Reference to other table Field

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Hello guys,

Since you have helped me a lot by now and are the ultimate source of expert AX knowledge, I came up with one more question. I have two tables: PersonDir and EmployeesPFA (custom made). In personDir table I added a field pfaRecId which should create relation to employeePFA table (pfaRecId == recId). What is more, in HcmWorker form, I added a field EmployeesPFA that shows the workers PFA and when record is being edited should let choose from all the PFA values stored in EmployeesPFA table and save the reference to it in that PersonDir table pfaRecId field. How should this be done? Thank you.

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Mea_ 60,284 on at

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Hi Dsatkus,

If you have relation between PersonDir and EmployeesPFA created on PersonDir then you need to drop pfaRecId field on HcmWorker from and AX will add "ReferenceGroup" control that automatically shows employeePFA natural key instead of recid.

You can read more about reference groups and reference datasources on msdn msdn.microsoft.com/.../gg845085.aspx or check this blog article dev.goshoom.net/.../replacement-groups-in-ax-2012

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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For reference, we discussed in your previous thread that you can't access objects you need because your code is in a wrong package. It seems that you did everything as customizations, including adding the field to PersonDir and therefore you can't use it fro referencing a table in Application Suite.

Therefore remove your customization from the Directory package and the field as an extension. Ideally remove all customizations from Application Suite as well and put all your code to a separate package. Adding a new table and adding fields to a form don't require overlayering.

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So you suggest adding a field to a form as an extension? Regarding good practice, when should I use customization and when extension?

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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You should avoid changing code owned by other company (such as Microsoft) whenever possible, because if you do it, you can get into troubles when they change their code and you have to do deal with overlayering conflicts. Also, you aren't even allowed to do it in some cases, so you have no choice. That's why there is the whole concept of extensions, which allows you to add features without changing somebody else's objects. You keep your changes in a separate package without any risk of overlayering conflicts and you can also compile and distribute this package separately.

It's not always possible, but you should do it when it is.

The topic of extensions and customizations has been discussed quite a few times - please look at a few articles on internet, because it's extremely important to understand it. You already see which troubles you get into if you aren't familiar with these things.

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I started using customization since I needed to customize an enum which is non extendable. So you would suggest me recreate the project using only extensions?

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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First of all, you see that customizing the Directory package doesn't allow you to achieve what you need, so you have to change your approach whether you want or not.

That you have to overlayer an enum doesn't mean that you should use customization for everything else as well. You can customize the enum and then put everything else to a separate package.

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So, as I understand, I should create a project in my own built package and recreate everything using extensions in it and leave the project using a model of Application Suite package only with customized enum. Are they going to interact well?

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Martin Dráb 237,801 Most Valuable Professional on at

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I'm not sure what you mean by "to interact", but you'll be able to access all public objects from all packages referenced by your package.

Note that projects are placed inside packages - they're stored separately from code and metadata.

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