Microsoft Dynamics AX

History

Microsoft Dynamics AX was originally developed as a collaboration between IBM and Danish Damgaard Data as IBM Axapta. Axapta was initially released in March 1998 in the Danish and U.S. markets. IBM returned all rights in the product to Damgaard Data shortly after the release of Version 1.5. Damgaard Data merged with Navision Software A/S in 2000 to form NavisionDamgaard, later named Navision A/S. Microsoft acquired the combined company in July 2002.

In September 2011, Microsoft released version AX 2012. It was made available and supported in more than 30 countries and 25 languages.

The newest version was released in February 2016. This version lasted only a few months, though, as Dynamics AX was rebranded Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations in October 2016.

Development Centers

MDCC or Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen was once the primary development center for Dynamics AX. MDCC is now located in Kongens Lyngby and also houses Microsoft Dynamics NAV and several other Microsoft Dynamics family products. In the same building is also found Microsoft Danmark. Microsoft employs about 900 people of around 40 different nationalities in Denmark. In addition to MDCC, Microsoft carries out AX development in Bellevue, Washington, Fargo, North Dakota, Moscow, Russia, Shanghai, China and Pakistan. →→

Features (modules)

Microsoft Dynamics AX contains 19 core modules:

Traditional core (since Axapta 2.5)

AX 2012 R3

For the full list of AX 2012 R3 features, click here

Extended core

The following modules are part of the core of AX 2009 (AX 5.0) and available on a per-license basis in AX 4.0:

External components

Several external components are also available:

Architecture

The Microsoft Dynamics AX software is composed of four major components:

MorphX and X++

Custom AX development and modification is done with its own IDE, MorphX, which resides in the same client application that a normal day-to-day user would access, thus allowing development to take place on any instance of the client. Since the Dynamics AX 2012 version, development can also be performed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 through a Visual Studio plugin.

MorphX is an integrated development environment in Microsoft Dynamics AX that developers use to graphically design data types, base enumerations, tables, queries, forms, menus and reports. In addition to application object future versions of AX, it provides access to application code by launching the X++ code editor.

MorphX uses referencing to link objects, so changes in—for example—datatypes of field names automatically updates everyplace that uses those field names (such as forms or reports). Furthermore, changes made through MorphX show in the application immediately after compilation.

Microsoft Dynamics AX also offers support for version control systems (VCS) integrated with the IDE, which facilitates development collaboration. Another tool converts table structures and class structures to Visio diagrams. Actual implementation limits the practical use of both these features.

X++ itself is the programming language behind MorphX, and belongs to the curly brackets and .-operator class of programming languages (like C# or Java). It is an object-oriented, class-based, single dispatch language. X++ is derived from C++ (both lack the finally keyword for example) with added garbage collection and language-integrated SQL queries.

Code samples

X++ integrates SQL queries into standard Java-style code. The following three examples produce the same result, though the first has generally better performance. Samples 2 and 3 hint at an object-like behavior from table buffers.

Sample #1

Sample #2

Sample #3

Future

On its Partner Source web site, Microsoft publishes a "Statement of Direction" for Dynamics AX that describes future development plans. It states that future versions of AX will include increased vertical market functionality, cloud computing, and HTML 5.

Presence on the Internet

One of the most notable sources of information about Axapta (prior to the Microsoft purchase) was technet.navision.com, a proprietary web-based newsgroup, which grew to a considerable number of members and posts before the Microsoft purchase in 2002.

After Microsoft incorporated Axapta into their Business Solution suite, they transferred the newsgroup's content to the Microsoft Business Solutions newsgroup. The oldest Axapta Technet post that can be found today dates to August 2000. During the Axapta 3.0 era, this newsgroup in conjunction with secured official Microsoft websites (Partnersource for Microsoft Partners and Axapta resellers and Customersource for licensed Axapta customers) accounted for most of the official documentation sources on Axapta. During this time, freely accessible documentation remained scarce. Following Microsoft's release of Dynamics AX 4.0, Axapta's presence on the World Wide Web greatly improved through heightened interest from professional blogs as well as a continually improving presence on MSDN. Though MSDN contained mostly placeholders immediately following the release, it now contains more detailed information—from a complete SDK, to white papers and code samples.

Community

The AX community consists primarily of employees of Dynamics Partners, end-users, and MS MVPs (Microsoft Most Valuable Professional).

There are number of organizations dedicated to augmenting information provided by Microsoft.

Additionally, Microsoft hosts a forum for the extended community at https://community.dynamics.com/.

Events

AXUG Summit

AXUG Summit is held each fall and is an independent, user-led conference.

Extreme Conferences Is the leading conference for the Dynamics 365 Partner Community which now includes Dynamics AX, including an Executive Forum.

Personalization and Predictive Analytics

At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Conference 2016 in New York, Microsoft unveiled its partnership with Infinite Analytics, a Cambridge, MA based Predictive Analytics & Personalization company. With this partnership, Microsoft now offers predictive analytics based personalization for retail in its Microsoft Dynamics AX platform.