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How to: Use Display Methods in a Report

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This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation . For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans .

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

This topic explains how to retrieve data for a Microsoft Dynamics AX report from display methods. A display method is treated like a field in a query, even though the display method is retrieving the data from a different table. For information on how to create display methods, see Using the display Method Modifier . In a Visual Studio reporting project for Microsoft Dynamics AX, you can define a report in a report model. You will define a dataset with properties that describe the data that will be used on the report and how it will be retrieved. To show data from a display method, you will bind the dataset to an AX Query. An AX Query is a query defined in the AOT.

Retrieving Data from Display Methods

The following procedure describes how to retrieve data from display methods.

To retrieve data from display methods

In Solution Explorer, right-click the project, point to Add , and then click Report .

In Model Editor, right-click the new report, click Rename , and then give the report a name.

Right-click the Datasets node, and then click Add Dataset .

Select the node for the dataset.

In the Properties window, specify the following values.

Next, you can drag the dataset onto the Designs node. An auto design named AutoDesign1 is created for the report. For the complete steps to create a report that shows data from display methods, see Walkthrough: Creating a Report with Parameters .

Defining Report Data

Guidance for Choosing the Data Source Type

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Monday 19 May 2014

Display methods in ax 2012, display methods :.

• Table methods.
• Form methods.
• Form datasource methods.
• Report methods.
• Report design methods.
• Add a display method to lookup fields from another table on a form datasource.

• This is how the method looks.
• Add the display method to a form control.

• Change the Data source and Data method properties of the control as follows.

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Home > Blog > Using Display Methods in AX 2012 SRS Reports

Using Display Methods in AX 2012 SRS Reports

The following steps describe how to use a display method as a field when you have a dataset in a SRS report pointing to a query.

1.  Display methods cannot be created directly on a query so create a view and add the display methods to the view.

2.  Once the view has your display methods on it, use the view as the data source for the query.

3.  In Visual Studio, on your dataset point to the query created in step #2. The display methods will be shown in the data set after the list of fields. The icon displayed beside the display method is different from the icon by a normal field but otherwise a display method and normal field are treated the same.

4.  In the report's design the display methods are displayed on the data set and can be selected as you would select a field.

-For an example, look at the report CustGrossMarginByAccount_NAReport -The report CustGrossMarginByAccount_NA uses: -The view CustGrossMarginByAccount_NA which has 3 display methods on it -The query CustGrossMarginByAccount_NA which has the view CustGrossMarginByAccount_NA as its datasource -The SRS report CustGrossMarginByAccount_NA has one dataset which points to the query

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• Using Display Methods in PrecisionForm Reports for Dynamics AX
• Report Parameters in Dynamics AX 2012 SSRS Reports
• Dynamics AX 2012 Certification Information
• Modifying the AX 2012 Customer or Vendor Aging Reports
• Safari Browser Support in Dynamics AX 2012 R2

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D365 for Finance and Operations

Muhammad Anas Khan

AX 2012: Display methods – Different datasources – Same control

AX developers always come across a requirement of showing data from different datasources on the same control though these datasources should be related to each other. The solution to this requirement is to define display methods on the table which you choose to be the control datasource. Display methods are very handy for showing data from related tables.

Consider for example the following tables:

If we need to show CustTable.AccountNum, DirPartyTable.Name and BankGroup.Name fields on the same control let’s say a grid control then we need to define the following display methods on CustTable if we have chosen CustTable as the grid’s datasource.

To retrieve DirPartyTable.Name

To retrieve BankGroup.Name

Now on the grid control, add  two StringEdit controls to bind them with the display methods just defined above. Make sure to specify CustTable as the grid’s datasource. Also you must be setting DataMethod property of the StringEdit controls to the name of the respective display methods.

The result is awesome. You have one grid control showing data from different datasources!

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Fantastic article, thanks!

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Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Development Cookbook by Mindaugas Pocius

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Caching a display method

In Dynamics AX, display methods are widely used to show additional information on forms or reports that come from different data sources, including special calculations, formatting, and more.

Display methods are shown as physical fields and are executed each time the form is redrawn. This means that the more complex the method is, the longer it takes to display it on the screen. Normally, it is recommended to keep the code in display methods to a minimum.

