AIF Queue?

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Posted on by b_radlyjames

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I have a custom .NET application that needs to communicate with AX. AIF seems to be the best option here, however, we are concerned what happens in the .NET app when AX is down.

Currently, we use an enhancement done by our partner:

.NET app inserts record into separate, non-AX database table
AX has batch job that runs regularly, using OBDC, to get records from non-AX database table
Code in AX is then run to process data.

The reason it was setup this way was to create a 'Queue' of sorts to hold records while AX was down or otherwise unable to process data.

Does AIF have any ability to 'Queue' items (It seems like not due to the fact that if AX is down then AIF can't be reached)?

Assuming AIF can't do that, what is a common design (High level) for a requirement like this?

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Andrew Xu 3,877 on at

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Bradly,

What's volume of the data you're talking about? Have you ever considered MSMQ for AIF? I found some posts you might be interested in.

http://www.techax.microsoftdynamicsaxblog.com/2014/02/msmq-adapter-for-aif.html

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh496417.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

You'll find more if you google.

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b_radlyjames 3,157 on at

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It is a bit of data. AX pulls in the 'Hundreds' of records from that table daily. Possibly thousands.

Also, my question would be... What happens to the 'Queue' if AX goes down?

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Mea_ 60,286 on at

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Hi bRradlyJames,

As Andrew Xu mentioned you can use MSMQ adapter. Lifetime of the message is determined by MSMQ and not AX and it could sit there for days waiting for AX. Another option is to use file adapter, so each message is a file saved in file share that could stay there forever waiting for AX to pick them up.

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Oliver Strutt 85 on at

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The AIF can certainly work and it's a framework needed for real-time integrations, but what you're describing is a batch driven scenario. The AX 2012 DIXF allows (as per standard) to import data using an ODBC connection. Assuming your data matches an entity you could achieve most of what you want using standard.

Google will give a few examples of this but here's one: community.dynamics.com/.../ax-2012-import-data-from-an-odbc-through-dixf

Another advantage is that data ultimately lands in AX staging tables allowing you to handle errors directly in AX rather than having to update the source and push data through a second time. A possible modification would be a nicer front-end to the DIXF forms that's geared more towards this integration scenarios versus data migration that is the DIXF's primary function.

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b_radlyjames 3,157 on at

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Thank you Ievgen! MSMQ seems to be the way to go. After doing a little research it appears that the MSMQ adapter must reside on the AOS machine that it will connect with (Presumably the 'Batch' server).

My last question would be, what happens when the entire server goes down? Or when the MSMQ adapter stops functioning? (I've never worked with MSMQ so I'm not sure of it's reliability)

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Andrew Xu 3,877 on at

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By default, MSMQ message life time is 4 days, but it's configurable as ievgen said. If the entire server is down or MSMQ stops, it will be like your current non-AX database server is down, in that case I think your data cannot be processed.

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b_radlyjames 3,157 on at

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Andrew,

Thank you so much! This is exactly the information I was looking for.

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