AOT elements in (Application Object Tree) AX 2009

 Application Object Tree

The Application Object Tree (AOT) is contains all the objects & code elements in AX.

You can open it by clicking on the icon from the top-menu shown below or by

pressing Ctrl + D from anywhere in AX. 

 


we can find  the no.of objects in AOT, in the  left side of the status bar  

.Data Dictionary

under the Data Dictionary we can find the following nodes

Under Data Dictionary node, we  will find tables, maps, views, extended datatypes, base enums, license codes, configuration keys, security keys, table collections and perspectives.

Macros

Macros are predefined values used throughout the solution and are present just as a best practice tool. You won't have to hardcode values into the code, but rather reference a macro-element within a macro.

Classes

Classes in AX are classes in the same sense as you are used to from whichever object-oriented programming language you already know. They are blueprints of how objects should look at runtime.

Forms

Forms are the end users way of communicating with the system. They can open forms to search for data, view data, change data, create new records, or delete records. In addition, forms very often contain buttons that link to other forms, reports, and classes that execute business logic.

Data Sets

The data sets define the tables that are used by these Visual Studio components by adding the tables to the data sets much like you would do with table in a data source.

Reports

Reports are the standard AX reports that will display data in a report form to the users, or write the data to a printer or file. 

Report Libraries

Report Libraries are links to reporting projects in Visual Studio. You can't create a reporting library directly from AX. You have to create a reporting project in Visual Studio first and import it into AX. It then becomes a report library.

Queries

Queries in the AOT are predefined static queries that can be reused throughout the whole application. A query contains a hierarchy of data sources that defines the data that should be available for the query. Queries can also be used by other elements in AX such as in forms, reports, and classes.

Jobs

Jobs are static methods intended to directly execute a small piece of code. They work fine for code that is supposed to execute once, but are not intended to be a part of a customer solution.

Menus

Menus present the end user with options to open the most used forms and reports and to start periodic tasks.

Menu Items

MenuItems are pointers to forms, reports, or classes. There are three different types of menu items: Display, Output, and Action. The display menu items are used to open forms; the output is used to open reports and the action is used to execute a class with a main method (start point).

Web

The Web node consists of subnodes that in turn hold different types of elements relevant for developing web applications such as the enterprise portal.

Services

Services are used to set up web services that let other applications use AX classes through the Application Integration Framework (AIF). The AIF is used for electronic communication with trading partners or applications. 

Workflow

The workflow framework in AX lets developers create workflows that define certain execution flows depending on certain events. 

Resources

Resources are files that are imported into the AX database, and can be referenced in the code from the resources node in the AOT rather than using a directory and filename on the disk. These files are typically images, icons, cascaded stylesheets, and XML files. You can preview the files by selecting a resources node in the AOT, right-clicking on it, and selecting Open.

System documentation

At the bottom of the AOT, you can find different types of help. The system documentation consists of documentation of the AX core. These are the elements in AX that are not open source. This means that you, as a developer, have to relate to these elements as "black-boxes". This means that only you will know what to put into methods and what you can expect to get back. You can find information about global functions here such as strlen(). This function (and most other functions) is documented with an explanation of the input parameters, return value, and an example of how to use the function. The same goes for core classes and their methods. Typical core classes are Map, Array, AsciiIo, FormRun, XppCompiler, and so on, just to mention a few.

Application Developer Documentation

Application Developer Documentation consists of documentation regarding standard AX tables and classes. This documentation is basically just another way of displaying information that you, as a developer, should be able to find by browsing the AOT, reading code, and looking at properties.