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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a full business solution suite, and a complete ERP solution, which contains a robust set of development tools to support customization and enhancement. These tools help in greater control over financials and can simplify supply chain, manufacturing, and operations.
This book will take you from an introduction to Dynamics NAV and its integrated development tools to being a productive developer in the Dynamics NAV Development Environment.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Seitenzahl: 729
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Fifth Edition
BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Fifth Edition
Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author(s), nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First Edition: October 2007 Second Edition: November 2009 Third Edition: February 2013 Fourth Edition: July 2015 Fifth published: April 2017
Production reference: 1190417
ISBN 978-1-78646-819-2
www.packtpub.com
Credits
Authors
Marije Brummel David Studebaker Christopher Studebaker
Copy Editor
Zainab Bootwala
Reviewer
Alex Chow
Project Coordinator
Prajakta Naik
Commissioning Editor
Aaron Lazar
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor
Nitin Dasan
Indexer
Mariammal Chettiyar
Content Development Editor
Siddhi Chavan
Production Coordinator
Nilesh Mohite
Technical Editor
Dhiraj Chandanshive
Foreword
In this age where almost any piece of information can be found on the internet, it might seem obsolete to come around with the book that's in front of you. Hundreds of pages of information on what a developer would, and I personally think should, like to know about developing in Dynamics NAV, dozens of useful technical tips and tricks, best practices, and a load of references to more, a great asset to any Dynamics NAV development team, and even more. And this is what makes this book something far beyond all the information out there. This book integrates technical Dynamics NAV with functional Dynamics NAV. On contrary to many other technical platforms, Dynamics NAV is first and foremost an ERP platform serving thousands of customers around the world. Any developer with an ambition to start programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV cannot but become an expert in the functional side of it.
Being the first ever author to have written an independent book on how to program Dynamics NAV, Dave Studebaker became a valuable resource to many and a trendsetter in our community in the late days of his professional live. With the new rhythm of major releases by Microsoft, Dave, and his co-author, and son, Chris, managed to keep his sibling evolve with the subject it covered so eloquently. Now, a decade after the first version of this book, with NAV on the verge of a major development experience change, Dave has called upon some helping hands from the other side of the Atlantic. Both Marije Brummel and I were honored to be included in this project. Thanks for having us in, Dave and Chris.
And thank you reader for buying this book. May it be as valuable to you as was to many before you.
Luc van Vugt
Microsoft MVP and Co-Founder of NAV-Skills
About the Authors
Marije Brummel is a teacher and evangelist for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, focused in helping partners and end users of the product.
Author, programmer, consultant, project manager, presenter, evangelist, salesperson, and a trainer. Marije Brummel has worked for Partners, ISVs, End Users, Master VARs, and Microsoft across the globe in more than 25 countries.
It’s next to impossible to find someone as widely and deeply experienced as Marije in the Business Central community. She has received numerous awards including the Microsoft MVP award and the NAVUG All-Star. She was chair of the Dynamics Credentialling committee and authored the official Microsoft Exam materials. She did both onsite and online readiness sessions for Microsoft when the product went through major changes, such as moving from two-tier to three-tier and the introduction of extensions.
Her biggest passion is changing the world for the better in every way possible. One of her biggest achievements was the introduction of Design Patterns into the Business Central community. She is the go-to girl when it comes to performance troubleshooting and upgrade challenges. Technologies such as the Azure stack and Web frameworks don’t hold secrets in regards to Business Central.
Marije has written many books and countless blog articles and YouTube videos, which influenced almost every person and project involved with Business Central. At home, she enjoys the outdoors with her dog and tries to spend as much time as possible with her kids and family. She likes shopping and traveling.
David Studebaker has been a software consulting entrepreneur and manager most of his career while always maintaining a significant role as an application developer. David has been designing, developing, and teaching software since 1962. He has been a founding partner in five software service firms, most recently Studebaker Technology and Liberty Grove Software. Among his special achievements was the design and development of the very first production SPOOL system, a 1967 AT&T / IBM joint project.
David has been writing for publication since his college days. His published writings include a decade of technical reviews for the ACM’s Computing Reviews and a variety of articles and reference material on shop floor data collection. David is the author of four other Packt books on programming in Dynamics NAV C/AL, two of which were co-authored with Christopher Studebaker.
David has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is a life member of the Association for Computing Machinery and was a founding officer of two ACM chapters.
Christopher Studebaker has worked as a NAV Developer / Implementer since 1999. He has experience designing, developing, implementing, and selling in the NAV and SQL Server environments, specializing in retail, manufacturing, job shop, and distribution implementations, mostly in high user-count, high data volume applications.
Chris has worked on many NAV implementations with integrations to external databases and third-party add-on products. Some special applications have included high volume order entry, pick-to-light systems, point of sale, procurement analysis, and web front ends.
Chris acts in a consulting and training role for customers and for peer NAV professionals. He provides training both in informal and classroom situations, often developing custom course material to support courses tailored to specific student group needs. Courses have included various NAV functional and development areas. Chris was a co-author of two previous books on programming in NAV C/AL.
Before becoming a certified NAV developer, Chris was a certified environmental consultant. His duties included regulatory reporting, data analysis, project management, and subcontractor oversight in addition to managing projects for hazardous material management and abatement.
