DynamicsZone: DataLoad software also works with AX

DataLoad V4 - Classic & Professional

"If you have hundreds of records, then DataLoad Classic is a good way of loading the records that you need; if you have thousands of records then DataLoad Professional is the tool to use. Good thing is that this tool is made by oracle and Flexibiulity of AX being windows platform is such that this tool works on it as well.
And it’s FREE Implementing or supporting any application requires significant effort to configure and load master and transaction data, for example from legacy systems, an expensive and time-consuming activity.
DataLoad reduces the time and costs associated with data migration. Its easy-to-use interface means that it can be used by non-technical employees, giving end-users an active role in the implementation and support of any system. With 8,000 downloads a month and customers in over 30 countries, DataLoad is the world's most popular data entry tool for end users, consultants and developers.
Why Use DataLoad?
· Non-technical users can easily configure and load data into any system
· Recommended by Oracle, DataLoad contains specific additional features to load large volumes of data in Oracle E-Business Suite
· DataLoad is sponsored by leading UK systems integrator Edenbrook, which has committed to support and improve the tool
· DataLoad is available in Classic and Professional editions, catering to all types of application implementation from the simple to the vastly complex
· DataLoad Classic is available to download free of charge and is not a time limited trial version
· DataLoad has a proven track record with over 10 years of production use and is still actively developed to meet today's needs
DataLoad Functionality
A summary of DataLoad functionality is provided below,
DataLoad provides a spreadsheet style interface and the data contained within that spreadsheet can be loaded into any system using a Macro load, or into Oracle Applications using Forms Playback. Either way, data or setup is loaded through the application's forms and that provides many advantages. Users have a choice between the free DataLoad Classic or more feature rich DataLoad Professional,
Macro Loads
All versions of DataLoad provide the Macro load functionality and this is the load technology of choice in DataLoad Classic, the freeware version.
The easiest way to load data into a form is using a keyboard and mouse and this is what DataLoad does with Macro loads. You configure the data, keystrokes and mouse clicks in DataLoad that you want loaded into your form(s). When you run the load DataLoad presses the keys and clicks the mouse as you specified. Any keys on your keyboard can be used by DataLoad, in any combination, and the left and right mouse buttons can also be used. And because DataLoad calls the same low-level Windows code that is called when you actually press a key or use your mouse, the application you are loading data into cannot tell the difference between data entered by you at the keyboard or DataLoad.
To build a DataLoad load write down what keys and mouse clicks you use to enter one record in your application. Now enter that into a DataLoad row and copy the instructions down into as many rows as the number of records you are going to load. Finally, paste your data into cells in DataLoad that correspond to the fields in your form. Your load is now built!
To load data as quickly as possible DataLoad uses Windows copy & paste to copy data into form fields. Where the actual keystrokes should be sent instead the data just needs to be preceded with a backslash, '\'. To send mouse clicks use the *ML or *MR commands to send left or right mouse click respectively. Please read the User Guide for more information about keystrokes, DataLoad commands and mouse clicks.
Controlling the Load
DataLoad can send data, key strokes and mouse clicks far faster than applications can handle them. To slow down DataLoad there is a comprehensive set of Delay options, using both the Delays form and the *SL (Sleep) command which cause DataLoad to wait at key points.
For the fastest, most reliable copy & paste loads use the Load Control functionality in DataLoad Professional. Load Control enables DataLoad to monitor a log file written by the application you are loading data into. Having configured DataLoad to use the log file your load will not run faster than the application is processing the data. No delays are required and DataLoad will run as fast as possible without overloading the target application. Another great benefit of Load Control is that if an error occurs in the application DataLoad will stop sending data. Therefore loads can be run unsupervised.
To download visit http://www.dataload.net

Posted by Ali Jawad     at 4:09 AM

DynamicsZone: DataLoad software also works with AX

The ultimate integration of Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office

Develop Relationships

The ultimate integration of Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office

By Howard Baldwin

Use Microsoft Dynamics and the 2007 Microsoft Office system together for best results

Microsoft Dynamics Snap

Better together: Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Office make a powerful pair

Seamless integration between Microsoft Dynamics business applications and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity tools is now within reach.

In summary:

•Tight integration between Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office gives users a familiar interface

•Other Dynamics features, such as SmartList and Snap, bring deeper functionality

•Standard programming technology makes custom integration even easier

Every IT staffer with any amount of experience knows the ramifications of deploying applications from multiple vendors that must exchange critical business data. It means more time spent integrating or customizing the applications within IT, more training for workers, and more technical support calls. Such issues are especially prevalent when one of the applications involved serves the entire company, such as an ERP or other core business application. Because these applications tightly integrate multiple modules relating to various departments such as finance and human resources, individual workers might not have the perspective to understand why the process for accessing information seems complicated or non-intuitive.

