The load architecture of Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services

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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 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Beginning October 1, 2015, RapidStart services will no longer be supported. For more information, see the announcement on CustomerSourcehttps://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/news-events/news/RapidStartServicesDiscontinued or PartnerSourcehttps://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/news-events/news-events/news/RapidStartServicesDiscontinued.

Beginning October 1, 2015, RapidStart services will no longer be supported. For more information, see the announcement on CustomerSourcehttps://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/northamerica/news-events/news/RapidStartServicesDiscontinued or PartnerSourcehttps://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/northamerica/news-events/news-events/news/RapidStartServicesDiscontinued.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services helps partners and customers configure an installation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by using a cloud-based, interview-style questionnaire. After the questionnaire is completed, the responses and information can be imported or loaded to a specific instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX Application Object Server (AOS). This topic describes the prerequisites and architecture that you must set up to load the information from a RapidStart Services configuration project into an AOS instance.

Prerequisites

Before you can load data from RapidStart Services to an AOS instance, the following prerequisites must be met:

The process of loading data from RapidStart Services into an AOS instance has two main steps: First, you generate a data set from a RapidStart Services configuration project. Then, you load that date set into the AOS instance.

Generate a data set from a RapidStart configuration project

The first step in the load process for RapidStart Services is to create a data set from the information in a configuration project. The data set is a combination of the questionnaire responses, the values that are entered in the RapidStart Services Excel workbooks, and the parameters that were set in the configuration project.

You input information to a configuration project by answering four types of questions:

  • Field type questions –

  • Excel workbook questions –

  • Service questions –

  • Class questions –

The following diagram shows how the information from each input method is added to the data set that is loaded into the AOS instance.

Action sequence load generator

 

Load a data set from RapidStart Services into the AOS

The data set that was generated by AOD.NET is loaded into the applicable tables in the registered AOS endpoint for the project. The Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Connector communicates exceptions and errors, if any, to a system log. You can use this system log to troubleshoot issues after the load process is completed.

The load process uses the Microsoft Dynamics AX metadata service and other services that were automatically installed when the AOS instance was installed. The document generator service, the application configuration (AppConfig) services, and the Application Integration Framework (AIF) services enable the information from the data set to load to the appropriate entities in the AOS instance. For more information about how to work with services in Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Guide to the Services and AIF Documentation.

The following diagram shows the components of the process of loading entities from the data set to specific tables in an AOS instance by using system services in Microsoft Dynamics AX.

RapidStart Connector loader

 

The Data Import/Export Framework

Optionally, you can load the configuration data from Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 by using the Data Import/Export Framework. The Data Import/Export Framework is available from Microsoft Dynamics AX InformationSource. You can access InformationSource by using the same credentials that you use for PartnerSource and CustomerSource.

We recommend that you use the Data Import/Export Framework if you configure data for an organization that contains complex entities, such as a customer list that references many tables in the AOS. By using the Data Import/Export Framework, you can load complex entities by using a flat comma-separated values (CSV) file. For more information about how to use the Data Import/Export Framework to load data, see Import data using the Data Import/Export Framework service. For more information about how to select a method for loading data into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, see Plan data import, export, and migration.

Generate a data set from a RapidStart configuration project

The first step in the load process for RapidStart Services is to create a data set from the information in a configuration project. A configuration project contains the responses and values that you enter into RapidStart Services for four types of questions:

  • Field type questions –

  • Excel workbook questions –

  • Service questions –

  • Class questions –

See also

The system architecture of Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Services

The architecture of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP RapidStart Connector

Install the Data Import/Export Framework service

Load configuration data from RapidStart Services into a Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 implementation