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In Azure

Microsoft Dev Box and Dynamics 365 F&O local development

14 December, 2023 14 Mins Read

After a long, long, long, long, long time waiting for it, the Dynamics 365 F&O local development feature is finally here… in public preview. It’s a bit different since the first time we heard about this at the MBAS in 2019… but it opens up a new scenario for developers.

I won’t go into much detail about the new unified developer experience, which is its name now, but if you want to know what you need to use it and how to configure it, you can read this blog post from Aurélien Clere: Dynamics 365 FinOps Unified developer experience.

Today I’ll explain what Microsoft Dev Box is and how we can use it with the Dynamics 365 F&O local development tools. We will also learn about the cost, and in which scenarios we could benefit from Microsoft Dev Box as our development environment. You know, the best of both worlds, or the worst… 🤣

But first…

In X++

Create a Dynamics 365 F&O encrypted field

8 March, 2023 4 Mins Read

Today we have a quick and easy X++ post where we’ll learn how to create an encrypted field in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations.

Creating an encrypted field in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations is a simple process that can help secure sensitive information in your application. By using an encryption key to encrypt the data, it ensures that the data remains safe even if it is accessed by unauthorized users.

In X++

My take on the X++ custom scripts feature

3 February, 2022 5 Mins Read

So three days ago I took a look at the new 10.0.25 features currently in the PEAP program, calmly scrolling through until I saw something about custom scripts on prod, something that read:

Run custom X++ scripts with zero downtime

You can imagine my face when I read this. At the beginning I was confused, then surprised and then confused again. After reading the description, the situation wouldn’t get better:

This feature lets you upload and run deployable packages that contain custom X++ scripts without having to go through Microsoft Dynamics Lifecycle Services (LCS) or suspend your system. Therefore, you can correct minor data inconsistences without causing any disruptive downtime.

Are we getting a way to run custom code in production without having to deploy it? Yes we are. As many people have said these past two days: “X++ jobs are back!”. And there are a lot of discussions going on about the custom scripts feature.

In X++

Add a QR code to Dynamics 365 forms and reports

15 November, 2021 4 Mins Read

QR codes are very present in our daily lives as a way to share information, URLs, or other data quickly.

In this post, we’ll learn how to display one in a Dynamics 365 form or a SSRS report using a library which is included in our development VMs: QRCoder.

In X++

Package and Model planning

3 November, 2021 4 Mins Read

Creating a package or a model is one of the first things we’ll do when starting to code in a new project.

It’s something very basic, but I’m still seeing some issues around this, bad practices that can lead to problems in the future.

In X++

PriceDisc: getting prices the right way

19 October, 2021 1 Min Read

Need to get the price of an item that has a sales or purchase agreement? The PriceDisc class is here to save us! This is one of those reference posts that I’m writing for the Adrià of the future, because it’s something I forget about a lot. PriceDisc magic! There’s an obsolete method, I think it was findItemPriceAgreement, to get the price, but it’s obsolete, as I’ve just said. So the easiest way to get…

In X++

SocrateX & Application checker

2 June, 2021 9 Mins Read

It’s been a while since I first wrote about the Application Checker in 2019, and here I am again. In this blog post, I’ll talk about SocrateX and XQuery too, and I’ll also show how to generate the files and databases used to analyze the code.

If you want to know more about App Checker or SocrateX, you can read these resources in addition to the post I’ve linked above:

In Azure DevOps

Add and build .NET projects to your Dynamics 365 pipeline

1 October, 2020 5 Mins Read

I bet that most of us have had to develop some .NET class library to solve something in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations. You create a C# project, build it, and add the DLL as a reference in your FnO project. Don’t do that anymore! You can add the .NET project to source control, build it in your pipeline, and the DLL gets added to the deployable package!

I’ve been trying this during the last days after a conversation on Yammer, and while I’ve managed to build .NET and X++ code in the same pipeline, I’ve found some issues or limitations.

If you want to know more about builds, releases, and the Dev ALM of Dynamics 365 you can read my full guide on MSDyn365 & Azure DevOps ALM.

In X++

Self-service & SSRS: print reports as PDF in your Dev VM

21 July, 2020 3 Mins Read

If you’re working with the (not so) new self-service Tier 2 environments in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations you might have already noticed this: the reports in Tier 2+ and production environments aren’t using the SSRS report viewer, instead they’re being displayed in a beautiful PDF preview form.

But what happens on your development box?

If you want to know more about self-service environments you can read these posts I wrote a while back:

In X++

Add a Menu Item to a SysOperation dialog

16 July, 2020 2 Mins Read

A short one! Some time ago I explained how to add a multi selection lookup to a SysOperation dialog and in this post I’ll explain how to add a Menu Item as a Function button to the SysOperation dialog.

Before the SysOperation Framework was introduced in AX2012, we used the RunBase Framework, and maybe doing these things looked easier/quickier with RunBase because all the logic was in a single class. But in the end what we need to do is practically the same but we have to do it in the UIBuilder class.

Let me show you and explain all the code. I’ll only show the DataContract and UIBuilder classes as they’re the only important ones in this case.