Extending Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Cookbook: This is a brilliantly accessible book, packed with practical examples, that's perfect for business professionals who want to make more of the advanced features of Dynamics AX to save money and increase management efficiency.

SharePoint is one of the core Microsoft technology platforms which allows you to organize your files with shared document libraries, collaborate with others through shared task lists and calendars, communicate with others with blogs, and much more, all through a web portal. Something that makes SharePoint even more useful is that you don’t have to be a developer to configure these features.

If you have Dynamics AX up and running, then chances are you should already have SharePoint installed and configured, since it is also the foundation for all of the Role Centers and enterprise portals that are delivered with Dynamics AX. Although the Role Centers and portals are preconfigured and use a lot of the features of SharePoint, there are still more features that you can take advantage of in conjunction with Dynamics AX that will make your system even better.

First we will show how to configure the My Sites feature so that the users are able to microblog and maintain their personal information within SharePoint. Once you have this configured, then you are able to add content from your personal My Site, or links to other My Sites into the Role Centers in Dynamics AX. This provides a better collaboration system for the business, and also adds a social element to the application.

We will also show how you can create your own document libraries within SharePoint to allow users to store documents, such as scanned invoices, and then index and link them back to Dynamics AX. This is an alternative to the standard document attachments feature within Dynamics AX. SharePoint document libraries allow multiple records to be linked to the same document list, and also give you document management features, such as file check-in and out to control who updates the documents.

None of these examples are hard to set up or configure, but since they require you to add to your existing SharePoint sites, you will need to have administrator rights to SharePoint. Also, for the last two examples, there is some X++ coding required. Each has only about 10 lines of simple code, so even novices should be able to work through the examples.

SharePoint My Sites give your users the chance to have their very own part of SharePoint that they can use to store documents, to update their own personal profile and description, to make notes and blog entries and also to connect with other people within the organization. In a socially connected workplace, My Sites are great tools to allow the users to post and capture knowledge.

If you do not have My Sites configured, then the first step is to create a My Sites site within SharePoint and link it to your Role Centers so that the users will then be able to access their personal profile and content.

How it works...

Once you have My Sites configured, you will see a My Site option when you select the drop-down menu under the user name within SharePoint, as follows:

Opening up your My Site will take you to your personal site within SharePoint. Initially it will be a little dull, but since you will be the administrator of this little slice of SharePoint, you can add information and pictures to your profile, create your own blogs, and browse through the organization to see other’s My Sites to see what they are up to. You also have your own personal documents area that you are able to save files to, that you can then share with other users in the organization.

A part of your My Site is a personal note board. If you don’t want to create a full-fledged blog, then you can use this to take quick notes for yourself or others within the organization, such as reminders that you will be on vacation, alerts about upcoming events, and much more that you can publish to the entire organization.

In this recipe, we will show you how to make this even more useful by adding the note board directly into the Dynamics AX Role Center. This will allow your users to view your posts quickly and get back to work, without having to open another window.

How it works...

Since the Note Board is a direct link to the user’s personal My Site Notes, they are able to post directly from Dynamics AX without opening up another browser window:

The notes that are posted on the Note Board on the Role Center will show up on the Tags and Notes panel within the user’s My Site page. Additionally, if the user makes notes from their My Site, then these will show up on the wall of the Role Center.

Another feature of My Sites is the ability for users to personalize their own profile with descriptions, contact details, profile pictures, and also personal notes and interests. Users configure and update their profiles, and then these can be used as a company directory, and an easy way to get to know the people you work with.

In this recipe, we will show how you can add your profile link to the Dynamics AX Role Center to give you quick access to your own My Site, and also how to add people that you frequently contact on your Role Center for quick access.
Getting ready

Before you start on this example, you will need to make sure that you have configured your own personal profile within your My Site. To do this carry out the following steps:

How it works...

Once you have defined a contact for Contact Details, then the information from the My Site of that person will be displayed on the Role Center:

If you click on the name of the person, then that will take you directly to their personal site: