Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 DMF - Table Primer

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to illustrate how to use Dynamics AX 2012 DMF for import of custom data. In this particular primer I’ll be focusing on Entity type = Table.

 

Challenge: Data model changes in Dynamics AX related to high normalization and introduction of surrogate keys made import of data more complex. Data Migration Framework for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 was designed and developed to address this challenge. Data Migration Framework for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides architectural foundation for data import process as well as it ships with the numerous standard templates covering most important types of business data.

 

Solution: Dynamics AX 2012 ships with the number of DMF templates which can be used in data import scenarios. However for import of custom data you can also use appropriate tables. A table entity enables you to migrate data from a source to a target Microsoft Dynamics AX table directly, without going through a staging table or applying any business logic. Unlike other entities, data cannot be pushed from one source table to multiple target tables. The direct table entity must be a one-to-one mapping from source to target.

 

 

 

Sample Data Model

 

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Please note that I initially created 3 tables to implement a data model for this scenario

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select entities for processing group: Alex

 

 

CSV File: AlexTable

 

This is how the source file looks like for AlexTable

Please note that the first row is header row, after that we have business data in CSV format

 

CSV File: AlexLine

 

This is how the source file looks like for AlexLine

Please note that the first row is header row, after that we have business data in CSV format

 

Generate source mapping: AlexTable

 

Please note that there's no need to create mapping manually, this mapping is already pre-created for you.

 

Generate source mapping: AlexLine

 

Please note the warning because AlexTable field (RecID reference to AlexTable table) couldn’t be automatically mapped

 

 

Remark: Added Replacement key (ID) to AlexLine table in order to be able to do ID -> RecId (AlexTable) translation via script

 

Generate source mapping: AlexLine

 

Please note that now the system was able to automatically map fields.

 

Select entities for processing group: AlexTable

 

Once file is specified you can preview the data by pressing "View source data" button, then the data will be displayed in Preview pane.

 

Map source to target – Mapping details: AlexTable

 

 

Map source to target – Mapping visualization: AlexTable

 

 

Select entities for processing group: AlexLine

 

Once file is specified you can preview the data by pressing "View source data" button, then the data will be displayed in Preview pane.

 

Map source to target – Mapping details: AlexLine

 

 

Map source to target – Mapping visualization: AlexLine

 

Please note that DMF imports the data into tables using SSIS package and you don’t have a benefit of AX kernel taking care of properly inserting records into appropriate tables according to Table inheritance, that’s why I had to make a data model change to remove Table inheritance from AlexTable table

 

AlexTable: Correction to the data model to remove Table inheritance

 

Please also note that changes were made in R2 to the way Table inheritance is physically organized on SQL level, starting from R2 release the only one table will be created on SQL side with all required fields. When insert occurs to the table with Table inheritance the system will create records populating only required fields.

 

Execute source to staging: After you execute source to staging data import the system will confirm how many records were synchronized with target table

 

 

Execution history: The results and time consumed can be seen in Execution history form

 

 

 

Dynamics AX – Table Browser

 

AlexTable

 

 

AlexLine

 

Remark: Please note that I can’t use functions with Tables, that’s why initially AlexTable field on AlexLine record is blank (0). At the same time I introduced ID field which I can populate without any problems. So now in order to populate AlexTable (RecID reference to AlexTable record) on AlexLine record I’ll have to execute additional step – run X++ job.

 

Job: AlexTableTestJob

 

 

Job: AlexTableTestJob – Source code

 

AlexLine

Remark: Once I executed X++ job AlexTable field (RecID reference to AlexTable record) is properly populated now

 

Now I can remove ID field from AlexLine table

 

AlexLine: Correction to the data model to remove ID field

 

 

AlexLine

 

Remark: As the result AlexLine table contents will look like this

 

Versions: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Data Migration Framework v2.0

 

Summary: In this document I explained how to use Data Migration Framework in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 in order to import custom data using Tables. This approach is especially recommended for large scale data migrations and allows for much better performance comparing to usage of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Excel Add-in. Data Migration Framework in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 already ships with numerous standard templates for most important types of business data. Please note that v2.0 release has support for 26 business entities. Data migration is iterative process and the fact that DMF provides flexible validation capabilities facilitates this process significantly.

 

Author: Alex Anikiiev, PhD, MCP

 

Tags: Dynamics ERP, Dynamics AX 2012, DMF, Data Migration Framework, Data Import, Data Conversion, Data Migration, Table, Table Inheritance

 

Note: This document is intended for information purposes only, presented as it is with no warranties from the author. This document may be updated with more content to better outline the concepts and describe the examples.