Key tasks: Manually set up user access to the Vendor portal

Article
04/18/2014

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 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Some organizations do not use the user request process to manage vendor users' access to the Vendor portal in Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX. Instead, they rely on system administrators to perform the user management tasks manually. In these cases, the system administrator must create the vendor user, set up the vendor user profile, and assign user permissions.

Microsoft Dynamics AX supports a number of authentication methods. However, if you are not using the user request process to manage vendor user access, you must use Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) authentication. To use the AD DS authentication, you must create an AD DS user account for the vendor contact before you set them up in Microsoft Dynamics AX. Instructions for adding users to an AD DS group can be found on Microsoft TechNet.

This topic outlines the steps that you must take to set up vendor users when you are not using the user request process to control user access to the Vendor portal.

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Create a Microsoft Dynamics AX user for the contact at the vendor company

Associate the vendor user in Microsoft Dynamics AX with the vendor company

Assign the vendor contact to a vendor role

Inactivate a Vendor portal user

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Click these links to find more information about the concepts that are discussed in this topic.

Manage vendor requests overview

Configuring Enterprise Portal for vendor requests

Create a Microsoft Dynamics AX user for the contact at the vendor company

You enable vendors to update their vendor profile and complete transactions in the Vendor portal. Before contacts at the vendor location can perform these tasks, they must be users in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

Click System administration > Common > Users > Users. Press CTRL+N to create a new user.

Important

If you are creating new users in Microsoft Dynamics AX while you are working through the Initialization Checklist, make sure that you have entered license information before you add users. If you add a user before you enter license information, the user may be granted elevated permissions (Administrator permissions) in the program.
In the User form, on the General FastTab, in the Alias field, enter the prospective vendor contact’s user alias exactly as it is stored in Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS).
In the Network domain field, enter the user's AD DS domain.
In the User ID field, enter any unique identification for this individual. The user identification is restricted to a maximum of five characters.
Optional: In the User name field, enter the user's name.
In the Default company field, select the legal entity that this user can access in Microsoft Dynamics AX. If you do not select a legal entity, Microsoft Dynamics AX uses the legal entity that the administrator is currently logged onto.

Note

If you have set up multiple legal entities in Microsoft Dynamics AX to reflect the structure of your organization, you must grant users access to each of these legal entities.
To allow the user to access Microsoft Dynamics AX, select Enabled. The program checks to make sure that the user is listed in AD DS. If the user is not listed, the program returns an error.

Note

The External check box is read-only. An external user is any individual who accesses Microsoft Dynamics AX by using Enterprise Portal for Microsoft Dynamics AX or a web browser. This option is automatically set if the user is stored in AD DS as described in the topic Enable users to access Enterprise Portal in the Enterprise Portal Administration Guide.
Press CTRL+S to save your changes.

Associate the vendor user in Microsoft Dynamics AX with the vendor company

The vendor contact is now a Microsoft Dynamics AX user. Now the contact must be linked to the vendor company as an external relation.

Note

Users cannot access Microsoft Dynamics AX until they are added to at least one user role.

Click System administration > Common > Users > User relations.
In the User relations form, in the left pane, select the vendor user.
Under External relations, click Add.
In the Relation type field, select Vendor.
In the Legal entity field, select the legal entity with which the vendor contact is associated.

Note

You must add the vender as an external relation to each legal entity in your organization that the vendor will do business with.
In the Name field, select the vendor.
Press CTRL+S to save your changes.

Assign the vendor contact to a vendor role

Now that the vendor contact is a user in Microsoft Dynamics AX and has a user profile that is associated with the vendor company, you must assign the vendor to a vendor-specific role. This role gives the vendor access to the Vendor portal.

Click System administration > Setup > Security > Assign users to roles.
In the Assign users to roles form, in the left pane, select the Vendor (external) role.
In the Users assigned to role pane, click Manually assign / exclude users.
In the Assign users to or exclude users from role form, select the vendor user from the user list, and then click Assign to role. Then click Close.

Inactivate a Vendor portal user

You may have to remove a vendor user's access to the Vendor portal. For example, you would remove access if the vendor contact left the company.

Click System administration > Common > Users > Users.
On the Action Pane, in the Maintain group, click Edit in grid.
In the Users form, select the vendor user from the user list, and then clear the Enabled check box.

Note

A vendor user should be inactivated only if the vendor user does not have additional external roles that provide access to either the Microsoft Dynamics AX client or an Enterprise Portal web portal. For example, the user may have access to the Customer portal or the Employee services portal. In these cases, you should delete the Vendor (external) role for the vendor user and remove the user from the list of users who are assigned the Vendor (external) role.