Extending Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management Cookbook

Create and extend secure and scalable ERP solutions to improve business processes, 2nd Edition

Simon Buxton

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781838647070
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Business Intelligence
• Index: Computer Science

A practical recipe-based guide to extend your Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply chain management implementation.

Key Features

• Extend Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management features in a cost-effective manner
• Learn how to integrate with other applications and services securely using Business Events, OData and the Service Bus
• Extend and hook into standard processes safely using Chain of Command

Book Description

Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management is Microsoft's ERP solution, which can be implemented as a cloud or on-premise solution to facilitate better decision-making with the help of contemporary, scalable ERP system tools. This book is updated with the latest features of Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management including Chain of Command (CoC), Acceptance Test Libraries (ATL), and Business Events. The book not only features more than 100 tutorials that allow you to create and extend business solutions, but also addresses specific problems and offers solutions with insights into how they work.

This cookbook starts by helping you set up a Azure DevOps project and taking you through the different data types and structures used to create tables. You will then gain an understanding of user interfaces, write extensible code, manage data entities, and even model Dynamics 365 ERP for security. As you advance, you'll learn how to work with various in-built Dynamics frameworks such as SysOperation, SysTest, and Business Events. Finally, you'll get to grips with automated build management and workflows for better application state management.

By the end of this book, you'll have become proficient in packaging and deploying end-to-end scalable solutions with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management.

What you will learn

• Understand the importance of using patterns and frameworks for creating unique solutions
• Write code that can make your solution extendable
• Leverage new frameworks that allow your solution to adapt as your business grows
• Design the UI and business logic to fit standard patterns
• Understand how to not only write unit tests, but also perform efficient unit testing to automate the testing process
• Design your security model and policies to provide code access privileges

Who this book is for

This Dynamics 365 book is for anyone who wants to learn Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management development or migrate from C# or Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (or prior) development. Although finance and Supply Chain Management experience is not necessary, a background in software development is required. You will also need access to Microsoft's Lifecycle Services to download the necessary development tools.

Data Structures

In this chapter, we will cover the tasks required to write the data dictionary elements commonly used within Supply Chain Management (SCM) development.

Data structures in SCM are not just tables and views—they also include the ability to define a data dictionary. This is now called the data model in SCM. The data model hasn't changed much in structure since AX 2012, but is much more refined, with many more features to aid development and minimize the footprint when extending standard tables and types.

This chapter does not cover creating extensions of standard types, but it does cover how to create types that allow your structures to be extensible. Extensibility is covered in Chapter 5, Application Extensibility.

Most development in SCM is based on patterns, even if we are not aware of it. This classically means code patterns, but SCM unifies the code, data model, and user interface design. So we have patterns to follow when creating the data model. For example, the vendor and customer lists are very similar and are called main tables. Purchase orders and sales orders are also very similar, which are worksheet tables; in this case, order headers and lines.

Tables in SCM have a property that defines the type of table, and each type is associated with a particular style of form for the user interface. We could, therefore, consider these types as patterns. If we think of them as patterns, it is far easier to apply the recipes to our own development.

The following list is of the common table types, listed with the usual form design and the typical usage:

Table group	Form design pattern	Usage
Miscellaneous	None	This is essentially "undefined" and shouldn't be used, other than for temporary tables.
Parameter	Table of contents	This is used for single-record parameter forms.
Group	Simple list Simple list and details-ListGrid	This is used for the backing table for drop-down lists. The Simple list design pattern is suitable for when only a few fields are required; otherwise, the Simple list and Details patterns should be used so the fields are presented in a useful way to the user.
Main	Details Master	This is used for main tables, such as customers, suppliers, and items.
Transaction header Transaction Line	Simple List and Details with standard tabs	This is used for datasets, such as the invoice journal form, which contain posted transactional data with a header and lines.
Transaction	Simple List and Details w/ standard tabs	This is used for tables, such as the inventory transaction form, which contain posted transactional data but at a single level.
Worksheet header Worksheet line	Details transaction	This is used for data entry datasets, such as the purchase order, where the dataset is made up of header and line tables. The pattern has two views, a list view of header records, and a detail view where the focus is the lines.
Worksheet	Details Master	This is a single-level data entry dataset, which is rarely used in SCM.

In this chapter, we will create types and tables for the common types of table, but we will complete the patterns when we cover the user interface in Chapter 3, Creating the User Interface.

In this chapter, we will cover the following recipes:

• Creating enumerated types
• Creating extended data types
• Creating setup tables
• Creating a parameter table
• Creating main data tables
• Creating order header tables
• Creating order line tables

Technical requirements

You can find the code files for this chapter on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Extending-Microsoft-Dynamics-365-Finance-and-Supply-Chain-Management-Cookbook-Second-Edition/blob/master/Chapter%202.axpp.

Creating enumerated types

Enumerated types are called base enums in SCM, which are similar to enumerated types in C#. They are commonly referred to as enums. An enum is an integer referenced as a symbol, which can be used in code to control logic. It can also be used as a field in a table that provides a fixed drop-down list to the user. When used as a field, it has the ability to provide user-friendly labels for each symbol.

Base enums are usually only used as a drop-down list if we need to understand, in code, what each value means. They should contain a small number of options, and when used as a field, the list cannot be searched or extended by the user.

All enums have to be defined in the data model before we use them and can't be defined within a class or method.

Base enums are given the ability to be extensible in this release; the mechanics of this are covered in more detail in the There's more... section.

Getting ready

The following tasks continue the vehicle management project, ConVehicleManagement, which was created in Chapter 1, Starting a New Project, although this is not a prerequisite. We just need an SCM project that was created as an extension project.

How to do it...

In order to create a new Enum, follow these steps:

1. Either right-click on the project (or any sub folder in the project) and choose Add New item....

Always try to use keyboard shortcuts, which are displayed next to the option. In this case, try Ctrl + Shift + A.

2. This will open the Add New Item window. From the left-hand list, select Data Types, which is under the Dynamics 365 Items node.
3. This will filter the available options in the right-hand list. From this list, choose Base Enum.
4. Enter a name, prefixed appropriately. In this example, we are creating an enum to store the type of vehicle; so, we will enter ConVMSVehicleType as Name and click Add.

This should have created a folder called Base Enums or added the new Enum to the folder if it already existed. This is regardless of the folder we selected when the Enum was created. If this did not happen, th...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright and Credits
• Dedication
• About Packt
• Contributors
• Preface
• Starting a New Project
• Data Structures
• Creating the User Interface
• Working with Form Logic and Frameworks
• Application Extensibility
• Writing for Extensibility
• Advanced Data Handling
• Business Events
• Security
• Data Management, OData, and Office
• Consuming and Exposing Services
• Unit Testing
• Automated Build Management
• Workflow Development
• State Machines
• Other Books You May Enjoy