AX2012 R3 : Troubleshooting customized SSRS reports deployment error after AX2012 R3 upgrade

Hi Friends,
After upgrading an AX2012 R2 environment to AX2012 R3, I was getting the below error on deploying the customized reports. Although, I verified that the reporting services extensions were installed, report server was configured properly and I was able to deploy the standard reports without any errors, I was still getting the below error on deploying the customized reports:

In order to fix this error:

1. Export the SSRS report object as a XPO.

2. Open the XPO in notepad.

3. Search for text "Version" and replace version values from 6.2.0.0 to 6.3.0.0 towards the end of the file, shown below:

4. Save the changes in XPO and import it.

5. Deploy the report.

So if there are couple of reports, then export all of them together in in XPO and replace the text 6.2.0.0 to 6.3.0.0 and then import all the reports in one go. Of course, no need to mention that it's always worth taking backups before doing such tasks ;).


 

AX2012: Troubleshooting "ERROR: Cannot find index PK_ModelSecurityPermissionCache_RECID"

Hi Friends,
Recently while importing model store in AX2012 CU4 environment, I got the below error:

To resolve this, run the axutil schema command.

After executing the axutil schema command, the model store import worked fine. If you are also facing such issue then worth trying this. It reinitializes the default model store.

More details regarding this can be found at the below MSDN link:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh433540.aspx

AX2012 : An hour of SSRS error [;]

Hi Friends,
Recently we faced this SSRS issue in one of the clients environment running AX2012 CU4. This issue has strange definition:

• Comes whenever we restart AOS.
• Automatically gets fixed after almost an hour after AOS restart.
• Either of the below 2 errors used to come on running any SSRS report
• SSRS error 1 - "Access denied. You do not have sufficient authorisation to modify data in database". 

• SSRS error 2 - " Access denied to field Company (dataAreaId) in table". 

Initially it looked like a security issue but this error was coming with system administrator roles and all the security setup was verified to be correct.

The system was configured with 6 AOS'es. One AOS was a dedicated batch server and the remaining 5 AOS were part of AOS cluster.
The solution found was that the business connector configuration on the SSRS server was pointing to AOS which was a dedicated batch server. It needs to point to an AOS which is a part of AOS Cluster. 

We created a new business connector configuration on SSRS server and pointed it to an AOS which was part of AOS cluster and it solved the issue.

If you are facing similar scenario then make sure that the business connector is pointing to an AOS from cluster. In case you also make changes to an existing AOS cluster then take care of this point.

Thanks for reading the blog and keep sharing.

Generate code using editor scripts and be more productive

Hi Friends,
Time is one of the most important factor in today's world. We develop many customizations for customers to save there time by reducing the number of clicks and automating the business processes.

There are tools available to save some time for developers too, to enable us to focus on coding the main logic rather than writing the pre requisite code to implement the logic.

One of such powerful feature is provided by editor scripts in AX. The good thing is that these classes can be enhanced to create your own custom code scripts. It is much more powerful then a template because you can add the extra pinch of run time magic.

Partners leverage these classes worldwide and extend them for variety of purposes. One of the very common use is to insert code comments. This is not a new tool and there are many good online resources already available. My intention is to share how we can use it to avoid overhead of writing too much of code.

So let us take an example. If you have to write X++ code to use a query class object for salesTable and have to add range on a field, then at-least you need to write 13-14 lines of code as shown below

By enhancing the code script classes you can achieve this just by a click of button! To achieve this I created 2 new methods in the system. One in EditorScripts class and another in XppSource class. After modifications I can see a new "query" option in editor scripts as shown below:

On selecting this option, system prompts me to enter the table name and the field name on which I want to apply the range.

Once I click OK, the code is automatically created for me.

Once I get the base code, I can further modify this as I want to implement my logic.

Below are the functions I added:
1. New method in EditorScripts class.

2. New method in XppSource class

You can download the XPO of the above modification from here.

The main idea is to save time by creating your own custom editor scripts which can help you to quickly generate pre defined code blocks at run time, so that you only spend time in writing the main logic.
Benefits of using this is approach:
1. Saves time and be more productive.
2. Avoid any typo errors.
3. You no longer need to shift your focus from your core logic to find the code pattern.
4. It is more efficient than Copy/Paste as you don't have to change the variable names and update all occurrences of those variables.

