Enterprise portal overview

Walkthrough: Adding a Page to Navigation [AX 2012]

When you create a page in Enterprise Portal, you will add it to the navigation to enable users to access it. This walkthrough demonstrates how to add the Tutorial_MessagePrompt page to the Quick Launch navigation for the Sales module site in Enterprise Portal. It illustrates the following tasks:

1. Creating a Web Menu Item
2. Modifying the Quick Launch Menu
3. Viewing the Page in Enterprise Portal
Prerequisites to complete this walkthrough: 1. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2. Enterprise Portal

#1: Creating a Web Menu Item
A web menu item points to a specific page in Enterprise Portal. You must create a web menu item for each page that you will be adding to the navigation.
To create a web menu item:
1. In the AOT, expand the Web node, and then expand the Web Menu Items node.
2. Right-click URLs, and then click New URL.
3. Right-click the new URL that you created in step 2, and then click Properties.
4. Set the Name property to Tutorial_MessagePrompt Prompt.
5. Set the Label property to Message Prompt Tutorial.
6. Specify the URL property, which has the following form:Module/Enterprise%20Portal/PageName.aspx. The Tutorial_MessagePrompt page is found in the main Enterprise Portal site, so it does not have a Module in its path. The value you must enter for the URL property to access the Tutorial_MessagePrompt page is: http://<<server>>/sites/DynamicsAx/Enterprise%20Portal/Tutorial_MessagePrompt.aspx



7. Right-click the new URL item, and then click Save.

#2: Modifying the Quick Launch Menu
To add menu items to the Quick Launch area for a module site, you must first determine which web menu resource is being used for the Quick Launch.

To modify the Quick Launch menu:

1. In the AOT, expand the Web node, expand the Web Modules node, and then expand the Home node.
2. Right-click the Sales node, and then click Properties.
3. Examine the QuickLaunch property. It is set to EPSalesQuickLaunch. This is the web menu resource that defines the menu items displayed in the Quick Launch area for the Sales module site. You will add the new web menu item that you created to this web menu.


4. In the AOT, expand the Web node, and then expand the Web Menus node.
5. Locate and expand the EPSalesQuickLaunch node.
Right-click the Common node. Click New, and then click Menu item. A new menu item will be added at the end of the list.
6. Right-click the node for the new menu item, and then click Properties.


7. Use the drop-down list for the MenuItemName property to select the Tutorial_MessagePrompt menu item you created in the previous procedure.
8. In the AOT, right-click the EPSalesQuickLaunch Web menu, and then click Save.
#3: Viewing the Page in Enterprise Portal
After you have added the menu item to the Quick Launch, you can view it in Enterprise Portal.

To view the page in Enterprise Portal

1. Using a web browser, open Enterprise Portal. The typical URL to access Enterprise Portal is: http://<server>/sites/DynamicsAx/ Substitute the name of the server on which Enterprise Portal is installed.
2. Click Sales on the top link bar to display the Sales module site.
3. In the Quick Launch, examine the last item in the Common group. The Message Prompt Tutorial item should be listed.

Important : Sometime you might not see the new item in the list, the caches for Enterprise Portal may need to be refreshed.
And for this, you just have to go to Home and press “Refresh AOD” in the quick launch menu and then you should be able to see your new menu.


4. Click the Message Prompt Tutorial item to open the Tutorial_MessagePrompt page.






Walkthrough: Adding a Field to a User Control [AX 2012]



In this example, the customer page in EP displays detailed information about a customer. The User Control displayed in a User Control web part is used to display the data on the page and the AxForm is the main component of the User Control used.

A common customization is adding/changing the fields that are displayed in an entity overview page.
This walkthrough demonstrates how to add a field to the first group that appears on the View customer entity overview page. The below figure illustrates the tasks be performed:



Prerequisites: Basic prerequisites to be checked and available before proceeding for the walkthrough are:

1. Microsoft Dynamics AX

2. Enterprise portal

3. Visual Studio 2010

4. Visual Studio Tools installed (Ax Installation)

5. EP Administrator rights

#1: Determining the User Control to Modify

Before you can modify the fields displayed on the View customer page, you must determine which User Control is being used for that page.

To determine the User Control to modify:

1. Using a web browser, open Enterprise Portal. << http://<servername>/sites/DynamicsAx/ >>

2. Click Sales on the top link bar, this displays the All Customers list page. Select one of the customers in the list, and then click View. The View customer page with customer information is displayed.

3. In the ribbon, display the Page tab.
Click the Edit Page command.





4. Locate the View customer web part in the middle column. In the drop-down menu for this web part, click Edit Web Part. The drop-down menu is the small arrow found on the upper-right corner of the web part.



5. In the list of properties for the web part, locate the Managed content itemproperty. It is set to CustomerOverview, which is the User Control that is being displayed in the web part. This is the User Control that will be modified.



6. Click Cancel to close the list of web part properties.

7. Click Stop Editing to return to the View customer page. Close the page.

#2: Creating the EP Web Application Project

Visual Studio is used to modify User Controls for Enterprise Portal.

To create the EP Web Application project:


1. Start Visual Studio. To make sure you start Visual Studio with administrative privileges, right-click the shortcut for Visual Studio and then click Run as administrator.

2. In the File menu, click New, and then click Project.

3. In the New Project window, select .NET Framework 3.5 as the framework version to use.
Important: For this release of Microsoft Dynamics AX, the EP Web Application project must target the .NET Framework 3.5 to work correctly.





4. In the Installed Templates list, select Microsoft Dynamics AX. If you do not see this project template, make sure that you have Visual Studio Tools for Microsoft Dynamics AX installed.

