ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 107

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Report with Export to Excel Functionality not Formatting Numbers Properly

Pandiyan ran into an issue with number formatting in Excel and I wanted to ask if anyone has come across this issue. It’s an issue in a report with export to Excel functionality. The Excel value shows item number in TEXT format vs. numeric. For example, the item no. should be displayed as 12345.10, instead it shows 123+4E. I have tried putting 4 single quotes which I read in some blogs will work, but did not have the desired result. It displays the item no. correctly but adds a leading single quote to it. Does anybody have any idea on how to resolve this? NAV 2015 is the version.

Denise Blaisdell responds:
If you are using an Excel buffer table then you can format the AddColumn like this:

ExcelBuf.AddColumn(AmountDueToPrint,FALSE,'',FALSE,FALSE,FALSE,'#,##0.00',ExcelBuf."Cell Type"::Number);

This number formatting works fine if the item no. is a numeric value. It doesn't work for alpha numeric item numbers.

Comment below if you've had the same issue.

Microsoft Says the Cloud is a Security Game Changer

Tim Rains, Microsoft Director of Security, talks with “The Record” about the latest security threats and the highest ranking ones for their customers, as well as why he believes the cloud ups the security game.

If you want to learn more about new security enhancements in NAV 2016, register for our webinar on September 21^st.

Wellness Update

ArcherPoint employee owners recently had a 30-day virtual wellness challenge, where we encouraged, inspired (and perhaps taunted) each other to live healthier and get moving. One very interesting article shared during the challenge is this one by Jeff Haden, revealing the one thing to do before starting an exercise regimen.

Speaking of health, we all know happiness is a key factor in our overall health and outlook on life. In this article, Travis Bradberry highlights (or should I say lowlights?) the 10 Troubling Habits of Chronically Unhappy People.  

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of NAV How-To blogs.

If you found this post useful, you might also be interested to read through our archive of the Dynamics NAV Developer Digest.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 108

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Project Madeira updates

Curious about the functionality of Project Madeira? Aleksandar Totovic shares how to create an invoice from Outlook Calendar in Project Madeira and NAV 2017.

MSDynamicsWorld.com interviews MVP Suresh Kulla

We’re celebrating our very own Suresh Kulla’s first year as a Microsoft MVP! Here’s a nice article by Linda Rosencrance from MSDynamics World.

Give your favorite MVPs a shout out in the comments below.

Exporting Detailed Data out of QuickBooks

We understand getting your data can be frustrating. Here are some tips on how to export detailed data from QuickBooks:

From Brian Winfrey: Hello all! Wondering if anyone has experience in exporting detailed Invoice, Sales Order, A/R, or A/P reports out of QuickBooks? We are nearing Go-Live for a customer and are now working on importing the Open A/R and A/P, but the customer is having problems pulling the detailed information out of their existing QuickBooks account. We are hoping to run a data dump of their transactions including header and line level data. Any help would be appreciated!

Reply from Helle: The customer should be able to get the data into Excel - at least on the header level. If they look for invoice transactions under the Customer center, they can click Export, and then choose Excel or csv file. Beforehand, they should filter by Open Invoices and correct date range.

On the vendor side (A/P), there's a report called Unpaid Bills Detail that displays Open Balance, which is similar to the Collections Report for A/R. All QuickBooks reports can be exported directly to Excel when you are previewing them.

You will probably still have to manipulate the spreadsheet, but at least it gives you some data to work with.

When it Comes to Productivity, Focus on Skills First

In this HBR article, Maura Thomas points out that the best gadgets and software tools intended to improve productivity won’t help at all if it doesn’t support existing workflow methodologies. Before investing in software to remedy your time management problems, first ask what problem specifically it is intended to solve, and examine what is currently being done. Read Until You Have Productivity Skills, Productivity Tools Are Useless.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of NAV How-To blogs.

If you found this post useful, you might also be interested to read through our archive of the Dynamics NAV Developer Digest.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 103

The ArcherPoint technical staff—made up of developers, project managers, and consultants – is constantly communicating internally, with the goal of sharing helpful information with one another.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them companywide on Yammer for everyone’s benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this group—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share them with the rest of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Community? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from the ArcherPoint staff. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

This week on Yammer…

Were you looking for an easy-to-read list of Dynamics NAV Shortcut Keys and Dynamics NAV Filters? Look no further, these can now be found on our website in the Resource center, on the White Papers, Quick Guides, and Data Sheets page.  Please download, print, and share!

Hey Windows users! Ready to meet your fairy godmother? Introducing Dona Sarkar, the Windows veteran that has been quietly making life easier for 1.5 billion people, is named the new leader of the Microsoft Windows Insider Program. Check out the full article.

Have you been wondering if there is recipe and formula management in Dynamics NAV? Well, you’re not alone. And you in luck. We have several clients using base NAV to manage their recipes/formulas, and it does it very well.

What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little has dug a little deeper and investigated the moments when we transcend those traits: sometimes because our culture demands it of us, and sometimes because we demand it of ourselves. Join Little as he dissects the surprising differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why your personality may be more malleable than you think. View this TED Talk, Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality.

Lastly, if you’re looking to learn over the summer, the Stanford Graduate School of Business shares Eight Books for Your Summer Reading List. Happy reading!

