Troubleshooting "Cannot Compile WebProxy Error" Consuming Dynamics AX 2012 AIF Service through Sharepoint 2010 BCS (Business Connectivity Service)

[Update# 2]
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After some research and troubleshooting, I have come to the conclusion that AIF Web Services as of now are not compatible to be consumed directly by Sharepoint 2010 BCS Services. The workaround would be to write a wrapper/adapter in between AX and Sharepoint 2010 BCS .

Currently, I'm researching and doing a POC on REST Services to be used between Sharepoint 2010 and AX and have tasted some success :). Will write a separate post on the same.

[Update# 1]
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Please see the comments on this post for the latest update.

Additionally, During my troubleshooting, I have found that by default AIF Service which is hosted in AOS and uses nettcpbinding doesn't expose metadata to external apps like Sharepoint and Infopath.

I modified the service's config file through MSE to add the mexTcpBinding endpoint as shown below

 <endpoint address="net.tcp://localhost/DynamicsAx/Services/MyServiceGroup/mex"
     binding="mexTcpBinding" bindingConfiguration="" name="mexEp"
     contract="IMetadataExchange" />

Initially, I bumped into a few errors while configuring the service, eventually I was able to activate the service and then tested it through a .Net client. All works here as expected!

However, the Sharepoint BCS interface still gives the same error "Cannot compile web service proxy". I'm thinking now to host my AIF Service in IIS and give it a go. However, as per msdn, only we need to host AIF Services in IIS if we want to expose our service on internet. But, still I will give it a try and come back and update my findings here. If any feedback/comments, feel free to post here. Thanks again.

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Greetings Friends!

I have successfully developed a custom AIF Service in Dynamics AX 2012 (CU3 build) to create Vendor Invoice Register Journals. To test my AIF Service, I created a test harness in Visual Studio 2010 (Windows Application) to consume my AIF Service. This all works good!

Now, I'm taking this service to the next level so that I can consume it through our Sharepoint site (Please note this is a standalone enterprise Sharepoint site and not the Dynamics AX 2012 integrated Enterprise Portal one).

I'm using BCS (Business Connectivity Services) in Sharepoint 2010 to talk to Dynamics AX 2012 via webservice. So, when I consume this service from BCS (i.e. I created a new External Content Type via Sharepoint Designer 2010) and then use WebService as the Connection type in BCS. And it comes up with the below error.

Please read this post by Brandon to find a step by step info on the same issue which I'm facing http://instructorbrandon.com/dynamics-ax-aif-tutorial-series-part-3-aif-document-services-and-a-sharepoint-infopath-forms-step-by-step-for-power-users-part-e/

Here in the above blog, he managed to get a workaround by using Enterprise Search which comes out of the box in Dynamics AX 2012, However in my scenario we are not using EP :(



Any ideas, suggestions or comments appreciated? At the moment, I'm thinking of writing a wrapper .Net service between AIF and BCS and then consume the .Net Service from within BCS. But this is a workaround not a good one, I would have liked to directly tie BCS with AIF.

Please follow this forum where I have posted this issue. I will come back and update if I hit upon a solution/workaround

Thanks readers!!


Cheers,
Dilip

My Interview @ MSDynamicsWorld.com

Dear Friends,

Linda Rosencrance, a freelance writer was kind enough to interview me couple of weeks ago to do a Dynamics profile page at MSDynamicsWorld.com

This is my first interview for an online publication. Please read it over here http://msdynamicsworld.com/story/dynamics-profile-bangkok-india-australia-one-dynamics-ax-professionals-journey

What makes a good Dynamics AX Project Manager?

Dear Friends, Thanks to Simon Andras, who authors the Cognitive Group blog http://www.cognitive-group.com/blog/ who asked me to share this useful infographic with the Dynamics community. I hope you would like it.


"What makes a good Dynamic AX project manager"

Update Troubleshooting Project Hour Journal won't get created automatically while submitting Timesheet in Dynamics AX 2012 CU3

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Update - Thanks heaps to Andre and Sandeep for their responses which confirms my investigation.

I posted this issue in Dynamics forums and got this reply..

Within the build you mention, indeed the hour journal is not used for posting the hours. You can manually or automatically post the timesheets. No hour journals are created then. The timesheet is your "hour journal".

One disadvantage without the hour journal is that there is no possibility to change the ledger date and eventually correct the cost or sales amount in advance.

I believe posting without the hour journal is the way to go, but it should be possible to make adjustments before it gets posted.

You can read the complete post out here..
 https://community.dynamics.com/ax/f/33/p/109594/218725.aspx#218725

Below Sandeep's comments:

In AX 2012 feature pack, when timesheets are approved, they appear in the Unposted timesheets where one can see the distribution of sub ledger. When you post the Unposted timesheet, system registers the project hour transaction but does not create a separate hour journal anymore.

In AX 2012 feature pack, hour journals are no more created.