5. Choose the EP Web Application template.


6. Specify a name for the project, and the location of the folder where you want to store the files for the project.

7. Click OK to create the project.

#3:Adding the User Control to the EP Web Application Project
You must add the User Control to the EP Web Application project so that you can modify the User Control's properties.

To add the User Control to the EP Web Application project


1. In the View menu in Visual Studio, click Application Explorer.


2. In the Application Explorer, expand the Web > Web Files > Web Controls node.




3. In the Web Controls list, locate the CustomerOverview control.

4. Right-click the CustomerOverview control, and then click Add to project. The control and several related controls are added to the project.

5. Close the Application Explorer.

#4: Modifying the User Control
Use Visual Studio to make changes to the User Control.

To modify the User Control


1. Locate the CustomerOverview.ascx component in Solution Explorer.

2. Right-click the CustomerOverview component in Solution Explorer, and then click View Designer.

3. After a few moments, you will see several components in the control layout. The AxDataSource component is used to access data for the customer overview page.
The AxMultiSection component contains all of the expandable sections that you see in the View customer page.
The sections contain AxGroup components, which are used to display fields.

4. Click the Customer AxGroup component directly in the layout to select it. This component contains the fields that are displayed at the top of the General section of the View customer page.



5. To modify the fields that are displayed in the group, use one of the following methods:

a. Display the context menu at the upper-right corner of the AxGroup control in the layout. Click Edit Fields to display the Bound Field Designer.



-or-

b. Locate the Fields property in the Properties list. Click the ellipsis button to display the Bound Field Designer.

6. The Selected Field list contains the fields that appear in the group. Only the AccountNum field is included. In the Available Fields list, select the OrderEntryDeadlineGroupId field. Click Add Field to add this field to the list of fields that will be displayed in the group.

7. Make sure that the OrderEntryDeadlineGroupId field is selected in the Selected Field list.

8. In the BoundField Properties list, locate the HeaderText property. Set the value of this property to Order entry deadline:.

9. Click OK to save the changes to the list of fields for the AxGroup.



10. In the File menu, click Save CustomerOverview.ascx to save the changes you made to the User Control. The changes are exported automatically to the AOT. The updated User Control is also deployed to the Enterprise Portal server.



#5: Viewing the Customization in Enterprise Portal
After the field has been added to the User Control, you can view it in Enterprise Portal.

To view the customization in Enterprise Portal

1. Using a web browser, open Enterprise Portal.


2. Click Sales on the top link bar. Display the All Customers list page. Select one of the customers in the list, and then click View. The View customer page with the customer information is displayed. You will see the customer details, including the Order entry deadline field that you added.




Document management in AX 2012

In Dynamics Ax 2012, you can attach documents to specific records. This can be done by clicking the "Attachments" button on the Ribbon for many forms. Below is a screen capture for Workers form:






The picture isn't clear, this is just to give an idea where you should possibly look for Attaments button.


But before you go ahead with Document attachments, you need to setup few things listed below:
Activate Document management
Set up Archive Directory - place to store the documents
Create required Document types
Use Document management to attach files to records in any Dynamics Ax Form.


Activate Document Management:

Complete the following procedure to activate document management.

Click File > Tools > Options.


Click General and then expand the Miscellaneous FastTab.

Select the Document handling active check box.

Select Show attachment status to highlight the Document handling control on the status bar
and Select Action Pane when you select a record that has documents references.




Set up document Archive Directory:

Complete the following procedure to set default document archive directory.
Click Organization administration > Setup > Document management > Document management parameters.
In the General area of the form, in the Archive directory field, enter the path to the archive directory.
Click Number sequences, and select the ID reference.
In the Number sequence code field, select the number sequence code to use for naming your documents.




Note: You can select an alternative archive directory for each document type in theDocument types form. If you change the archive for your documents, existing document references will not work unless you have already copied all existing documents to the new archive.
Create required Document types:

The document can be attached if and only if the file is of any type that is set up in the Document types form.
Follow the below steps to create a new document type:
Click Organization administration > Setup > Document management > Document types.
Press CTRL+N to create a new document type.
or you can click the "New" button.
In the Type field, enter a code for the document type.
This Type field is shown while adding documents to records, so recommended to have a descriptive name here.
In the Name field, type a descriptive name for the document type.
More description if needed.
In the Class field, select the type of document to create.
To specify which class do you want the new document type to fall in.
In the Group field, select a group for the document type.
Choose among the pre-defined groups avaliable.
Close the form to save your changes.



Using Document management:

You can actually perform any of the below actions:

Create a new document

Create a Copy of an existing document

Copy to clipboard to copy the document elsewhere in the System

Below are examples of how to do it, and are performed on Prospect details form (Sales and marketing module)
Create a document
Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All prospects.
Select the prospect record that you want to create an attachment for or attach a document to.
Click Attachments to open the form.
Press CTRL+N to create a new document.
Select the document type in the Documents form and then click OK.

Note: The document icon in the Prospects form changes from an empty sheet of paper to a book. This indicates that there are documents attached to the prospect record.

You can create documents for other users by selecting their user names from the list in the Author field. You can also transfer a document to another author in the Author field.

Copy a document
Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All prospects.
In the Prospects form, select the prospect record from which you want to copy a document.
Click Attachments to open the Documents form.

Verify that the document attached is a type that can be opened, such as a Microsoft Word file type or a Microsoft Excel worksheet.
Click Copy.
In the Description field, update the description of the newly copied document.

Copy a document to the Clipboard
Click Sales and marketing > Common > Prospects > All prospects.
In the Prospects form, select the prospect record that has the document that you want to copy to the clip board.
Click Attachments to open the Documents form.`
Click Copy to clipboard.


The active document is now copied to the Clipboard and can be pasted into any file that accepts text (such as email or a document).
Press CTRL+V to paste the copied document into the destination.