Microsoft Dynamics AXis one of
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
’s
enterprise resource planningEnterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...
software products. It is part of the
Microsoft DynamicsMicrosoft Dynamics is a line of enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management software applications developed by Microsoft. Microsoft Dynamics applications are delivered through a network of reselling partners who provide specialized services...
family.
History
Microsoft Dynamics AX was originally developed as a collaboration between
IBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Damgaard as IBM Axapta. IBM returned all rights in the product to Damgaard shortly after the release of Version 1.5. before Damgaard was merged with Navision Software A/S in 2000. The combined company, initially NavisionDamgaard, later Navision A/S, was then ultimately acquired by the
Microsoft CorporationMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
in the summer of 2002. Before the merger, Axapta was initially released in March, 1998 in the
DanishDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
and
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
markets. Today, it is available and supported in forty-five languages in most of the world.
Custom AX development and modification is done with its own
IDEAn integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
, MorphX, and resides in the same
clientA client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
application that a normal day-to-day user would access, thus allowing development to take place on any instance of the client. The development language used in Axapta is X++.
On May 26, 2008, Microsoft completed developing (2009) in facilities spanning the globe and including sites in
VedbækVedbæk is a small town in the municipality of Rudersdal , Denmark. It is located on the Øresund coast of Zealand, between Rungsted to the north and Skodsborg to the south. The town has a station on the busy Kystbanen railway line, approximately midway between Copenhagen and Helsingør...
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
;
KievKiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
;
FargoFargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
,
North DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; and
Redmond, WashingtonRedmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 54,144 at the 2010 census,up from 45,256 in 2000....
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
In September, 2011, Microsoft announced a tranformational release of new version AX 2012.
MDCC
MDCC or Microsoft Development Center Copenhagen was once the primary development center for Dynamics AX. For a long time, the development of several key components of AX has been moving to other sites like
RedmondRedmond is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located east of Seattle. The population was 54,144 at the 2010 census,up from 45,256 in 2000....
and
FargoFargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
. MDCC is located in
VedbækVedbæk is a small town in the municipality of Rudersdal , Denmark. It is located on the Øresund coast of Zealand, between Rungsted to the north and Skodsborg to the south. The town has a station on the busy Kystbanen railway line, approximately midway between Copenhagen and Helsingør...
and also houses
Microsoft Dynamics NAVMicrosoft Dynamics NAV is an enterprise resource planning software product from Microsoft.The product is part of the Microsoft Dynamics family, and intended to assist with finance, manufacturing, customer relationship management, supply chains, analytics and electronic commerce for small and...
and several other Microsoft Dynamics family products. MDCC employs about 900 people of around 40 different nationalities, with current hiring focus oriented towards
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
,
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
,Karachi and
RomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
Versions
The early versions (from 1.0 to 3.0) were called Axapta, while the later versions (from 3.0 SP6 to AX 2009) are called Dynamics AX.
Damgaard
Development of Axapta began in 1983 at Danish company Damgaard Data A/S. The software was mainly targeted at the European market, though the North American market grew rapidly following the release of Axapta 2.1 in 2000.
| Version |
Date |
Description |
| Axapta 1.0 |
Mar 1998 |
The first version of Axapta was released in the US and in Denmark in March 1998 by Danish company Damgaard A/S. It supported both Microsoft SQL ServerMicrosoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
and OracleThe Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
database servers. Notable features were financial, trade, inventory management, logistics and production. |
| Axapta 1.5 |
Nov 1998 |
The second major version of Axapta was released in Norway, Sweden, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Austria, SwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and the European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in November 1998. |
| Axapta 2.0 |
Jul 1999 |
The third major version of Axapta was released to customers in July 1999. Notable new features were the Project Accounting module, Warehouse Management (WMS), External OLAP In computing, online analytical processing, or OLAP , is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining...
, Option Pack concept, ActiveX support, COM-connector and an early release of the Axapta Object Server which allowed offloading of some operations from the clients onto a separate server. |
| Axapta 2.1 |
Jan 2000 |
This release stemmed from market demands from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain. It was the fourth major version of Axapta and was released in January 2000. The most notable new feature was the addition of a Web tool called the Customer Self-Service (CSS) which is the precursor to today's Enterprise Portal. With Axapta 2.1 SP3 (Service Pack 3), the AOS (Axapta Object Server) was introduced making Axapta the first fully three tier ERP-system in the market. |
Navision-Damgaard
Following the merger of the two Danish companies Navision and Damgaard, Axapta was to be known as Navision Damgaard Axapta for versions 2.5 and 3.0 (up until 3.0 SP5).
| Version |
Date |
Description |
| Axapta 2.5 |
Dec 2000 |
As the fifth major release, Axapta 2.5 brought with it a complete web applications development environment, the Project module, Banking and OLAP In computing, online analytical processing, or OLAP , is an approach to swiftly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining...
