Try to say that 10 times fast. 

The theme for Convergence this year is the Power of Possibilities.  I’ll be presenting in a few sessions this year and may get to show a demo or two in a keynote.  I’ll be in ST05 with some great support by Shan McArthur of ADXSTUDIO.  I’ll also be supporting Matt Valentine from our Application Platform team and Jim Steger of Sonoma Partners in session ST06.  The conference site doesn’t appear to allow deep-linking to the session info so I’ve provided more details below:

ST05 Self-Service Sites: Proactive and Effective

Shan McArthur, Ben Riga

Tue 3/10 | 5:00 PM-6:00 PM | Auditorium A
Repeat Session: ST05R | Wed 3/11 | 1:00 PM-2:00 PM | Room 334

More than ever, applications built for the web connect customers directly to systems running behind the firewall. In this session, explore how building on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform and taking advantage of Windows Azure, Live Services, and SQL Data Services provide a great platform for building proactive self-service web sites that effectively manage the end-user experience.

ST06 The Benefits of Microsoft Dynamics on a Dynamic Application Platform

Ben Riga, Jim Steger, Matt Valentine

Wed 3/11 | 4:00 PM-5:00 PM | Room 276
Repeat Session: ST06R | Thu 3/12 | 11:00 AM-12:00 PM | Room 276

For businesses to stay competitive and keep up with changing needs, a flexible and responsive IT infrastructure is needed. Microsoft Dynamics and the Microsoft Application platform provide powerful capabilities for delivering applications that power your business and enable your people to do their best work. Learn how organizations using Microsoft Dynamics benefit from the Microsoft Application Platform, including Visual Studio, SQL Server and BizTalk Server.

Hot Deals

BTW, if you haven’t signed up yet, It’s not too late.  The economy may be causing you to pause when it comes to conferences.  We’ve announced a few deals on product to help make it even more appealing.  These offers are available exclusively to Convergence attendees. On the ERP side: Microsoft Dynamics AX, GP, NAV, and SL customers who attend Convergence 2009 are eligible to receive up to a 20% discount. Terms and conditions available here (requires PartnerSource access). And on the CRM side: Save 75% on Dynamics CRM Online—$9.99/user for six months. Terms and conditions available here (requires PartnerSource access).

In this video I’m back on the Advanta campus chatting with Michael Merz, Program Manager for Application Integration Framework (AIF) on the Dynamics AX team.

AIF is a standards-based framework that allows you to publish and consume web services.  It’s used primarily in integration scenarios when connecting Dynamics AX with other systems.  AX also has .NET Business Connector  (BC.NET) for integrating with .NET applications.  BC.NET is more for client side integration.  AIF is all about web services and is completely standards-based. Under the covers AIF takes full advantage of .NET using Windows Communication Foundation (WCF).  For more complex integration scenarios AIF can also help expose services using MSMQ and BizTalk.

With Dynamics AX 2009, the team ships a bunch of services (about 60 out of the box) that are ready for use.  That includes, for example, the more common scenarios like integration with sales orders or customers.  AIF allows you to create, read, update and delete those sales orders while maintaining the integrity of the database (i.e. without directly touching the database at all).  This is done independent of the transport so when developing you could begin by updating via http and later switch to MSMQ.  This can be as simple as enabling the service then “generating” which generates the WCF interface (i.e. WSDL).  That web service is then available to be consumed by any standards-based client (including apps written in php, java and naturally any of the languages in Visual Studio).  You can also configure the service endpoints to change the binding or authentication parameters.

WCF and AIF in Dynamics 2009: Chatting with Michael Merz

In the video, Michael walks us through using a standard Excel Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) project to consume a AX 2009 sales order service that is exposed using AIF.  He also shows us how, by using WS-Addressing in the WCF headers, you can pass a target company for a web service call. By default, AX limits error messages coming back from the server for security reasons.  Michael shows us how to configure AX to propagate those errors when you need to see them.

Dynamics AX is a rich platform for supply chain management and financials.  AIF opens up AX so that ISVs can build on that richness by integrating their own applications.  Sometimes when you do that you need to consume a web service exposed by external applications.  We see here how you can plug external web services into the AX processes.  In this case, Michael shows us how when trying to create a customer in Dynamics AX with a name that has been blacklisted by the US government (“Bin Laden”, for instance.  Yikes!  ) the customer create process calls out to an external web service in the cloud to verify the customer name.  This seamless integration of external processes is a boon for ISVs that need those deep integration points.  Michael explains how. In order to do this sort of integration you build a Service Reference in the Application Object Tree (AOT) to provide the parameters.  AX takes care of much of work by generating the artifacts (compilation, deploying, bundling etc) that are deployed and executed on the server.  CLR interop is available in order to use .NET DLLs and their classes.

