Extended Data Types in Microsoft Dynamic Ax & EDT array

·         An extended data type is extended from a base type or another extended data type. The difference is that an extended data type has a property sheet where information such as labels, length and left or right adjustment are stored.

·         EDT are a central part of MorphX. Whether you are adding fields to a table or declaring variables from X++, extended data types should always be used instead of using base types and the reason for that is Dynamics Ax provides powerful features to handle EDTs.

·         The best practice is to check before creating a new extended data type you should check whether in existing one will fulfill your needs.

·         If you have found an EDT which suits your needs, but another label or help text is required, you should create a new EDT with your requirements, but never modify existing EDT accordingly because this will impact the fields which are already using it.

·         Some EDTs are extended from system extended types (under AOT/System Documentation/Types. Regional settings like amount and types for system fields are all created as system fields.

Example(1) : Steps to create EDT for replacement of standard AccountNum EDT.

1.       Go to the node Extended Data Types, right-click and create a new string. Name the new extended data type "DataDic_AltCustAccount" using the property sheet.

2.      Enter the label "Alt. customer" and the help text "Identification for alternative customer account." for the new extended data type.

3.      Extend DataDic_AltCustAccount from AccountNum using the property Extends.

4.      Expand the nodes for DataDic_AltCustAccount and go to the node Relations. Add a new relation by right-clicking, choose New and select Normal. Use the property sheet to select MyFirstTable and the field accountNum as the relation.

5.      Save the extended data type and wait until the database has been synchronized.

6.      Go to the table CustTable and locate the field altCustAccountNum. Open the property sheet and change the ExtendedDataType property to DataDict_AltCustAccount.

7.      Locate the relations in CustTable and find the relation MyFirstTable. Press the delete key to remove the relation for MyFirstTable.

8.     Save CustTable.

9.      Change the extended data type for field accountNum in MyFirstTable as done at step 6 and save MyFirstTable.

Now we have a new EDT for the alternative customer account. The table relation which we deleted in CustTable was unnecessary as the EDT just created will now handle that relation.
It is much more flexible having the relations at the EDT level as you will not have to modify each table where the extended data type is to be used. The EDT was also changed for the field accountNum in MyFirstTable and now no lookup button will be added to accountNum as the related table is the same.

 
Note:
Both EDT and base enums can be used as extension for a field. So why to create an EDT for a base enum? This is because, Only EDTs can be used when adding a field to dialog. If a field used in a dialog is of the type enum like NoYes, even then the extended data type NoYesId extending the base enum NoYes must be used.
 

Extended Data Type Array:

• Another powerful feature of EDTs is an EDT can also be defined as an array. And each array element of the EDT will be created a database field.
• The node Array Elements is used when defining an EDT as an array. The first entry of the array will be the entry created when creating a standard EDT. And then array entries are created under the node Array Elements.
• Only label and help text is specified for these subsequent array entries. All other properties are inherited from the first entry in the array. As with the first entry, separate relations can be defined for each array entry.

The most common EDT using this feature is Dimension which is used throughout the application for grouping data. Dimension consists of 3 array entries, each having their own relation.

 Example (2): Let’s see how to retrieve values from EDT array.

static void DataDic_EDTArray(Args _args)

{

CustTable custTable;

;

select firstonly custTable;

info(strfmt("%1, %2, %3", custTable.dimension[1], custTable.dimension[2], custTable.dimension[3]));

}

Output:

The same notification for declaring a variable is used when addressing the single array entries of an extended data type. In the example above, the 3 dimensions from CustTable are printed for the first record. When looking up the fields for CustTable, only the field Dimension will be listed for the array.

You must manually specify the array entry to be printed. If array entries are referred directly, such as in this example, a new array entry added will not be printed. A better solution would have been to loop all array entries rather than fix the code to print the first 3 entries.

If looking at a data source in a query, the opposite will be shown. A data source will show a field for each array entry. Dimension is always added to a field group when used in forms and reports so the dimension field group will automatically recognize a new array entry added.