Chris is a Microsoft Certified IT Professional, SQL database developer, as well as a Microsoft Certified Business Solutions Professional in NAV Development and NAV Installation and Configuration. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Northern Illinois University and has done graduate work at Denmark Technical University.
Chris was a co-author of the Packt books, Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 and Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015.
About the Reviewer
Alex Chow has been working with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, formerly Navision, since 1999. Over the years, Alex has conducted hundreds of implementations across multiple industries. His customers range from $2 million a year small enterprises to $500 million a year multinational corporations.
Over the course of his Dynamics NAV career, he has often been designated as the primary person responsible for the success and failure of a Dynamics NAV implementation. The fact that Alex is still in the Dynamics NAV business means that he’s been pretty lucky so far. His extensive career in the Dynamics NAV business is evidence of his success rate and expertise.
With a background in implementing all functions and modules both in and outside of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Alex has encountered and resolved the most practical to the most complex requirements and business rules. Through these experiences, he has learned that sometimes you have to be a little crazy to have a competitive edge.
Believing that sharing these experience and knowledge would benefit the Dynamics NAV community, Alex writes about his journey at www.dynamicsnavconsultant.com. He is also the founder of AP Commerce, Inc. (www.apcommerce.com) in 2005, a full service Dynamics NAV service center. In addition, Alex has written two books about Dynamics NAV titled Getting Started with Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Development and Implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV - Third Edition, both by Packt.
Alex lives in Southern California with his beautiful wife and two lovely daughters. He considers himself the luckiest man in the world.
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Acknowledgments
Marije Brummel
This book is the result of working with Microsoft Dynamics NAV® for almost 20 years and having had many discussions, debates, and even arguments with other people who are as passionate about the product as I am.
Being an early adopter of the software, I was very fortunate to be able to make many mistakes during my career and learn from them each time. Fundamental questions such as variable naming, user interface, and where to write code were all discussed many times and changed over the years.
Like many developers, I feel like a creative artist that needs to put his signature on his work. Unfortunately, this does not go well when writing solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When adopting the style of the base application, you will find that collaboration becomes easier and people will understand your efforts better than when you create your own style.
During the years I worked with the product, I've come to appreciate the structure of the base application. At a certain point in my career, I made an assumption that many of you might recognize. I started to treat what was done in the core product as "always correct".
In the past ten years, ever since I received my first MVP award, I got closer to the development team and was fascinated by the way the product was created and how issues are prioritized. I heard many stories from people who worked on the product in the early 90ies and started to realize that the core product is written by developers just like me and that many of the core components were acquired from partners who had their own development styles.
Over the years, I felt the core NAV product became 'polluted' and code was written in a less structured way, both by Microsoft and by NAV partners. Between 2006 and 2010, my core business was performance troubleshooting and upgrades. The code I saw in that period motivated me to write my first book about Application Design. This was my first effort to document the way Microsoft Dynamics NAV is designed and how application areas work together.
Special thanks go to two very important mentors I've had in my professional career –David Studebaker and Michael Nielsen. Dave and his wife Karen are very special friends and their knowledge and wisdom have been very important. Very often when I discuss an idea with Dave, he says things like, "Yes we did that in 1973 with Cobol." Michael has been my guardian angel at Microsoft for a decade, and now my colleague at ForNAV and personal friend.
I hope this book will inspire you, as it did me, to write software in a generic style that others will recognize and find easy to work with.
I'd also like to thank the reviewers as mentioned in the book but also Luc van Vugt who unofficially helped me with this book.
Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank my wife Dionel and my kids Josefien, Wesley, Saskia, and Daan. Thank you for allowing me to spend time writing these books and travel to the events where I can talk to others about this.
David Studebaker
I offer unbounded appreciation to Karen, my spouse and partner in both life and work, for your unflagging love, support, patience and encouragement in all ways.
Thank you to my co-authors, Marije Brummel and Christopher Studebaker, without whom this book would not have been possible. I am very fortunate to get to work with such knowledgeable experts as you, who are each special to me in your own way.
Thank you to Rebecca and Christopher, my children of whom I am very proud for your own achievements, for your love and support, and for your parenting of my wonderful grandchildren Alec, CeCe and Cole, who are the future.
Special thanks to Michael Nielsen of Microsoft for your wholehearted support of this and my previous four Programming NAV books. Many thanks to Marije Brummel, who knows more about NAV than almost anyone (except maybe Michael), for generously sharing your knowledge.
Thank you to all the people at Microsoft and Packt, as well as our technical reviewers and others, who assisted us with their contributions and advice (especially Luc van Vugt).
Family and friends are what make life worthwhile. All my life, I have had the benefit of inspiration, affection, and help from so many people. Thank you all.
Christopher Studebaker
First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, Karen and David Studebaker, for giving me the opportunity to start in the NAV world and allowing me the room to grow on my own. Of course, I could not have participated in this book if it weren't for my wife, Beth. Having worked within the NAV community for the past decade, I have worked with many wonderful people, most notably, my parents (of course), Betty Cronin, Kathy Nohr, Tommy Madsen, Susanne Priess, David Podjasek, Joy Bensur , Diane Beck, Chris Pashby, and Anthony Fairclough. Without them, I would not have been the NAV professional I am today.
