The Print Management feature within Dynamics AX does a lot more than just allow you to print reports. It also allows you to e-mail reports, automatically print and distribute forms, and also have custom form versions by customer & vendor. In this walkthrough we will show some of the different options available to you and also how to configure them within Dynamics AX.
The Print Management feature within Dynamics AX does a lot more than just allow you to print reports. It also allows you to e-mail reports, automatically print and distribute forms, and also have custom form versions by customer & vendor.
In this walkthrough we will show some of the different options available to you and also how to configure them within Dynamics AX.
Forms don’t have to always be printed. You can also email them directly from the Dynamics AX client through the print management options without any additional configuration.
In this example we will show how you can send any report or form to your e-mail client.
The Print Management feature also allows you to configure the default print options for your documents and forms so that you don’t have to override the default print settings each time you print a form. You can use this to configure default printer settings, and also to set your forms to automatically email.
In this example we will show how you can use the Form Settings to configure forms to automatically email.
Before we start on the form configuration, there is one configuration step that you need to perform, which is the definition of a default SMTP Server that the forms will be sent through. This option bypasses the use of the default mail client as the mail transport which makes it a lot more flexible.
To do this, open up the Email parameters form from the System folder of the Setup group within the System administration area page.
To configure the form defaults, open up the Form setupmenu item from the Forms folder of the Setup group within the associated area page. In this example we are updating the Order Confirmation form, so we are accessing the form defaults from the Accounts receivablearea page.
When the Print management form opens, find the form that you want to configure and expand its grouping node. You will see all of the different form variations which you can select and in the details panel you will see the default print management options.
This will open up the default Print destination settingsand we can change the default option from Printer to Email, and update the default email settings for the form.
When you have finished updating the defaults, click on the OK button.
CUSTOMERFor some forms and reports, you may want to have different configurations depending on who the form is associated with. In the case of the Order Confirmation, you probably the confirmation to be sent to the customers individual email accounts rather than the global one configured in the form defaults.
In this example we will show how to set up form management defaults by customer.
Select the customer that you want to override the default organization configuration for and from the Generalribbon bar group, select the Print management menu button.
Now within the Print management setup form you will have a new group of form configurations that you can change that are specific to that particular customer.
AUTOMATICALLY GENERATE FORMSFor a lot of forms, you may want to configure them to automatically run without you having to kick off the process every time. You can do this simply by creating a batch job for the form, and once it is set, then Dynamics AX will do all of the work for you.
In this example we will show how you can configure batch jobs for your reports and forms.
In order to submit your forms and reports to a batch server, you need to make sure that you have one configured. To do this, open the Batch groups menu item from the Setup group within the System administration area page.
Click on the Batch servers tab, and select the servers that you want to run the batch processes on from the Remaining servers list box and click on the < button.
In all of the print dialog boxes, there is a Batch button in the bottom right. Selected the defaults that you want to use when the batch job is submitted, and click it.
In the Recurrence form, you can configure how many times you want to run this batch job, which days, and also how often. After you have finished click on the OKbutton.
Click on the OK button on the Batch processing form to save your batch job.
This will open up the alerts options, where you can specify if when and how you want to be notified that the jobs have been completed. After you have selected your notification preferences, click the OK button, and you are done.
If you want to see all of the batch jobs that you have configured within Dynamics AX, in order to maintain them, click on the Batch jobs menu item in the Batch jobs folder of the Inquiries group of the System administration area page.
If you want to look even more clever with what you are doing with forms, and don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty through development, then you may want to create custom variations of forms that can be selected from within the Print Management configuration. In order to do this though you do need to have a copy of Visual Studio, and update the code in AOT, but don’t be too concerned, you are not doing anything that is too hard.
In this example we will show how you can create a new template form that will be available within the Print Management.
Expand the SSRS Reports group, and find the report that you want to create a new template version for. In this case we are selecting the default report for the Sales Confirmation which is SalesConfirm.
If you double click on your new design, then you will be taken directly into the SSRS report designer, where you can make any changes that you want to the report.
When you are happy with the changes that you have made to the report, return to the Solution Explorer, right-mouse-click on the project, and select the Add to AOTmenu item.
To publish the report definition to the Reporting Services server, right-mouse-click on the SSRS Report within AOT, and select the Deploy Element menu item.
There is one final step that is required, and that is to register the new report format as a valid option within the Print Management dialog box. To do this, find the PrintMgmtReportFormat table within the Data Dictionary Tables, expand out the methods, and open up the populate method.
Now when you open up the Print management setupform, within the Report format drop down, you will be able to select your new report format that you have just created.
