Frequently asked questions

1. Can I install 2 different versions of Axapta in one computer ?

Yes. It is possible.

Till Axapta ver 2.5 SP2, it was possible to use Damgaard Registry Cleaner for this purpose. It worked something like this - this utility moves registry entries from the location Windows Installer recognizes to a different one. No Axapta files are moved or deleted in the process. When this utility has run, registry entries have been moved and a new installation can be performed since the installation program will discover no existing installations. The shortcoming using this tool is - since registry entries are moved, one cannot straight away uninstall, repair and modify the installation. To do this, once again the registry cleaner utility should be run which would in turn restore the installation to its original state. This utility typically could be found under Setup\General folder on the Axapta ver 2.5 CD.

Now with Axapta ver 3.0, it is quite easy actually.

Say for example you want to install Axapta 3.0 SP2 and Axapta 3.0 SP3 in a single machine. First install Axapta 3.0 SP2. Once done, then take a backup of this (in another machine ideally). Subsequently upgrade from SP2 to SP3. Now you will have just one installation in your system (SP3). Then copy the backup into another directory. Now you would have both SP2 and SP3 in a single box.

2. I want to do multiple client installations. How can I achieve this ?

Yes. There are two ways you can achieve this -

   a. Using Axapta Web Deployment Client Tool or
   b. Using MS Systems Management Server . For more information about Systems Management Server, click here .

   a. Axapta Web Deployment Client Tool
This can used both in Internet or an Intranet. An ActiveX control is hosted on a web page, properties are set up for the control. Activating this control, investigates the user's machine to find out whether or not an Axapta installation is present on his machine. If not, an Axapta client is downloaded from a server through the Internet. If this client tool finds an installation on the user's machine, it checks if the server contains a service pack that are not installed. If so, it is installed on the user's machine. Finally the Axapta client is launched. For more information about this client tool, please refer here.

   b. MS Systems Management Server
This uses a LAN to distribute Axapta. SMS must be installed on the network server as well as on the workstations.

3. What is Axapta Developer's Best Practice Handbook and Where can I find it ?

As the name indicates, it covers all areas of Best Practice for Navision Axapta Development. To my knowledge, the first version of Axapta Application Development Best Practice came out with Axapta ver 3.0. (If I am wrong, kindly let me know).
This guide can be found at least in two places -

   1. From Technet website. Under Resources --> Documentation Library.
   2. If you had installed Axapta 3.0, you can find this guide in the form of compiled HTML Help under Axapta Client --> Bin directory. The file name Dev_BPHB.chm

4. What is Windows Installer and how can I find the Windows Installer version of my box ?

Windows Installer is a key feature in the Windows 2000 operating systems. This component goes a long long way in preventing DLL hell. To starters, in the past, every application came with its own executable file (exe). In those days, there were no central reference point for Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL). Hence some times while installing these applications, an application would replace a DLL with an older or newer version. When this happens, the old applications which were relying on the replaced DLL would not work. For more detailed information, please refer to this White paper on Windows Installer.

To find the installed version of Windows Installer, from the Start --> Run --> type "msiexec" (without quotes).

5. There are lots of files with different file extensions in the Application\Appl\Std folder. Can you please explain the key files in that directory?

Yes. There are quite a lot of files in Axapta Application\Appl\Standard folder. Please note that all these files will be updated whenever a new version is released. Most important them are -

1. .aod - Acronym for Application Object Data file. Each Application object layer is saved in a separate file called
"Ax< layer >.aod". For example, Axsys.aod for the SYS layer, Axusr.aod for the USR layer and so on.

Tip : It is not very uncommon to Axapta programmers to move one particular layer file from one machine to another machine. For example, in one of the client places, while I was compiling a fresh installation, I got one error message pointing to SYS layer. So I deleted the Axsys.aod file in that particular machine. Copied and pasted Axsys.aod from another machine which was working fine. And this time when I compiled, I did not had that old error.

2. .ald - Acronym for Axapta Label Data. For each layer, there is a corresponding label file. The naming convention for label file goes like this. For example, for the label files supplied with the standard system (SYS layer), the file name could be like AxSYS< country >.ald where country is an abbreviation of the language used, for example En-us for American English, En-gb for British English, or Da for Danish.

New texts for service packs may be released in a label file called AxSYP< country >.ald.

Tip : When you need to create new user interface texts, you should create a label file of your own. For this purpose, Axapta has included a Label file wizard. Please note that Axapta has defined some standards for creating label files. If you want to know more about standard for creating label files, creating actual label files, please click here.

In addition to the label data file, Axapta also creates index (.ali) and description (.alc) file.

3. .udb - Acronym for Axapta User Database. As the acronym indicates, Axapta stores its user details in this file. Also this file is responsible for allocating session ID to users. If this file is deleted, then Axapta would regenerate whenever the system is started.

Tip : Some times in Axapta 3-tier installations, when you look at online users form, it could return false information. For example, let us assume 5 users are currently online. But this form, might show 7 or 8 users online. Or some times, though you have enough licenses, you might receive "maximum users reached" error message from Axapta.

In such cases, the solution would be deleting the "axdat.udb" file. But before deleting it, make sure that all users are exited and AOS is properly shut down. Once this is done and the file is deleted, as mentioned above, Axapta would regenerate the "Axdat.udb" file. Please note that you might not even come across this problem. But to be on the safer side, particularly on 3-tier installations, it is always advisable to regularly delete "axdat.udb" file.

But in some special conditions, online user form may be empty in Axapta ver 2.5. This condition may happen if your license has an expiry date. Even though your license may not have expired, you might still come across this condition. In such cases please go to Technet website and do a search with this key words "The online user form is empty". You would come across an Export file. Import that export file in your installation. That would solve the problem.