Table of Contents
Preface
A brief history of NAV
The beginning
Single user PC Plus
Multi-user Navigator
Navision Financials for Windows
Growth and Mergers
Continuous enhancement
C/AL's Roots
What you should know
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Downloading the example code
Errata
Piracy
Questions
Introduction to NAV 2017
NAV 2017 - An ERP system
Financial management
Manufacturing
Supply chain management
Business Intelligence and reporting
Artificial Intelligence
Relationship Management
Human resource management
Project management
A developer's overview of NAV 2017
NAV object types
The C/SIDE Integrated Development Environment
Object Designer tool icons
C/AL programming language
NAV object and system elements
NAV functional terminology
User Interface
Hands-on development in NAV 2017
NAV 2017 development exercise scenario
Getting started with application design
Application tables
Designing a simple table
Creating a simple table
Pages
Standard elements of pages
List pages
Card pages
Document pages
Journal/Worksheet pages
Creating a List page
Creating a Card page
Creating some sample data
Creating a list report
Other NAV object types
Codeunits
Queries
MenuSuites
XMLports
Development backups and documentation
Review questions
Summary
Tables
An overview of tables
Components of a table
Naming tables
Table numbering
Table properties
Table triggers
Keys
SumIndexFields
Field Groups
Bricks
Enhancing our sample application
Creating and modifying tables
Assigning a table relation property
Assigning an InitValue property
Adding a few activity-tracking tables
New tables for our WDTU project
New list pages for our WDTU project
Keys, SumIndexFields, and TableRelations in our examples
Secondary keys and SumIndexFields
Table Relations
Modifying an original NAV table
Version List documentation
Types of table
Fully Modifiable tables
Master Data
Journal
Template
Entry tables
Subsidiary (Supplementary) tables
Register
Posted Document
Singleton
Temporary
Content Modifiable tables
System table
Read-Only tables
Virtual
Review questions
Summary
Data Types and Fields
Basic definitions used in NAV
Fields
Field properties
Field triggers
Field events
Data structure examples
Field numbering
Field and variable naming
Data types
Fundamental data types
Numeric data
String data
Date/Time data
Complex data types
Data structure
Objects
Automation
Input/Output
DateFormula
References and other data types
Data type usage
FieldClass property options
FieldClass - Normal
FieldClass - FlowField
FieldClass - FlowFilter
FlowFields and a FlowFilter for our application
Filtering
Experimenting with filters
Accessing filter controls
Development Environment filter access
Role Tailored Client filter access
Review questions
Summary
Pages - the Interactive Interface
Page Design and Structure Overview
Page Design guidelines
NAV 2017 Page structure
Types of pages
Role Center page
List page
Card page
Document page
FastTabs
ListPlus page
Worksheet (Journal) page
Confirmation Dialog page
Standard Dialog page
Navigate page
Navigate function
Special pages
Request page
Departments page
Page parts
FactBox Area
CardParts and ListParts
Charts
Chart Part
Chart Control Add-In
Page names
Page Designer
New Page wizard
Page Components
Page Triggers
Page properties
Page Preview Tool
Inheritance
WDTU Page Enhancement - part 1
Page Controls
Control types
Container controls
Group controls
Field controls
Page Part controls
Page Control triggers
Bound and Unbound Pages
WDTU Page Enhancement - part 2
Page Actions
Page Action types and subtypes
Action Groups
Navigation Pane Button actions
Actions Summary
Learning more
Patterns and creative plagiarism
Experimenting on your own
Experimentation
Review questions
Summary
Queries and Reports
Queries
Building a simple Query
Query and Query Component properties
Query properties
DataItem properties
Column properties
Reports
What is a report?