. It was released first to Denmark, AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in December 2000. |
| Axapta 2.5 Market Pack |
Oct 2001 |
This market pack was released for Axapta 2.5 in October 2001 in France and Italy. This new application layer contained the Customer Relationship Management Customer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
module (CRM or Marketing Automation), Commerce Gateway and Product Builder (both Client-side and CSS-side (Web)). |
Microsoft (current)
Microsoft acquired Navision Damgaard during the summer of 2002. Navision Damgaard Axapta was first renamed to Microsoft Business Solutions Axapta, then to Microsoft Dynamics AX for versions 3.0 SP6, 4.0 and 2009.
| Version |
Date |
Description |
| Axapta 3.0 |
Oct 2002 |
The sixth major Axapta release brought with it the Microsoft Axapta Enterprise Portal, new intercompany collaboration functionality, actualized and rebuilt user security and system configuration, expanded geographical reach (more countries), demand planning and enhanced partner productivity tools. |
| Dynamics AX 4.0 |
Mar 2006 |
The seventh major Axapta release brought with it an updated look and feel. As the first version that Microsoft was involved in from the beginning it attempted to integrate better with existing Microsoft technologies. For example, the AOS became a true Windows service, a .NetThe .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
business connector was provided, CLR Interoperability was introduced and XMLExtensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
data exchanges were supported through a set of code classes (Application Integration Framework), full UnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
support was introduced and a new Service Management module. |
| Dynamics AX 2009 |
Jun 2008 |
Originally named AX 4.1, later renamed to AX 5.0 (and finally AX 2009), the eighth major release of Axapta brings with it yet more improvements to the UI. This new version adds role-based concepts to both the Enterprise Portal and windows clients, support for timezones (utc), a new Site inventory dimension, and Enterprise Portal development through Visual Studio projects. |
| Dynamics AX 2012 |
Q3 - 2011 |
Sometimes dubbed AX 6, it is said to include additional improvements to the user interface The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
and application enhancements focused on specific industries like RetailRetail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
, Media & Entertainment, and Public sectorThe public sector, sometimes referred to as the state sector, is a part of the state that deals with either the production, delivery and allocation of goods and services by and for the government or its citizens, whether national, regional or local/municipal.Examples of public sector activity range...
. Originally AX2012 was due to be released toward the middle of 2010, but this has since been put back to Q3 2011. |
Traditional core (since Axapta 2.5)
- General Ledger
The main accounting record of a business which uses double-entry bookkeeping. It will usually include accounts for such items as current assets, fixed assets, liabilities, revenue and expense items, gains and losses. Each General Ledger is divided into debits and credits sections. The left hand...
, composed of ledger, sales tax, currency and fixed assets features
- Bank Management, where cash is received and paid out
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM), where Business Relations (customers, vendors, and leads) are contacted and maintained
- Accounts Receivable
Accounts receivable also known as Debtors, is money owed to a business by its clients and shown on its Balance Sheet as an asset...
, where orders are entered, shipped and invoiced
- Accounts Payable
Accounts payable is a file or account sub-ledger that records amounts that a person or company owes to suppliers, but has not paid yet , sometimes referred as trade payables. When an invoice is received, it is added to the file, and then removed when it is paid...
, where purchase orders are issued and goods received into inventory
- Inventory Management, where Inventory is valued and managed
- Master Planning, where purchase and production planning takes place
- Production, where bill of materials is defined and manufacturing is tracked
- Product Builder, where product models are created and maintained
- Human Resources, where employee information is kept
- Project Accounting, where projects are created and tracked primarily from an accounting perspective
- Basic, where data configuration is performed
- Administration Module, where system configuration is performed
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 :
- Shop Floor Control
- Cost Accounting
Cost accounting information is designed for managers. Since managers are taking decisions only for their own organization, there is no need for the information to be comparable to similar information from other organizations...
- Balanced Scorecard
The Balanced Scorecard is a strategic performance management tool - a semi-standard structured report, supported by proven design methods and automation tools, that can be used by managers to keep track of the execution of activities by the staff within their control and to monitor the...
s
- Service Management
Service management is integrated into supply chain management as the joint between the actual sales and the customer. The aim of high performance service management is to optimize the service-intensive supply chains, which are usually more complex than the typical finished-goods supply chain...
- Expense Management
Expense Management refers to the system and/or systems deployed by a business to process, pay, and audit employee-initiated expenses. These costs include, but are not limited to, expenses incurred for travel and entertainment...
- Payroll
In a company, payroll is the sum of all financial records of salaries for an employee, wages, bonuses and deductions. In accounting, payroll refers to the amount paid to employees for services they provided during a certain period of time. Payroll plays a major role in a company for several reasons...
Management
- Environmental Management
External components
Several external components are also available:
- Enterprise Portal for Dynamics AX (built on Sharepoint Services)
- Microsoft SQL Reporting Services integration
- Microsoft SQL Analysis services (KPIs)
- Project server Integration
- WorkFlow
- Application Integration Framework (Webservices + Biztalk adapter)
- A .Net Business Connector for third party software (A COM adapter is also available)
- Microsoft Dynamics Mobile 1.5 development tools
Architecture
The Microsoft Dynamics AX software is composed of four major components:
- The Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
Server, a database that stores the Microsoft Dynamics AX data
- The File Server, a folder containing the Microsoft Dynamics AX application files
- The Application Object Server(s) (AOS), a service
On Microsoft Windows operating systems, a Windows service is a long-running executable that performs specific functions and which is designed not to require user intervention. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as...
that controls all aspects of Microsoft Dynamics AX's operation
- The Client
A client is an application or system that accesses a service made available by a server. The server is often on another computer system, in which case the client accesses the service by way of a network....
