AX Doc Generator 0.7.1 released
This page is about AX Doc Generator, a utility for Microsoft Dynamics AX that generates useful hyperlinked information and inheritance diagrams for tables, classes, etc., which you can browse in a web-like fashion from Internet Explorer. As of version 0.7, AX Doc Generator has been updated to support the 2009 edition of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Version 0.7.1 provides some additional convenient features, as well as an improved HTML page layout. You can skip the following if you prefer, and go straight to the download section or the example section.
The Problem
I started learning Dynamics AX in 2005. Having been used to well-documented technologies like Java and C, as well as being a fan of the O'Reilly Nutshell books, going to Dynamics AX was quite a culture shock. Class documentation was sparse at best, but often it was simply non-existent.
Furthermore, method listings turned out to be of litte use, as they only listed method names---no return types or parameter lists. If you wanted to see that information, you had to click on each method in turn to look at the method declaration.
Dynamics AX is a huge application, and the tables, types, classes, etc. refer to each other in a gigantic web of references that are difficult to follow. One of the biggest challenges to new Dynamics AX developers is to get to know as many objects as possible for the "big picture" to emerge.
(To be fair, though, I should mention that the state of available documentation has recently improved dramatically. Have a look at the Microsoft Dynamics AX Developer Center.)
The Solution
There is a lot of information sitting right there inside Dynamics AX. AX Doc Generator extracts this information and presents it in a structured and accessible manner. Features include:
- Table information. All fields of a table are listed with field names, labels, type information, and relation information alongside each other. You can sort the field overviews by field names, labels, etc. Table methods are listed with full syntax-highlighted method signatures.
- Class information. All class methods are grouped by access modifiers such that public methods (typically the most interesting) are listed first, then protected methods, and finally private methods. For kernel classes, property methods are separated from the other methods.
- Class inheritance diagrams. Get a quick overview of class and interface hierarchies with clickable diagrams. The diagrams are automatically generated using Graphviz, which you will need to install in order to use this feature.
- Hyperlinked information. All references to other objects, such as return types and parameter types, related tables, etc. are clickable, so you can easily become acqainted with the Dynamics AX system without having to open the AOT all the time.
- Care has been taken to not clutter up the standard Dynamics AX AOT objects more than necessary for AX Doc Generator to be useful. The database and the label files are untouched.
- AX Doc Generator is free open source software licensed under the MIT License.