSource fbds;

fbds = this.form().addDataSource(strFmt('datasorucename', table);

as mentioned previously, the formbuilddatasource object is used to reference the design element of the form datasource.

so it is different that the formdatasource object.

also, since the formbuilddatasource element is used to access the design element of the form's datasource, it is retrievable before the init() of a form.

Getting started with dyanmics ax 2012

mariota — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:07:52 GMT

If you are new to Dynamics ax or just curious,

here is a set of useful resources for you.

1) to install, the easiest is through downloading the virtual pc from the following:

Dynamics AX Virtual PC

you need partner source access to be able to access the virtual pc.

2) you can get the training material from Trainings

which also requires access to partner source

3) Books:

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 unleashed book(not released yet)

Mario

Getting started with blend

mariota — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:48:00 GMT

Since i joined the MS. Blend team not too long ago, i thought it would be a great idea to share my experience of getting to know the product's features most effectively.

First let's start by identifying the basic features of the applications:

the application allows you to create basic element (drawing shapes) including ellipses, rectangles or simple lines.

to do so, you just need to click on the