Considerations before increase the size of a field

Finance and Operations/AX Developer Forum
1

Hi everybody, although I’m not a developer I know this is the right place to ask. I would like to know what considerations shold be taken into account before increasing the size of a field in AX 2012 R3, in my particular case I need the work center id to be increased from 10 to 15 positions. The field is WrkCtrId in the WrkCtrTable, but I know that this field is used in more tables and forms within AX. I want to avoid any undesirable effect.

Thanks for your advices

Héctor

2

Hello Hector,

you can identify all places where this field is being used by cross reference if cross reference already updated , refer below screenshot

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as you are trying to increase the size of the field i think you can change it by changing the EDT size ,

EDT for WrkCntrlID is WrkCtrIdBase which is extending WrkCtrlIdBaseNonvalidating EDT , you can set the value on WrkCtrlIdBaseNonvalidating EDT as 15 and it will consider all places where it needs to be changed

it will ask you to synch the datadictionary , pelase go ahead with synch as it is necessary also i will suggest to compile as forms will not take effect directly sometime.

only thing is in reports sometime there is fix size text boxes where you can get the problem as it will not show all 15 char and will show only 10 (but it is the case when someone has done it manually or may be in some customized reports).

3

The gravest risk it that the value is somewhere assigned to a field of a different type. For example, your 15-character ID is assigned to a field that still can hold only 10 characters, therefore a part of the ID will be lost. Ideally all fields representing a work center ID should use the same base type, therefore you shouldn’t get into this situation, but it’s not always the case.
You should also review reports to make sure that the design still looks good even with the wider field.

If you want to see where the field and the EDT is used, you can use cross-references.

4

Kunal and Martin, thanks a lot for your prompt reply and advice. I’m assuming that with proper validations I shouldn’t have any problems.
Thanks again and regards
Héctor