Export AOT objects (XPO) with or without IDs?

Question

I have this situation where we have a production Dynamics 2009 AX (RTM) environment whose AOT we used to do a code update project to RU8.

So now, I have a production environment (RTM) and one that is the same but patched to RU8.

The thing is that since, Page Definitions have changed in the RTM environment and I want to export those to the RU8 environment.

I can export an XPO of the whole tree (Web->Web Files->Page definitions) and import it in the RU8 env. but do I export with or without IDs ? Does this change anything if objects exist in both environments ?

Thanks!

Answer 1

• Almost in any situation you should prefere to EXPORT WITH IDs. There is nothing you can lost with this.

• You should prefere to IMPORT WIDTH IDs when you want to maintain two copies of the same environment (DEV, TEST, ...).

• You has to IMPORT WIDHOUT IDs when you import objects in an environment that has not been in that environment before, nor in a copy of this environment. For example, when you import objects from another company or created by another developer. This usually has to be done in development environment and then export-import WITH IDs to the next apps (TEST, PRODUCTION, ...)

When you import objects WITHOUT IDs, the system will assign new IDs to the objects for this application, so you won't be abble to export-import WITH IDs to another copies of the app. This will lead to problems soon or late so it should be avoided.

There are exceptions to this rule but to be sure of picking the right option in any situation you have to understand well this best practices.