How to insert and add custom rows in customization? - acumatica

Question

I'm trying to write some code for a customization with an action button, AddFollowUp to Leads. I want to:
update a custom field called UsrNextFollwup -> how do I access the custom field in the object?
I can update objects I find with PXSelect<> but how I can insert new objects? eg if I create Contact myContact=new Contact(); //set properties, etc -> how do I insert it?
How can I find the current user's ID? I can get the current lead from Contact curLead=Base.LeadCurrent.SelectSingle() but I also want something like #me function.
My code:
public class LeadMaint_Extension:PXGraphExtension<LeadMaint>
{
public PXAction<PX.Objects.CR.Contact> AddFollowUp;
public PXSelect<CRActivity> Task;
[PXButton(CommitChanges = true)]
[PXUIField(DisplayName = "Add FollowUp")]
public void addFollowUp()
{
Contact curLead=Base.LeadCurrent.SelectSingle();
DateTime dueDate = DateTime.Now;
curLead.CreatedDateTime = dueDate.AddDays(14); //works great
curLead.UsrNextFollwup = dueDate.AddDays(14); //doesn't work
}
}

Answer 1

In Acumatica custom fields are declared via DAC extensions. To access the DAC extension object, you can use the following methods:
The GetExtension() generic method available for each DAC instance:
ContactExt contactExt = curLead.GetExtension<ContactExt>();
The GetExtension(object) generic method declared within the non-generic PXCache class
ContactExt contactExt = Base.LeadCurrent.Cache.GetExtension<ContactExt>(curLead);
or
ContactExt contactExt = Base.Caches[typeof(Contact)].GetExtension<ContactExt>(curLead);
The GetExtension(object) static generic method of the PXCache generic class
ContactExt contactExt = PXCache<Contact>.GetExtension<ContactExt>(curLead);
To insert, update or delete a DAC record, one should invoke Insert, Update or Delete method on appropriate PXCache instance (or a data view, which simply redirects the call to PXCache -> ShipmentLines.Insert(line) is an equivalent to ShipmentLines.Cache.Insert(line) statement). For instance, to insert a data record into the cache in code, you invoke the Insert() method of a data view as follows:
ShipmentLine line = new ShipmentLine();
line.ProductID = card.ProductID;
...
ShipmentLines.Insert(line);
Some application settings, such as BranchID, UserID and UserName are accessible via Accessinfo property of the PXGraph class. The Accessinfo property returns an instance of the AccessInfo DAC - AccessInfo.UserID will return ID for the current user. To access the Accessinfo property from a BLC extension, use Base.Accessinfo statement
Starting ver. 5 Acumatica introduced runtime compilation, which allowed to publish customizations without a mandatory restart of IIS app pool when there are no dlls included with any of currently applied customization projects. Before runtime compilation was released, customization manager created all code files in App_Code\Caches folder of the website. Asp.Net runtime takes care of any code files created in App_Code\Caches folder, immediately compiles them and restarts IIS app pool to also immediately bring all changes on your Acumatica website. The beauty of this approach is that all classes declared in any file located under App_Code\Caches folder, are available with VS IntelliSense and never highlighted with red underlines as potential issue. The only drawback - every time you make any change inside App_Code\Caches folder, IIS app pool restarts (same thing as if you re-compiled a dll located in Bin folder) and it takes some time for your website to reboot so you can test your changes.
With runtime compilation in place, Acumatica created all code files in App_RuntimeCode folder of the website. Now it's Acumatica's responsibility to compile all code files from App_RuntimeCode folder into an assembly and load it at runtime without a restart of IIS app pool. With this approach you don't need to wait for your website to reboot every time you make some changes in your customization. On the other hand, sometimes runtime complication doesn't always properly clear up what was done in your previous code files and time to time, it might be necessary to manually recycle app pool or restart IIS on your developer machine to make sure Acumatica loads only actual code from the App_RuntimeCode folder. Another drawback is lack of support by VS IntelliSense: all classes declared in any file located under App_RuntimeCode folder is never suggested by IntelliSense and always highlighted with red underlines as potential issue, though both yourself and Acumatica are confident, that everything is fine and all files will compile with mo issues.
To have all customization files automatically created in App_Code\Caches folder, just disable runtime compilation on your development website by adding following key to appSettings in web.config file:
<add key="UseRuntimeCompilation" value="false" />