Sometimes there is a requirement to perform a simple operation in Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations using some limited input from the user before the operation is executed.
A real world example of custom records and a custom form to view, edit and process "records" Due to customer privacy, I can't use the real names of the records and will just refer to the data a "record". The requirement is to update a single field of a read only record. The record is not allowed to be edited in the form because of its status. In the form datasource active method, there is code to check the status of the record and sets the datasource allowEdit property according to the status of the record. However, due to certain factors, sometimes the record is not processed in time and the date of the record is not current anymore, it's now in the past. This creates a catch 22. This record cannot be processed because the date is in the past and the date cannot be updated because it's read only due to the status. The solution is, the clicks on a menu item button on the form to change the date of the record. When the user click the menu item button, a dialog is displayed showing a date field. The use can only choose a date in the future. The validation on the form makes sure a valid date is selected when the user clicks in the OK button.
This article recommends some basic level of code knowledge and desing patterns and doesn't go into detail and inner workings of the code. However, it demonstrates a simple pattern for a runnable class using a custom form dialog.
Recommended code knowlege:
- You know what a runnable class is
- You have basic knowledge of how the runnable class pattern works
- You know how to create a form of type dialog and know ho to add input fields on the form
- You know how to add validation on the form to validate the user input data
- You know how to ge variable values in code from a form object of the input fields of the form
What you need to do to implement the pattern (in a nutshell):
- Create your own runnable class with a static main method, run and prompt methods
- Create your own form (type dialog) with required input fields on the form.
- Add an OK button to the form that calls the forms closeOK method.
- Add an Cancel button to the form that just closes the form whithout doing anything
- Copy the code below to your own runnable class.
- Change the class name on the main method to your own class
- Change the form name in the prompt method to your own own form name
- Retrieve the input values from the form object in the prompt method if user has clicked the OK button
- Finally, implement the business logic in the run method
Runnable class code
public final class MyCustomRunnableClassWithCustomFormAsDialog
{
private FormRun mFormRun;
//add input form class variables
public void run()
{
//add logic here.
}
public boolean prompt()
{
Object obj;
mFormRun = classFactory.formRunClass(new Args(formStr(MyCustomFormDialog))); // Change form name.
mFormRun.init();
mFormRun.run();
mFormRun.wait();
if (mFormRun.closedOk()) //did the user click OK?
{
obj = mFormRun;
//retrieve form variables values from form obj and set class variable here.
}
return mFormRun.closedOk();
}
public static void main(Args _args)
{
MyCustomRunnableClassWithCustomFormAsDialog operation = new MyCustomRunnableClassWithCustomFormAsDialog();
if (operation.prompt())
{
operation.run();
}
}
}
