Dynamics Ax Blog

Ax 2009 disk full error

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:33:00 +0000

Hi there

This problem only seems to occur on 64-bit operating systems and it can be very tricky to pin down the cause

It occurs on both Terminal servers and Citrix Servers seemingly at random, we've noticed that the most consistent way to reproduce it (for this implementation at least) is by trying to generate a Customer Account Statement, but it can occur also occur when using Select Criteria, trying to generate a report, or when trying to view the permissions tree in a user group

The problem

Cannot create temporary file: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics AX\50\Client\appl\standard\tmp\$tmp001303e8.$.

The disk may be full.

Which is strange since the disk isn't full on the AOS server or the Citrix/Terminal server

There is a workaround which is to run the Ax client as an Administrator but that can be a major security flaw and isn't a long term solution

The Cause

There's a registry setting which tries to create a temporary sub-directory each time a user connects to a Terminal/Citrix server.

The problem is that when this temporary sub-directory gets created, it doesn't appear that the Ax client has access to it

So while the user may have the correct access to the %temp% directory within their Citrix/Terminal server user profile, they don't have access to the %temp%\1 or %temp%\27 or %temp%\942 sub-directory (the exact number varies and is rarely the same)

The Solution

The solution is to set the registry on the terminal server to not create these sub-directories within the temp folder and just to use the main %temp% directory instead

How do you do that? Well I'm glad you asked, all it takes is a little registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server]

"PerSessionTempDir"=dword:00000000

This change needs to be made in the registry on all the Citrix/Terminal servers that are used to connect to Ax

Here's a handy KB article with a bit more information about these keys

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/243215

Couldn't find this solution posted anywhere else on the internet so it looks like this is a first. Hurrah!

Thanks to Microsoft Support for their help in troubleshooting this tricky issue

Learning X++

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:01:00 +0000

Hi there

I've got an interview lined up next week that will require an X++ test. Now I've never even compiled an X++ program (except when you setup a test system but that's not really development) so I've been trying to learn using code snippets, blogs and MSDN

This is because I don't have access to a working virtual machine or test system since I'm not currently working with a Ax customer or partner. As far as I know, there aren't any resources available for solo students to study X++ on their own without paying for an expensive training course

Alas like my old Java teacher used to say "Programming is not a spectator sport". There's only so much that can be learned without having access to a virtual machine to play with or some kind of development system. Still this is better than nothing

So I've been going through the posts on the Issues Concerning X++ blog starting with the earliest post and this is what the past two hours of study have revealed:
You can find the original uncommented code sample and post here

static void Job2(Args _args)
{
System.Type typeOfByte;
System.Array arrayOfByte;
int arrayOfByteLength = 8;
int i;
;

typeOfByte = System.Type::GetType("System.Byte");
// Calls the static method GetType which is part of the
// System.Type class using the parameter System.Byte to
// instantiate the typeOfByte object to be a byte variable

arrayOfByte = System.Array::CreateInstance( typeOfByte, arrayOfByteLength );
// Initialising an array of bytes
// with 8 cells

for( i = 0; i < arrayOfByteLength; ++i )
{
arrayOfByte.SetValue( System.Convert::ToByte(i), i );
// SetValue takes Object - need to cast explicitely
}
// Go through the array and set the value in each
// cell to be the same as it's index number
// BUT cast the value from the initial integer
// value to a byte object

for( i = 0; i < arrayOfByteLength; ++i )
{
print ClrInterop::getAnyTypeForObject( arrayOfByte.GetValue( i ) );
// Displays the contents of the arrayOfByte using
// a Common Language Runtime static method that
// converts a CLR object to the X++ object type
// anytype. The anytype object's main use is as
// a return type so this is exactly the kind of
// situation it should be used
}

pause;
// Halts the execution of this job, presumably
// so that you can read the results of the
// above print statement
}

If you spot any mistakes then please feel free to point them out, like I said before, I'm still learning and in a odd kind of way

P.S. Writing and formatting this post so that it looks right took longer than the study time of the code snippet!