(s), the actual user interface into Microsoft Dynamics AX
See also the
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0
MorphX and X++
MorphX is an
integrated development environmentAn integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
in Microsoft Dynamics AX that allows developers to graphically design
data typeIn computer programming, a data type is a classification identifying one of various types of data, such as floating-point, integer, or Boolean, that determines the possible values for that type; the operations that can be done on values of that type; the meaning of the data; and the way values of...
s, base
enumerationIn computer programming, an enumerated type is a data type consisting of a set of named values called elements, members or enumerators of the type. The enumerator names are usually identifiers that behave as constants in the language...
s,
tableIn relational databases and flat file databases, a table is a set of data elements that is organized using a model of vertical columns and horizontal rows. A table has a specified number of columns, but can have any number of rows...
s,
queriesInformation retrieval is the area of study concerned with searching for documents, for information within documents, and for metadata about documents, as well as that of searching structured storage, relational databases, and the World Wide Web...
,
formA form is a document with spaces in which to write or select, for a series of documents with similar contents. The documents usually have the printed parts in common, possibly except for a serial number...
s,
menuIn a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. A menu may be a la carte – which guests use to choose from a list of options – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served....
s and
reportA report is a textual work made with the specific intention of relaying information or recounting certain events in a widely presentable form....
s. MorphX supports
drag-and-dropIn computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
and is very intuitive. It also allows access to any application classes that are available in the application, by launching the X++ code editor.
Because MorphX uses referencing to link
objectIn computer science, an object is any entity that can be manipulated by the commands of a programming language, such as a value, variable, function, or data structure...
s together, changes in, for example, datatypes of fieldnames will automatically be reflected in all places where they are used (such as forms or reports). Furthermore, changes made through MorphX will be reflected in the application immediately after compilation.
Microsoft Dynamics AX also offers support for version control systems (VCS) integrated with the
IDEAn integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
, allowing collaboration in development. There is also a tool for reverse-engineering table structures and class structures to Visio. The 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
JavaJava is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
). It is an
object-orientedObject-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
class-basedClass-based programming, or more commonly class-orientation, refers to the style of object-oriented programming in which inheritance is achieved by defining classes of objects, as opposed to the objects themselves .The most popular and developed model of OOP is a class-based model, as opposed to an...
single dispatch language. X++ is a derivative of
C++C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
(both lack the
finally keyword for example) to which garbage collection and language integrated SQL queries were added.
Code samples
X++ integrates SQL queries into standard Java-style code. Following are three equivalent examples (result-wise), though the first one has generally better performance. Samples #2 and #3 hint at an object-like behavior from table buffers.
Sample #1
///
/// This job is used as an X++ sample
///
public static void xppTest1(Args _args)
{
UserInfo userInfo;
;
update_recordset userInfo
setting enable = NoYes::No
where userInfo.id != 'Admin'
&& userInfo.enable;
}
Sample #2
///
/// This job is used as an X++ sample
///
public static void xppTest2(Args _args)
{
UserInfo userInfo;
;
ttsbegin;
while select forupdate userInfo
where userInfo.id != 'Admin'
&& userInfo.enable
{
userInfo.enable = NoYes::No;
userInfo.update;
}
ttscommit;
}
Sample #3
///
/// This job is used as an X++ sample
///
public static void xppTest3(Args _args)
{
UserInfo userInfo;
;
select forupdate userInfo
where userInfo.id != 'Admin'
&& userInfo.enable;
ttsbegin;
while (userInfo)
{
userInfo.enable = NoYes::No;
userInfo.update;
next userInfo;
}
ttscommit;
}
Future
The
LINQLinq is a word-based card game from Endless Games, introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 2005.Game play requires at least four players, two of whom are dealt cards with the same word, while the others receive blanks. The goal is to gain points by correctly naming the players with...
library was first used in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 for out-of-the-box
SSRSSQL Server Reporting Services is a server-based report generation software system from Microsoft. It can be used to prepare and deliver a variety of interactive and printed reports. It is administered via a web interface...
reporting. It is expected that Visual Studio and the
LINQLinq is a word-based card game from Endless Games, introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 2005.Game play requires at least four players, two of whom are dealt cards with the same word, while the others receive blanks. The goal is to gain points by correctly naming the players with...
library will be used more extensively in future versions of AX.
Presence on the World Wide Web
One of the most notable sources of information with regards to Axapta (prior to the Microsoft purchase) was technet.navision.com, a
newsgroupA usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
which grew to a considerable number of members and posts up until 2002. Following the incorporation of Axapta into Microsoft's Business Solution suite, the newsgroup's content was transferred over to the Microsoft Business Solutions newsgroup. The oldest technet post that can be found today dates back 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 a wealth of information from a complete SDK to white papers and code samples.
External links