Four NAV report designers
NAV report types
Report types summarized
Report naming
Report components - overview
Report Structure
Report Data overview
Report Layout overview
Report data flow
Report components - detail
C/SIDE Report Properties
Visual Studio - Report Properties
Report triggers
Request Page Properties
Request Page Triggers
DataItem properties
DataItem triggers
Creating a Report in NAV 2017
Learn by experimentation
Report building - Phase 1
Report building - Phase 2
Report building - Phase 3
Modifying an existing report with Report Designer or Word
Runtime rendering
Inheritance
Interactive report capabilities
Interactive sorting
Interactive Visible / Not Visible
Request Page
Add a Request Page option
Processing-Only reports
Creative report plagiarism and Patterns
Review questions
Summary
Introduction to C/SIDE and C/AL
Understanding C/SIDE
Object Designer
Starting a new object
Accessing the Table Designer screen
Accessing the Page Designer
Accessing the Report Dataset Designer
Accessing the Codeunit Designer
Query Designer
XMLport Designer
MenuSuite Designer
Object Designer Navigation
Exporting objects
Importing objects
Import Table object changes
Text objects
Shipping changes as an extension
Some useful practices
Changing data definitions
Saving and compiling
Some C/AL naming conventions
Variables
C/AL Globals
C/AL Locals
Special working storage variables
C/SIDE programming
Non-modifiable functions
Modifiable functions
Custom functions
Creating a function
C/AL syntax
Assignment and punctuation
Expressions
Operators
Arithmetic operators and functions
Boolean operators
Relational operators and functions
Precedence of operators
Frequently used C/AL functions
MESSAGE function
ERROR function
CONFIRM function
STRMENU function
Record functions
SETCURRENTKEY function
SETRANGE function
SETFILTER function
GET function
FIND Functions
FIND ([Which]) options and the SQL Server alternates
Conditional statements
BEGIN-END compound statement
IF-THEN-ELSE statement
Indenting code
Some simple coding modifications
Adding field validation to a table
Adding code to a report
Lay out the new Report Heading
Saving and testing
Lookup related table data
Laying out the new report Body
Saving and testing
Handling user entered report options
Defining the Request Page
Finishing the processing code
Testing the completed report
Output to Excel
Review questions
Summary
Intermediate C/AL
C/AL Symbol Menu
Internal documentation
Source code management
Validation functions
TESTFIELD
FIELDERROR
INIT
VALIDATE
Date and Time functions
TODAY, TIME, and CURRENTDATETIME
WORKDATE
DATE2DMY function
DATE2DWY function
DMY2DATE and DWY2DATE functions
CALCDATE
Data conversion and formatting functions
ROUND function
FORMAT function
EVALUATE function
FlowField and SumIndexField functions
CALCFIELDS function
SETAUTOCALCFIELDS function
CALCSUMS function
CALCFIELDS and CALCSUMS comparison
Flow control
REPEAT-UNTIL
WHILE-DO
FOR-TO or FOR-DOWNTO
CASE-ELSE statement
WITH-DO statement
QUIT, BREAK, EXIT, and SKIP
QUIT function
BREAK function
EXIT function
SKIP function
Input and Output functions
NEXT function with FIND or FINDSET
INSERT function
MODIFY function
Rec and xRec
DELETE function
MODIFYALL function
DELETEALL function
Filtering
SETFILTER function
COPYFILTER and COPYFILTERS functions
GETFILTER and GETFILTERS functions
FILTERGROUP function
MARK function
CLEARMARKS function
MARKEDONLY function
RESET function
InterObject communication
Communication through data
Communication through function parameters
Communication via object calls
Enhancing the WDTU application
Modify table fields
Adding validation logic
Playlist Header validations
Creating the Playlist Subpage
Playlist Line validations
Creating a function for our Factbox
Creating a Factbox Page
Review questions
Summary
Advanced NAV Development Tools
NAV process flow
Initial Setup and Data Preparation
Transaction entry
Testing and Posting the Journal batch
Utilizing and maintaining the data
Data maintenance
Role Center pages
Role Center structure
Role Center activities page
Cue Groups and Cues
Cue source table
Cue Group Actions
System Part
Page Parts
Page Parts Not Visible
Page Part Charts
Page Parts for User Data
Navigation Pane and Action Menus
Action Designer
Creating a WDTU Role Center Ribbon
Action Groups / Ribbon Categories
Configuration/Personalization
Navigation Pane
Navigation Home Button
Navigation Departments Button
Other Navigation Buttons
XMLports
XMLport components
XMLport properties
XMLport triggers
XMLport data lines
The XMLport line properties
SourceType as Text
SourceType as Table
SourceType as Field
Element or Attribute
NodeType of Element
NodeType of Attribute
XMLport line triggers
DataType as Text
DataType as Table
DataType as Field
XMLport Request Page
Web services
Exposing a web service
Publishing a web service
Enabling web services
Determining what was published
XMLport - Web Services Integration example for WDTU
Review questions
Summary
Successful Conclusions
Creating new C/AL routines
Callable functions
Codeunit 358 - DateFilterCalc
Codeunit 359 - Period Form Management
FindDate function
NextDate function
CreatePeriodFormat function
Codeunit 365 - Format Address
Codeunit 396 - NoSeriesManagement
Function models to review and use
Management codeunits
Multi-language system
Multi-currency system
Navigate
Modifying for Navigate
Debugging in NAV 2017
Text Exports of Objects
Dialog function debugging techniques
Debugging with MESSAGE and CONFIRM
Debugging with DIALOG
Debugging with text output
Debugging with ERROR
The NAV 2017 Debugger
Activating the Debugger
Attaching the Debugger to a Session
Creating Break Events
The Debugger window
Ribbon Actions:
Changing code while debugging
C/SIDE Test-Driven Development
Other interfaces
Automation Controller
Linked Data Sources
NAV Application Server
Client Add-ins
Client Add-in construction
WDTU Client Add-in
Client Add-in comments
Creating an Extension
Table Changes
Page Changes
Events
Creating a WDTU extension
Step 1 - Load PowerShell
Step 2 - Create Delta files
Step 3 - Manifest XML file
Remembering the App ID
Step 4 - Create the NAVx package
Installing the Extension
Publishing an Extension
Verification
Extension installation and setup
Customizing Help
NAV development projects - general guidance
Knowledge is key
Data-focused design
Defining the required data views
Designing the data tables
Designing the user data access interface
Designing the data validation
Data design review and revision
Designing the Posting processes
Designing the supporting processes
Double-check everything
Design for efficiency
Disk I/O
Locking
Updating and Upgrading
Design for updating
Customization project recommendations
One change at a time
Testing
Database testing approaches
Testing in production
Using a testing database
Testing techniques
Deliverables
Finishing the project
Plan for upgrading
Benefits of upgrading
Coding considerations
Good documentation
Low-impact coding
Supporting material
Review questions
Summary
Preface
Welcome to the worldwide community ofMicrosoft Dynamics NAV developers. This is a collegial environment populated by C/AL developers who readily and generously share their knowledge. There are formal and informal organizations of NAV-focused users, developers, and vendor firms scattered around the globe and active on the Web. Our community continues to grow and prosper--now including over 110,000 user companies worldwide.