v3 Copy-paste crash bug

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 11:44:00 +0000

There is a bug in the kernel of Ax version 3 which exists in all service packs

This bug causes the Ax session to crash when the user attempts to paste "corrupt" text

Usually it occurs when using a particularly slow connection, when the user copies the text, it isn't copied properly and nothing is pasted when the user attempts to paste to any other program (e.g. notepad)

However when the user attempts to paste the text into Ax, their session crashes and they have to restart Ax and log in again, developers tell me this is especially frustrating for them

Microsoft have released a hotfix however to correct this problem, and it should be available from Partnersource right now

You can thank me for getting that bug fixed, it took about 3 months to track down the source and get a useable crash report to MS for their developers fix it

Troubleshooting rare bugs, it's like trying to catch a fly with chopsticks ;)

Dynamics Ax - Task Recorder

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:26:00 +0000

This is a free add-on for Ax that allows you to record whatever you're doing in Ax (forms that open, user input and screenshots) and automatically create documentation for you

So far I've been using it to produce Microsoft Word documents that will become part of a user manual for a bespoke Ax module

This is the first time we've actually managed to get it to work! Whenever we've tried it in the past it just wasn't useable
So for anyone else who's had problems with it, try the latest version, after having used it for several weeks without problems, I can recommend it

It's a LOT easier than taking hundreds of screenshots and cutting/pasting them into a word document

It's by no means perfect though, and there is still a fair amount of editing required before the document that it spews out is presentable enough to be of any use to an end-user, but it does make life easier

You can download it from here (requires partnersource login)

There's a brief but succinct description here at the axaptapedia too

Enjoy

Dynamics Ax 3.0 to 4.0 migration tool released

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:51:00 +0000

Hi there

Microsoft have updated an existing migration tool so that it now can assist in migrating from Axapta 3.0 to Dynamics Ax 4.0

Link (requires login to partnersource)

It's called XAL2AX, probably because Dynamics Ax was called Concord XAL many years ago when Damgaard still owned it

In fact Ax has had several different names and owners over the years, but that's another story which I'll explain in a separate post one day

Happy migrating!

Inside Dynamics Ax 4.0 ebook for FREE!

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:33:00 +0000

Microsoft have made this book available for free download (although like most ebooks, it cannot be printed)

It's supposed to be quite good from what I've heard

Not sure of why Microsoft have done this but why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Grab it while it's hot!

Dynamics Ax 2009 VPC available

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:41:00 +0000

Hi there

Microsoft have released a Virtual PC image of Dynamics Ax 2009 (the new name for Dynamics Ax version 5)

You can download it and user manuals from here (requires partnersource access)

It's almost 7 GB in total and is designed to work on a single laptop/PC (as opposed to a server)

Enjoy

More Projects 4.0 questions

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:36:00 +0000

In response to Koongs request, here are some more questions from the Dynamics Ax 4.0 Projects exam

Enjoy!

When is the use of project periods mandatory?

In connection with the project estimate function on fixed price projects
Answer

How can you configure the system to make sure that overtime payment is calculated for employees entering timesheets on a fixed price project?

They change the line property on the overtime hours to one which has a cost percentage set up
Answer

What is an advantage of using category groups?

They make it possible to define the posting rule the group
Answer

The project manager wants to track travel expenses and who is generating them on all projects. How should the system be configured to achieve this?

By setting the employee option on the travel category to mandatory
Answer

What is the purpose of sorting fields?

To group projects
Answer

What are the three specific internal project types in Microsoft Dynamics Ax?

Time, cost and investment
Answer

Which of the following describes why cost templates are used?

To define which categories to include in the calculation of a completion percentage
Answer

What is caused by creating the project directly from the project quotation?

A forecast can be created directly from the lines in the project quotation
Answer

What is a prerequisite for using the scheduling function?

A work centre group and a work centre must be set up
Answer

When the assessment principle is “Completed Percentage and Sales Value” for a fixed price project, which value is posted to the Accrued revenue-Sales value account when the estimate control process is run?

