Ax 2012 x++ code best practices

AX 2012 X++ Code Best Practices
Best practice is a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to
those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark. In addition, a "best"
practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. Best practice is
considered by some as a business buzzword, used to describe the process of
developing and following a standard way of doing things that multiple organizations can
use.
Best practices are used to maintain quality as an alternative to mandatory legislated
standards and can be based on self-assessment or benchmarking.

Index
Select Statements
Comments
Extra Semicolon
Constants
User interface labels
System Oriented Constants
Dates
Try catch Block
Transactions
Conditional Statements
XML Documentation
Avoiding Potential Security Issues
Other Best Practices
References

Select Statements
➔ The index, order by, and where statements are indented once relative to the
select or while select statements.
➔ The where expression is structured in a column.
➔ The Boolean operators (&&) are at the beginning of the line (and in columns).
➔ The while select block has braces even though it contains only one statement.
➔ The braces are at the same column position as the while block.
➔ The uppercase- and lowercase-name standards are adhered to.
Comments
➔ To find comments in the source (both // .. and /* .. */), use the Find
dialog to search for methods containing the text (regular expression):
/[/*]
➔ Comments should not include:
◆ Dates
◆ Names
◆ Aliases
◆ Version or layer references
◆ Bug numbers – unless it is a workaround, or unless the code
could appear inappropriate if you didn't know that it was for a
bug fix.
◆ Politically or culturally sensitive phrases
➔ If you put a comment at the start of the method to describe its
purpose and use, you can use block comments (/* */)
Extra Semicolon
➔ From Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 onward, you are no longer required
to put a semicolon on an empty line after the last variable declaration.
Adding the semicolon is no longer an X++ best practices.

Constants
Use Intrinsic functions whenever possible. Intrinsic functions are metadata
assertion functions. They take arguments that represent entities in the
Application Object Tree (AOT), and validate these arguments at compile time
details
➔ User interface labels
this must be complete sentences. Do not build sentences using more
than one label, or other constants or variables under program control
(do not use concatenation).
Description description = "@SYS12345"
Use strFmt to format user interface text.
➔ System Oriented Constants
Do not use labels. You will get a warning if a label is used inside single
quotes.
Dates
➔ Use only strongly typed (date) fields, variables, and controls (do
not use str or int).
➔ Use Auto settings in date formatting properties.
➔ Use DateTimeUtil::getSystemDateTime instead of systemDateGet
or today
➔ Avoid using date2str for performing date conversions.
➔ Most application logic should use the system function
systemDateGet , which holds the logic business date of the
system (this can be set from the status bar).
➔ The system function today() should be used only where the
actual machine date is needed
➔ use strFmt or date2Str with -1 in all the formatting parameters.
This ensures that the date is formatted in the way that the user
has specified in Regional Settings

Try catch Block
➔ Always create a try/catch deadlock/retry loop around database
transactions that might lead to deadlocks.
➔ Whenever you have a retry, all the transient variables must be set
back to the value they had just before the try. The persistent variables
(that is, the database and the Infolog) are set back automatically by
the throw that leads to the catch/retry
try
{
this.createJournal();
this.printPosted();
}
catch (Exception::Deadlock)
{
this.removeJournalFromList();
retry;
}
➔ The throw statement automatically initiates a ttsAbort, which is a
database transaction rollback.
➔ The throw statement should be used only if a piece of code cannot do
what it is expected to do. The throw statement should not be used for
more ordinary program flow control.
Transactions
➔ ttsBegin and ttsCommit must always be used in a clear and well-balanced
manner. Balanced ttsBegin and ttsCommit statements are
the following:
◆ Always in the same method.
◆ Always on the same level in the code.
➔ Avoid making only one of them conditional.
➔ Use throw, if a transaction cannot be completed.
➔ Do not use ttsAbort; use throw instead.
Conditional Statements
➔ If you have an if...else construction, then use positive logic:

Avoid:
if (!false)
{
...
}
XML Documentation
The following table lists the best practices error messages and how to fix the
errors.
Message Message type How to fix the error or warning
Tag '%1' in XML
documentation is not
supported.
Warning Add XML documentation. For information
about how to add XML documentation, see
How to: Add XML Documentation to X++
Source Code. Because this is a warning
instead of an error, this is optional.
Unsupported tag '%1'
in XML documentation.
Error or
Warning
Check the casing of the XML tags if this is
reported as an error. If this is reported as a
warning, an unsupported tag is present.
Remove unsupported tags.
Missing tag '<param
name="%1">' in XML
documentation.
Error Add <param> tags to the XML header
template. The <param> tag must have a
name attribute. The value of the attribute is
case-sensitive and must match the casing in
the method.
Missing tag 'returns' in
XML documentation.
Error Add <returns> tags to the XML header
template.
Missing tag 'summary'
in XML documentation.
Error Add <summary> tags to the XML header
template.
Tag '%1' exists more
than once in XML
documentation.
Error Delete extra tags. This applies only when
multiple tags are not appropriate.

Tag '<param
name="%1">' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add a description of the parameter between
the <param> tags.
Tag '<param
name="%1">' in XML
documentation doesn't
match actual
implementation.
Error Fix the value of the name attribute. It is case-sensitive
and must match the casing in the
method.
Tag 'exception' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add a description of the exception between
the <exception> tags.
Tag 'permission' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add a description of the required permission
between the <permission> tags.
Tag 'remarks' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add content between the <remarks> tags or
delete the <remarks> tags.
Tag 'returns' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add a description of the return value between
the <returns> tags.
Tag 'returns' in XML
documentation doesn't
match actual
implementation.
Error Delete the <returns> tags and the description
of the return value.
Tag 'summary' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add a topic summary between the
<summary> tags.
XML documentation is
not well-formed.
Error Make sure that there are no mistakes in the
XML tags. Each opening tag must have a
corresponding closing tag.

Tag 'seealso' has no
content in XML
documentation.
Error Add content between the <seealso> tags or
delete the <seealso> tags.
No XML documentation
for this method.
Error XML documentation has not been written for
this method.

Avoiding Potential Security Issues
➔ Certain APIs that ship with Microsoft Dynamics AX use Code Access
Security. When these APIs are run on the server, a class derived from
CodeAccessPermission must be used. This helps make the APIs more
secure.
➔ When you upgrade from a previous version of Microsoft Dynamics AX,
you must modify calls to these APIs to ensure that the code executes
correctly. details
Other Best Practices
Best practice checks help to make sure that the best practice guidelines are
followed. Use the Best practice parameters form to select which best practice
checks to verify.
Read more best practice parameters
References
● http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa855488.aspx

Ax 2012 x++ code best practices

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