Salmon Fishing in the Dynamics

First of all – funny movie.

Second of all – WHAT ARE YOU “CW” FIELD?

2019-02-18_15-34-53

You’ve run across it. Sitting there on your Purchase order and Vendor invoice forms. Using up your precious grid real estate. Making you tell your boss to buy you a giant monitor (I recommend this one) so you can comfortably fit Dynamics on your screen.

D365FO Vendor Invoice - License Configurations On
With a big enough monitor, any form will fit!

Does Anyone Even Need a CW?

Probably.

Apparently when you go fishing for salmon, the “Catch Weight” (CW) used to inventory the salmon (Lbs or Kg) can be different than the weight used to sell the salmon (Boxes). There are special requirements for buying and selling meat that need additional weight based functionality.

Whatever – Make it Go Away

In F&O there’s a License configuration form available (System administration > Setup > License configuration). In this form you will find there are all kinds of functionalities that can be deactivated, including the famous Salmon Fishing configuration:

2019-02-18_16-13-42

To turn off functionality, F&O needs to be in Maintenance Mode, then it’s a matter of unchecking the Boxes to be deactivated. Almost all License Configurations are on by default.

Going back the Vendor invoice form, it’s looking much more manageable with Configurations deactivated!

D365FO Vendor Invoice - License Configurations Off
Begone, Salmon!

Most License configurations are fairly obvious whether they’re in use just from the title, but sometimes it does take some trial and error in a Test environment to get this perfected. It’s much easier to configure this prior to a full User Acceptance Test to ensure no features are negatively impacted.

A Warning About Production Environments

In some versions of Dynamics AX (and possibly Dynamics 365 F&O), modifying the License Configuration did a Database Synchronization that could result in data loss. My testing has shown in later versions of Dynamics 365 F&O a Database Synchronization no longer happens. As of publication time, I did not receive a response from Microsoft on when the behavior changed.

My recommendation is to update the License Configuration settings prior to going live.

OPEN A CASE WITH MICROSOFT BEFORE CHANGING LICENSE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT.

I will update this article if Microsoft comments on the safety of changing this in Production. In other words, if a feature was inadvertently deactivated, can it be reactivated without any data loss?

4 Replies to “Salmon Fishing in the Dynamics”

  1. When originally proposed, people thought a license configuration for catch weight in D365 was only theoretically possible. It took the dedication of a brilliant team, as well as the support of an eccentric sheikh to bring it into existence. It’s a fascinating story – full of drama and sabotage and even romance – I watched the documentary last night.

    Like

  2. “In some versions of Dynamics AX (and possibly Dynamics 365 F&O), modifying the License Configuration did a Database Synchronization that could result in data loss. My testing has shown in later versions of Dynamics 365 F&O a Database Synchronization no longer happens. As of publication time, I did not receive a response from Microsoft on when the behavior changed.”
    Robert Badawy (@RobertBadawy) and Joris (@jorisdg) could comment more here, but my understanding is that the database synchronization used to be compulsory when changing configuration keys, but it was made optional in AX7/F&O, so it happens only if the configuration keys being enabled or disabled are applied to database elements: tables and fields.

    Like

Leave a comment