Tuesday 6 June 2017

Summary of new features in the latest platform updates of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for finance and operations enterprise edition (formerly known as Dynamics AX)

A quick summary of new features in the latest platform updates of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for finance and operations enterprise edition (formerly known as Dynamics AX)

Platform update  11  (Oct - 2017)

  • Attachment presence and document count indicator.When viewing a record, the system will indicate the number of attachments on that record by showing a count on the Attachments button.
  • The system logs when a user signs in or out of the application.
  • Bring your own data store (BYOD) is a feature that’s used by customers to integrate data from Finance and Operations with existing data warehouses.
  • The metadata properties, Operational domain and Subscriber access level have been added for tables, views, data entities, menu items, and service operations. The new metadata properties are needed to support Cloud and Edge deployments, and are visible in Microsoft Visual Studio.
  • Copy data to new entities - As new companies are needed, users will be able to save time and potential errors by copying an existing legal entity’s setup to the new company.
  • Development and customization - Field groups - Extension of another extension supported. All fields are recognized and rendered at runtime by the user interface if there are multiple extensions of table with same field groups.
  • You can now use class extensions (table class extensions) to define display and edit methods.
  • When you extend a table and add a new field to the table extension, if the new field is of type EDT that is an array, you can now access EDT array fields from X++ code.
  •  If the EDT element you are extending has the property Number of Decimals is Extensible set to True, you can create an extension of this EDT and modify the No of Decimals property.
  • The framework has been extended to better handle scenarios where reporting sessions produce multiple documents for download. Instead of receiving multiple documents, one after another, the documents will be packaged and downloaded in a single .zip file.
  • Resource governor uses the built-in resource governance services offered by SQL Azure database. Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations Runtime service allocates quotas for interactive, as well as batch processes, so that SQL Azure database (where most of the compute is performed) does not degrade if there are sudden compute spikes.



Platform update 10 (Aug - 2017)

  • Browser client - Net Promoter Score integration. This feature will periodically prompt the user to provide feedback and rank their satisfaction with Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Enterprise edition.
  • Key sequences are now supported. A key sequence allows a particular action to be triggered by pressing two key combinations sequentially
  • This release introduces a new model for creating and maintaining mobile workspaces through X++ classes in Microsoft Visual Studio.
  • Make users more productive when using the Excel add-in to create and edit transactional data, by allowing the creation of header records in addition to line records.


Platform update 9 (July 2017)

  • Batch job history clean-up. Functionality to clean up the history of batch jobs has been added (this functionality was available in Dynamics AX 2012). This feature allows you to delete all or any subset of batch job history by clicking a button.
  • Usage data is automatically reset upon moving to Platform update 9. Users will lose their usage data as part of this platform update process. This mostly includes data used for custom queries and saved dialog posting selections. Personalization is not affected.
  • Method wrapping and chain of command - Allow developers to wrap logic around methods defined in a base class. This allows extending the logic of public and protected methods without the need to use event handlers. When you wrap a method, you can also access other public and protected methods and variables of the class.
  • OData batch request size configuration- The default OData batch request size is 1,000 records. Microsoft can now change the size of OData batch requests for customers. Customers must log a support request through LCS to the Dynamics Service Engineering team (DSE) to increase the batch size up to a maximum value of 5,000 records.


Platform Update 8 (June 2017)


  • Changing the extended data type (EDT) on a table field using table extensions
  • Enhanced viewing experience while interacting with both document and analytical style application reports
  • The table browser form is now in read-only mode on runtime environments (Sandbox Tier-2 and Production).
  • Highlight - On premises deployment option. A new deployment option that will not require business data to be stored in the cloud. This deployment option supports running your business processes on-premises, supporting local transactions and storage of local business data, without replication of your business data to the Microsoft cloud. 

  • Configuration data projects - This feature provides an updated user interface to easily export configuration data, and the ability to easily manage templates and projects.
  • Static export to Excel limit increase from 2k to 10k - The static Export to Excel limit has been increased from 2k to 10k to allow more rows to be exported from a grid
  • Development tooling - New tabbed workspace pattern - You can now include tab pages that house embedded Power BI reports
  • Development and customization - Extending a group control - Support for extending an extended form, for example, extending a form that is already extended in a referenced model
  • Development and customization - Extending the Country Region Codes property
  • Development and customization - Validating events on form data sources and form data source fields - Validation events on form data source (FormDataSourceEventType) and form data source fields (FormDataFieldEventType) now support invalidating user-specified values.



Platform update 6 (April 2017)

  • Ideas portal - With the Ideas portal, all Dynamics 365 for Operations users can submit new ideas, vote on existing ideas, and track status of their ideas in a consistent manner.
  • Browser framework - New control for developers  PowerApps Host control. Dynamics 365 for Operations introduces a new control for developers, the PowerApps Host control.
  • Browser client - Ability to model toolbar actions in the overflow menu
  • Build automation - Automatic update of model version during build
  • Build automation - Option to include runtime packages in the deployable package of the automated build output
  • Number sequence scope extensibility - You can now extend the number sequence scope through extensions.
  • Mobile - ability to set workspace visibility for different user groups
  • Mobile - Added the ability to auto detect required attributes, through form and table metadata, to denote mobile fields as mandatory during data entry
  • Mobile - Option to fully localize mobile workspaces for all Dynamics 365 for Operations supported languages.


 Platform update 5 (March 2017)

  • EventHandlerResult classes in request or response scenarios - You can now use the EventHandlerResult class for scenarios where the delegate (event) logic requires its subscribers (event handlers) to provide at least one response so that no result is lost when there are multiple subscribers and multiple results.
  • Customization Analysis Report (CAR) justification - When you suppress a best practice warning within a suppression file in the AxIgnoreDiagnosticList folder of your model, and include a justification, the justification text will appear in the CAR report of your model.
  • Telemetry - When a model is built, the telemetry framework collects information about Microsoft classes and methods that are referenced by customer and ISV code. This provides Microsoft with much needed information regarding what part of the standard application code is included in backward compatibility requirements
  • X++ compiler and try catch blocks - DuplicateKey and UpdateConflict exceptions do not roll back a running transaction, are no longer caught in the catch all.
  • Personalization - Enhanced administration features for personalization.The personalization administrator can now apply or remove form personalizations for groups of users. Previously personalization administration was only possible one user at a time.



Platform update 4 (February 2017)

  • Monthly updates: Dynamics 365 for operation releases moved to monthly updates pattern.
  • Embedded Power BI reports are licensed for all users: Additional functionality is available for users who have Power BI Pro licenses.
  • Build and release workspaces that have embedded Power BI reports: You can build and release workspaces that have embedded Power BI reports, to provide interactive and visually engaging experiences for users.
  • Mobility: Mobile framework is updated to build unique online and offline experiences. Mobile framework also starts supporting iOS and Android devices.
  • Visual scheduling: MS updated Gantt chart integration, added new visual icons, localized formats, updated user efficiency, and improved resource management features.
  • Feedback: You can provide your feedback to Microsoft for improvements.