X2012 Excel Add-in

Finance and Operations/AX User Forum
1

I have created a template for importing customer data (for data migration purposes) into the following tables :

  • CustTable
  • DirPartyTable
  • DirPartyLocation
  • DirPartyLocationRole
  • LogisticsPostalAddress
  • LogisticsElectronicAddres
  • LogisticsLocation

When I manually type into these and click publish, my records are correctly created in AX2012 with no errors.

But, a user wouldn’t want to type these in one by one, otherwise they may as well do this in AX.

As such I have created another worksheet in Excel to hold the data (assumed from external system), then would copy and paste (values only) into the individual worksheets containing the connections to the tables. This effectively is exactly the same as manually typing the data.

BUT, I get the following message “Specified cast is not valid”. I can see from other postings that this is a SQL error. But unfortunately I struggle with why this should appear, the data is exactly the same and no formatting has been performed.

Any idea’s anyone ?

Kind Regards

Andy

2

Hi,

IMO Excel add in has limitations importing complex data entity as customers, employees etc. Recently I uploaded AX 2012 data import tool. Please download and give that tool a go.

3

Already tried that tool, it’s now in its Alpha release but still has some serious issues when installing it.

I’ve got the normal add-in to work but only if I type in the data manually, really could do with some options on home to deal with the error message I’m getting.

4

Create one record, export it, copy it to second line and change a single reference, import it and see what happens.

The standard Excel integration tool, as Harish says, is not a data migration tool and Microsoft are not saying it is. It is really only for small amounts of data and works best when on a signle table. It can also be used for exporting, modifying and importing data like teh customer table, but performance will be very poor. Also each migration requires a web service to be created and configured. You probably need to check these as well.

5

I’ll give your suggestion a go Adam, but until the data migration tool is more stable am stuck with using the add-in as it is.

6

I would hope your employer will be investigating alternative tools or scripts, the add-in simply is not the tool, and MS will tell you that if you get any issues with it [:D]

Let us know how you get on.

7

Hi,

Using the code in data migration tool, a developer should be able to build a robust and more user friendly tool. This is what I did in my first 2012 project. This will be quicker and easier option.

8

Dear Harish Mohanbabu,

Where can I download AX 2012 data import tool? Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Phuong.

9

Hi Andy,

Even though this post is almost a couple of years old now, I wanted to post a solution called Foxtrot. Foxtrot allows you to automate this data entry by scripting without having to write any code. You would be able to get up and running in probably a matter of minutes. Foxtrot also has the capability of working with any system, not just AX, so if you have any manual data entry processes or just manual computer processes in general Foxtrot can likely automate it.

Thanks.