axaptamicrosoft-dynamicsdynamics-ax-2012ax

Data from Multiple Data Sources in One Column in Grid

I've been thrown quite the scenario today. Essentially, I have one table (ProjTransPosting) that houses records, and that table relates to a number of similarly structured tables (ProjCostTrans, ProjRevenueTrans, etc). They relate by TransId, but each TransId will relate to only one of the number of child tables (meaning if a TransId of 137 exists in ProjCostTrans, there cannot be a TransId of 137 in ProjRevenueTrans). The schemas of the children tables are identical.

So, my original thought was to create a Map and create the mappings from the various children tables. And then I would use this Map as a datasource in the form so everything can show up in one column. I created all the relationships between the Map and the children table along with the relation to the parent table. I put Map in the form as a datasource and this caused a blank Grid, although I don't know why. Is it the case that the Map object can only by of one table type at any given time? I thought the purpose of this was that it could be universal and act as a buffer to many record types. I'd like to pursue this route as this definitely would achieve what I'm looking for.

In failing this I was forced to arrange my Data Source to perform something like this: SELECT ProjTransPosting LEFT JOIN ProjCostTrans LEFT JOIN ProjRevenueTrans ... The problem with this is, each child table I add-on, it's creating additional columns, and the values of the other columns are all NULL (blank in AX). So I have something like this:

Parent.TransId   ChildA.Field   ChildB.Field   ChildC.Field
1                NULL           1256           NULL
2                1395           NULL           NULL
3                NULL           4762           NULL
4                NULL           NULL           1256

Normally, the user would deal with the annoyance of having the extra columns show up, but they want to also be able to filter on the fields in all the children tables. My example above, they want to be able to filter "1256" and the results would return TransIds 1 and 4, but obviously since the values in this case are spread out in multiple columns, this cannot be done by the user.

Ideally the Map would "combine" these columns into one and then the user could filter easily on it. Any ideas on how to proceed with this?

Solution

  • Try creating a union query and then a view based on that query.

    Maps are supposed to be used only in X++, and not as data sources in forms.