The information in this book will help you shorten your learning curve on how to program for the NAV 2017 ERP system using the C/AL language, the C/SIDE integrated development environment, and their capabilities. We hope you enjoy working with NAV as much as we have.
A brief history of NAV
Each new version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the result of inspiration and hard work along with some good fortune and expert technical investment over the last thirty years.
The beginning
Three college friends, Jesper Balser, Torben Wind, and Peter Bang, from Denmark Technical University (DTU) founded their computer software business in 1984 when they were in their early twenties; that business was Personal Computing & Consulting (PC & C), and its first product was called PC Plus.
Single user PC Plus
PC Plus was released in 1985 with a primary goal of ease of use. An early employee said its functional design was inspired by the combination of a manual ledger journal, an Epson FX 80 printer, and a Canon calculator. Incidentally, Peter Bang is the grandson of one of the founders of Bang & Olufsen, the manufacturer of home entertainment systems par excellence.
PC Plus was PC DOS-based, a single user system. PC Plus' design features included the following:
An interface resembling the use of documents and calculators
Online help
Good exception handling
Minimal computer resources required
The PC Plus product was marketed through dealers in Denmark and Norway.
Multi-user Navigator
In 1987, PC & C released a new product, the multi-user Navigator, and a new corporate name, Navision. Navigator was quite a technological leap forward. It included the following:
Client/Server technology
Relational database
Transaction-based processing
Version management
High-speed OLAP capabilities (SIFT technology)
A screen painter tool
A programmable report writer
In 1990, Navision was expanding its marketing and dealer recruitment efforts into Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Also in 1990, V3 of Navigator was released. Navigator V3 was still a character-based system, albeit a very sophisticated one. If you had an opportunity to study Navigator V3.x, you would instantly recognize the roots of today's NAV product. By V3, the product included:
A design based on object-oriented concepts
Integrated 4GL Table, Form, and Report Design tools (the IDE)
Structured exception handling
Built-in resource management
The original programming language that became C/AL
Function libraries
The concept of regional or country-based localization
When Navigator V3.5 was released, it also included support for multiple platforms and multiple databases. Navigator V3.5 would run on both Unix and Windows NT networks. It supported Oracle and Informix databases as well as the one developed in-house.
At about this time, several major strategic efforts were initiated. On the technical side, the decision was made to develop a GUI-based product. The first prototype of Navision Financials (for Windows) was shown in 1992. At about the same time, a relationship was established that would take Navision into distribution in the United States. The initial release in the US in 1995 was V3.5 of the character-based product, rechristened Avista for US distribution.
Navision Financials for Windows
In 1995, Navision Financials V1.0 for Microsoft Windows was released. This product had many (but not all) of the features of Navigator V3.5. It was designed for complete look-and-feel compatibility with Windows 95. There was an effort to provide the ease of use and flexibility of development of Microsoft Access. The new Navision Financials was very compatible with Microsoft Office and was thus sold as "being familiar to any Office user". Like any V1.0 product, it was quickly followed by a much improved V1.1.
In the next few years, Navision continued to be improved and enhanced. Major new functionalities, such as the following, were added:
Contact Relation Management (CRM)
Manufacturing (ERP)
Advanced Distribution (including Warehouse Management)
Various Microsoft certifications were obtained, providing muscle to the marketing efforts. Geographic and dealer-based expansion continued apace. By 2000, according to the Navision Annual Report of that year, the product was represented by nearly 1,000 dealers (Navision Solution Centers) in 24 countries and used by 41,000 customers located in 108 countries.
Growth and Mergers
In 2000, Navision Software A/S, and its primary Danish competitor, Damgaard A/S, merged. Product development and new releases continued for the primary products of both original firms (Navision and Axapta). In 2002, the now much larger Navision Software, with all its products (Navision, Axapta, and the smaller, older C5, and XAL) was purchased by Microsoft, becoming part of the Microsoft Business Systems division along with the previously purchased Great Plains Software business, and its several product lines. The Navision and Great Plains products all received a common rebranding as the Dynamics product line. Navision was renamed Dynamics NAV.
Continuous enhancement
As early as 2003, research began with the Dynamics NAV development team, planning moves to further enhance NAV and taking advantage of various parts of the Microsoft product line. Goals were defined to increase integration with products such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Goals were also set to leverage the functional capabilities of Visual Studio and SQL Server, among others. All the while, there was a determination not to lose the strength and flexibility of the base product.
