How to open a form by code

A short tutorial on how to open a form in Dynamics Ax (Axapta) by code.

In the shortest example, all it takes is one line of code.

new MenuFunction(MenuItemDisplayStr(CustTable),MenuItemType::Display).run();

The above code will open the CustTable form. That's all it takes, it's that simple.
Now if you want to supply some arguments to the opening form, this is also possible with the optional args parameter.
Like this for example:

static void OpenFormByCodeA()
{ Args args = new Args();
;
args.record(CustTable::find('ABC'));
new MenuFunction(MenuItemDisplayStr(CustTable),MenuItemType::Display).run(Args);
}

This code will open the CustTable form and filter out the customer with accountnumber ABC.
Use the args methods like parm and parmEnum to provide your target form with more data.

If you want even more control on opening the form from code, this is also possible.
This next example gives the same result as the previous one.

static void OpenFormByCodeB()
{ FormRun formRun;
Args args = new Args();
;
args.name(formstr(CustTable));
args.record(CustTable::find('ABC'));

formRun = ClassFactory.formRunClass(args);
formRun.init();
formRun.run();
formRun.wait();
}

Now if we tweak this a little bit, we can add our code
Like this:

static void OpenFormByCodeB()
{ Object formRun;
Args args = new Args();
;
args.name(formstr(CustTable));
args.record(CustTable::find('ABC'));

formRun = ClassFactory.formRunClass(args);
formRun.init();

formRun.yourmethodgoeshere(); /* !!

formRun.run();
formRun.wait();
}

By changing the type of formRun from class FormRun to class Object, we can implement and execute extra methods on our destination form! This gives us extra possibilities for customizations. You can pass along extra parameters for example.
Only drawback: While programming, your method doesn't show up in the IntelliSense, showing all the available methods. So be carefull of typo's. (They don't give a compile error, but they will give you a run-time error.)

Next up: Run a report by code