The performance of display methods can be improved by caching them. This is when display method's return value is retrieved from a database or calculated only once, and subsequent calls are made to the cache.

In this recipe, we will create a new cached display method. We ...

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Ali Raza Zaidi

A practitioner’s musings on Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations

Display methods in Report SSRS Dynamics Ax 2012 .

June 13, 2016 by alirazazaidi

Hi, All, today I have to modify the report. Interestingly this report was built on AOT Query, instead of Data provider class. Current Scenario I was working on Worker Report. The requirement was to show’s primary position and department. HCMWorker table has two display method returns these values.

We can add these display methods into reports by following way.

For example I am modify the out of the box HCMWorkersHiredInPeriod Report.

Now Problem appears, we need different values then provided by out of the box display methods. For example we need Position Title instead of Primary Position Id. for this Add new display method that will return the Position Title instead of Position Id, compile table synchronize table, restore the AOT Query and refresh the report data Set. If there is no error in your working environment you will find required methods in report Data set.

Learn Basics of AX D365 FO

Wednesday, november 7, 2018, edit and display method in ax.

• Table methods
• Form methods
• Form data source methods

Create an edit Method

• Place the edit keyword immediately in front of the method’s return type.
• Create a Boolean parameter called Set. It is used to determine whether the user has entered anything into the control.
• Create a second parameter to hold the values that the user has entered into the control.
• If the edit method is on a form data source, create a third parameter for the data source. Place this parameter after the Set parameter.

Use an edit Method on a Form or a Report

• Set the DataSource property for the control to the data source that contains the method. If you do not set the DataSource property, the system assumes that the method has been defined on the form.
• Set the DataMethod property to the name of the method.
• If the ExtendedDataType property is set, formatting, Help text, and so on are inherited from the type specified here.
• If the edit method returns an array, set ArrayIndex to 0 to indicate that all array elements are to be shown in the control. If, for example, you set it to 2, only array element number two is shown.

Using the display Method Modifier

• Report methods
• Report design methods
• The display method is called every time that the form is redrawn. To optimize form performance, the display method should not contain complex and time-consuming calculations.
• The use of a display method can cause unintended information to become visible. For more information, see  Security on Display and Edit Methods .
• A display method is not activated if the method appears on a hidden tabbed page.
• You have to add the display keyword to a form data source method when the return value of that method appears on a grid control.
• To improve the performance of a display method, you can cache the method. For more information, see  Caching display Methods .

To create a display method

• Place the display keyword immediately in front of the method’s return type. For example: display Amount amount()
• Specify the return type. The return type should be an extended data type. In the previous step, the method has a return type of Amount. Typically, a display method returns a calculated value like a sum or count. For an example of a calculated value, see  How to: Add a Control to a Form .
• A display method for a table, form, report, or report design does not have any parameters. For example: display Amount amount()
• A display method for a form data source does require a parameter. You use the parameter to specify a table buffer. The type of the table buffer has to match the type of the table in the form data source. The following example shows a display method that returns the number of customer records that appear in the form. Notice how the parameter has a type of CustTable. This table is in the form data source. X++ Copy display NumberOfRecords testMethod(CustTable myTable) { NumberOfRecords recCount = this.totalNumberOfRows(); Return recCount; }

To use a display method in a form

• Set the DataSource property for the control to the data source that contains the method. If you do not set the DataSource property, the system assumes that the display method is defined as a form method.
• Set the DataMethod property to the name of the display method.

To use a display method in a report

• Set the Table property for the control to the table that contains the display method that you want to use. If you do not set the Table property, the system assumes the specified display method is defined as a report or report design method.

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[Form] public class KMTShipFromWarehouses extends FormRun {     InventDimCtrl_Frm_EditDimensions        inventDimFormSetup;     /// &l...

• Get formRun, Form control, datasource and selected record from form datasource using Eventhandlers on Form in D365 Get formRun, Form control, datasource and selected record from form datasource : [FormDataSourceEventHandler(formDataSourceStr(MyForm, My...

• Dynamic Query in X++ // The first step is to define the query variables that we will be using. This is building the framework.     Query                      ...