NAV 2009 was released in late 2008, NAV 2013 in late 2012, followed by NAV 2015 in late 2014. NAV2017, the version on which this book is based, was released in October 2016. The biggest hurdles to the new technologies have been cleared. A new user interface, the Role Tailored Client, was created as part of this renewal. NAV was tightly integrated with Microsoft’s SQL Server and other Microsoft products, such as Office, Outlook, and SharePoint. Development is more integrated with Visual Studio and is more .NET compliant. The product is becoming more open and, at the same time, more sophisticated, supporting features such as Web Services access, Web and tablet clients, integration of third-party controls, RDLC and Word based reporting, and so on
Microsoft continues to invest in, enhanced and advanced NAV. More new capabilities and features are yet to come, continuing to build on the successes of the past. We all benefit.
C/AL's Roots
One of the first questions asked by people new to C/AL is often "what other programming language is it like?" The best response is "Pascal". If the questioner is not familiar with Pascal, the next best response would be "C" or "C#".
At the time the three founders of Navision were attending classes at Denmark Technical University (DTU), Pascal was in wide use as a preferred language not only in computer courses, but in other courses where computers were tools and software had to be written for data analyses. Some of the strengths of Pascal as a tool in an educational environment also served to make it a good model for Navision's business applications development.
Perhaps coincidentally (perhaps not) at DTU in this same time period, a Pascal compiler called Blue Label Pascal was developed by Anders Hejlsberg; that compiler became the basis for what was Borland's Turbo Pascal, which was the "everyman's compiler" of the 1980s because of its low price. Anders went with his Pascal compiler to Borland. While he was there, Turbo Pascal morphed into the Delphi language and IDE tool set under his guidance.
Anders later left Borland and joined Microsoft, where he led the C# design team. Much of the NAV-related development at Microsoft is now being done in C#. So, the Pascal-C/AL-DTU connection has come full circle, only now it appears to be C#-C/AL. Keeping it in the family, Anders' brother, Thomas Hejlsberg also works at Microsoft on NAV as a software architect. Each in their own way, Anders and Thomas continue to make significant contributions to Dynamics NAV.
In a discussion about C/AL and C/SIDE, Michael Nielsen of Navision and Microsoft, who developed the original C/AL compiler, runtime, and IDE, said that the design criteria were to provide an environment that could be used without the following:
Dealing with memory and other resource handling
Thinking about exception handling and state
Thinking about database transactions and rollbacks
Knowing about set operations (SQL)
Knowing about OLAP (SIFT)
Paraphrasing some of Michael's additional comments, goals of the language and IDE designs were to :
Allowing the developer to focus on design, not coding, but still allow flexibility
Providing a syntax based on Pascal stripped of complexities, especially, relating to memory management
Providing a limited set of predefined object types and reducing the complexity and learning curve
Implementing database versioning for a consistent and reliable view of the database
Making the developer and end user more at home by borrowing a large number of concepts from Office, Windows, Access, and other Microsoft products
Michael is now a co-founder and partner at ForNAV. Michael and his fellow team members are all about developing high quality reporting enhancements for Dynamics NAV with the goal of making working with reports easy. Another example of how, once part of the NAV community, most of us want to stay part of that community.
What you should know
To get the maximum out of this book as a developer, you should have the following attributes:
Be an experienced developer
Know more than one programming language
Have IDE experience
Be knowledgeable about business applications
Be good at self-directed study
If you have these attributes, this book will help you become productive with C/AL and NAV much more rapidly.
Even though this book is targeted first at developers, it is also designed to be useful to executives, consultants, managers, business owners, and others who want to learn about the development technology and operational capabilities of Dynamics NAV. If you fit in one of these, or similar, categories, start by studying Chapter 1 for a good overview of NAV and its tools. Then, you should review sections of other chapters as the topics apply to your specific areas of interest.
This book's illustrations are from the W1 Cronus database Dynamics NAV V2017.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to NAV 2017 , starts with an overview of NAV as a business application system, which is followed by an introduction to the seven types of NAV objects, and the basics of C/AL and C/SIDE. Then, we will do some hands-on work, defining Tables, multiple Page types, and a Report. We’ll close with a brief discussion of how backups and documentations are handled in C/SIDE.
Chapter 2, Tables, focuses on the foundation level of NAV data structure: Tables and their structures. We will cover Properties, Triggers (where C/AL resides), Field Groups, Table Relations, and SumIndexFields. We’ll work our way through hands-on creation of several tables in support of our example application. We will also review the types of tables found in the NAV applications.
Chapter 3, Data Types and Fields, teaches you about fields, the basic building blocks of NAV data structure. We will review the different Data Types in NAV and cover all the field properties and triggers in detail, as well as review the three different Field Classes. We’ll conclude with a discussion about the concept of filtering and how it should be considered in database structure design.
Chapter 4, Pages - the Interactive Interface, reviews the different types of pages, their structures (Triggers, Properties), and general usage. We’ll build several pages for our example application using the Page Wizard and Page Designer. We will also study the different types of controls that can be used in pages. In addition, we’ll review how and where actions are added to pages.
Chapter 5, Queries and Reports, teaches you about both Queries and Reports--two methods of extracting data for presentation to users. For Queries, we will study how they are constructed and some of the ways they are utilized. For Reports, we will walk through report data flow and the variety of different report types. We will study the two Report Designers, the C/SIDE Report Designer and the Visual Studio Report Designer and how a NAV report is constructed using both of these. We’ll learn what aspects of reports use one designer and what aspects use the other. As in previously studied objects, we will discuss Properties and Triggers. We will review how reports can be made interactive and will do some hands-on report creation.
