Walkthrough: Customizing Existing Microsoft Dynamics AX Reports

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

In this walkthrough, you will customize the Balance control accounts report which is defined in the LedgerBalanceControlReport model project that is included with Microsoft Dynamics AX. The Balance control accounts report displays in the General ledger module. Model projects in Microsoft Dynamics AX adhere to layered development in the MorphX development environment. This allows model projects to be customized, upgraded, and patched using the built-in layering support. This walkthrough provides an example of how to customize existing reports in Microsoft Visual Studio and see those changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

This walkthrough includes the following tasks:

• Viewing the report

• Changing the development layer in Microsoft Dynamics AX

• Customizing reports in Microsoft Visual Studio

• Saving the customizations to Microsoft Dynamics AX

• Deploying customized reports to a report server

• Verifying the results

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you will need:

• Microsoft Dynamics AX with sample data

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

• Microsoft Visual Studio tools for Microsoft Dynamics AX

Viewing the Report

You will begin this walkthrough by viewing the report that you will customize in order to familiarize yourself with the report. The following procedure explains how to view the Balance control accounts report within Microsoft Dynamics AX.

To view the existing report in the application

1. Open Microsoft Dynamics AX.

2. Open the Navigation Pane if it is not already open. To do this, click File > View > Navigation Pane.

3. Select the General ledger module. The Area page for the General ledger module opens.

4. In the Setup section, click Posting > Balance control accounts. The Balance control accounts form displays.

5. Click the Balance control accounts button and the Balance control accounts report displays.

   In this walkthrough, the changes that you will make to this report include adding a sort order to change the numeric sequence of the main account from ascending to descending. In addition, you will add a report parameter that will control the display of the account name.

Changing the Development Layer in Microsoft Dynamics AX

Before you customize a report project, be sure that you are working in the correct development layer. There are several layers that are used for making customizations in Microsoft Dynamics AX. For example, the supervisor or administrator of an end-user installation might want to make modifications that are generic to the company. Such modifications are saved in the CUS (CUStomer) layer. For this walkthrough, you will use the default USR layer. For more information, see Layers. The following steps describe how to change the layer if you have a valid access code with your license agreement.

To change the development layer

1. Click Start > Control Panel> Administrative Tools> Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Configuration.

2. On the Developer tab, select the layer you want to work in from the drop-down list in the Application object layer to open field, and then click OK.

3. Close and restart the client in the new layer.

Customizing Reports in Microsoft Visual Studio

Next, you will customize the Balance control accounts report in the LedgerBalanceControlReport model project. When you customize an existing report model project, a copy of the reporting model project for the layer that you are currently working in is created and opened in Microsoft Visual Studio where it can be edited and later imported back into the AOT. In the following procedures, you will add a sort order to sort the main account in a descending sequence. In addition, you will add a report parameter that will control the display of the account name.

To open the reporting project in Microsoft Visual Studio

1. Open the Microsoft Dynamics AX Development Workspace. If you changed the application object layer, enter the access code.

2. In the AOT, expand Visual Studio Projects > Dynamics AX Model Projects.

3. Right-click the LedgerBalanceControlReport project, and then click Edit.

   The LedgerBalanceControlReport project opens in Microsoft Visual Studio with the LedgerBalanceControl report open in the Model Editor.

To define a sort order for the account ID

1. In Model Editor, expand the LedgerBalanceControl node if it is not already expanded.

2. Expand the Designs node, expand the Reports node, and then expand the LedgerBalanceControlDSTable node. This is an Auto Design report with a table definition.

3. Right-click the Sorting node, and then click Add Sort.

4. Select the node for the sort order.

5. In the Properties window, specify the following property values.

   Property	Description
   Name	SortMainAccountID
   Sort By	=Fields!MainAccount_MainAccountId.Value
   Sort Order	Descending

To define a parameter to control the display of the account name

1. In Model Editor, right-click the Parameters node for the report, and then click Add Parameter. The Parameters node is located after the Data Methods node.

2. Select the node for the parameter.

3. In the Properties window, specify the following property values.

   Property	Description
   Data Type	Boolean
   Default Value	True
   Name	IncludeAccountName
   Prompt String	Include account name

4. From LedgerBalanceControl > Designs > Report > LedgerBalanceControlDSTable > Data, select the AccountName field.

5. In the Properties window, type =iif(Parameters!IncludeAccountName.Value = True, True, False) for the Visible property.

6. To preview the report, in the Model Editor toolbar, click Preview.

   Note

   Notice that a parameter checkbox was added called Include account name and by default the checkbox is marked.

7. Click the Report tab to view the report. Verify the changes that you made to the report.

8. Close the Preview window.

Importing Customizations into Microsoft Dynamics AX

Next, you will add the report project into Microsoft Dynamics AX. During the add process, all required project items are identified. These project items are validated, packaged, and then added to the AOT. The customizations made in this walkthrough will be added to the current development layer.

To import the customized reporting project into Microsoft Dynamics AX

• In Solution Explorer, right-click the LedgerBalanceControlReport reporting project, and then click Add LedgerBalanceControlReport to AOT.

  When you open Microsoft Dynamics AX, you will notice that the LedgerBalanceControlReport project is now updated in the current customization layer. If you do not see this, close the Microsoft Dynamics AX client, and then reopen it.

Deploying Customized Reports to a Report Server

Next, you will deploy the customized LedgerBalanceControlReport project to the report server so that the customizations made to the reports are available to the application.

To deploy the customized report library to the report server

1. In the AOT, click the SSRS Reports node and the Reports node.

2. Right-click the LedgerBalanceControl node for the layer that you made the customization, for example, LedgerBalanceControl(usr). Then click Deploy.

3. Review any messages logged during the deployment process, and then close the Infolog form.

Verifying the Results

Next, you will verify that the customized report now displays in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

To verify the results

1. In the Navigation Pane, select the General ledger module.

2. In the Setup section, click Posting > Balance control accounts. The Balance control accounts form displays.

3. Click the Balance control accounts button. Notice the parameter that controls whether to display the account name has been added.

4. Unmark the checkbox to display the account name and then click OK.

   Notice that the account IDs are now in descending order and the main account name does not display.

See also

Report Integration and Customization Overview