The Application Integration Framework (AIF) provides this capability to

us by enabling the exchange of data through XML. This formatted XML is

referred to as a document, and each document contains data and business
logic. Documents are based on a document class and defined by using
Microsoft Dynamics AX.
Further, AX is shipped together with standard document services that
support common business processes. As in AX 2009, in AX 2012 we can also
customize existing services or create our services.

How documents are exchanged

AIF provides an extensible framework for the exchange of XML documents
with external systems. The framework supports
both synchronous andasynchronous transports.
In synchronous mode, requests are tightly coupled to responses, which
means that the submitter of the request must wait for a response from AIF
before proceeding. In this case, AIF does process the request immediately
and then sends a response.
In asynchronous mode, however, requests are placed into a queue, called
thegateway queue. Queued messages are processed at a later time and
AIF sends a response when processing is completed. In this case, responses
are delayed, but note that large volumes of messages can be processed
more efficiently, and message processing can be controlled by changing
various configuration settings.
AIF can be used to send data into AX. This kind of exchange is called
aninbound exchange.

 For example, during an inbound exchange, an external system may

send a sales order so that the sales order can be saved to the
Microsoft Dynamics AX database.
On the other hand, the AIF can also be used to retrieve data from AX. This
kind of exchange is called an outbound exchange.

 For example, during an outbound exchange, an external system may

send a request for a purchase order and receive the purchase order.
The inbound and outbound exchanges can be categorized in the following
ways:

 Send data – AX sends documents to an external system.

  Send data in response to requests – AX receives requests for
documents from another authorized system, and retrieves the
requested information, such as a document or a list of documents,
from the AX database. Then AX returns the information to the
requesting system.

 Receive and create data – AX receives documents from another

authorized system and creates new records in the Microsoft Dynamics
AX database.

Architecture
AX 2012 exposes its functionality through services that are based
onWindows Communication Foundation (WCF) and hosted on
Application Object Server (AOS). External applications and client
applications on the local area network consume AX services by accessing
them directly from AOS.
These clients and applications include AX components such as the AX client,
Office Add-, and Enterprise Portal.
Internet-based external applications and clients access the AX services
through Internet Information Services (IIS). IIS routes the incoming
requests for AX services to AOS. All services requests, regardless of their
origin, are handled by the WCF runtime that is hosted on AOS.
The AIF request preprocessor, if it is configured, can intercept the inbound
request messages for custom preprocessing, such as message transforms or
value substitutions. The AX service invokes the necessary business logic to
process the inbound request message.
Similarly, the AIF response postprocessor, if it is configured, can intercept
the outbound response messages for custom post-processing, such as
message transforms or value substitutions. The AIF response postprocessor
then returns the response to the client.
NOTE: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 no longer includes a BizTalk
adapter. For more information about how to use Microsoft BizTalk Server
together with Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see Exchanging documents
between BizTalk Server and AIF.
The following diagram illustrates the services and AIF architecture.
Services
Application Object Server (AOS) is the Windows Communication Foundation
(WCF) service host for Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 services that are
exposed to users and applications on an intranet.
 To consume services over the Internet, you must host services on Internet
Information Services (IIS). Services that are hosted on IIS use the WCF
message routing service. IIS routes all service requests to AOS. All service
requests are processed on AOS, regardless of whether they originate on the
Internet or an intranet. AOS then returns a response to the service
consumer via IIS.
Exchanges that are configured to use Web services are processed
synchronously and therefore are not queued. AX deploys the service that
is based on Web Services Description Language (WSDL) to a subfolder of
the virtual directory that is associated with the Web site that you provide.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the following three kinds of
services:
1- Document services are query-based services that can be used to
exchange data with external systems by sending and receiving XML
documents. These documents represent business entities, such as
customers, vendors, or sales orders.
2- Custom services can be used by developers to expose any X++ logic, such
as X++ classes and their members, through a service interface.
3- System services are provided by Microsoft Dynamics AX. System services
include the Query service, the Metadata service, and the User Session
service. System services are not customizable, and they are not mapped to
any query or X++ code. For more information about system services, see
AIF System Services.

Integration ports
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, integration ports provide simplified
administration of services and Application Integration Framework
(AIF).Integration ports replace the AIF endpoints and related concepts that
were used in previous releases of Microsoft Dynamics AX. Each integration
port can expose one or more services, and each integration port has a
unique Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that identifies the address of
the port.
Each integration port also has a direction. An integration port can be either
an inbound integration port or an outbound integration port.

 An inbound integration port is a destination for messages that

originate from outside Microsoft Dynamics AX.
  An outbound integration port is a destination for messages that
originate from your Microsoft Dynamics AX system. Inbound
integration ports can be one of two types: basic or enhanced.
Outbound integration ports are always enhanced ports.