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AX – D365FO – Create a Form Display method by example

This is the result we want to obatain

Inser diasply method into your form

First add a new method to the Form Data Source

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Ax / d365fo – remove connection strings for byod in d365fo db, determine which version and edition of sql server database engine is running, ax / d365fo – sysoperation-framework: initalize parameters of a data contract, ax / d365fo – disable retry if a batch job fails, ax / d365fo – x++ error handling, ax / d365fo – export data entities to byod using x++ code, leave a comment cancel reply.

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Create filter on display method using views

I need to create a filter on display method. I am creating a view with one datasource , I need to add a display method having filter on this view. Please help me how to create on this.

Hi Sridhar,

I’m sorry but filtering on display methods is like the holy grail in AX development, until now it’s not possible to filter on display methods If you can’t get around this problem, you can try to generate a temporary table populated with table fields and methods but it’s quite heavier in coding and performance

Views in database can’t refer to X++ methods in AX. You either have to rewrite the display method to a computed column (in AX2012) or let AX to save the calculated value to a normal persistent field in database.

I have used Computedcolumns, it is working as expected, I am able to filter records for display methods.

Thank you all for helping me.

This problem looks typical, can you send screen shots so, that I can understand and we can learn new things.

what is the use of Computedcolumns? how you got the solution and explain Briefly?

this may help you.

http://daxmusings.codecrib.com/2011/10/computed-view-columns-in-ax-2012.html

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How To Write A D365 Edit Method

Most of the time the data you want to show on a form is stored in a field on a table. Using Display methods you can run code to determine what is shown. A limitation of a display method is that the value cannot be edited. A D365 Edit method, tied to a form control, lets you run code on both what the user inputs and what is displayed back to the user. In this article, I will explain how to write a D365 edit method and when to use one.

Display Methods Versus Edit Methods

On a Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations form, you can show a grid. And on that grid you can show multiple columns such as strings, numbers, dates, enums, and more.

Most of the time the controls in the grid have a DataSource property set. And this means that grid is showing you data that is retrieved from the DataSource on a form.

And again, most of the time, the DataField property is set on the form control. This means that the control will show you the value stored in the DataSource field specified. And editing the value in that form control will cause the value you entered to be stored in the DataSource field.

However, there are special cases when the value you wish to show is not stored explicitly in a field on the DataSource table. And in many of those cases, you can use a D365 Display method to run code and display a different value than what is stored in the field.

Although Display methods are effective in many cases, there is a limitation. Controls that use Display methods cannot be edited. They are for display only.

Unlike Display Methods, Edit methods do allow a user to enter in a value into the control. Additionally, code can be run on the value entered. And code can be run to determine what is shown back to the user. In effect, a D365 edit method can do everything a display method can do, and more.

Edit methods are very similar to x++ methods. However there are a few required pieces that make a method an edit method.

• Edit methods must use the keyword ‘ edit ‘ in the method definition.
• The method must take a first parameter that is of type boolean . The parameter should be named _set as a best practice.
• If the Edit method is defined on a table , then the second parameter of the method will be populated with the value the user entered into the form control. Therefore it needs to use an Extended Data Type that matches the one used on the form control. There will be no third parameter. If the Edit method is defined on a form Data Source , then the second parameter will be a table buffer that matches that of the form Data Source. And there will be third parameters that will be populated with the value the user entered into the form control. Therefore the third parameter needs to use an Extended Data Type that matches the one used on the form control.
• The method must return a value that can be displayed in the form control. Therefore the return type should match the type used on the form control.

Explaining Edit Methods

Below is an example Edit method. It is from the VendTable table in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance And Operations. Notice the ‘edit’ keyword in the method definition. Additionally, notice that two parameters are passed in: ‘ set ‘ and ‘ _reasonCode ‘.

When the form is shown to the user, the method will be called by the system. The system will set the parameter ‘set’ to false. This means that the method is essentially running in a ‘display’ mode. And there is no user input to process. In this situation, the system will call the ‘else’ statement, and run the code that I made the color orange.

The code that is orange will lookup the reason code in the VendOnHoldHistory table, based on the this.accountNum value stored on the currently selected record. Then it will take the value from the ‘ReasonCode’ field, and store it in a variable named _reasonCode . Finally, the system will return that value, and show that value on the form.

Until now, this has worked very similar to a Display method so far. But now, let’s look at how a D365 edit method is different.

