Microsoft Dynamics AX (Archived)

How to load data in form asynchronous?

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Paul Heisterkamp

1,155

Hi community,

Here is my Scenario in AX 2012 R2 CU1:

I have a form where a calculation data on server, pack the data into container and then load the data on client from the container to the form.

Now I want to change the data loading to an asynchronous process to not block the form while loading the data.

My preferred process is:

1. Call the asynchronous process to load the data from form

2. When the asynchronous process finished, there should be a callback to form

3. The triggered call back should load the data from asynchronous filled container to the form

Has anyone a solution, white paper or example from AX standard on how to do it?

Thanks,

Paul

*This post is locked for comments

I have the same question (0)

All responses (12)

Answers (2)

Suggested answer

Brandon Wiese 17,788 on at

Like (0)

Report

There are some built-in examples of doing this in AX. In older versions, the "permissions" form would offload the work of loading its data in another thread and then filling the form after completion, even showing a progress bar while it worked. Global Search also does some threading to keep the UI thread responsive during long searches.

You want to use the Thread object. This has always been very lightly documented, but there are some good blogs out there discussing its use though mostly in older versions of AX. I have used it in some custom scenarios to offload work, and even sending messages back to the UI thread (since you can not reference any UI element or the infolog from a non-UI thread).

I'm going to have some need to use Thread in 2012 R2 myself soon.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Brandon Wiese 17,788 on at

Like (0)

Report

Here's the MSDN documentation on the Thread class.

msdn.microsoft.com/.../aa878446(v=ax.50).aspx

Look in the AOT for Forms\Tutorial_Thread and some classes Tutorial_ThreadWork and TutorialThread.

Brandon George posts some excellent details over a series of blogs.

dynamics-ax.blogspot.com/.../dynamics-ax-2009-x-thread-development.html

dynamics-ax.blogspot.com/.../dynamics-ax-threads-more-details.html

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

dolee 11,279 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi,

You can also consider using the new SysOperation framework in AX2012. Check out how "Asynchronous" and "Reliable Asynchronous" execution mode works in the "Introduction to the SysOperation Framework" whitepaper here. The sample code used in the whitepaper can be found here.

Cheers

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Paul Heisterkamp 1,155 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hey,

thank you all for your hints.

@Brandon Wiese: I will check the usage of Thread Class in combination with setTimeOut(..) method. And a will keep this thread updated with my solution...

@DOLEE: Yes I had found the SysOperation Framework, but I found no way to perform a callback to form...

Regards,

Paul

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
dolee 11,279 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi Paul,

The example in the whitepaper did the following instead(not exactly a callback):

1) Assign a unique GUID to the call.

2) Start the async op, when it's done, it'll create record(s) in a resultTable.

3) The form will periodically polling the resultTable with the GUID to see whether the process has finished. (Using setTimeOut method. =] )

You can look at the SysOpFindPrimesForm (in the sample code for the whitepaper) to see how it is implemented.

Cheers

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Brandon Wiese 17,788 on at

Like (0)

Report

If you're going to try Thread as a solution, I'll throw in some lessons learned.

First, some types of objects don't marshal across threads easily. I recall needing to send a temporary table and having to pack it into a container and unpack it off-thread.

Here's an example of some code I used from a working AX 4 project.

This method takes calls on the UI thread and makes the Thread.run(..) call.

public client static void submitBackground(SendQueue _sendQueue)
{
Thread thread;
;

new ExecutePermission().assert();
thread = new Thread();
thread.removeOnComplete(true);
thread.setInputParm([_sendQueue.threadSafe()]); // make thread safe
thread.run(classnum(SendBase), staticmethodstr(SendBase,SubmitThread));
CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}

This method accepts that call, unpacks the parameters, and makes the off-thread static call.

public client static void submitThread(Thread _thread)
{
SendQueue sendQueue;
;

[sendQueue] = _thread.getInputParm();
SendBase::submit(sendQueue);
}

This is the method that does the off-thread work, but I've trimmed it to show only the callback into the UI thread. In my case I'm sending back progress information and updating a progress bar.

