Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Sivolution

130

Hi, I've defined some data contract classes in AX (through the DataContractAttribute) and now I would like to serialize / deserialize these to and from an xml-string. From within AX (x++). Should be fairly easy, but I don't seem to find the code that does the trick.

Anyone any suggestions ?

Tx !!

*This post is locked for comments

All responses (6)

Answers (1)

Sivolution 130 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

Hi Martin,

This is great, you got this thing to work ! I knew it should be possible, but I didn't get there... I have to admit, I eventually started writing a serializer in x++ (which was not that hard after all), but this is a way better solution.

Took me a while to answer your comment, since I wanted to verify the solution. But it works like a charm.

Tx !
Verified answer

Martin Dráb 230,370 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

I think that looking for "a piece of existing code" is a wrong approach here. You should be rather prepared to do some research and development.

Nevertheless find a solution in Data contract serialization from X++.
Sivolution 130 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

I have no controller involved in my process, but if I understand your suggestion correctly, you suggest to fill the data contract from code, but that's actually the same as writing your own deserializer.

I'm looking for a piece of 'existing' code in which I can pass any XML and I expect it to fill any DataContract.
Sivolution 130 on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

Code should then look someting like this:

AifCurrencyInfo dc = new AifCurrencyInfo();

System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractSerializer ser;

System.Type dcType;

dc.parmCurrencyCode("EUR");

dcType = CLRInterop::getType('Dynamics.Ax.Application.AifCurrencyInfo');

ser = new System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractSerializer(dcType);

ser.WriteObject(writer, dc);

writer.Close();

But unfortunately doesn't work :)

'Dynamics.Ax.Application.AifCurrencyInfo' is not known in x++. CIL does not recognize it either. Adding the Dynamics.Ax.Application.dll to the bin-dir doesn't seem like a good solution

and even then, how to convert from AifCurrencyInfo to 'Dynamics.Ax.Application.AifCurrencyInfo' ? Although that might be automatically, once in CIL ...
Rachit 4,015 User Group Leader on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

Hi,

Do you have a controller class also playing some role in the process? You can override the prePromptModifyContract method of your controller class to read the XML and set the values of the data contract members.

I am not sure if I understood your problem correctly.

Thanks,

Rachit Garg
Martin Dráb 230,370 Most Valuable Professional on at

Like (0)

Report

RE: Serialize / deserialize Data Contracts from within AX

I suspect that AX actually never uses that from X++. When a data contract class is compiled to CIL, DataContractAttribute defined in X++ is converted to System.Runtime.Serialization.DataContractAttribute. This allows AX components (such as the ones integrating AX with WCF) to use the usual .NET DataContractSerializer. I would utilize the same approach, although doing it from X++ may be a bit awkward, but still better than writing your own serializer.