Chapter 6, Introduction to C/SIDE and C/AL, explains general Object Designer Navigation as well as the individual Designers (Table, Page, Report). We’ll study C/AL code construction, syntax, variable types, expressions, operators, and functions. We will then take a closer look at some of the more frequently used built-in functions. This chapter will wrap up with an exercise adding some C/AL code to a report objects created in an earlier exercise.
Chapter 7, Intermediate C/AL, digs deeper into C/AL development tools and techniques. We will review some more advanced built-in functions, including those relating to dates and decimal calculations, both critical business application tools. We’ll study C/AL functions that support process flow control functions, input/output, and filtering. Then, we’ll do a review of methods of communication between objects. Finally, we’ll apply some of what we’ve learned to enhance our example application.
Chapter 8, Advanced NAV Development Tools, reviews some of the more important elements of the Role Tailored User Experience; in particular, the Role Center Page construction. We will dig into the components of a Role Center Page and how to build one. We’ll also cover two of the powerful ways of connecting NAV applications to the world outside of NAV, XMLports, and Web Services. To better understand these, we will not only review their individual component parts, but we will go through the hands-on effort of building an example of each one.
Chapter 9, Successful Conclusions, gives you a detailed study of how NAV functions are constructed and teaches you how to construct your own functions. We will learn more about tools and features built into C/AL and C/SIDE. We will study the new debugger, review the support for Test-Driven Development, and take a look at the ability to integrate .NET Client Add-ins and integrate a .NET Add-in into our example applications. Finally, we will review tips for design efficiency, updating, and upgrading the system, all with the goal of helping us become more productive, high quality NAV developers.
What you need for this book
You will need some basic tools, including at least the following:
A license and database that you can use for development experimentation. The ideal license is a full Developer's license. If your license only contains the Page, Report, and Table Designer capabilities, you will still be able to do many of the exercises, but you will not have access to the inner workings of Pages and Tables and the C/AL code contained therein.
A copy of the NAV Cronus demo/test database for your development testing and study. It would be ideal if you also had a copy of a production database at hand for examination as well. This book's illustrations are from the W1 Cronus database for V2017.
The hardware and software requirements for installing and running Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be found at
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-nav/system-requirements-for-microsoft-dynamics-nav
.
Access to other NAV manuals, training materials, websites, and experienced associates will obviously be of benefit, but they are not required for the time with this book to be a good investment.
Who this book is for
This book is for:
The business applications software designer/developer who:
Wants to become productive in NAV C/SIDE—C/AL development as quickly as possible
Understands business applications and the type of software required to support those applications
Has significant programming experience
Has access to a copy of NAV 2017, including at least the Designer granules and a standard Cronus demo database
Is willing to do the exercises to get hands-on experience
The Reseller manager or executive who wants a concise, in-depth view of NAV's development environment and tool set
The technically knowledgeable manager or executive of a firm using NAV that is about to embark on a significant NAV enhancement project
The technically knowledgeable manager or executive of a firm considering purchase of NAV as a highly customizable business applications platform
The experienced business analyst, consultant, or advanced student of applications software development who wants to learn more about NAV because it is one of the most widely used, most flexible business application systems available
The reader of this book:
Does not need to be an expert in object-oriented programming
Does not need previous experience with NAV, C/AL, or C/SIDE
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "The Customer table would be filtered to report only customers who have an outstanding balance greater than zero."
A block of code is set as follows:
CalculateNewDate;"Date Result" := CALCDATE("Date Formula to Test","Reference Date for Calculation");
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Click on Preview to see the Report display onscreen."
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Introduction to NAV 2017
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has one of the largest installed user bases of any enterprise resource planning (ERP) system serving over 100,000 companies and one million plus individual users at the time of this writing. The community of supporting organizations, consultants, implementers, and developers continues to grow and prosper. The capabilities of the off-the-shelf product increase with every release. The selection of the add-on products and services expands both in variety and depth.
The release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 continues its 20+ year history of continuous product improvement. It provides more user options for access and output formatting. For new installations, NAV 2017 includes tools for rapid implementation. For all installations, it provides enhanced business functionality and more support for ERP computing in the cloud, including integration with Microsoft Office 365.
NAV 2017 is also the base foundation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials, which is a cloud-based subset of the product that you can customize using extensions. We will discuss the concept of extensions in this book.
Our goal in this chapter is to gain a big picture understanding of NAV 2017. You will be able to envision how NAV can be used by the managers (or owners) of an organization to help manage activities and the resources, whether the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit. You will also be introduced to the technical side of NAV from a developer's point of view.
In this chapter, we will take a look at NAV 2017, including the following:
A general overview of NAV 2017
A technical overview of NAV 2017
A hands-on introduction to C/SIDE development in NAV 2017
NAV 2017 - An ERP system
NAV 2017 is an integrated set of business applications designed to service a wide variety of business operations. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 is an ERP system. An ERP system integrates internal and external data across a variety of functional areas including manufacturing, accounting, supply chain management, customer relationships, service operations, and human resources management, as well as the management of other valued resources and activities. By having many related applications well integrated, a full featured ERP system provides an enter data once, use many ways information processing toolset.
