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In Azure DevOps

Azure hosted build for Dynamics 365 Finance & SCM

1 May, 2020 10 Mins Read

Behold #XppGroupies! The day we’ve been waiting for has come! The Azure-hosted builds are in public preview with PU35!! We can now stop asking Joris when will this be available because it already is! Check the docs!

I’ve been able to write this because I’ve been testing it for a few months with access to the private preview. And of course thanks to Joris for inviting us to the preview!

What does this mean? We no longer need a VM to run the build pipelines! Nah, we still need it! If you’re running tests or synchronizing the DB as a part of your build pipeline you still need the VM. But we can move CI builds to the Azure-hosted agent!

You can also read my full guide on MSDyn365FO & Azure DevOps ALM.

Remember this is a public preview. If you want to join the preview you first need to be part of the Dynamics 365 Insider Program where you can join the “Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Insider Community“. Once invited you should see a new LCS project called PEAP Assets, and inside its Asset Library, you’ll find the nugets in the Nuget package section.

In Azure DevOps

LCS DB API: automating Prod to Dev DB copies

21 April, 2020 6 Mins Read

The new LCS DB API endpoint to create a database export has been published! With it we now have a way of automating and scheduling a database refresh from your Dynamics 365 FnO production environment to a developer or Tier 1 VM.

You can learn more about the LCS DB REST API by reading these posts I wrote some time ago. You might want to read them because I’m skipping some steps which are already explained there:

You can also read the full guide on MSDyn365FO & Azure DevOps ALM.

And remember: this is currently in private preview. If you want to join the preview you first need to be part of the Dynamics 365 Insider Program where you can join the “Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Insider Community“. Once invited to the Yammer organization you can ask to join the “Self-Service Database Movement / DataALM” group where you’ll get the information to add yourself to the preview and enable it on LCS.

In X++

Compiler warnings: are you checking them in Dynamics 365?

14 April, 2020 4 Mins Read

Compiler warnings. Warnings. They’re not errors, only warnings. You can just overlook and forget them, right? Well, I hope you aren’t.

“But even the standard code done by Microsoft throws warnings!”, you could say. And that’s true, but that’s not your code, it’s Microsoft’s. If a functionality you’re using breaks because they didn’t care about their warnings, you can open a support request and it’s Microsoft’s job to fix it. If your code breaks some functionality because you didn’t care about a warning, it’s your job to fix it, and your customer will want it as fast as you’d want Microsoft to fix their error.

That’s why we should be warned about warnings (badum tss).

In X++

Messaging API: add actions to the message bar

8 April, 2020 4 Mins Read

With the latest Dynamics 365 for Finance and SCM 10.0.10 version, we’re getting a new feature that will allow us to add actions to the message bar, using the Messaging API like we used to do in AX2012 with the SysInfoAction class.

Remember this is in the latest preview version. You can access the preview versions joining the Dynamics 365 Insider Program.

In Power Platform

1 2 3 Power mime!

29 March, 2020 2 Mins Read

We’re heading into the third week staying home, and with some weeks more ahead of us we need some entertainment.

Last week Eva asked me if we could create an app using the Power Platform to play mime games remotely. She’d design it graphically and functionally and I’d (no) code it. And that’s what we did!

In X++

Unzip a Stream in Dynamics 365 FnO

24 March, 2020 2 Mins Read

Since Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations is a cloud-based ERP we cannot work with files on the AOS drive anymore. It was pretty usual to have file-based integrations in AX where you got a file in a folder and processed it. Of course it’s still possible to work with files, for example from a storage account on Azure like Miquel Vidal has shown in his blog (in Spanish) or with the Recurring Integrations…

In Dynamics 365

10 year AXniversary!

17 March, 2020 3 Mins Read

Today I’m going to talk a bit about me instead of X++, Azure DevOps or LCS. Because…

On a day like this St. Patrick’s day, 10 years ago, I started working with Axapta!

In Dynamics 365

Exam MB-300: Core Finance and Operations

10 March, 2020 4 Mins Read

Last week I took (and passed :P) exam MB-300: Microsoft Dynamics 365: Core Finance and Operations. After taking other older exams I’d like to share my views on MB-300.

In LCS

A warning about Self-service environments: update carefully

25 February, 2020 3 Mins Read

It looks like the time has finally come and all new LCS projects will have self-service Tier 2+ environments. If you want to know a bit more about them, I wrote this post about service fabric/self-service environments in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.

The last two projects I’ve started are on self-service and we’ve had a customer migrated to it. So it’s about time I warn you about one scary thing…

In Azure

Secure your Azure Pipelines with Azure Key Vault

11 February, 2020 4 Mins Read

You can read my complete guide on Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance & Operations and Azure DevOps.

After the update of my last post about calling the LCS API from Azure DevOps Pipelines I thought that creating a pipeline with a password in plain sight was not very secure. How could we add extra security to a pipeline? Once again we can turn to an Azure tool to help us, the Azure Key Vault.

Azure Key Vault

A Key Vault is a service that allows us to safely store certificates or secrets and later use them in our applications and services. And like many other Azure services it has a cost but it’s really low and, for a normal use, you will be billed like a cent or none a month. Don’t be stingy with security!