Skip to main content

Business Operation Framework (BOF) [AX 2012]


The Business Operation Framework (BOF) lets you run services on Microsoft Dynamics AX using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) framework. The BOF uses an MVC programming pattern.

What is a Model View Controller (MVC) Framework?
MVC is a framework methodology that divides an application's implementation into three component roles: models, views, and controllers.


  • Model: The model manages the behavior and data of the application domain, responds to requests for information about its state (usually from the view), and responds to instructions to change state (usually from the controller).
  • View: The view manages the display of information.
  • Controller: The controller interprets the mouse and keyboard inputs from the user, informing the model and/or the view to change as appropriate.




Features of the Business Operation Framework

  • Allows menu-driven execution or batch execution of services.
  • Calls services in synchronous or asynchronous mode.
  • Automatically creates a customizable UI based on the data contract.
  • Encapsulates code to operate on the appropriate tier (prompting on the client tier, and business logic on the server tier).


Building blocks Business Operation Framework
Lets work by example. Standard doesnt have a great deal of examples but I found one that is clean to read.
Lets look at the SalesQuotationMassCreate function.


  • class SalesQuotationMassCreate extends SysOperationServiceBase
    • Main operation/process that runs in WCF. Takes the Contract as a parameter and does its operation.
  • class SalesQuotationMassCreateContract implements SysOperationValidatable
    • Contains the parm methods and validation. This is the object that is passed to the main operation class.
  • class SalesQuotationMassCreateController extends SysOperationServiceController
    • Entry point to initialize the query
  • class SalesQuotationMassCreateUIBuilder extends SysOperationAutomaticUIBuilder
    • This class is not required but used for overriding dialog behavior. eg. You can enable/disable fields dynamically.


Some advantages

  • Runs faster
  • Clean separation of of processing code, the model and the UI.
  • Can expose main operation as a web service
  • Consistent with programming language when developing SSRS reports, AIF web services, or batch jobs

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff649643.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg862488.aspx

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

AX - How to use Map and MapEnumerator

Similar to Set class, Map class allows you to associate one value (the key) with another value. Both the key and value can be any valid X++ type, including objects. The types of the key and the value are specified in the declaration of the map. The way in which maps are implemented means that access to the values is very fast. Below is a sample code that sets and retrieves values from a map. static void checkItemNameAliasDuplicate(Args _args) { inventTable inventTable; Map map; MapEnumerator mapEnumerator; NameAlias nameAlias; int counter = 0; ; map = new Map(Types::String, Types::Integer); //store into map while select inventTable { nameAlias = inventTable.NameAlias; if (!map.exists(nameAlias)) { map.insert(nameAlias, 1); } else { map.insert(nameAlias, map.lookup(nameAlias) + 1); } } //retrieve fro...
Read more

AX - How to use Set and SetEnumerator

The Set class is used for the storage and retrieval of data from a collection in which the values of the elements contained are unique and serve as the key values according to which the data is automatically ordered. You can create a set of primitive data types or complex data types such as a Class, Record or Container. Below is sample of a set of records. static void _Set(Args _args) {     CustTable       custTable;     Set             set = new Set(Types::Record);     SetEnumerator   setEnumerator;     ;     while select custTable     {         if (custTable && !set.in(custTable))         {             set.add(custTable);         }     }     if (!set.empty())     {    ...
Read more

Approve Workflow via email using template placeholders #Dyn365FO

Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations has placeholders which can be inserted into the instructions. Normally you would want this to show up in the email that is sent. One of the most useful ones is the URL link to the exact record that you are approving. In the workflow configurations use the placeholder and build up your message. Towards the end it has workflow specific ones. The URL token is %Workflow.Link to web% . For the technical people the token is replaced in this class WorkflowDocumentField. This is what I inserted into my email template. <BODY> subject: %subject% <BR> message: %message% <BR> company: %company% <BR> for: %for% <BR> </BODY> Should look like this. The final result looks like this. If you debug these are the place holders that are put together.
Read more