How to: Customize a Report

Article
11/29/2021

Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

This topic explains how to customize an existing report for Microsoft Dynamics AX. It describes how to change the development layer you are working in, how to access a report for edit, and how to deploy the report to the report server.

Changing the Development Layer

Reports in Microsoft Dynamics AX adhere to the layered development structure in the MorphX development environment. When you customize an existing report, a copy of the reporting project for the layer that you are currently working in is created and opened in Microsoft Visual Studio where it can be edited and later saved to the AOT. Before you customize a report, make sure that you are working in the correct development layer.

To change the development layer

Open the Microsoft Dynamics AX Server Configuration utility (Start > Administrative Tools > Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Server Configuration).
Create a new configuration to point at the development layer.

Click Manage and then click Create configuration. In the Create Configuration window, name the new configuration, such as "VARLayer".

Note

It is a good practice to name the configuration with the name of the layer such as USR or VAR layer.
On the Developer tab, select the correct layer from the drop-down list in the Application object layer to open field, and then click OK.

Note

The configuration utility runs outside of Microsoft Dynamics AX. You must stop and restart the client for the changes to take effect.
Click OK to close the configuration window.

Editing the Report

You will edit Microsoft Dynamics AX reports in Visual Studio. You can access a report for edit from the AOT or from Visual Studio. It is faster to access a report for edit from the Application Explorer. The following sections describe how to access a report for edit from the AOT and from Visual Studio.

To access a report for edit from the AOT

Start Microsoft Dynamics AX > New Development Workspace. If User Account Control (UAC) is active, be sure you start Microsoft Dynamics AX with administrative privileges.
In the AOT, expand the Visual Studio Projects node, and then expand the Dynamics AX Model Projects node.
Right-click the report project that you want to edit and click Edit. For a list of the projects and reports they contain, see List of Reporting Projects.

The selected project opens in Microsoft Visual Studio where you can edit or customize the reports.
To save the changes to the report, from the File menu, click Save “report name” or click Save All to save the project.

To access a report for edit from Visual Studio

Start Visual Studio. If User Account Control (UAC) is active, be sure you start Visual Studio with administrative privileges.

Note

If a report is edited without administrative privileges, then it cannot be deployed.
In Application Explorer, expand the Visual Studio Projects node, and then expand the Dynamics AX Model Projects node.
Right-click the report project that you want to edit and click Edit. For a list of the projects and reports they contain, see List of Reporting Projects.

The selected project opens in Microsoft Visual Studio where you can edit or customize the reports.
To save the changes to the report, from the File menu, click Save “report name” or click Save All to save the project.

Deploying the Report

You must deploy the customized report to see the changes in Microsoft Dynamics AX. There are two ways to do this.

Build and deploy from within Visual Studio.
Build in Visual Studio, and then deploy from the AOT.

The following procedures describe how to deploy the report from Visual Studio and the AOT.

To build and deploy from Visual Studio

In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and then click Build or Deploy. When you build a reporting project, customizations are saved directly into the AOT. When you deploy a reporting project from Visual Studio, a build operation is performed that saves the changes to the AOT, and then the updated report is deployed to the report server.

To build from Visual Studio and deploy in the AOT

In Solution Explorer, right-click the project and then click Build. When you build a reporting project, customizations are saved directly into the AOT.
Open Microsoft Dynamics AX.
In the AOT, expand the SSRS Reports node and expand the Reports node.
Right-click the report that contains the customizations and then click Deploy Element. The updated report is deployed to the report server.

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