NAV 2017 ERP addresses the following functional areas (and more):
Basic accounting functions (for example, general ledger, accounts payable, and accounts receivable)
Order processing and inventory (for example, sales orders, purchase orders, shipping, inventory, and receiving)
Relationship management (for example, vendors, customers, prospects, employees, and contractors)
Planning (for example, MRP, sales forecasting, and production forecasting)
Other critical business areas (for example, manufacturing, warehouse management, marketing, cash management, and fixed assets)
A good ERP system such as NAV 2017 is modular in design, which simplifies implementation, upgrading, modification, integration with third-party products, and expansion for different types of clients. All the modules in the system share a common database and, where appropriate, common data.
The groupings of individual NAV 2017 functions following is based on the Departments menu structure, supplemented by information from Microsoft marketing materials. The important thing is to understand the overall components that make up the NAV 2017 ERP system:
NAV 2017 has two quite different styles of user interface (UI). One UI, the development environment, targets developers. The other UI style, the RoleTailored client, targets end users. In NAV 2017, there are four instances of the RoleTailored client - for Windows, for web interaction, for tablet use, and a phone client, which was introduced in NAV 2016. The example images in the following module descriptions are from the RoleTailored client's Departments menu in the Windows client.
Financial management
Financial management is the foundation of any ERP system. No matter what the business is, the money must be kept flowing, and the flow of money must be tracked. The tools that help to manage the capital resources of the business are part of NAV 2017's Financial Management module. These include all or part of the following application functions:
General ledger - managing overall finances of the firm
Cash management and banking - managing inventory of money
Accounts receivable - tracking incoming revenue
Accounts payable - tracking outgoing funds
Analytical accounting - analyzing various flows of funds
Inventory and fixed assets - managing inventories of goods and equipment
Multi-currency and multi - language-supporting international business activities
The Financial Management section of the Departments menu is as follows:
Manufacturing
NAV 2017 manufacturing is general-purpose enough to be appropriate for Make to Stock (MTS), Make to Order (MTO), and Assemble to Order (ATO), as well as various subsets and combinations of those. Although off-the-shelf NAV is not particularly suitable for most process manufacturing and some of the very high volume assembly line operations, there are third-party add-on and add-in enhancements available for these applications. As with most of the NAV application functions, manufacturing can be implemented to be used in a basic mode or as a full featured system. NAV manufacturing includes the following functions:
Product design (BOMs and routings) - managing the structure of product components and the flow of manufacturing processes
Capacity and supply requirements planning - tracking the intangible and tangible manufacturing resources
Production scheduling (infinite and finite), execution, and tracking quantities and costs, plus tracking the planned use manufacturing resources, both on an unconstrained and constrained basis
The Manufacturing section of the Departments menu is as follows:
Supply chain management
Obviously, some of the functions categorized as part of NAV 2017 supply chain management (SCM), for example, sales and purchasing) are actively used in almost every NAV implementation. The supply chain applications in NAV include all or parts of the following applications:
Sales order processing and pricing - supporting the heart of every business
Purchasing (including Requisitions) - planning, entering, pricing, and processing purchase orders
Inventory management - managing inventories of goods and materials
Warehouse management including receiving and shipping - managing the receipt, storage, retrieval, and shipment of material and goods in warehouses
Even though we might consider Assembly part of Manufacturing, the standard NAV 2017 Departments menu includes it in the Warehouse section:
As a whole, these functions constitute the base components of a system appropriate for distribution operations, including those that operate on an ATO basis.
Business Intelligence and reporting
Although Microsoft marketing materials identify Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting as though it were a separate module within NAV, it's difficult to physically identify it as such. Most of the components used for BI and reporting purposes are (appropriately) scattered throughout various application areas. In the words of one Microsoft document, Business Intelligence is a strategy, not a product. Functions within NAV that support a BI strategy include the following:
Standard reports - distributed ready-to-use by end users
Account schedules and analysis reports - a specialized report writer for
General Ledger
data
Query, XMLport and Report designers - developer tools to support the creation of a wide variety of report formats, charts, and XML and CSV files
Analysis by dimensions - a capability embedded in many of the other tools
Interfaces into Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office 365 including Excel-communications of data either into NAV or out of NAV
RDLC report viewer - provides the ability to present NAV data in a variety of textual and graphic formats, including user interactive capabilities
Interface capabilities such as DotNet interoperability and web services - technologies to support interfaces between NAV 2017 and external software products
NAV 2017 has standard packages for
Power BI
, both integrated on the role center as well as dashboards
Artificial Intelligence
A new feature of NAV 2017 is integration with Cortana intelligence, which is used for forecasting. The algorithms used in Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used to give users extra information to make business decisions.
Relationship Management
NAV's Relationship Management (RM) functionality is definitely the little sister (or, if you prefer, little brother) of the fully featured standalone Microsoft CRM system and the new Dynamics 365 for Sales and Dynamics 365 for Marketing. The big advantage of NAV RM is its tight integration with NAV customer and sales data. With NAV 2016, Microsoft introduced a new way of integrating with CRM using OData.
Also falling under the heading of the customer relationship module is the NAV Service Management (SM
