Messages and Transforms in AIF

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 services and AIF, the term message
corresponds to a WCF message. Meaning, a message is a self-contained unit of
data that can consist of several parts, including a body and headers. When AIF
receives and processes an inbound message, it generates an outbound message in
response. AIF messages are in the form of XML.

When you use an enhanced integration port for services and AIF, you can
perform custom processing of data, such as XML documents, since each message
passes through the integration port. Enhanced integration ports use the following
two concepts to perform message processing during inbound or outbound
exchanges:

• Transforms: Provides an extensible framework where developers
can create Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT)
or .NET-based transforms to convert any propriety format. Microsoft
Dynamics AX services and AIF can process XML documents only if
they conform to the AIF Extensible Stylesheet Definition (XSD). If
an incoming document is XML-based but uses a different schema,
you can use Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) to transform the
document to the AIF schema. If an incoming document is not XML,
such as a comma-delimited file, you can use a .NET Framework
assembly to convert the file to the AIF schema.
Transforms run first for inbound exchanges and last for outbound
exchanges and process the entire request, including headers and so on.

• Pipelines: Use components, including custom components written
using X++ code, to provide a way to process service operation
requests. For example, if you have an inbound message that contains
customer records, your AIF pipeline could contain an XSLT
component that updates an element in the XML, based on the value
of the customer status element. Your AIF pipeline can contain none,
one, or more than one of any of the available transformation
components.
Pipelines run after transforms for inbound exchanges and before
transforms for outbound exchanges.

Regards,
Hossein Karimi