The contract value multiplied by completion percentage
Answer

The difference between t and d

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:52:00 +0000

Howdy

When entering the date in a date/time field in Axapta, you can use either t or d as a quick way of entering the current date/time

There is a difference between the two though;

t uses the date/time according to Windows

d uses the Axapta system date/time

Please enter the VAT number for this EU customer

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 10:00:00 +0000

This can happen when using Axapta demo data (which is european and based around a Danish light bulb company)

A quick solution if you're not using any EU customers is to just set the country type to domestic in Basic --> Setup --> Addresses --> Country type (screenshot)

This isn't something that should be done blindly in a live environment though

Googling Ax problems

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:19:00 +0000

One thing that baffles me is why there aren't more solutions to simple Axapta problems on the web

Not problems with customised versions of Axapta of course but problems with standard Axapta using the demo data

So I'll be putting up solutions to these types of problems here whenever I come across them

These aren't meant to be used in live situations but are fine for training purposes and self study

Dynamics Ax 4.0 Projects exam

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 00:52:00 +0000

Hi there

I recently sat and passed the Ax 4.0 Projects exam and remembered some questions, so here they are:

What is the purpose of the Employee/category validation setup?

To suggest or control what categories employees may use in project journals
Answer

The item CL-100-B is frequently consumed in projects you set up. Where can project category be set up when CL-100-B is sold or purchased from Project?

On the item
Answer

On a time and material project, the hotel expenses are to be invoiced directly to the customer, there is a 3% service charge levied by the travel agency that books the hotels. How can this charge be automatically added to the customer invoice?

On the hotel category, set the sales price method to misc. percentage and 3%
Answer

You have just finished a project and are about to start a new one. You want to keep the same team of employees on the next project. What are the three ways of setting up validation rules to apply to the new project?

Locate the individual employees in the Employee table and link them to the new project

Copy the old project by using the copy wizard and include the employee/project validation setup in the new project

Create a new validation group where you link the employees to the new project

Answer

On which type of project are cost templates used in?

Fixed price projects
Answer

Post a comment and let me know if you want some more, I've got loads more of these from this and the financials exams in my notes tucked away in a drawer somewhere

AJ

Axapta 3.0 Shortcut Keys

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:30:00 +0000

A learned gentleman from one of our customers (Ken Holley) asked me about some of the shortcut keys that Axapta has, so for his benefit (and yours) here are some of the more obscure ones

From anywhere

Ctrl + Break = Abort current operation

Ctrl + Fn + Break = Abort current operation (on certain laptops that have a Fn key)

Alt + Down = Open the dropdown list (only when a dropdown is selected)

Alt + F4 = Exit Axapta

Tab = Cycle through items on a form - forward direction

Shift + Tab = Cycle through the items on a form - reverse direction

Alt = Cycle through the file, edit, tools, command windows, help menus at the top of the screen

Ctrl + Q = Close current form

Esc = Close current form

From the Main menu

Ctrl + D = Open the AOT

Ctrl + O = Open selected form

F1 = Help

Tickboxes

Spacebar = tick or untick a selected tickbox

AJ

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 08:28:00 +0000

Microsoft have released UK demo data for Ax 4.0

See below for details

You can view the original article here, but you'll have to login to Partnersource first

Enjoy

Note: The download section has been updated with demo data for Dynamics AX 4.0 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Overview
The Demo Data set for Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 is based on the Global Trade and Manufacturing Company (GTM), a fictitious U.S. based midsized trade and manufacturing company headquartered in Los Angeles. GTM produces and assembles lamps and lamp parts, and trades with customers and vendors in Europe and the U.S. working with relevant currencies.

Demo Data offers transactional data for Basic, Administration, General Ledger, Bank, Fixed Assets, Accounts Payable, Accounts and Receivable, Inventory Management, Intercompany, Production, Master Planning, and Project modules, and is intended to demonstrate the modules functionality. It also offers transactional data for Warehouse Management, Cost Accounting, CRM, Shop floor Control, Product Builder modules.

