Architecture

Technology highlights

The main objective of this new release is to deliver a multi-tenant Automotive Exchange application that runs in the Infor cloud. This objective required a complete redesign of the entire backend of the application:

• Automotive Exchange is now a multi-tenant application, in alignment with the current Infor definition. Tenant data is separated by database. There is now a global database to store application wide, non-tenant specific data.
• The system code lists that are managed by Infor have been separated from the tenant code lists that can be modified by tenant users. The system code lists are now managed through the new Global Data Service. The tenant code lists are managed through the Master Data Service.
• Automotive Exchange Fortresses have been refactored into Microservices. This change in technology is in line with the Infor standards and increases the product scalability.

• The Infor Docker Microservice Architecture (DMA) is used to orchestrate the application. DMA is an Infor-developed platform for the management and execution of the application services in the cloud. It represents the cloud infrastructure and provides these benefits:

  • Availability: DMA ensures there is always a configured minimum number of instances of each service.
  • Reliability: DMA ensures that each instance of a service is healthy and operational.
  • Scalability: As load on the system changes, DMA automatically adds or removes instances of a service within the configured minimum and maximum values.
  • Many more advanced cloud services and capabilities.
• Various common functions of each major component of Automotive Exchange have been moved into their own microservices. These services are the new Alert Service, the Communication Service, the ION Connector Service, and the Printing Service.
• Inter-service communication has been improved and uses APIs instead of passing BODs through ION. ION is now only used to communicate with other applications.
• There is now a single ION connection to Automotive Exchange instead of the four ION connections of the previous application components. This change allows for a single face of the product to the greater Infor ecosystem.
• The user administration in Security MDM has been removed from Automotive Exchange. User authentication and authorization is now performed by Infor Federation Services (IFS) and Infor Ming.le. IFS and Infor Ming.le provide the complete user administration and forward information about the current user to Automotive Exchange when the user accesses the application. This information includes the user identifiers, name, assigned roles, and assigned accounting entities. The information is then used to grant the user access to the application.
• Printing has been completely redesigned for the cloud. The print engine InterFormNG is now running on-premises. An On-Premises Print Agent uses ION API to communicate with the Printing Service in the Infor Cloud, eliminating the requirement for a VPN connection.
• Communication has also been completely redesigned for the cloud. Communication is now a separate service. The service provides for the ability to use a certified cloud-based Communication Service Provider or an On-Premises Communication Agent for which the customer can be completely in charge of the communication.
• The user interface has been updated with the latest releases of the Infor Design System (IDS) components.
• In the cloud, the PostgreSQL relational database is used instead of the previous Microsoft SQL Server database. This is in line with the preferred Infor cloud database strategy.

User Interface Service

This area includes these major technology changes:

• The User Interface Service consists of the actual UI screens and the interface to IFS and Infor Ming.le for the user authentication and authorization.
• The user interface incorporates the latest release of the IDS components.
• The user management is now only performed in Infor Ming.le. There is no user management or storage within Automotive Exchange.
• User authorization is performed using IFS claims passed in when the user accesses Automotive Exchange.
• The navigation has been updated to provide UI modules for the new services.

Transformation Service

This area includes these major technology changes:

• The message processing of the Transformation Service has been streamlined to eliminate the scheduled jobs that existed previously. Messages are now processed all the way to completion in a single process flow. This change improves the performance of the overall process.
• Infor-developed style sheets are now stored in the Global Data Service, so there is only a single instance of them. Tenant-developed style sheets are stored in the tenant database and can be managed through the Transformation > Style Sheets menu.

Release Management Service

This area includes these major technology changes:

The message processing of the Release Management Service has been streamlined to eliminate the scheduled jobs that existed previously. Messages are now processed all the way to completion in a single process flow. This change improves the performance of the overall process.

Shipping Execution Service

This area includes these major technology changes:

The message processing of the Shipping Execution Service has been streamlined to eliminate the scheduled jobs that existed previously. Messages are now processed all the way to completion in a single process flow. This change improves the performance of the overall process.

Master Data Service

This area includes these major technology changes:

The Master Data Service now stores the incoming BODs that are sent to the service. A new menu item Master Data > Inbound BODs can be used to review and reprocess incoming BODs.

Global Data Service

The Global Data Service is a new service that provides the storage of and access to application-wide, non-tenant specific configuration data that is managed by Infor:

• Provisioned tenants
• Standard transformation style sheets
• Standard print templates
• Code lists
• Application configuration properties

Most of the menu items of the Global Data Service are restricted to internal use for Infor administrators. The style sheets and print templates can be downloaded by tenant users and can be used as templates for a customization.