TempDB table on a form with multiple updates

If you, like me, are still trying to understand how to use a TempDB table in a form and update it as many times as you need, or you are getting the error

"Cannot execute the required database operation.The method is only applicable to TempDB table variables that are not linked to existing physical table instance."

then you would better read the following short explanation.

Let's say your tempDB table is meant to be populated by request from a form on the server side.

In the form data source Init() we just initialize another tempDB buffer of the same type and link its physical instance to the current data source buffer.

public void init()
{
    super();
    myTableTmpLocal.doInsert();
    delete_from myTableTmpLocal;
    //myTableTmp::populate(myTableTmpLocal); // <-- no need at this step! 
    // if you need to populate it here by default, then comment the two previous lines
    myTableTmp.linkPhysicalTableInstance(myTableTmpLocal);
}

Any time you need to update its content, just re-populate it in a method by providing the linked temporary buffer from the form.

void clicked()
{
    super();
    element.rePopulate();
}

public void rePopulate()
{
    myTableTmp::populate(myTableTmpLocal);
    myTableTmp.linkPhysicalTableInstance(myTableTmpLocal);
    myTableTmp_DS.research();
}

Populating method defined on the table, for example.

static server void populate(myTableTmp _myTableTmp)
{
    int k;
    
    delete_from _myTableTmp; //<-- important to not have duplicates!
    
    for (k = 1; k<=4; k++)
    {
        _myTableTmp.Field1 = int2str(k);
        _myTableTmp.insert();
    }
}

All credits for this trick are for Iulian Cordobin.

AX 2012 R3 CU13 Bug: DMF Bundle batch processing misses records

If you load many records via DMF, the most probable scenario is that you would divide them by setting a number of threads.

Unfortunately, there is a bug with it in the CU13.

When this batch job ends you will find 8*1041 records processed only.

As you can see the records ids are calculated correctly but the processing method gets wrong variables instead.

Down in the code, the batch task itself is set for a wrong number of records, too.

This is how to fix this bug.

There are two lessons we can take from this story:
- do not touch the code if it works;
- use really good names for your variables (it is not strong-typed environment!)

AX 2012 R3 CU13 Bug: DMF default value mapping for String type

There is bug in AX 2012 R3 CU13.

If you check Default type for your data entity staging mapping field of String type, then the system tries to find any first record matching to "Default" value as XML name to get the linked field and compare against its string length.

To fix it, we need to make the following changes in three methods of the form DMFStagingDefaultTable

public class FormRun extends ObjectRun
{
    SysDictField             dictField;
    DMFFieldType             dmfFieldType;
    DMFSourceXMLToEntityMap  dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap;
    Types                    valueType;
    // Begin: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
    int                     myMaxStrSize;
    // End: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
}

public void init()
{
    Args                                args;
    DMFEntity                           entity;
    DMFDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields   dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields;
    SysDictType                         dictType;

    #define.Integer('Integer')
    #define.String('String')
    #define.RealMacro('Real')
    #define.DateMacro('Date')
    #define.DateTimeMacro('UtcDateTime')
    #define.Time('Time')

    super();

    if (!element.args() || element.args().dataset() != tableNum(DMFSourceXMLToEntityMap))
    {
        throw error(strfmt("@SYS25516", element.name()));
    }

    args = element.args();

    dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap = args.record();
    // Begin: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
    select firstOnly FieldType, FieldSize from dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields
        where dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldName == dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.EntityField
        && dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.Entity == dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.Entity
        && dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.DefinitionGroup == dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.DefinitionGroup
        ;
    myMaxStrSize = dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldSize ? dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldSize : 256;
    // End: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
    if (dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldType && !dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.IsAutoDefault)
    {
        dmfFieldType = dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldType;
        if (dmfsourceXMLToEntityMap.EntityField)
        {
            entity = DMFEntity::find(dmfsourceXMLToEntityMap.Entity);
            dictField = new SysDictField(tableName2id(entity.EntityTable), fieldName2id(tableName2Id(entity.EntityTable),dmfsourceXMLToEntityMap.EntityField));
        }
        switch(dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldType)
        {
            case #Integer:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingIntValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case #String:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingStrValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case #RealMacro:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingRealValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case #DateMacro:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingDateValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case #DateTimeMacro:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingUtcDataTime.visible(true);
                break;
            case #Time:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingTimeValue.visible(true);
                break;
            default:
                warning("@DMF694");
                element.close();
        }
    }
    else if(dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.IsAutoDefault)
    {
        entity = DMFEntity::find(dmfsourceXMLToEntityMap.Entity);
        dictField = new SysDictField(tableName2id(entity.EntityTable),fieldName2id(tableName2Id(entity.EntityTable),dmfsourceXMLToEntityMap.EntityField));
        dictType = new SysDictType(dictField.typeId());
        if (dictType && dictType.isTime())
        {
            valueType = Types::Time;
        }
        else
        {
            valueType = dictField.baseType();
        }
        dmfFieldType = enum2str(dictField.baseType());
        switch(valueType)
        {
            case Types::Integer:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingIntValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::String:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingStrValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::Real:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingRealValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::Date:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingDateValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::UtcDateTime:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingUtcDataTime.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::Time:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingTimeValue.visible(true);
                break;
            case Types::Guid:
                DMFStagingConversionTable_StagingGuidValue.visible(true);
                break;
            default:
                warning("@DMF694");
                element.close();
        }
    }

    else
    {
        element.close();
    }
}

and on the  sole form data source field StagingStrValue

public boolean validate()
{
    boolean                             ret;
    DMFDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields   dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields;

    ret = super();

    if(ret)
    {
        // Begin: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
        if(strLen(DMFStagingConversionTable.StagingStrValue) > myMaxStrSize)
        {
            throw error("@DMF788");
        }

//        select firstOnly FieldSize from dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields
//            where dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldName == dmfSourceXMLToEntityMap.XMLField;
//
//        if(dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldSize)
//        {
//            if(strLen(DMFStagingConversionTable.StagingStrValue) > dmfDefinitionGroupEntityXMLFields.FieldSize)
//            {
//                throw error("@DMF788");
//            }
//        }
        // End: Alexey Voytsekhovskiy
    }

    return ret;
}