4. .ktd - Acronym for Kernel Text Data.

Tip : Some times when you upgrade your installation (say for example you have installed a new SP), you might not be able to see the new features of the installed SP after the upgrade is complete.

The solution for this would be manually copying the .ktd files from Client\Bin\ directory to Axapta Application\Bin directory. The reason being - when Service pack is installed, for some reasons files in Axapta Application\bin directory are not updated. Only the files that are there in Client\Bin are updated.

5. .aoi - Acronym for Application Object Index. As the name indicates this is an index file for the Application objects.

Tip : Some times you may get funny error messages. Though you might have hard disk space, sometimes the following error might popup -

      Error in file: ...\standard\axapd.aoi while reading in record ...
      Error code: 38 = hard disk is full

For all the error messages involving axapd.aoi, the solution would be deleting the "axapd.aoi" file from Axapta Application\Appl\Standard directory. When you restart the system again, Axapta would rebuild this index file.

If the problem persists even after deleting the file, then check whether "Open application files in exclusive mode" is enabled (Axapta Configuration Utility --> Under General Tab). If enabled, then disable it. This should solve the problem.

6. What is "Master.aoc" file and how can I create it ?

aoc stands for Axapta Object Cache. This functionality was introduced in Axapta ver 2.5 mainly intended for best performance possible.

When running a 3-Tier Navision Axapta 2.5 client, we will cache different objects as we use the application. All objects are cached in the memory on the client machine. When the client is shutdown, the cache objects are written to disk, in a file with the extension .aoc (Axapta Object Cache). The next time a user starts the client, the executable ax32.exe checks for the .aoc file and if one exists it is loaded into memory. This gives us a performance gain, as we do not have to cache these objects again.

How to create a preconfigured cache file?

This is very simple. We configure a 3-tier client and go through the parts of the application all clients will use. Ex - General Ledger, Sales Order and Accounts Receivable. Doing this will create an .aoc file, with the following naming convention - "ax_AOS [Instance name]@[Hostname]_[username].aoc". In my case, I got a file like this -
ax_Annai@Himalaya_Harish.aoc. This file, if used as the preconfigured cache file, must be renamed to "master.aoc". Please note that this naming convention of the .aoc file would be different if you have configured an Object Server Cluster. (Ex - ax[cluster name][username].aoc)

When installing the Navision Axapta 2.5 client software, the setup.exe program will look for the master.aoc file in the directory where setup.exe is located. After completing the installation of the client, the setup.exe program will, if a master.aoc file exists, copy this file to the \Log directory, located in the default directory structure of the installed client.

When a user starts the client software for the first time, the executable as32.exe, will look for a cache file that belongs to the user, who is currently logged in. If one exists then this cache file is loaded into memory. If none exists, then the ax32.exe will look in the \Log directory for the master.aoc file. If one exists, the objects in this cache file would be loaded into memory.

7. What is Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) and how can I find the current version of MDAC in my box ?

From Microsoft's White paper on MDAC -

   " MDAC is a set of software components that are used to provide applications means to access data from various data sources. It is not a single product, rather, it is a collection of DLLs and associated component resources to support number of different APIs, including ODBC, OLE DB, ADO and Remote Data Service (RDS) ". More information about MDAC could be obtained from the above White Paper.

To find installed version of MDAC, please refer to this article from ASPFAQ.

The latest version available for download is MDAC 2.8. It can be downloaded from here.

8. Can MDAC be rolled back ?

Yes. It can be rolled back. But be careful with roll back. If this fails, then you would have successfully damaged MDAC related DLL files.

This is how the rollback process works - when you install a new version, setup program would scan the system for existence for previous version of MDAC. If it comes across any, then it would create a copy of the old files before replacing them with new one. Only then it would begin the install process. The roll back process, (if successful) would roll back to this copy.

Now to rollback, go to command prompt and type "Dasetup.exe/u" (without quotes).

Dasetup.exe is the setup engine used for MDAC 2.5/2.6. When MDAC is installed in say 'C' directory, then this file would be installed in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Dasetup" directory. But as I had mentioned, please be careful with the roll back process.

9. What is Microsoft Office Web Components (OWC) and how it is linked with MBS Axapta ?

These are nothing but Active X controls. They are used by MS Office suit of programs to create HTML documents which then could be opened using Internet Explorer. Office Web Components are automatically installed by Office 2000 Setup. If a user has not yet installed, it can be installed again from MS Office CD.

In Axapta for creating OLAP reports, you need to have OWC (MSOWC.DLL) installed in client machines. You can locate this component in 'System Drive: \Program Files\Microsoft Office'.

If you want to verify whether have you got OWC right -
    1. Go to Excel
    2. Click Data then Pivot Table and PivotCharReport
    3. Choose External data source, then Get Data
    4. On the Choose Data Source, click OLAP Cubes
    5. Create a new data source. Enter all the required parameters
    6. Click OK and then Finish. If everything is right, a valid Pivot table would be displayed.

10. I am an Axapta end-user. Where can I download Axapta Service Packs and Hot fixes ?

These can be downloaded from MBS PartnerSource website. As the site name indicates only Partners have access to this site. End users of Axapta do not have access to this website. So best thing to do is contact your Partners.

11. When I start Axapta 3.0 / SP3, I get a splash screen of a young man. Is it possible to disable this?

Yes. It is possible.

For more info on how to do this, please visit here.

12. Are there going to be any books on Microsoft Dynamics Ax4.0?

"Inside Microsoft Dynamics Ax 4.0" is a book currently being written by a team of experienced consultants from Microsoft. For more info, please click here.

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