public client static void submit(SendQueue _sendQueue)
{
int id;
;

[id] = SendBase::progress([methodstr(SysOperationProgress,New), 0, 4]);
SendBase::progress([methodstr(SysOperationProgress,Update), id, 0, 'Building messages..']);
SendBase::progress([methodstr(SysOperationProgress,Update), id, 1, 'Attaching document..']);
..
}

Finally a snip of my progress callback showing the basic idea. Note the use of getThisThread() to identify that the code is off-thread, and the call to executeInUIThread() to get back to the UI thread by calling the same method.

public client static container progress(container args) // [SysOperationProgress method, int id, int num, str text]
{
str method;
int id;
int num;
str text;
str owner = classstr(SendBase);
SysGlobalCache cache;
SysOperationProgressEmbedded progress;
;

if (Thread::getThisThread())
{
return Thread::executeInUIThread(classnum(SendBase), staticmethodstr(SendBase,Progress), args);
}
else
{
[method, id, num, text] = args;

cache = infolog.globalCache();

switch (method)
{
case methodstr(SysOperationProgress,New):
{
progress = SendBase::buildProgressForm();
progress.setTotal(num);
progress.start();
for (id = 0; cache.isSet(owner,id); id++) {} // find unused id
cache.set(owner, id, progress);
break;
}
case methodstr(SysOperationProgress,Update):
{

Good luck!

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Paul Heisterkamp 1,155 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hey Brandon,

First of all thank you for your examples, they helped me allot!

Your solution worked for my scenario to calculate a container in thread and send the result back to UI.

So first step resolved...Great!

But my second scenario is to fill a temp table in thread. The solution of sending contend of the temp table via container from thread to UI is not applicable because there are too many records in the temp table. So I have to pass the instance of temp table to the thread.

Do you know a way to pass the instance of a temp table? Maybe via temptable.getPhysicalTableName()?

The only way I found to fill the instance is direct SQL on from getPhysicalTableName() returned table.

Paul

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Brandon Wiese 17,788 on at

Like (0)

Report

Can you not use an AOT table of type TempDb temporary table? If so, then the table name is a given, but then you want to identify the correct records (as opposed to records possibly inserted by other users at the same time or left over from previous operations). I would set the Created by transaction to true, and then insert all of your records within a single ttsbegin/ttscommit block, which will guarantee they all share the same transaction Id, which you can send back to the calling form. This is similar to how SSRS operates with TempDb tables also.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Paul Heisterkamp 1,155 on at

Like (0)

Report

Yes a have a AOT table of type TempDb but Created by Transaction will not do the trick...

The following code show up the possibility of linking temptables by using linkPhysicalTableInstance() but in the thread a do not have the instance where I want to link to. So I need the possibility of linking the temptable to a PhysicalTableName or a similar solution :-)

static void tempDbJob(Args _args)

{

TmpInventAge tmpInventAge;

str physicalTableName;

TmpInventAge tmpInventAge2;

str physicalTableName2;

TmpInventAge tmpInventAge3;

str physicalTableName3;

select firstOnly tmpInventAge;

physicalTableName = tmpInventAge.getPhysicalTableName();

select firstOnly tmpInventAge2;

physicalTableName2 = tmpInventAge2.getPhysicalTableName();

tmpInventAge3.linkPhysicalTableInstance(tmpInventAge);

select firstOnly tmpInventAge3;

physicalTableName3 = tmpInventAge3.getPhysicalTableName();

}

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Paul Heisterkamp 1,155 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hey all,

Here is my summary.

1. If you want to calculate a container in a dedicated thread, this will work with Brandon’s solution.

2. If you want to fill a temp table in a dedicated thread, this is not possible. The only way to do this is to pack the records in the thread and send them back to UI via container. This solution is not applicable if you handle with thousands of records...

Cheers,

Paul

Was this reply helpful? Yes No