Authors: Jon Rivers, Mark Polino
Description: Social Media for Microsoft Dynamics Partners is a short, introductory book geared toward the specific business needs of Dynamics VAR’s and ISV’s. There are plenty of generic social media guides available, and Microsoft provides some guidance to partners, but we felt that Dynamics partners were missing an independent source of social media help designed for their business. So we wrote one.

I’m not sure if I’ll buy a copy, but maybe I’ll ask a copy for christmas :-)

Here are a few Tips & Tricks:

• Type ‘main’ + TAB: The editor generates a standard Main-method.
  Note: This trick works with all templates (right-click –> Add-in –> Template)
• Type ‘///’ on the top of a method. When you do so you get the standard header for generating XML-documentation.
• While the intellicense drop-down is shown press CTRL. The drop-down dialog becomes transparent.
• CTRL + ‘c’ at the begin of the line will copy the whole line.
• CTRL + ‘i’ and start typing the word that you want to find. If you want the next, just type CTRL + ‘i’ again.
• CTRL + scroll up/down to zoom in and out to the code.
• Make a link to AX32.exe -development to go directly to the development-mode.

You can find more on chanel 9

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static void JDO_ChangeLanguage(Args _args)
{
    info("@SYS1");
    infolog.language('nl-be'); // Change the language to nl-be
    info("@SYS1");
    infolog.language('fr-be'); // Change the language to fr-be
    info("@SYS1");
    infolog.language('it'); // Change the language to it
    info("@SYS1");
    infolog.language('de'); // Change the language to de
    info("@SYS1");
    infolog.language('en-us'); // Change the language to en-us
    info("@SYS1");
}

And the result is:

Caution: When you use this function make sure you get the current language before you use this function, so you can change it back when you don’t need it any more.

• static TempStr numeralsToTxt(real _num)
• static TempStr numeralsToTxt_EN(real _num)
• static TempStr numeralsToTxt_ES(real _num)
• static TempStr numeralsToTxt_FR(real _num)
• static TempStr numeralsToTxt_NL(real _num)

So you can just use these methods like this:

static void JDO_AmountInWords(Args _args)
{
    info(numeralsToTxt(123456789.12));
}

And you get the following result:

I know these methods aren’t perfect, but they can be a start and save you a lot of programming time.

How:

• Just open Notepad and open ‘C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\Hosts’
• Add a line  containing ’127.0.0.1              dynamicsax.contoso.com ‘

Now the file should look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
#    127.0.0.1       localhost
#    ::1             localhost
127.0.0.1       dynamicsax.contoso.com

Before you begin:

Make sure that Hardware Virtualization is enabled on your machine. To check if this setting you can Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool from Microsoft.

Install the latest version of Oracle VirtualBox:

• Download the latest version of Oracle VirtualBox hosts and the Extension Pack from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
  
• Install Oracle VM VirtualBox
• Install Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack

Download the Microsoft Ax 2012 Hyper-V:

• Go to PartnerSource (or CustomerSource) and download the appropriate VPC
  TIP: If you just need Ax2012 you can use the ‘HyperV_A’

Create a new Virtual Machine based on the Hyper-V VHD

• Create a new Virtual Machine
  
  
• Enter the name of your Virtual Machine and Select ‘Windows Server 2008 (64 bit)’ as the version
  
• Allocate memory to the Virtual Machine (minimum 4GB or 4096MB)
  
• Untick the ‘Boot Hard Disk’ checkbox. We will add the Virtual Hard Disk manually when the wizard is finished.
  
• Finish the wizard
• Click on Settings
  
• Navigate to the Storage section
  
• Add a hard disk and choose ‘Existing Hard Disk’
  
• Navigate to the Network section
  
• For the first Adapter select ‘Internal Network’
  
• For the second Adapter select ‘Bridged Adapter’ (only if you need internet access in your Virtual Machine)
  
• After you have finished these steps the settings will look like this
  

Now you should have a fully functional Demo-VPC with Microsoft Dynamics Ax 2012

Have Fun!

Possible issue:

When you add 2 Demo VHD’s you could get an error concerning the uuid of the VHD file. You can easily change the uuid withe the following command:
VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid “[PATH TO THE VHD FILE]\AX2012-A.vhd”

I know I just got back from the technical conference bu I came through the announcement for the Convergence 2012 “A World Of Opportunity” in Houston (Texas) The conference will start on the 18th of march and will end on the 21nd. So try to clear your note between these dates.

Microsoft Announced Information Source (beta). All users that have access to CustomerSource or PartnerSource can use their login to access this site. The site is a set of tools to make predictable implementations. Also under Services you can find a Beta version for the Intelligent Data Management Framework (IDMF), Code Upgrade Service and the Security Advisor Upgrade Tool for Microsoft Dynamics Ax 2012.

When you make modifications to standard Ax, try to use events where possible. You can use delegates or pre-/post events. This should make upgrading easier in the future.

Also MPF presented a session on how a ISV can creat its solution. You can find part of the demo here.

This is a start and I hope to post more details about the sessions I attended soon.

Hi everyone,

Together with some colleagues, I will attend the Technical Conference in Nice next monday.
I’m very exited, as this is a the first Dynamics conference I’ll attend.
Since my plane leaves tomorrow morning at 10:15 (local time Belgium) my Saturday will be preparing my luggage and myself mentally to step in the airplane (not a huge fan of flying)

I will breed you about the sessions I’ll attend.
See you there!