Data Import Export Framework in AX2012 R3

AX2012 R3 comes with the Data Import Export Framework which is a separate module in AX. It is also part of R2 CU7 and available as a download for 2012 Featurepack (via Information Source). 

I did install it before in the Featurepack version, but it had some minor bugs which held me from futher investigation this possibly cool tool. But after re-discovering this tool, my first impression for the out of the box options are:
Pros: It looks nice, it's comprehensive and let's you preview data which you'd want to import.
Cons: It stills seems a bit shaky, the slightest mistake can result an error which doesn't explain the reason of the failure. Also the drag and drop isn't very smooth (yet?), but it gets the job done.

So how does it work?

In this blog I'll briefly show how you can import data via CSV, but you can also upload via ODBC or via other AX instances. I'll import 4 new main accounts in this example.

First you need to create a Source Data format. In this case I've created CSV of the type File and have set the column delimiter to Semicolon. 

Next, create a new Processing Group (MA with description Main Account in my case) and click Entities, here you can select the type of import (I choose Main Account, but it could also be customers, sales orders, vendors etc.). Select source data format to be CSV and then click Generate Source file to create the input template. Select the fields you want and generate a sample file. 

In the Sample File Path, select your enriched file which you'll import. Then the other options in the top menu become available. 

Select Generate Source Mapping and based on the header line in your import file, the links are created. You can view (and modify) the link from the import file to the table via the button "Modify Source mapping" as can be seen below. When you modify a link (drag and drop), remember to hit the Save button. 

You can preview the file which is to be imported by clicking Preview Source File, it will show the upload to the staging table with the values and fields. 

Close the entities form and return to the Processing Group, hit "Get staging data" to upload the data and click Run. In my case, it results in an infolog which says that 4 records have been inserted in the staging table. Via "Execution History" you can preview the data in the staging table which can now be imported to the table(s) in AX. A last check if all data is correct and then click "Copy data to target" and click Run to import. 

This resulted in 4 new records and my main accounts are created: 

It's really that simple, so go for it and check it out!