If the user enters a value into the control on the form, the system will call the edit method. And in this situation it will set the ‘ set ‘ parameter to true’. And it will set the _reasonCode parameter to be the value that the user entered in.

In this situation, the code inside the ‘ if (set) ‘ condition will be called. I have made this code the color blue.

The code written will first find the record in the VendOnHoldHistory table using the currently select record’s this.AccountNum value. Secondly the code sets the ReasonCode value on this table. Thirdly, the code calls the update() method to update the related record.

Lastly the system returns the value in the variable _reasonCode. In this example the _reasonCode was not changed by the code. It is the same value. But there are other situations where a developer might decide to return a different value than the one that was passed in.

Example Use Cases

There are several common use cases for using a D365 Edit method. I will explain a few here. But there are a lot more, depending on how the developer needs the form to work.

First, even though a D365 Edit method can be used to simulate the same functionality of a form control that is tried directly to a Data Source, this would not be a good use case. Instead, a developer should just set the Data Source and Data Field properties on the form control. Then they are done, without needing to write an edit method.

Show and Update a Related Field

Edit methods can be used to find a related record, update a value on a related record, and then display that value back to the user. And while this can also be done by adding an additional Data Source to the form, and joining to it, using an Edit method is sometimes easier. And depending on the situation it can actually result in better performance.

The example above shows this use case. The ReasonCode field is not stored on the VendTable . Only the AccountNum field is. But the AccountNum field can be used to find the related record, where the ReasonCode is stored. And using an Edit method, the reason code can be shown and edited, almost as if it was stored on the VendTable record itself.

Display A Value Differently To The User

Perhaps you have a phone number that you would like the user to be able to enter in whatever format they wish. But then always display the phone number using dashes between each group of numbers.

Or perhaps you have a field that you want the user to be able to enter, but then always display a masked version of the value back. In the below example, from the MCRSalesLine table, the entered and stored gift card number is shown back to the user as a masked value.

Here is an additional example I wrote. The Edit method removes everything but the numbers, for an entered phone number. The code then stores only the numbers in the field on the table. Finally the system reads the value from the table, adds formatting back to the phone number, and displays a formatted value back. In this case, the user will always use the phone number shown in the format of (###) ####-### which is easier for the eye to read.

Validating the Input

The data input by the user is usually best validated in the validateWrite() method of the table or Data Source. But I have also seen it added to an edit method, when the Data Source isn’t present on the form. For example, look at this code from the MCRCustPaymTable tabl.

In this case, code is run to check to see if the record is found on any table, regardless of the company. And if it is not, then it returns an error.

Recap Of Use Cases

There are of course many use cases for a D365 Edit method. I recommend looking at the base Microsoft code for other examples. But the most common scenarios I have found, fall into one of these three categories. I find this helpful to describe in case you are wondering if it makes sense in your scenario to use an Edit method or not.

• Something needs to be updated or created on a related record. And something needs to be read from a related a record.
• Something different needs to be shown to the user than what is explicitly stored in the table field. Sometimes this means masking data, decrypting data, formatting the data, or concatenating data from multiple fields.
• Validating the entered value, or changing the entered value.

Where To Add An Edit Method

Similar to Display methods, Edit methods can be added to multiple objects in D365 F&O. They can be added to table methods, form methods and form data source methods. They cannot be used on Report Data sources.

When an Edit method is created on a form object, only that form can use that edit method.

Therefore, it is recommended that you add the Edit method to a table whenever possible. Adding the method to a table, allows the Edit method to be used by any form that has a Data Source that uses that table. This allows for your code to be reused in a lot more places.

Add An Edit Method To A Form

The next step in learning about how to write a D365 edit method is to learn how to connect your edit method to a form control.

First, create a new control on the grid of your form.

Right click on the control and select ‘ Properties ‘.

Se the ‘ Data Source ‘ property to be the name of the Data Source on the form, whose underlying table contains the display method.

Finally, instead of setting the ‘ Data Field ‘ property, set the ‘ Data Method ‘ property to be the name of your editmethod.

That is it. Now, for each record in the grid, the edit method will be run. The edit method ‘this’ variable will contain the current record being displayed. And when a user enters a value into the form control, that value will be passed in to the Edit method. And the ‘set’ parameter will be set to true. The system will run the code you have written in the method to produce a result that is shown in the form control.

