Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 : Working with Data in Forms - Adding images to records

Another way of attaching images to records could be to utilize standard application objects, though minor application changes are required. The company logo in the Company information form is one of the places where an image is stored in exactly this way.

In this recipe, we will explore the latter option. As an example, we will add the ability to store an image for each inventory item. Although inventory items already have a similar option, which is a part of the Enterprise Portal Framework, it is very inventory specific and unlike our example cannot be used anywhere else.

How to do it...

How it works...

There are only three standard Dynamics AX objects involved here:

We only need to add the menu item to any form, like InventTable in our example and set its DataSource property against which we want to store an image. The rest is done by the application.

There's more...

The following two topics will explain how a stored image could be displayed as a new tab page on the main form and how a stored image could be saved back to file.

Displaying an image as a part of a form

Attaching an image to a record sometimes is not enough. I noticed that sometimes users find that clicking the button to see an image is not as convenient as having it on the same form. So here we will extend our recipe by displaying the stored image on a new tab page.

First, we need to add a new tab page to the end of the InventTable form's Tab control. This is where our image will be displayed. Set the tab page properties:

Add a new Window type control to the tab page. This control will be used for displaying the image. Set its properties:

By setting Height and Width to Column height and Column width respectively, we ensure that the image control takes all possible space.

Add a new method to the InventTable form:

void loadImage()

{
Image img;
CompanyImage companyImage;
;
companyImage = CompanyImage::find(
InventTable.dataAreaId,
InventTable.TableId,
InventTable.RecId);
if (companyImage.Image)
imagesimagesdisplaying, as part of form{
img = new Image();
img.setData(companyImage.Image);
ItemImage.image(img);
}
else
{
ItemImage.image(null);
}
}

This method first finds a CompanyImage record, which is attached to the current record and then displays the binary data using the ItemImage control. If no image is attached the Window control is cleared to display empty space.

Override pageActivated() of the newly created tab page with:

public void pageActivated()

{;
super();
element.loadImage();
}

In here, we simply call the previously created method once the user selects the image tab page.

The form should look like following in AOT:

Now open Item Details from Inventory management and note the new tab page with the same image displayed:

Saving a stored image as a file

A couple of times in my practice it so happened that people lost images loaded into the system. Standard Dynamics AX does not provide a way of exporting loaded images. The images could be saved as files by creating and running a small job, which uses the Image class for image processing. In this topic, we will go a little beyond that and we will add a new button Save as to the Image form, which will allow us to save the loaded image as a file.

Let's add a new Button control to the CompanyImage form's ButtonGroup with the following properties:

Create a new method on the form:

void saveImage()

{
Image img;
Filename name;
str type;
#File
;
if (!imageContainer)
{
return;
}
img = new Image();
img.setData(imageContainer);
type = '.'+strlwr(enum2value(img.saveType()));
name = WinAPI::getSaveFileName(
element.hWnd(),
[WinAPI::fileType(type),#AllFilesName+type],
'',
'');
if (name)
{
img.saveImage(name);
imagesimagessaving, as file}
}


					  

This method will present the user with Save As dialog allowing choosing of the desired file name for saving the current image. Note that imageContainer is a form variable, which holds image data. If it is empty, it means there is no image attached and we do not run any of the code. We also check the loaded file type to make sure that our Save As dialog filters only files of that type.

Override the button's clicked() with the following code to make sure saveImage() is executed once the user clicks the button:

void clicked()

{;
super();
element.saveImage();
}

In AOT the form should look like this:

Now when you open the Item image form a new button Save as is available:

Use this button to save the item image as a file: