Message Encoding in AIF

Recently, I was on a mail thread that elucidated certain aspects of how AIF messages are encoded. So I thought I would share that info here.

In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009, the default encoding is UTF-8. You can change the default in the global settings form by navigating to Basic > Setup > Application Integration Framework > Global settings.

The important thing to remember is that each endpoint has its own default encoding format, and that encoding is inherited from the encoding format specified in the global settings. So if you want to change the encoding on a single endpoint, you need to go to the endpoints form by navigating to Basic > Setup > Application Integration Framework > Endpoints > General tab.

If you change the default encoding format on the global settings form, it does not change the default encoding format on any existing endpoints. Only endpoints created after the change to the global settings will inherit the new global default encoding format.

Another important point to remember: Outbound documents (messages) that are being sent in response to an inbound request always use the encoding of the inbound request document.

The encoding formats supported by AX are:

· UTF-8

· UTF-16

· UTF-16BE

· GB18030

For more information than you’d ever want to know about Unicode encoding formats, check out the Unicode Consortium.