1. Timesheets sit in the Unposted timesheets form
2. One can view ledger distributions prior to posting it.
3. When posted, system creates the project hour transactions, but does not create any separate hour journals.

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Dear Friends,

Hope you are doing good.

This post is going to be more of an issue which one of my client is facing while creating Project Hours Journal (automatically) via timesheet submission. They are on Dynamics AX 2012 (CU3 Build) - 6.0.1108.670

In Project Management and Accounting Parameters > TimeSheet parameters are set as shown below:

Now, when we submit a timesheet through Home > TimeSheets > All timesheets > Create a new timesheet, we are able to create a new timesheet line and then submit the timesheet. This is done through AX Thick Client.

The batch gets invoked, Initially the timesheet is "In Review" status and then it gets progressed to "Approved" status.

At this stage, we were expecting an hour journal to be automatically created based on the above parameter setting, but we are not able to see the Hour Journal under Projects >  Journals > Hour Journal form.

Then, we go to Unposted Timesheets under Home > TimeSheets to post the timesheet. The timesheet gets posted, but again no transaction is shown under Hour Journal, although we can see the posted transactions under Project > Manage > Posted transactions

Doing some googling around, I came across this article http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh271583.aspx

·         Approve – Approve the timesheet. Depending on your version of the product, one of the following things happens:

o    Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: If this is the last step in the timesheet workflow, an hour journal is automatically created for the timesheet. If you have not configured Microsoft Dynamics AX to post timesheets automatically after they have been approved, you can a view and post the hour journals in the Hour journal form in the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.

o    Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack or Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2: If this is the last step in the timesheet workflow, a subledger journal is automatically created for the timesheet. If you have not configured Microsoft Dynamics AX to post timesheets automatically after they have been approved, you can a view timesheets that have not been posted yet on the Unposted timesheets list page in the Microsoft Dynamics AX client.

I read the above paragraph several times and what I found interesting is that in  Dynamics Ax 2012 standard version (without any hotfixes), once the approval is completed, you can view and post the hour journals in the Hour Journal form, Whereas with the later releases of AX 2012 feature pack (CU2, CU3 etc) it creates a subledger journal and one needs to post the Journal through Unposted timesheets screen and not through hour journal. 

Can anyone please confirm if this is case? 

I did some digging around the Timesheet related classes in AOT, but I can see only a linkage in the TimeSheetPost class which is invoked when the Unposted Timesheet form is invoked other than that during the timesheet creation process, there is no calls to create a Hour Journal automatically, Maybe I'm wrong? 

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Microsoft Dynamics LifeCycle Services - A cloud based framework for AX!

Dear Friends,

Microsoft has released bunch of new cloud-based services which allows customers and their partners  to manage Microsoft Dynamics AX projects from pre-sales to implementation and operations. Based on the phase of your project and the industry vertical, the site provides checklists and tools that you can use to help you manage the project. It also provides a dashboard so that you have a single place to get up-to-date project information. 

You can login using your Partnersource/Customersource credentials over here lcs.dynamics.com

There's a new blog on LCS and below extract taken from here http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lcs/archive/2013/06/28/microsoft-dynamics-lifecycle-services-released.aspx

Overview of what’s available in LCS V1:

COLLABORATION WORKSPACE	· Customer-managed collaboration workspace · Cloud-based, secure environment · Project management using SureStep or other methodologies · Project-specific dashboard · Tools & data that connect multiple lifecycle phases to enable better decision making by key stakeholders
Business process modeler	· Aligns industry processes (APQC) with process maps for Microsoft Dynamics AX. · Create cross-functional flowcharts based on rich metadata. · Map processes & perform fit-gap analysis. · Integration between BPM & RapidStart. · Quickly generate documents and flowcharts using the updated TaskRecorder (KB#2863182).
CODE & UPGRADE ANALYSIS	· Leverages a cloud-based rule engine to analyze code and identify potential best practice, performance and upgradeability issues. · Generates actionable reports in Excel & HTML that can be imported into MorphX IDE as actionable to-do’s for developers.
License sizing estimator	· Estimate how many licenses you need (CAL) · Model the effect of custom roles on license needs. · Get automatic CAL-level estimates
USAGE PROFILER	· Model user & batch loads. · See graphic representation of load volumes. · Identify a starting point for infrastructure sizing.
Issue search	· Search a repository of reported, in-progress & fixed issues. · Identify specific code objects & lines of code affected by hotfixes. · Get notifications for issue status changes, and new fixes for AX functional areas.
DIAGNOSTICS	· Automate & monitor health checks for AX ecosystem. · Collect data from AX environments. · Evaluate data against pre-defined rules · Generate reports to provide actionable corrective actions

Additional References/Links to videos and more content available here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsa/archive/2013/07/01/microsoft-dynamics-lifecycle-services-resources.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/axsa/archive/2013/07/01/microsoft-dynamics-lifecycle-services-resources.aspx

To conclude, It's all happening for Dynamics AX and Microsoft is taking the right direction to put it's flagship ERP product into the cloud.