Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Documentation Updates

Microsoft has released a list of changes to the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 Help documentation since the product RTM. Available for download here.

Here is the list of Dynamics AX List of Best Practice Error and Warning messages.

Download Facebook Information

It is here now. Yes you can download your Facebook information.

As Huffington Post releases an update Facebook Event where a new dashboard has been unveiled which will provide Facebook users to download their information. As TechCrunch quotes announcement of Mark Zuckerberg:

“People own and have control over all info they put into Facebook and “Download Your Information” enables people to take stuff with them.”

With Facebook equipped with a couple of bugs and the the Facebook God Mode itself, is this really a good move?

Stay tuned for more information yet to arrive …

Microsoft acquires Dundas Visualizations

For many years, Dundas Data Visualization, Inc. has been known for producing industry standard data visualization components. They have also been producing for Microsoft technologies since ever. Microsoft acquired the codebase for these components, back in 2007, in order to deliver data visualization directly within products of Microsoft.

Microsoft also enabled Dundas to continue to sell, enhance, update and support the components for a specified duration as a service to their existing customers which was a part of an agreement that will expire on October 31, 2010.

As Dundas communicated this information directly to their customer base, the purpose of this post is to answer any questions related to the components/capabilities that have been released as part of the Microsoft Product Roadmap and how you can get access to them. Here is a FAQ site on SQL Server Reporting Services Team Blog that describes Frequently Asked Questions regarding Dundas Visualizations being acquired by Microsoft.

As Microsoft continues to acquire industry champs in relevant technologies, along with releasing other connectors and migration tools, this certainly can be computed in that sense as well.

X++ code for automated messaging to Microsoft Office Communicator

One of the plus that Microsoft have with Dynamics AX or any other product is its existing product stack. The integration of Microsoft Office Suite aids Microsoft Dynamics AX to be more interactive and integrated in users existing environment.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 also provides integration with Office Communicator. This enables the presence of a person/contact to be shown as part of the contact information, along with links to contact that person. Where the eBook provides several of the coding tips and tricks, Greg on Dynamics AX describes this in a few easy steps. Follow this article for further implementation details.

Also, you can find link to the list of best practices errors and warning messages in Dynamics AX here.

Things I hate about the App I love: Internet Explorer 9

Software Applications (Apps) are everywhere, from phones, to watches, and from desktops to laptops. Every computing device is running with apps. However, in the race of new updates, software vendors often mistake the very common user fact, and that fact is:

“You don’t need to change the look and feel of app every time to prove you guys are still working!”

With the release of new Windows Live Platform, Microsoft unveils another new version of its great app Internet Explorer 9 Beta. Claiming this to be the reinvention of web browser (along with Microsoft Silverlight), Microsoft adds great new features including my favorite, hardware-acceleration, non-interruptive notifications, separate download manager, along with pin a website to taskbar etc. 

However, while introducing ultimate new features and achieving the reinvention of web browsing experience, IE9 have made some terrible things which I personally don’t like, and as a matter of fact, such things might also help me step using IE for good.

Hate Point 1: Where is the title bar?

Since ever, title bar have been used to put a quick information for what page you are viewing, and in some website (like www.cricinfo.com) where title bar kept on updating with the ongoing information helps user see the activity right from the taskbar when the browser itself is minimized. Putting title text on the tab is not a good idea to me, as it’s a really short space to put that kind of information. That was one of the key reason I don’t like Google Chrome.

Hate Point 2: Too short address bar.

With increasing number of tabs, it keep on getting reduced, until a time comes where you can hardly see the query string. I agree that this won’t be any point of concern for a lot of internet user, but for web developers it’s a mess. This could possibly be the foremost reason for me not using IE9.

Hate Point 3: Removal of Status Bar.

Now where is it? The one plus I see in IE8 is that almost everything that has been relocated in this new UX appears to be at a place where it should be, so where is the status bar. The classic IE status bar that use to show me (apart from just the link on mouse-over that pops up on a tooltip in the lower section of the window) all the great stuff like, how much page is loaded, quick links for phishing, network status, popup blocked etc.

Hate Point 4: UX (Firefox + Chrome = IE9)

I am a very strong advocate of the point that if every car has a steering wheel, that does not mean they are stealing it. However, making the Back button bigger than forward does make me think I’m using Firefox. Similarly, why thumbnails of my most viewed websites on a newly opened blank tab reminds me its Google Chrome?

To put in a nut shell, Microsoft have made a great work with the new IE9 when it comes to clean UI, performance and usability. However they have left a few holes that classic IE lover would still love to see them back. IE9 is still in Beta and I’m sure by the time of its final release, Microsoft and the IE team won’t disappoint their fan-club.

Techie Blog Posts by: Atif Ahmed Siddiqui atifahmedsiddiqui@hotmail.com