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Application Analysis Tool User Guide [AX 2012]

Updated: February 1, 2013

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

NoteNote

This is pre-release documentation of a preliminary nature and is subject to change at any time without notice. Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided herein.

The Application Analysis Tool for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 is designed to enable developers to easily analyze trace files, database models, and X++ classes to understand how the application has been constructed.

The Application Analysis Tool is available from the InformationSource services download page.

Audience

The Application Analysis Tool is intended for developers and technical consultants.

Prerequisites

Development skills with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Systems requirements

Hardware requirements

Hardware

Minimum requirements

Processor

Intel Pentium/Celeron family or compatible Pentium III Xeon or higher processor. 1.1 gigahertz (GHz) or higher recommended.

Memory (RAM)

1 gigabyte (GB) or more recommended.

Hard disk space

1 GB for the Application Analysis Tool.

Monitor

SXGA (1280x1024) or higher resolution.

Pointing device

Microsoft mouse or compatible pointing device.

Software requirements

Software

Comment

Microsoft Dynamics AX Windows client

For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 .NET Business Connector

For Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.

Windows SDK for Windows 7 and Microsoft .NET Framework 4

This SDK is installed when Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is installed. If Visual Studio 2010 is not installed on the computer where the Application Analysis Tool is installed, it must be installed before the CATAnalysisService web service can be configured.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 (Optional)

If Visual Studio 2010 is not installed, you must install the Visual Studio 2010 Integrated Shell and Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET 4.

Microsoft SQL Server2008 client components

Must be installed by using SQL Server setup.

Supported operating systems

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition, or Datacenter Edition

  • Windows 7 SP1

User accounts and permission

Action

Permissions required for the account

Install the Application Analysis Tool

The system administrator performing the installation must have the following permissions:

  • Member of administrators group on the local computer.

  • Member of database creator (dbcreator) role on the server instance of Microsoft SQL Server.

  • Microsoft Dynamics AX user administrative account.

AOS Service account

db_reader and db_writer permissions in the Application Analysis Tool database.

This section describes how to install and configure the Application Analysis Tool.

Install the Application Analysis Tool

  1. Download the Application Analysis Tool from InformationSource Services download page.

  2. Run the downloaded file.

  3. Launch Visual Studio. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Connect to Server\Database.

  4. Type or select the name of the SQL Server instance in which you want to create the Application Analysis Tool database. This can be the same SQL Server instance that hosts the Microsoft Dynamics AX database, or another instance.

  5. Enter a database name, for example "AATDatabase" and click Create.

    When the database is created, the New Project dialog box opens.

  6. In the New project dialog box, type a name for the new project, and optionally enter a description.

    The Application Object Server (AOS) and the port number that it communicates on are automatically completed based on the default local Microsoft Dynamics AX client configuration.

  7. Click OK.

    The Application Analysis Tool creates a new project in Visual Studio, imports an XPO file that contains required Microsoft Dynamics AX projects, and synchronizes metadata.

    NoteNote

    Synchronizing metadata can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the system configuration.

  8. Click Finish.

Configuring the Application Analysis tool

The Application Analysis Tool relies on a Microsoft Dynamics AX web service that cannot be configured as part of the setup program. After the Application Analysis Tool setup program has been successfully completed, you must deploy and configure the web service.

Deploy the web service

  1. Open the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 client.

  2. Press Ctrl+D to open a Developer workspace.

  3. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (or click the Project icon in the toolbar), expand the Shared node, and right-click CATProject to open it.

  4. Navigate to the ServiceGroups node and right-click CATAnalysisServiceGroup.

  5. On the shortcut menu, click Deploy Service Group. Wait until an Infolog dialog box opens. No errors are expected in this Infolog message. Click Close to close the Infolog dialog box.

Configure the web service

  1. In the Microsoft Dynamics AX client, click System administration > Setup > Services and Application Integration Framework > Inbound ports.

  2. Select CATAnalysisServiceGroup in the Port name section of Inbound ports form, and then click Deactivate. Once deactivated, click Configure to open the Microsoft Service Configuration Editor.

    ImportantImportant

    If you activate or deactivate any integration port, all integration ports on the instance of AOS are affected. Do not click the Deactivate or Activate button while integration ports are processing messages.