Having seamless integration is a huge advantage. Other systems may say they integrate with Outlook, but they may only synchronize the data once a day.

Jim Veraldi
MicroStrategies

One way of solving the challenge is to give workers a familiar interface in which to work. That's why Microsoft endeavors to integrate its Microsoft Dynamics business management applications (which include Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and its ERP line consisting of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Microsoft Dynamics SL, and) so closely with its Microsoft Office applications (including Microsoft Office Outlook, Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft Office Excel, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server). Such integration keeps workers productive and minimizes calls to IT. For instance, employees can export Dynamics data into Microsoft Office Excel to for easier analysis and sharing.

There are three key ways Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office applications work together. Besides their basic integration in terms of interface and workflow, Microsoft Dynamics also offers SmartLists and Snap applications, which simplify the task of exchanging information between the applications.

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Built-in integration between Dynamics and Office

The Microsoft Dynamics application most closely integrated with Office is probably Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which handles customer relationship management including sales, marketing, and customer service. "This is a very advanced back-end integration, where employees or administrators simply need to define the data that need to be exchanged or integrated," says Dr. Michael Pachlatko, CEO of smartpoint IT consulting GmbH, a Microsoft Certified Partner in Linz, Austria. "All this happens without any programming, because it's just configuration of standard features."

In fact, to many employees, the interface to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is exclusively Microsoft Office Outlook. They can look up customer information through the Contacts feature, contact customers by e-mail, schedule meetings through the Calendar feature, and capture customer discussions through the Notes feature. In addition, by adding a Microsoft Dynamics CRM toolbar within Office Outlook, workers can access other folders within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM system.

"No one wants to maintain separate contacts and calendars," says Jim Veraldi, executive vice president at MicroStrategies, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Denville, N.J., that focuses on Microsoft Dynamics and infrastructure. He cites transparent, real-time synchronization as an enormous advantage. "Other systems may say they integrate with Outlook, but they may only synchronize the data once a day."

Another part of the Office family where Microsoft is improving integration: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, which handles collaboration and workflow. Employees working in Microsoft Dynamics CRM can create custom reports to automatically post on an appropriate SharePoint site for immediate access by everyone in the organization.

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Tools and applications to get to the next level

SmartList for Microsoft Dynamics GP

Beyond the basic integration, another option is the SmartList feature within Microsoft Dynamics GP. SmartLists encompass several dozen reports that employees can click on from the toolbar, such as that day's purchases, back-ordered items, or inactive customers. They can then export the reports into either Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or Microsoft Word documents. "The finance people love this," says Mike Gifford, professional services director at Stanley Stuart Yoffee & Hendrix, Inc., a Maitland, Fla.-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics deployments. "They can dump data into Excel and then play with it."

As for exporting data into Word, employees can craft templates for thank-you notes, updates, or even collection letters. Using contact information from the SmartList report and a pre-defined template, they can create personalized letters for e-mail distribution soon after an order is received or an account deemed past due.

Microsoft Dynamics Snap

For the Microsoft Dynamics AX and the Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications, Microsoft Dynamics Snap applications allow for better integration with Office applications (Snap applications are packaged as part of the Microsoft Dynamics Client for Microsoft Office). These applications allow workers to interact with Microsoft Dynamics business information from within Office. Currently, six "snap-ins," as they're called, are available:

•Business Data Search Snap-in (search data across SharePoint, Dynamics AX, and Dynamics CRM)

•Business Data Lookup Snap-in (insert business data into Word, Excel, or e-mail)

•Custom Report Generator Snap-in (create custom reports in Excel)

•Timesheet Management Snap-in (use Calendar appointments to create timesheets)

•Vacation Management Snap-in (use Outlook to submit vacation requests)

•Expense Management Snap-in (submit and approve expense reports in SharePoint)

•Customer Journal Snap-in (capture open orders and credit history in one document)

Employees can use these applications without IT assistance, however, the IT department will need to install and manage the applications. Even so, they go a long way toward improving productivity for IT by eliminating time spent doing specialized programming, according to Pachlatko.

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Custom integration

Naturally, there are times when the IT department still needs to develop custom integration between applications. These can relate to specialized needs based on customer or partner requests, compliance or regulatory issues. Manufacturers, for instance, may need to report what they imported through certain international ports over specific time periods. Gifford notes that Integration Tools for Dynamics GP or the Developer Toolkit for Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 allows you to build Microsoft .NET-based solutions, customizations, and extensions. These tools give the IT department familiar programming interfaces to ease the process.