Some of the other ideas where you can extend these classes are:

• Create find(), exists(), findRecID() methods on your tables. Refer to this nice blog by Joris de Gruyter here.
• Create lookup methods.
• Inserting code comments - here
• Writing SQL statements which are required on day to day basis. For example: you can build your template for select statements using different keywords like crossCompany, firstonly , exits joins. etc.
• Declaring/initializing set,lists, maps and there enumerators.
• Create data contracts methods.
• Declare Macros, Current versions, Current lists in class declaration.
• Creating display methods - Refer to this nice blog by Micheal Brown here

If you are using these classes for any other purposes, please do leave your comment and share your bright ideas. 

Active project contracts in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3

Hi Friends,
In Microsoft Dynamics AX, project contracts are created to setup the funding sources, define funding limits on the funding sources, maintain uniform invoicing procedures and also for invoicing one or multiple projects at a same time. These can be found at Project management and accounting > Common > Projects > Project contracts.

In AX2012 R3, on the project contracts list page, you will find filter to show the contracts which are "Active". This filter is not available in previous versions of AX and caught my attention when I opened this list page in R3 environment.

Eager to know what is an active project contract, I jumped into the technical artefacts of this list page and found that active project contracts are those which are defined on a project whose status is not completed. So after creating a project contract we do not need to set it as active. There is no field in project contracts table which stores this value. It is considered active as soon as it is defined on any 'not completed' project. 

Note: This filter is not available on EP. It is only shown on the AX client.

The way standard AX does this filtering is interesting and different from the traditional way of creating such filters. This prompted me to write the post :).

1. The display target property of the filter group is defined as client. As a result, this feature is only available on AX client. Also, we can override method on the controls inside this group. 

2. If the value on the 'show contract' control is selected as "Active", then the datasource "ProjTable" of the query object is enabled. 

3. Nothing special till now. Let's look at the query used on the list page. Note that the "ProjTable" is not defined as a datasource on this query.

4. So now things become interesting! When is the data source "ProjTable" added in the query? To find this, let's check out the interaction class used in the list page. Interaction class name can be checked from the property of the list page: 

Look at the initializeQuery() method of the interaction class, you will find the below piece of code which is doing the little magic and making the whole thing interesting to share: 

1. "ProjTable" data-source is added in the query as a datasource.
2. Using sysDictRelation classes, the relation is defined between data-sources of projTable &  ProjInvoiceTable.
3. The join mode is set as "Exists Join". 
4. The range is defined on ProjTable status field as "Not Completed".  Note the queryNotValue function used in defining the range.
5. The data-source is enabled/disabled on the 'show contract' filter control value.

The above code is a good example to understand how we can add relations and use exists join in query data sources. This approach is also helpful if we need to do a similar customization.

To read more about project contracts refer to the technet link Project contracts

Thanks for reading the blog. 

AX2012 SSRS Error "You do not have sufficient authorisation to modify data in database"

Hi Friends,
Recently we got this error on running a SSRS report. For every report we were getting similar error. I was a system administrator so I was sure it should not be a permission issue but the error message was pointing towards permission and security settings. 


I also tried generating full CIL, restarting AOS, restarting SSRS , deleting *.auc files, cleared usage data but still got the same error.

I found technet article on similar error message here and verified that no such properties were changed in our system.

Then we gave a try by rebooting the machine hosting AOS and guess what the reports started working. 

So just rebooting the server helped us in this situation however the error message was pointing towards permission issue. In case you also face similar issue then please try this and also share any other resolutions to this error message which you find.

Thanks.

AX2012: SSRS error "Item with the same key has already been added"

Hi Friends,
Recently we faced the below error when running a SSRS report on AX2012 Feature pack CU4 environment:

This was LIVE environment with lots of users logged in, so we wanted to avoid any downtime, and the following helped us to fix this issue without any downtime:
1. Clear *.auc files
2. Restart SSRS server
3. Redeploy the report

There is a blog from MS support team on the same topic here which suggest that only redeployment of the report can fix this issue but in our case we were also required to restart SSRS services.

Thanks.