  3. Expand Bindings, and then select the DefaultServiceGroupBinding (net TcpBinding) node in the Configuration section.

  4. Change the values of SendTimeout, ReceiveTimeout, and InactivityTimeout to 05:00:00 hours.

  5. Click Exit on the File menu to save the configuration and close the Microsoft Service Configuration Editor.

  6. Click the Activate button in the Inbound ports form.

Configure Application Analysis Tool

  1. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Options.

  2. Click Customization Analysis and enter the following in the WSDL endpoint field, replacing {aosservername} with the name of your AOS:

    net.tcp://{aosservername}:8201/DynamicsAx/Services/CATAnalysisServiceGroup

  3. Click Save.

Configure the Application Analysis Tool database

  1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database engine that hosts the Application Analysis Tool database.

  2. Navigate to the Security / Logins node.

  3. Locate the login that is used by the AOS service account.

  4. Right-click the login and click Properties on the shortcut menu.

  5. In the Select a page pane, click User Mapping.

  6. Locate the database that is used by the Application Analysis Tool, and select the Map check box.

  7. Select db_datareader and db_datawriter.

The following section describes common administration tasks.

Working with databases and projects

The Application Analysis Tool was designed to work with multiple databases that can each store multiple projects. This allows for separating projects into databases that can be archived independently.

Associate a project or database with another AOS instance

  1. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Options.

  2. In the left pane, click Customization Analysis, and enter the following in the WSDL endpoint field, replacing {aosservername} with the name of the AOS instance that you are changing to:

    net.tcp://{aosservername}:8201/DynamicsAx/Services/CATAnalysisServiceGroup

Create a new Application Analysis Tool database

  1. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Connect to Server\Database.

  2. Type or select the name of the desired SQL Server instance.

  3. Type a name for the new database and click the Create button.

  4. In the New project dialog box, type a name for the new project, the name of the Application Object Server, and the port number it communicates on.

  5. Optionally, enter a description.

  6. Click OK to begin the metadata synchronization process.

    NoteNote

    Synchronizing metadata can take up to 15 minutes, depending on the system configuration.

The Application Analysis Tool automatically remembers which database and project you were using last, and will connect to the same database and project when you start the tool.

Switch to a new database and project

  1. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Connect to / Create database.

  2. Type or select the name of the desired SQL Server instance.

  3. Type or select the name of the desired database.

  4. Click Connect to connect to the database.

  5. In the Select Application Analysis Tool project form, select the desired project, and then click OK to load it.

    NoteNote

    When a project is opened, a check will be made to detect if the metadata has changed. If so, it will be refreshed to reflect the changes.

If you get too many projects in your database you can easily delete them.

Delete projects from the Application Analysis Tool database

  1. On the App Analysis Tool menu, click Delete Project.

  2. Select the project to delete, and then click Delete to remove the project and all its content from the database.

Application Analysis Tool windows

The Application Analysis Tool introduces a number of new windows to the Visual Studio environment.

Enable Application Analysis Tool windows

  1. Open and close Application Analysis Tool windows from the View > Other windows menu:

    • AX Business Flow Explorer

    • AX Class Explorer

    • AX Minimap Explorer

    • AX Project Explorer

    • AX Table Explorer

    • AX Trace Explorer

  2. Click a window title to open it.

Working with ER diagrams

Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams illustrate table relationships with Crow’s Foot notation. Use ER diagrams to explore the Microsoft Dynamics AX data model.

  1. In the Microsoft Dynamics AX Table Explorer window, right-click a table and click Generate ER diagram on the shortcut menu

  2. To expand the diagram from a table, right-click a table heading in the ER diagram and click Generate Next level on the shortcut menu. This will expand the diagram to include all the tables that are related to the selected table.

  3. Hover over a relationship line and a tooltip will appear displaying the fields involved in the relation.

  4. Resize tables by grabbing the edge and dragging it out or down.

  5. Reposition tables by grabbing the edge with the crosshair cursor and dragging the entire table.

  6. Delete a table by right-clicking in it and clicking Delete on the shortcut menu.

  7. Add a comment to a table by right-clicking in the table and clicking Add comment.

  8. When you expand a table that has more than five related tables, a table selection dialog box is displayed. Unselect all tables by clicking the check box on the root node, and then select the tables you want to add to the diagram.

