Guide to the Services and AIF Documentation
Important
This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.
Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2
This topic provides a guide to the Microsoft Dynamics AX Services and Application Integration Framework (AIF) documentation. The linked documents are recommended starting points grouped according to specific interests and levels of expertise.
Use the information in the following sections if you are:
New to Services and AIF in Microsoft Dynamics AX
Familiar with a previous version of Microsoft Dynamics AX
Upgrading services and AIF from a previous version
Operating the Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 environment to support services and AIF
Developing with standard, custom, or system services
Troubleshooting all aspects of services and AIF
Moving from test to production
If you are new to Services and AIF in Microsoft Dynamics AX
If you are new to using Services and AIF in Microsoft Dynamics AX and you want an introduction to the basics, see the following topics.
For an introduction and key concepts, see Key concepts in AIF.
For an overview of integration architecture, see Services and AIF architecture.
For information about security with Web services, see Security architecture for Web services.
For an introduction to developing with the different types of services in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Developing with Services and AIF.
If you are new to using Services and AIF and you want to see a catalog of walkthroughs using services and AIF, see Services and AIF Walkthroughs.
If you are new to programming with Services and AIF and you want to see samples that work, see the following topics.
For an example of a read request by using a document service and the NetTCP adapter, see Walkthrough: Reading a Customer by Using the NetTCP Adapter.
For an example of a read request by using an XML message and the file system adapter, see Walkthrough: Reading a Customer by Using the File System Adapter.
For example code for an outbound transfer, see Walkthrough: Deploying the Document Service in an Outbound Exchange.
For an example .NET assembly transform, see Walkthrough: Creating a .NET Assembly Transform.
For an example of a custom service, see Walkthrough: Exposing an X++ Class as a Data Contract.
For an example that uses BizTalk Server, see Exchanging documents between BizTalk Server and AIF.
If you are familiar with an earlier version of Microsoft Dynamics AX
Implementing data transfers has changed significantly in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. For more information about these changes, see the following topics.
For information about What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for system administrators, see What's New: Services and AIF administration.
For information about what’s new in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for developers, see What's New: Services and AIF for Developers in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
For information about new and see comment features in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see New, changed, and deprecated features for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, proprietary Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) and BizTalk Server adapters used in the previous releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX are no longer available. For information about how to use Message Queuing and BizTalk Server with AIF in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see the following topics:
Upgrading from an earlier version
For information about how to upgrade from an earlier version of Microsoft Dynamics AX, see the following topics.
For information about supported upgrade paths to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see Supported upgrade paths.
For the latest information about how to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see Upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
For information specifically about how to upgrade services and AIF, see Upgrade AIF code.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 operations in-depth
Planning, installation, and deployment
To learn about how to plan, installing, and deploying services and AIF in MSDAX6, see the following topics.
For information about how to plan, including exchanging documents between BizTalk Server and AIF, see Plan for integration.
For information about how to install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see Install Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012.
For information about registering services by using the Installation checklist, see Set up Application Integration Framework and the section “Register services” in Customize service contracts..
For information about how to deploy services and AIF by using Message Queuing or web services and IIS, see Deploy services and AIF.
Configuring services and AIF
In AIF, you set up and configure integration ports to manage message exchanges. For more information, see the following topics.
For conceptual information about integration ports, see Integration ports.
For information about how to set up and configure integration ports, see Managing integration ports.
For information about how to set up security for services and AIF, see Services and AIF security and protection.
For a simple procedure to set up an exchange that reads a sales order from Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Walkthrough: Exchanging documents by using the NetTcp adapter.
For information about batched messages, see Processing batched messages in AIF.
For information about how to distribute AIF work among AOSes, see Configuring network load balancing for services and Sequential and parallel processing in services and AIF.
For information about change tracking, see Configuring AIF for change tracking.
Monitoring and troubleshooting services and AIF
Microsoft Dynamics AX lets you manage your document exchanges throughout their life cycle and troubleshoot any issues that affect data transfers.
For information about the maintenance and management of services and AIF exchanges, see Monitoring services and AIF.
For information about how to troubleshoot issues with services and AIF, see Troubleshoot services and AIF.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 programming in-depth
For a list of walkthroughs that show you how to work with services and AIF, see Services and AIF Walkthroughs.
For an introduction to developing with the different types of services in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Developing with Services and AIF.
Document Services
The following topics contain information about document services:
For information about reading data that uses document services, see Walkthrough: Reading a Customer by Using the NetTCP Adapter.
For information about coding an outbound exchange, see Walkthrough: Deploying the Document Service in an Outbound Exchange.
For an example of sending a read request to an inbound port by using an XML message and the file system adapter, see Walkthrough: Reading a Customer by Using the File System Adapter.
For information about the classes that make up document services, see About Document Service Classes.
You can use the AIF system services to enable clients to interact with and retrieve system information, including metadata, data returned in a query, and user session data.
System Services
You can use the AIF system services to enable clients to interact with and retrieve system information, including metadata, data returned in a query, and user session data. For an introduction to the AIF system services, see AIF System Services.
The following topics introduce the capabilities of the AIF system services and provide walkthroughs of common scenarios.
For information about the metadata service, see Metadata Service.
For an example that calls the metadata service, see Walkthrough: Calling the Metadata Service.
For information about the query service, see Query Service.
For an example that calls the query service, see Walkthrough: Calling the Query Service with a Static Query.
For information about the user session service, see User Session Service.
For an example that calls the user session service, see Walkthrough: Calling the User Session Service.
Custom Services
The following topic contains a walkthrough for creating a custom service.
Consuming External Web Services
The following topic contains a walkthrough for how to consume an external web service:
Troubleshooting
For information about how to troubleshoot issues with services and AIF, see Troubleshoot services and AIF.
Moving from test to production
When you move from a test environment into production, you can export and import your integration port configurations. For more information, see Exporting and importing AIF integration port configurations.