Some code samples are available here:

• Application Integration Framework Overview (MSDN)
• Calling the Customer and Vendor Services (Dianne Siebold)

I spent some time with Manoj Nuthakki on the Dynamics team chatting about how we take full advantage of SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) in the recently released Dynamics AX 2009.  AX 2009 ships with 10 SSAS cubes out of the box so includes tons of pre-built KPI’s and reports all built on the SQL Server BI platform.

Manoj walks us through how reports and charts are built in Visual Studio including conditional formatting or custom business logic in C# while pulling metadata and data directly out of AX.  The reports are easily put into the AX 2009 rich desktop client and the enterprise portal web client (built on SharePoint).  With the role center integration a developer can build reports, charts and KPI’s that appear only for the appropriate roles.  Since AX is an international product, localization is built right in.

Reporting and Analytics in Dynamics AX 2009

I posted the link to the Dynamics CRM Statement of Direction a short while ago.  It is located on PartnerSource which requires registration.  Typically this is for partners that resell a Microsoft Dynamics product.

I recently discovered a way for ISVs who do not resell Dynamics products to gain access to this resource.

The Microsoft Dynamics ISV Developer Registration Agreement provides ISVs that do not resell or intend to resell Microsoft Dynamics® products directly to end customers with access to PartnerSource and to the development and demonstration licenses and registration keys for their choice of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution, or Microsoft C5.

For Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution: you also need to sign the ISV Developer Registration Add-on addendum for your region.

For Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Licenses and SDKs for are available at the MSDN Premium Subscription level. Use this agreement only to obtain access to PartnerSource.

If you resell or intend to resell Microsoft Dynamics products directly to end customers, do not use this form. You need to sign the Solution Provider Agreement and related Product Addendum.

I wish there was a little less friction to get this sort of material.  I know we’re working on that.  I hope this helps a few ISVs out in the meantime.

Download details: Microsoft Dynamics ISV Developer Registration Agreement

Hey!  I just noticed that the AX Enterprise Portal team started a blog a while back.  Welcome to the conversation, guys!

The Microsoft Dynamics AX Enterprise Portal Blog

Mey has been busy!  A few weeks back we posted a Channel 9 video of an interview with some of the Dynamics AX 2009 Enterprise Portal team.  As a follow-up to that Mey Meenakshisundaram has put together a bunch more videos showing off specific Enterprise Portal developer features:

• Creating simple List Page in Enterprise Portal
• Creating simple Task Page in Enterprise Portal
• Creating simple Tunnel(Wizard) Page in Enterprise Portal
• Calling X++ classes in Enterprise Portal User Controls in C#
• Using Record Context in Enterprise Portal
• Advanced Grid in Enterprise Portal List Page

You can get to all the videos from here:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/meysun/

A couple of weeks back the Dynamics AX team announced general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009.  While the team was basking in the glow of a job well done I grabbed a few folks for a chat.  In this Channel 9 video I sit down with Hal Howard, Mike Ehrenberg and Sukumar Rathnam.  Hal is the General Manager for Dynamics ERP (he runs the R&D for all ERP products at Microsoft).  Mike is senior architect for the entire Dynamics team.  He’s also a Microsoft Distinguished Engineer. Sukumar is Architect for Dynamics AX.

In our short chat we talk about a lot of different topics.  Of course, Dynamics AX is an ERP product and there are numerous new features for customers using the product (literally hundreds of new features actually).  For this chat we focused completely on the ISV and SI developer experience.  Dynamics AX 2009 takes a major step forward in integrating itself into the Microsoft stack.  That includes deep integration of web services with Windows Communication Foundation, process workflow with Windows Workflow Foundation, storage, reporting and business intelligence with SQL Server, a brand new role-tailored user experience in either a rich client built entirely in .NET or a web client built entirely in SharePoint/ASP.NET, and finally tight integration of unified communication with Office Communication Server/Office Communicator.  I definitely need to dive into some of these in more detail.  Look for more Ch9 videos on these topics soon.

I think Sukumar said it best: “Grab Windows Server 2008;  Go get SQL Server 2008; Get Visual Studio 2008, Add AX 2009 and go party with it.  Go write some code.”

BTW, this is my first Channel 9 video where I’m behind the camera.  That’s especially evident at the very beginning of the video. 

Let me know what you think in the comments below or in the Channel 9 video comments.

Have a look at the video here:
https://channel9.msdn.com/posts/benriga/Hal%20Howard,%20Mike%20Ehrenberg,%20Sukumar%20Rathnam%20chat%20about%20Dynamics%20AX%202009/

I almost snorted my tea across the room when I read this one.  Pretty funny quote, I think. 

ZDNet:  Dynamics AX 2009: The ‘Halo’ for Microsoft’s app platform

The great news, of course, is that Dynamics AX 2009 is now generally available.  The team put a lot of hard work in to this release.  There are thousands of new features here and there’s some really good stuff related to the Microsoft stack and especially good stuff for .NET developers.  I’ve got my video camera out and have been visiting a few friends in building 110.  Look for some interesting Channel 9 videos coming soon.