One of the most talked about features of AX 2009 is Role Centres... I thought Microsoft did a phenomenal job by packaging Sharepoint and ax in one box... the result: Extraordinary Technology.

As complex as they might seem role centres are actually very simple to use.. and its actually even simpler to create new one..

This is a step by step guide to help users/developers to create and deploy new role centres..

In this example we are going to create a Merchandiser Role Centre

Step 1:

Log in as an Admin and open up EP in internet explorer..

Well you actually dont need to be an admin.. but you need site creation rights in sharepoint and also access to the AOT in ax.

Then click on ‘Site Actions’ and select the ‘Create’ option

Step 2: select Basic Page..

Note: you might be better of select ‘Web Part Page’.. as a basic page would not have any web parts on it... all the standard role centre pages are Web part pages... I will show you both examples in this article .. hence I started with the basic page. (see the Additional info section below)

Also I like the basic page because it loads up a lot faster J

Step 3: in the next page, type in the Name of the Page (please use good Naming Convention Standard)... also make sure that the Document Library is set to Enterprise Portal

Step 4: as I choose to create a Basic Page a Text editor will pop up.. if I would choose the Web Part pages option then this editor would not appear.

Simply type something and click Save... now you would be directed to the new page.

Step 5: open the AOT in AX and browse down to the Web Menu Item Node .. right click and select New URL.

Step 6: Give the URL a name and a Label (please follow std naming conventions) and then click on the brose icon on the URL Property (the browse icon is represented by 3 dots).. as shown in picture

Then expand the Enterprise Portal folder and find the new Page you created. Select and click OK

Step 7: make sure that you set the Home Page Property to Yes..

If you dont set this to yes, then the page will not be available is the role canter page list on the User profile form (next step)

Save and close the AOT.

Step 8: in AX browse to Administration > Setup > User profiles

Create a new record, set the Profile name and description and then select the new Page as the role centre page

Assign users to the role and your done.

Additional Info:

· You can also export the role centre (user Profile > Export and Export AOT).. the export AOT options make the role centre a part of the AOT resource node.. this is helpful if you want to migrate the role centre from say a dev environment to a Test Environment.

· To create a Web Part Role centre

Rather than selecting the Basic page option ..select the Web Part page option

Then give a name and select EP as the Document Library

Notice I choose to overwrite the role page .. this way I dint have to change my url to point to the Web part page.

References:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc558235.aspx

- Mohammed Rasheed

www.dynamic-ax.co.uk