New Connection Interface for Infor CRM SLX Application Architect 8.5.0.1

Infor has recently released Update 01 for Infor CRM SLX 8.5.  This upgrade converts Application Architect to a 64-bit program.  This means that  Application Architect now requires its own 64-bit data link connection.  The other applications still use the existing 32-bit data link.  When I have tested this upgrade, I have been able to log in to  Application Architect  using previously-existing connections (so it would appear the upgrade process creates 64-bit versions of any existing 32-bit connections).   Any new data link connections, however, will require the 32- and 64-bit versions to be created separately.

Creating the 32-bit connection (used by all the other CRM applications) works as it always has (see here for explanation).  If you open Application Architect on a machine that only has 32-bit connections set up, it will only open the blank log on window seen above. Clicking the ellipses next to “Log on to” will bring you directly to the Configure Database Connection window seen below to create the 64-bit connection.

This 64-bit connection for Application Architect uses a slimmed-down screen compared to the 32-bit one. Fill out this new, connection screen as follows:

Alias: whatever you want the connection to be listed as
Provider: choose System.Data. SqlClient from the dropdown (unless you are use Oracle)
Server: the server name, then a backslash and the name of the SQL instance if needed
User Name: the SQL user Infor CRM SLX will use to connect, usually sysdba
Password: sysdba password
Database: choose your Infor CRM SLX connection from the dropdown
You can click Test Connection to make sure you can connect, but if your database appears in the dropdown your connection is likely fine. (Note that, as with the 32-bit version, the Server Name dropdown failed to detect my SQL instance.)

Once you have saved your connection, it should appear in the Data Link Manager as shown above. Unlike the 32-bit data link connections, there is no separate program like Connection Manager to manage these, all the management is done in this Data Link Manager window that open from the ellipses next to “Log on to” in the Application Architect log screen (below).

That is all there is to setting up a 64-bit data link to allow the new Application Architect to connect to the Infor CRM SLX database. This is actually a simpler, quicker interface than the 32-bit one involving Connection Manager, but can seem jarring to folks like me who have been using the old one for years.