Hi all,
I recently had a project that involved getting data into and out of AX 2012 using Json strings and thought I'd blog it here. I know D365 is being used more and more, but thought it might still be useful for someone.
The requirement was to integrate various transactions with a 3rd party Retail package, so we exposed some methods to a web service hosted in AX (Inbound ports form). Reading elsewhere about AX 2012 not having lots of Json support built-in, we decided to use the free NewtonSoft Json.NET library.
Add the DLL as a reference in AX (after copying it to both server\bin and client\bin directories, or using the GAC).
Serialization
Serializing to a Json string works perfectly in AX by using a DataContractAttribute class to build the data. For example, if you need to send Customer information, you can create a class as follows:
[DataContractAttribute]
public class CustMaster
{
CustAccount accountNum;
Name firstName,
lastName;
PhoneLocal custPhone;
Email custMail;
}
[DataMemberAttribute("Customer code")]
public CustAccount parmCustAccountNum(CustAccount _accountNum = accountNum)
{
accountNum = _accountNum;
return accountNum;
}
[DataMemberAttribute("First name")]
public Name parmFirstName(Name _firstName = firstName)
{
firstName = _firstName;
return firstName;
}
[DataMemberAttribute("Last name")]
public Name parmLastName(Name _lastName = lastName)
{
lastName = _lastName;
return lastName;
}
[DataMemberAttribute("Phone 1")]
public PhoneLocal parmPhone(PhoneLocal _custPhone = custPhone)
{
custPhone = _custPhone;
return custPhone;
}
[DataMemberAttribute("Email")]
public Email parmEmail(Email _custMail = custMail)
{
custMail = _custMail;
return custMail;
}The names corresponding to each variable, such as "Phone 1" are created as the tags in the Json string.
Using the above contract, we can create a Json string to send out by looping through the CustTable and adding each record to the string as follows:
[SysEntryPointAttribute]
public str getCustomers()
{
CustTable cTable;
str custStr = '';
System.Exception clrException;
System.Object custObj;
InteropPermission permission;
System.Collections.ArrayList list = new System.Collections.ArrayList();
CustMaster custContract;
try
{
permission = new InteropPermission(InteropKind::ClrInterop);
permission.assert();
while select cTable
{
custContract = new CustMaster();
custContract.parmCustAccountNum(cTable.AccountNum);
custContract.parmFirstName(cTable.Name());
custContract.parmLastName(cTable.Name());
custContract.parmPhone(cTable.phoneLocal());
custContract.parmEmail(cTable.email());
custObj = CLRInterop::getObjectForAnyType(custContract);
list.Add(custObj);
}
if (list.get_Count() > 0)
{
custStr = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert::SerializeObject(list, Newtonsoft.Json.Formatting::Indented);
}
CodeAccessPermission::revertAssert();
}
catch (Exception::CLRError)
{
// BP deviation documented
clrException = CLRInterop::getLastException();
if (clrException != null)
{
//BP Deviation Documented
info(CLRInterop::getAnyTypeForObject(clrException.get_Message()));
while (clrException != null)
{
clrException = clrException.get_InnerException();
if (clrException == null)
break;
checkFailed(CLRInterop::getAnyTypeForObject(clrException.ToString()));
}
}
throw error("Failed");
}The output will look like the following:
[
{
"Customer code": "CUS001",
"Email": "",
"First name": "TEST CUSTOMER ONE",
"Last name": "TEST CUSTOMER ONE",
"Phone 1": ""
},
{
"Customer code": "CUS002",
"Email": "",
"First name": "TEST CUSTOMER TWO",
"Last name": "TEST CUSTOMER TWO",
"Phone 1": ""
},
{
"Customer code": "CUS003",
"Email": "",
"First name": "TEST CUSTOMER THREE",
"Last name": "TEST CUSTOMER THREE",
"Phone 1": ""
}
]Deserialization
For deserializing, it works slightly different. It doesn't seem like you can cast to an AX DataContractAttribute class from a .NET object (or at least I wasn't able to), so you will need to create a C# class and add that DLL as a reference in your AX environment as well. You can then call the Get_<parameterName>() methods directly from the .NET class.
Create the .NET class:
using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
namespace RetailClasses
{
[DataContract]
public class CustOrders
{
[DataMember(Name = "CustomerAccount")]
public string AccountNum { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "CustomerReference")]
public string CustReference { get; set; }
[DataMember]
public DateTime ShipmentDate { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "SalesOrderLines")]
public ArrayList OrderLines { get; set; }
}
[DataContract]
public class CustOrderLines
{
[DataMember(Name = "ItemNumber")]
public string ItemId { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "Qty")]
public float Quantity { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "Colour")]
public string ItemColour { get; set; }
[DataMember(Name = "Size")]
public string ItemSize { get; set; }
}
}After adding this reference in AX, you can use the code as follows:
[SysEntryPointAttribute]
public boolean createOrder(str _orderStr)
{
InteropPermission permission;
System.Exception clrException;
Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JArray list = new Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JArray();
Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject jObject;
System.Collections.IEnumerator lEnum;
RetailClasses.CustOrders orders = new RetailClasses.CustOrders();
void processSalesQuote(RetailClasses.CustOrders _custOrders)
{
CustomerReference custRef;
CustAccount custAccount;
date shipDate;
//SalesOrderLines;
ItemId itemNumber;
Qty qtyOrdered;
EcoResItemColorName colour;
EcoResItemSizeName size;
RetailClasses.CustOrderLines orderLines = new RetailClasses.CustOrderLines();
System.Collections.ArrayList linesList = new System.Collections.ArrayList();
System.Collections.IEnumerator lEnum;
Newtonsoft.Json.Linq.JObject jObject;
custRef = _custOrders.get_CustReference();
custAccount = _custOrders.get_AccountNum();
shipDate = _custOrders.get_ShipmentDate();
linesList = _custOrders.get_OrderLines();
lEnum = linesList.GetEnumerator();
// Create Header
...
// create lines
while (lEnum.MoveNext())
{
jObject = lEnum.get_Current();
orderLines = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert::DeserializeObject(jObject.ToString(), orderLines.GetType());
size = orderLines.get_ItemSize();
colour = orderLines.get_ItemColour();
itemNumber = orderLines.get_ItemId();
qtyOrdered = orderLines.get_Quantity();
...
}
}
try
{
permission = new InteropPermission(InteropKind::ClrInterop);
permission.assert();
list = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert::DeserializeObject(_orderStr, list.GetType());
lEnum = list.GetEnumerator();
while (lEnum.MoveNext())
{
jObject = lEnum.get_Current();
orders = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert::DeserializeObject(jObject.ToString(), orders.GetType());
processSalesQuote(orders);
}
}
catch (Exception::CLRError)
{
// BP deviation documented
clrException = CLRInterop::getLastException();
if (clrException != null)
{
//BP Deviation Documented
info(CLRInterop::getAnyTypeForObject(clrException.get_Message()));
while (clrException != null)
{
clrException = clrException.get_InnerException();
if (clrException == null)
break;
checkFailed(CLRInterop::getAnyTypeForObject(clrException.ToString()));
}
}
ret = checkFailed("Failed");
}
}