Data Migration Framework
Data Migration Framework
In
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
Historically, data
migration has been done through custom written import scripts created by the
consulting team. This changed when Microsoft released its Data Migration
Framework (DMF) in mid-2012. The new framework provides the functionality to
load the most common data entities (e.g. Customer, Vendors, Items) utilizing a
combination of SQL, SSI packages as well as AX business logic.
This blog will talk about technical aspects of DMF,
which are common classes and tables of DMF and brief knowledge about it.
Architecture
The above architecture
gives an overall idea about how DMF works, we need Source Entity (ex. CSV file) which contains the data. We need PROCESSING GROUP which plays a mediator role between SOURCE ENTITY and STAGING TABLE, and then staging table and target table. Now staging table is intermediate table which is used to store the data from source entity and then copy it to the target
entity/table. Like DMFSalesTableEntity is the staging table and salesTable
is the target entity.
Now let’s see above
concept technically...
Another class which is
used in DMF is DMFEntityBase class. This class is the parent class for all
entity classes, like for Sales Table, we have DMFSalesTableEntityClass which is
extended by the DMFEntityBase class. Important methods in this class are all GENERATE methods and INSERTUPDATE method which is invoked
from write method of DMFEntityWriter class. These methods are used to
initialize data in target table and insert the record in it.
Another element which is
used in the DMF is ENTITY QUERY,
which is a very important element of DMF. The number of tables contains by
query, DMF is going to create records in all those tables which are included in
the query. Check the DMFAssetTargetEnity query in the AOT > Query node,
which contain AssetTable as a parent DataSource and Asset book is one of the
child DataSource of the AssetTable DataSource. So when we perform DMF for Asset
entity, it will create a record in Asset Table as well as create a
corresponding record of Asset table in Asset Book Table.
It is important to
create a RELATION between STAGING table and TARGET table in staging table, which helps to find related records
to update and if not found that create a new record in the Target table during
the DMF Operation
This is the overview of
DMF, and I hope this is helpful to understand the basic concept of DMF. If you
have any other query then please write in the comment area, I will surely reply
you. Also, we are going into more details of DMF in my next blog…
Till then Sayonara, and do
not forget to like and share…
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