Basic integration ports

 Basic integration ports are exposed at a specific Windows

Communication Foundation (WCF) endpoint on the Application
Object Server (AOS) host. Only a developer can create a new basic
integration port.
Enhanced integration ports

 If you want advanced integration capabilities that you can use

tocustomize the behavior of an integration port, you must create an
enhanced integration port. Enhanced integration ports provide the
following capabilities that basic integration ports do not provide:
NOTE: Services can be hosted on either AOS or Internet Information
Services (IIS).
A variety of protocols are supported through WCF adapters. These protocols
include HTTP, NetTCP, and Message Queuing, which is also known as MSMQ.
Enhanced integration ports also support a file system adapter that lets you
use file paths as addresses.
1- You can perform pre-processing and post-processing of service requests
and service responses.
2- You can create customizations for data contracts by specifying service
operations and policies for document data.
3- You can specify advanced security and troubleshooting settings.

Adapters
In AX 2012 services and Application Integration Framework (AIF),
integration ports use adapters. These adapters enable AX to communicate
by using various transport protocols.
 AX 2012 provides the following four adapters that represent predefined
bindings:
 HTTP adapter – This adapter provides for synchronous message exchanges
by using an HTTP or HTTPs transport.
 NetTCP adapter – This adapter provides for synchronous exchanges by
using WS-* standards support over the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
transport. This adapter corresponds to the WCF-NetTcp binding in Windows
Communication Foundation (WCF).
 MSMQ adapter – This adapter provides support for queuing by using
Message Queuing as a transport. Message Queuing is also known as MSMQ.
Message Queuing is a type of asynchronous communication. This adapter
corresponds to the WCF-NetMsmq binding in WCF.
 File system adapter – This adapter provides support for the asynchronous
exchange of documents through file system directories.
Messages and transforms in AIF
In AX 2012 services and Application Integration Framework (AIF), a
message corresponds to a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
message. A message is a self-contained unit of data that can consist
of several parts. These parts include a body and headers. When AIF
receives and processes an inbound message, it generates an outbound
message in response.
Although AIF supports the transfer of data in any arbitrary format, most
information exchanges with AIF services use XML documents.
In order to create an XML document that adheres to a standard for a
particular exchange of information, AIF requires XML documents to follow
an XML style definition (XSD). XSD files (which have a .xsd file name
extension) are meta-documents that describe the format, or schema, of
XML documents that declare the namespace of the XSD.
Each schema includes rules about the hierarchical arrangement of XML
elements, which elements must be present in the document, and other such
requirements.

Schemas
1- Document service schemas: Each document service has a unique schema
that describes the fields that can be added, read, updated, and so forth, by
using the particular document service.
2- Message schema: Asynchronous exchanges require XML messages to be
contained by the AIF message envelope. The namespace for the message
schema is:
 http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2011/01/documents/Message
3- Message-set schema: AIF uses the message-set, or batch, schema to
contain batched AIF messages in asynchronous exchanges. The namespace
for the message-set schema is:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2009/06/documents/Batch
4- Entity key schemas: AIF uses entity key schemas to contain name-value
pairs, such as those used to query for a particular item during a read
operation or when sending a response to a create operation. The
namespaces for entity keys and entity key lists are:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2006/02/documents/EntityKe
y
http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2006/02/documents/EntityKe
yList
5- Shared types schema: AIF aggregates common property types in the
shared-types schema. The namespace for the shared-types schema is:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2008/01/sharedtypes
6- Fault schema: AIF uses the fault schema to contain response messages
about error conditions. The namespace for the fault schema is:
http://schemas.microsoft.com/dynamics/2008/01/documents/Fault

Schema locations
You can save XSDs for particular document services, including their imported
schemas (such as the shared-types schema) and any port-specific
customizations, when you configure data policies for an integration port.
You can retrieve XSDs for common schemas from the following directory
where you installed Microsoft Dynamics AX:
Program files\Microsoft Dynamics
AX\60\Server\MicrosoftDynamicsAX\bin\Application\Share\Includ
e

Processing messages
When you use an enhanced integration port for services and AIF, you can
perform custom processing of data, such as XML documents, as each
message passes through the integration port. Enhanced integration ports
use the following two concepts to process messages during inbound or
outbound exchanges:
Transforms provide an extensible framework that developers can use to
apply Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) or .NET-based
transforms to messages.
.Net-based transforms can convert messages to or from any proprietary
format. AX services and AIF can process XML documents only if the
documents comply with the service XSD.
NOTE: If an incoming document is based on XML but uses a different
schema, you can use Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) to transform the
document to the AIF schema. If an incoming document is not based on XML,
such as a comma-delimited file, you can use a .NET Framework assembly to
convert the file to the AIF schema.
Transforms are run for inbound exchanges before they are run for outbound
exchanges. Transforms process the whole message. Headers are included in
the processing.
NOTE: Transforms apply only to asynchronous exchanges.

Pipelines use components to enable the processing of requests for service

operations. These components include custom components that are written
in X++ code.
For example, if an inbound message contains customer records, your AIF
pipeline can contain an XSLT component that updates an element in the
XML, based on the value of the customer status element. Your AIF pipeline
can contain one or more of any available transformation component.
Alternatively, your AIF pipeline can contain no transformation components.
Processing that occurs in pipelines, including XML transformation, applies to
both synchronous and asynchronous exchanges.
For inbound exchanges, pipelines are run after transforms. For outbound
exchanges, pipelines are run before transforms.
The following diagram shows how data moves through an enhanced inbound
integration port.