  9. In the Microsoft Dynamics AX Table Explorer window, right-click a table and click Generate SCsc diagram on the shortcut menu to generate a superclass-subclass diagram.

Working with class diagrams

Class diagrams are used to illustrate class inheritance.

  1. In the Microsoft Dynamics AX Class Explorer window, right-click a class and click Generate Class diagram on the shortcut menu.

  2. Right-click classes and click Add comment on the shortcut menu to add comments.

  3. Reposition classes by grabbing the edge and dragging the entire class.

  4. Collapse methods of a class by clicking the Collapse button.

  5. Collapse a class by clicking the Collapse button.

Importing trace files

Trace files are used to generate a UML sequence diagram of the captured call stack.

NoteNote

Only traces created with Client Access turned on can be imported. Client-side events are used to create the chronological sort in Trace Explorer.

  1. On the Application Analysis Tool menu, click Import trace file.

  2. Browse to where the trace file is stored, type a name, and click Import.

  3. The imported trace file will appear in the Trace Explorer window.

Working with UML Sequence Diagrams

Sequence diagrams illustrate the call stack captured in a trace file. Use sequence diagrams to inspect and understand how the code flows.

  1. Locate a trace file in the Trace Explorer window.

  2. Locate and expand the desired starting point.

    FormOpen or FormClose events can be starting points.

  3. Right-click the starting point and click Generate Sequence diagram on the shortcut menu.

  4. Right-click tables, classes, or forms and click Add comment on the shortcut menu to add comments.

  5. Generate a class diagram from a sequence diagram by right-clicking a class and clicking Generate Class diagram on the shortcut menu.

  6. Generate an ER diagram from a sequence diagram by right-clicking a table and clicking Generate ER diagram on the shortcut menu.

  7. Expand the next level of a sequence diagram by right-clicking E (expand button) and clicking Generate Sequence diagram on the shortcut menu.

Working with business flows

Business flows are used to organize a sequence diagram into logical groups that together make up a business process.

  1. Right-click the Business Flow root node and click Create Business Flow on the shortcut menu.

  2. Enter a name, and then click OK to create a new business flow.

  3. Right-click in the business flow diagram canvas and click Add sub-process on the shortcut menu to add a sub-process.

  4. To link a sequence diagram to a sub-process, right-click the sub-process, and then click Link sequence diagram on the shortcut menu. Select a sequence diagram in the Select sequence diagram dialog box, and then click OK.

  5. Right-click a sub-process and click Delink sequence diagram on the shortcut menu to delink any linked sequence diagrams.

  6. Generate a linked sequence diagram by right-clicking a sub-process and clicking Show diagram on the shortcut menu.

  7. Add a comment to a sub-process by right-clicking it and clicking Add comment on the shortcut menu.

  8. Delete a sub-process by right-clicking it and clicking Delete on the shortcut menu.

  9. Reposition a sub-process by grabbing the edge and dragging it.

  10. Link two sub-processes by selecting a handle from the first sub-process and dragging it onto one of the handles of the second sub-process.

  11. To remove a link between two sub-processes, click to select the link and press Delete.

Working with Customization Analysis

Customization Analysis is used to analyze customizations done on the tables, classes, and forms.

  1. Navigate to the Application Analysis Tool menu and click Customization Analysis to open the Customization Analysis Tool.

  2. Select the Layer, Module, or Project option button to do different levels of analysis.

  3. Select a value from the Select Layer list to work on a specific layer.

  4. Select the Module option button to enable the Select Module drop-down list. Select a value from the Select Module list to work on a specific module.

  5. Select the Project option button to list projects in the Select Projects list box. Select a project from the Select Projects list to work on specific project.

  6. Select Table, Classes, and/or Forms to analyze.

  7. Click Analyze to generate a CATReport report in .htm format.

  • When you create a new Application Analysis Tool database, or switch to a new database, you are not automatically connected to an AOS instance associated with that database. Instead, you must switch to a new AOS instance manually. For more information, see the section Application Analysis Tool User Guide.

  • The recommended timeout settings for the tool are currently very long. They are not recommended for long-term use in a production system.

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