For more information, download the Demo Data for Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 documentation. This document explains the content and structure of the demo data for Microsoft™ Dynamics AX 4.0. The document provides the history of the fictitious Global Trade and Manufacturing Company, master data, transactional data, and technical information. Master data is explained in the following area: Basic/Administration, Products, Sales, Procurement, Production, Inventory mManagement, Financials, and Project. Transactional data is explained in the following area: Sales, Procurement, Inventory mManagement, Financials, Production, and Project. Technical information covers importing company data.

Ax 4.0 sp1 Demo Data

AJ

Axapta Financials 3.0 Exam Questions - General Ledger

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:51:00 +0000

These are the General Ledger questions I remembered from when I sat the Axapta financials exam

I've included the answers too

If you notice any inaccuracies, please post a comment with the correct answer and I will update it

Enjoy!

How do I run an audit trail?

GL --> Inquiries --> Audit trail
Answer

If you right click on an account and nothing appears, what could be wrong?

It could be that the update account references job hasn't been run yet
Answer

What easy to use option is available to help with filling out transaction texts?

Transaction/Journal texts can be assigned a code which can be used to recall the journal text when filling out a field
Answer

What are the default dimensions?

Department, cost centre and purpose
Answer

How do I activate journal approval?

Tick the journal approval box on the journal names screen
Answer

How do you prevent balances from carrying over into the next financial year?

Using the reset option
Answer

How do I exclude other users from a journal?

Blocking tab --> Mark as private
Answer

Where is automatic settlement enabled?

On the posting profile
Answer

Exchange adjustments; what happens when you have an unrealised profit/loss posted and then come to post the realised profit/loss?

The unrealised transaction is reversed automatically and the realised transaction is posted
Answer

What are tax codes and what are they used for?

They define taxes and the basis for their application
Answer

That's all the general ledger questions I've got at the moment, if I come across any more I'll update the post

Likewise if anyone out there has any questions they remember that they would like to add to the list, please let me know

Thanks for reading

AJ

Dynamics Ax 3.0 financials exam preparation tips

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 16:15:00 +0000

Hello there

This was the first Axapta exam that I sat and I found it quite tricky

But fear not! For your experience should be much more pleasent with these tips:

Syllabus
As with any exam there is a syllabus available
This narrows down what you need to know
You can download a pdf copy of it here

Sample Questions
There is a set of 5 sample questions for this exam which are available on the Microsoft website
But it's almost impossible to find and even more difficult to download them so I've made them available for you to download here

Rapid Config Tool
The Rapid config tool is free tool developed by an Axapta partner in the US called Avanade
It's available for download from the MS Partnersource website
The document library that comes with it contains the best Axapta Financials documentation, in my opinion
You can download it from here (requires Partnersource login)

The Plan
Revise the topics from the syllabus using the Financials I & II books (you should be able to buy these from an Microsoft Dynamics Training Partner for about £30 each)

When you come across something that doesn't make sense, check what the Rapid Config documents say as the Financials books don't go into enough depth on most topics

Once you're confident, try to answer the sample questions without any reference materials

The Backup Plan
If all else fails and you're in the exam looking at a question without any idea what the answer is, then there's a few useful tips for guessing the right answer mentioned in this article

It's a Unix website but the advice applies to any multiple choice IT certification exam

The "If Everything Goes To Hell" Backup Plan
At the time of writing this article, Interquad (the MS training partner who I was taking the exams with) was offering a free resit if you failed an exam on the first attempt
So just make sure you book your exam with a partner that offers the same deal ;)

Good luck!

P.S. I'll be posting all the exam questions I remember once I've had a chance to convert the notes into something readable, stay tuned!

Hello

noreply@blogger.com (Ajay Odedra) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 15:43:00 +0000

Hi there

Welcome to my Dynamics Ax blog

Have a look around, make yourselves at home, once you're comfortable, I'll continue

Comfy? Good

Over the coming months I'll post any useful Axapta tips, info, rumours, findings, ramblings, in short anything I can find for the benefit of you, dear reader

I don't have all the answers but I'll be damned if I can't find them out (though it sometimes takes a while...)

Feel free to comment, contradict, correct or point out better ways of doing things if you notice anything amiss

Of course you're more than welcome to just make yourself known by leaving a comment and introducing yourself

Take it easy

Ajay