This topic describes the high-level architecture of the Business Connector.
Business
Connector architecture
The Business Connector is a component of the Microsoft Dynamics AX development environment that enables you to build software applications that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX. You can think of the Business Connector as a client of the Microsoft Dynamics AX application without any user interface. You can use the Business Connector to access the same X++ code, business logic, and security model that is available to the Microsoft Dynamics AX Windows client. The Business Connector component contains a kernel for interpreting and executing code and provides a run-time environment for interacting with elements in the Application Object Tree (AOT) within the Microsoft Dynamics AX development environment. Two versions of the Business Connector exist, one for .NET-enabled (managed) applications, and a legacy COM version for unmanaged applications. For more information about the Business Connector, see Developer documentation on MSDN.
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The COM Business Connector will not be supported in the future release after Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. If you need to install COM Business Connector, you must install from the command line. For more information on how to install COM Business Connector from the command line, see Developer documentation on MSDN. |
Applications that are created by using the .NET Framework are managed by the common language runtime (CLR) during execution. These applications are called managed applications. The .NET Business Connector enables these .NET applications to interact with Application Object Server (AOS) instances by providing a set of .NET managed classes. These classes in turn enable access to X++ classes in Microsoft Dynamics AX.
The .NET Business Connector is installed by default with the Enterprise Portal, reporting extensions and the Application Integration Framework (AIF). It can also be installed as a stand-alone component to develop third-party applications that integrate with Microsoft Dynamics AX.
CLR interop
The Business Connector also provides an integration component, called the CLR interop, which enables X++ to invoke .NET code in the managed assemblies. This feature of Microsoft Dynamics AX is called common language runtime interoperability, or CLR interop. CLR interop is useful when you want your X++ code to access the functionalities in assemblies that are installed with the .NET Framework, as well as any assemblies that you create with a language such as C# or Visual Basic.NET.
For more information on integrating other applications with Microsoft Dynamics AX, see Application integration. For information about calling .NET methods from X++ code, see Developer documentation on MSDN.
The following diagram displays the Business Connector architecture.