Each of the [Dynamics] products has integration capabilities, according to Gifford. "You can take other applications, such as a medical billing application, and pull that data into the accounting module of Dynamics," says Gifford. "You can pull data from many sources, but still use the same code to request the data." This lets you automate processes more quickly and easily.

The result for IT staffers is the ability to do more in less time. Because Dynamics applications use industry-standard development tools such as Component Object Model standards, ActiveX, and C++, it creates a wealth of possibilities for integration and functionality," according to Gifford: "There's almost no limit to what you can do in terms of either creating new modules or setting up new interfaces."

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Silicon Valley-based freelancer Howard Baldwin writes regularly for the Microsoft Midsize Business Center. His work has also appeared on AllBusiness.com and in CIO.

The ultimate integration of Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Office

Integrating Other Applications with Microsoft Dynamics AX

©2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Developer Help

Integrating Other Applications with Microsoft Dynamics AX

The ability to integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX with other systems inside and outside of the enterprise is a common requirement. There are a variety of technologies you can use to integrate Microsoft Dynamics AX with other applications and exchange data, which include the following:

• Application Integration Framework (AIF) – Exchanges data with other internal or external systems.
• Business Connector – Enables external applications to access Microsoft Dynamics AX data and invoke business logic.
• Common Language Runtime (CLR) – Provides interoperability with external .NET components and enables you to create and execute managed components from within X++ code.

The integration components in all these methods interact with Application Object Server (AOS) as shown in the following figure. Therefore, integration between Microsoft Dynamics AX and any other system is done only through AOS.

Reproduced by permission from Greef, Pontoppidan, et al, Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0 (Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 2006)

Microsoft Dynamics AX integration technologies

For more information about the integration technologies available, see Greef, Pontoppidan, et al. 2006. Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. 190-192. Redmond: Microsoft Press.

AIF

AIF provides an extensible framework within Microsoft Dynamics AX that enables the exchange of data. Data is exchanged in the form of XML documents. AIF replaces the Commerce Gateway for Microsoft Dynamics AX 3.0 (formerly Microsoft Business Solutions—Axapta 3.0) This framework provides a more secure business-to-business (B2B) and application-to-application (A2A) integration between your system and trading partners or other software systems.

AIF has the following types of exchanges:

• Adapter-based exchange – An asynchronous document exchange that uses an adapter in Microsoft Dynamics AX and does not require the installation of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). In this type of exchange, documents are moved through the system by using queues. Adapter transports supported by AIF are Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), file system, Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006, and outbound Web services.
• Web service exchange – A synchronous document exchange that uses Web services and requires that IIS be installed and configured to send and receive data. Because this type of exchange is synchronous, queues are not used. The Web services are generated automatically from the Microsoft Dynamics AX business logic. Developers with limited Web experience can easily create their own Web services. The Web service exchange differs from the outbound Web service adapter exchange in that it is synchronous, and it can accept requests. In contrast, the outbound Web service adapter cannot.

For more about AIF, see the Application Integration Framework Overview [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb496535(AX.10,printer).aspx ] .

Business Connector

The Microsoft Dynamics AX Business Connector enables external applications to access Microsoft Dynamics AX data and invoke business logic. The Business Connector consists of the following components:

• .NET Business Connector – Provides interoperability with the Microsoft .NET Framework. Use these components for integration with external applications that are written in managed code and are built with the Microsoft .NET Framework. The .NET Business Connector requires the installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
• COM Business Connector - Provides interoperability with Microsoft COM. Use these components for integration with external applications that are compiled to the COM specification.

For more information about the differences between the .NET Business Connector and the COM Business Connector, see Differences Between the .NET and COM Business Connectors [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa589564(AX.10,printer).aspx ] .

CLR

CLR provides interoperability with external .NET components and enables you to instantiate and execute managed components from within X++ code. This interoperability is achieved with X++ language statements. These statements enable you to instantiate objects within Microsoft Dynamics AX and set them to objects in managed assemblies. In X++, the CLRObject and CLRInterop classes are used to wrap external objects. Calls can be made to external object methods through the object wrappers.

For more information about CLR, see Greef, Pontoppidan, et al. 2006. Inside Microsoft Dynamics AX 4.0. 110-113. Redmond: Microsoft Press.

See Also

CLRObject Class [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa632606(AX.10,printer).aspx ]
CLRInterop Class [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa892320(AX.10,printer).aspx ]
Application Integration Framework Overview [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb496535(AX.10,printer).aspx ]
Business Connector Overview [ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb496526(AX.10,printer).aspx ]

Integrating Other Applications with Microsoft Dynamics AX