How models improve the installation and maintenance of side-by-side customizations

Hi,


I found the below helpful information to work on the customization going on side-by-side in AX2012. 


In earlier versions of Microsoft Dynamics AX, multiple partner solutions could not exist side by side in the same layer. However, models now enable side-by-side customizations. Additionally, the following improvements help you work with side-by-side customizations:

• The development environment for Microsoft Dynamics AX lets you create a project for each model that is installed. Therefore, you can quickly see all the installed customizations in a layer for a given model.
• When you import a model, elements in the model that you are importing may conflict with another model in the same layer. You can now create a conflict model in the patch layer that is associated with the layer that you are working in. You can then resolve the conflicts in the conflict model. In earlier versions, no warnings about conflicts were displayed. Instead, elements were just replaced.
• You can now leave the rest of the layer intact when you uninstall a model. In earlier versions, if you wanted to uninstall customizations, you had to either remove the customizations manually from the AOT or remove the layer.

Note: Element IDs are now specific to each installation. In other words, the same method or class has a different element ID in different installations. To maintain installation-specific element IDs when you import and export models and model stores, you must strictly follow specific procedures. If you do not follow the correct procedure when you import or update models, IDs can become randomized, and data integrity can be affected. For more information, see Maintaining Installation-Specific Element IDs and Element Handles.


Installing Metadata

	XPO files	Model files	Model store files
Installation tool	MorphX	AXUtil.exe or Windows PowerShell cmdlets	AXUtil.exe or Windows PowerShell cmdlets
The files can be uninstalled.	No	Yes	No
The files can be signed.	No	Yes	No
Microsoft Dynamics AX element IDs are preserved.	Yes, because there are no IDs in XPO files	Yes, if IDs have already been assigned	Yes
Compilation is required after installation.	Yes	Yes	No
CIL generation is required after installation.	Yes	Yes	No

The following table describes the scenarios in which is recommend you use each installation method.

Scenario	Recommended installation method
Distributing a solution to customers	Model files
Deploying a solution in a development or test environment	Model files or XPO files
Deploying a solution to a production environment	Model store files

Thanks,

/Ashlesh