Cautions When Using Edit Methods

There are some things that you should be aware of when using a D365 Edit method.

Whenever an edit method is used on a form, the edit method needs to be run once for every record shown on the form. This can have a performance impact. If the edit method you have written is time-consuming to run, the form will not be able to show the data quickly. And this will cause the user experience to suffer.

To mitigate this, instead of putting the edit method on a control that is on a grid. You can put the edit method on another tab, which is not always shown to the user. The edit method will only be run for controls that are being shown to the user.

In addition, the filter functionality on a grid control cannot be used on a column that uses an edit method. This is an important limitation to pay attention to. Therefore, if it is a requirement that the user be able to filter the control, then you need to not use an Edit Method. And instead join in Data Sources, or store the value off into a field that can be used.

The reason for this is because in order for the system to filter the results of an edit method, the edit method would need to be run against every record in the table. And this would be a huge performance impact. Whereas, one of the things that makes Edit Methods practical, is that they are only run on records the users is viewing.

Caching Edit Methods

One way that the performance of a edit method can be improved is to cache the edit method. Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations uses a lot of caching to improve the performance of the forms. However, all edit methods are not cached automatically.

Old Way Of Caching A Method

In order to cache the edit method, first override the ‘init’ method on the form.

Next, add the a line of code in this format:

<Data Source Name>_ds.cacheAddMethod(tableMethodStr(<TableName>, <Edit Method Name>));

For example, there is code on the SalesTable form, to cache the display method named ‘editContactPersonName’. You can find it in the ‘init’ method. It looks like this.

The code uses the method cacheAddMethod on the form Data Source. The name of display method is passed into the method. The code uses the global function ‘tableMethodStr’ to get the name of the method. This global function takes the name of the table, and the name of the method as parameters. This is useful, because if the name of the method ever changes, a compile error will be thrown until this code is changed. Whereas a hard-coded string would only fail at runtime.

Please see additional Microsoft documentation here .

New Way Of Caching A Method.

There is a new way of Caching a method. Instead of overriding the ‘init’ method on a form, and adding a call to ‘cacheAddMethod’, the new way is much simpler. Simply add this attribute just above your method definition in code.

In this article I showed you how to write a D365 edit method. I explained that an edit method is just like a normal method, except that it uses the ‘edit’ keyword. Most of the time, Edit methods should be added to Table objects in the Application Explorer. And then they are tied to a form control by setting the Data Source and Data Method properties on the control.

Edit methods are very useful. They make it much easier to show and update values on related records. And they allow code to be run and values to be shown that are not stored in any table. Edit methods can be really useful for changing the format of what is displayed to the user without changing the value that is saved in the database.

There is a performance impact to using edit methods. And you cannot filter on edit methods. So developers should keep these limitations in mind before using them.

3 thoughts on “ How To Write A D365 Edit Method ”

• Pingback: How To Write A D365 Edit Method - 365 Community

Hi Peter, Could you tell me why we don’t have to use update method in edit method? I mean for example have this in editMaskedGiftCardId method: this.GiftCardNumber = _retailGiftCardId;

and not this: this.GiftCardNumber = _retailGiftCardId; this.update();

Thanks for you question. When a form loads it reads data from a table and puts it in a data source which is the data in memory. And then the form shows the data from that datasource. From there, as a user you can modify the data in the fields but the system does not actually write or update the data right away. It just keeps it in that data source memory. And this is true of the edit method as well. Then, finally, when you either deliberately press the save button or you select a different record on the form, the system will take the data in the data source and then insert or update the data in the table. So, ultimately the reason you don’t call update in an edit method is that the overall system is designed to not write the data back to the table right after you change it. Instead, it waits until you leave the record and then does the update for you. This reduces the number of times the system has to interact with the database hard drive. This helps performance.

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AX TECHNICAL

Friday 20 march 2015, table methods in ax 2012, 9 comments:.

Explain Find method in much more detail.

can you explain write() with an example clearly

Really its a good article and understandable

Thank you :)

Awesome thanks a lot

Thank you so much for this article

exceptional and useful information. keep it up.

Excellent work sir. We need more such articles. Hats off...