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Announcing the “AxErd” Website for Dynamics AX 2012

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We have created about 30 database ERDs (entity relationship diagrams) for tables of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2.  The ERDs are useful to AX developers when they need to customize a given application module (such as Accounts payable or General ledger).

The ERDs are part of our “AxErd” website, which can be reached at the following Http URL:

     AxErd website:    https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=296623

 

Design Principle for ERDs

Dynamics AX has several thousand tables. It is impossible to construct one ERD that contains every table. And it is impossible to construct enough specialized ERDs that foresee every precise need of every partner developer. So the many ERDs we provide were designed to capture the core tables of each module, and to include some major tables from other related modules.

Minor compromises were made so that each ERD can fit onto one side of a standard sheet of paper when printed.

 

Support Files for ERD Extension

The AxErd website also contains hundreds of inter-linked support .htm files designed to assist the partner developer who needs to extend one of the ERDs that AxErd provides. In AX, the partner developer can easily look up all the parent tables of a given table, by navigating:

      AOT > Data Dictionary > Tables > MyTable > Relations > MyRelation

 

However, it is much harder for the developer to look up all the child tables of that same given table. Cross-reference does technically provide this information, but laborious clicks and scrolls are required to perform the look ups. In contrast, the AxErd website performs this look up with one click.

For instructions on how you can semi-automate the task of extending or creating an ER diagram with Dynamics AX 2012, click the 'Help' link on the AxErd Home page.

 

Tables and ERDs are Categorized by Module

For each table, the AxErd webpages indicate which module the table is categorized into. And in the reverse direction, for any one module there is a webpage that lists all the tables which are categorized into the module.

 

Example ERD

Here is one ERD from the AxErd website. The image has been reduced in size for display here.

 

 

 

The next image shows an AxErd webpage that lists all the child tables of the InventTable table, meaning tables that have a foreign key column that references the values in the primary key of the InventTable table.

The portion that is circled in red shows that the AgreementLine table is a child of the InventTable table. The arrow always points from child to parent.

In the image, every word that is blue is a clickable link to related information.

 

 

 

Gene Milener , 2013-May-23

Comments

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2013
    awesome you guys! I was looking for something like that for months... its great for educating our clients about the data structure!

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2013
    This is good stuff!! thumbs up

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2013
    Wow - you actually simplified my life :-)

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2013
    thanks! this has been heavily requested over time!

  • Anonymous
    May 30, 2013
    Thanks..! Great Job, that really gives a lot of help...!

  • Anonymous
    June 03, 2013
    Thanks.This is good stuff.

  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2015
    Are you able to explain how the status columns link from numeric to text values? I am looking for information on Dynamics AX 2009 and 2012. Regards, Jeremy

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2015
    Dear Lee, They use Enumerations to map numeric values to String representatives. Thanks and Regards,

  • Anonymous
    February 17, 2016
    It saves me a day.