DevOps Build Issue – Giving up. Received a null descriptor for the form

During an Azure DevOps Build, I raised the error “Giving up. Received a null descriptor for the form FORMNAME” for different Custom Forms.

Running the Build from Visual Studio in the same Machine, any issues!

Really Strange!!
Let’s start the game!!!

Thanks to MS Yammer and to Joris de Gruyter, I figure out the origin of the issue but no the real cause.

However, it seems that the compiler itself is not the issue, but a process after compilation called form compiler. It’s an optimization step for the runtime that seems will be remove in the upcoming release.

Workaround: 

I decide to modify the Build in order to avoid any Stop if an errors occur during the Form Compiler step.

In order to do that, we need:

1. walk through to the folder “C:\DynamicsSDK\Metadata”
2. make a copy of the “Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.Application.Build.targets” file
3. edit the “Microsoft.Dynamics.AX.Application.Build.targets” file
4. find the Section “Execute Pgc executable”
5. modify the “ContinueOnError” parameter from “ErrorAndStop” to “WarnAndContinue”
6. save the file
7. rerun the Build

Cheers!