LAYERS IN MS DYNAMICS AX

·         The layer technology in Axapta is used to organize (keep track of) the objects of the standard package and the customizations made.

·         There are eight standard layers. Each of these normal layers have a corresponding bit layer for a total of 16 layers

·         The lower four layers are used for the standard package and are not accessible by partners or customers

·         Partners and customers are each allocated two layers, along with the corresponding patch layers

·         When logging on to an Axapta client, the current layer is chosen from the client's Axapta

·         Configuration (which you can edit in Administrator tools > Microsoft Dynamics <version> Configuration

·         You cannot change a layer without restarting the client. All modifications complete will be saved in the existing layer.

·         Your changes will be saved in the current layer. The modifications completed to the top layer will at all times override the lower layer

·         If you want to start all over, just delete the object in the current layer and you will be back where you started

·         When a customer licenses the software, they receive access codes for the top two layers and are therefore excluded from directly modifying contents of the lower six layers. This prevents a customer from irrevocably changing the core code provided by Microsoft or their business partner

·         And this does not prevent you from changing this code. When editing a standard object, Axapta copies part or the entire object from one of these lower layers into the current layer

The below figure consists of various Layer names and their purposes.

·         Each of the layers is stored in a physical file with the naming AX<layer>.AOD. The filename for the sys layer is AXSYS.AOD. The layers are indexed in the file AXAPD.AOI

·         In case deleted, the index file is built automatically at set up

·         If you have set the development option to show all layers at Tools | Options, all layers for an object will be shown in parentheses after the object name in the AOT

Tip:

You might end up in a situation where you cannot locate an object in the AOT, or other strange system behavior such as the AOT crashing when a certain object is accessed. Then it might help to delete the index file and have it rebuild at startup

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