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of NAV How-To blogs.

If you found this post useful, you might also be interested to read through our archive of the Dynamics NAV Developer Digest.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 109

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

FedEx Change Prevents Dynamics NAV Users from Shipping

FedEx made an unexpected XML change that affects customers running Lanham's FedEx solution in NAV 2009 R2 and previous NAV versions. Customers running NAV 2013 and newer versions should NOT need an update. Lanham’s communication follows:

In order to make this update as easy as possible we have created:

• a changelog to help resolve the issue, and
• instructions on how to reopen FedEx packages that have been closed but did not return tracking information.

PLEASE NOTE: Some customers impacted by this situation had their shipping capabilities disrupted, and contacted FedEx directly. In many cases, FedEx rolled back the XML change individually for the affected customers. We are not aware of details around individual arrangements made between FedEx and individual customers, but we do know that they will still need to implement the changelog to move forward with E-Ship FedEx.

ArcherPoint’s communication: A code change is required to update your system which will take up to two hours of development time. ArcherPoint clients may submit a ticket via email to support@archerpoint.com or through the support portal. Please note that ArcherPoint is experiencing a backlog of these service requests so it may be a day or two until the assigned resource can reach out, but we are working hard to help resolve this issue for our clients.

Vote for Dynamics NAV Product Improvements on Microsoft Connect

Saurav Dhyani posts:

There is new functionality in NAV 2016 CU9 and NAV 2015 CU 21, specifically the ability to disable “Save as Word” and Excel in Reports. It has been suggested on Microsoft Connect to improve this. The suggestion is "Add configuration setting for disabling saving reports with an RDLC layout as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel documents", submitted by Robert Wendler.

This is a configuration that applies to the Service Tier, and can only be used if a customer decides that either they want to disable it for all users, or they want it for a specific group of users working on a separate service tier. If you would like to have this feature to be configured per report, please vote for this idea on Microsoft Connect, (login required): https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions/feedback/details/2911318 

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Cumulative Updates Available

• NAV 2016 Cumulative Update 10 has been released
• NAV 2015 Cumulative Update 22 has been released
• NAV 2013 R2 Cumulative Update 34 has been released
• NAV 2013 Cumulative Update 41 has been released

Leadership:

Great thought-provoking information shared by Dan Sass (another HBR article worth reading)

Look at business models instead of vertical industries. Four simple ways that companies create growth and value:

• Asset Builders make and sell physical things
• Service Providers use people to offer services
• Technology Creators generate and deliver intellectual property (software and data)
• Network Orchestrators facilitate transactions and interactions within a network

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

For step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of NAV How-To blogs.

If you found this post useful, you might also be interested to read through our archive of the Dynamics NAV Developer Digest.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 110

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Issue with Avalara AvaTax and NAV2009 R2

Denise Blaisdell: BEWARE... NAV2009 and R2 require you to uninstall and re-install the .exe for Avalara on the server as well as local workstations. For clean installs, rebooting the server/workstations after install is required. For server/workstations already installed with an old version, the uninstall leaves registry remnants causing the new version install to fail causing automation server errors when calling the AVA code.

HELP! Has anyone seen this before and more importantly does anyone know how to clean up the registry so that the new version .dll will take effect?

Kyle Hardin: It is possible for us to figure out how to remove the orphaned registry entries, but it will be difficult. If Avalara can tell us what the registry remnants are, then this will be much easier.

Denise: This is the official resolution from Avalara: There are couple of ways you can uninstall old AvaTax NAV 2009 connectors that will remove the .dll from the registry.

Option 1: Run the old setup.exe. You will have an option to uninstall the old connector.

Option 2: Go to Add / Remove Program. There you will find an entry for AvaTax NAV connector. Uninstall that.

You can also search registry for any AvaTax entry after that. That will make sure that you do not have any AvaTax related entries in the registry.

We normally do not recommend any manual action in the registry as this may cause some system issue.

Kyle: Ask them to give you details on the manual registry removal, just in case the old setup.exe doesn't clear everything out.

Denise: The official resolution did not resolve the issue. Neither did the not recommended resolution. We have to keep in mind that the client is trying these resolutions on their own, and we have no idea if they are missing anything. Therefore, we are scheduling a conference call with Avalara's support guys this afternoon to review the workstations issue.

I do not recommend any manual change in your system registry.

SOLUTION: You need to RUN INSTALL AS ADMINISTRATOR! Yes, it is really this  simple.
If you install as administrator then you can register the .dll manually by going to the Command Prompt.
Go the directory where the bat file is
cd:\Program Files (x86)\Avalara\Avatax Connect Adaptor\Bin\
then type in Register.bat
C:\Program Files (x86)\Avalara\Avatax Connect Adaptor\Bin\Register.bat

Avalara Issue with Partial Invoicing

PARTIAL INVOICING - AVA-CL issue where total order tax is included in the Credit Card settlement if using ChargeLogic. A simple one line change will add the tax per line invoiced instead of the total order tax. CU 140728335 EFT Source Doc Mgt. in the GetSalesAmountsForcombineShip function. IF i<>2 THEN.......where the 2 is for Invoicing (1 is ordered and 3 is shipping).

TotalAmount1[i] :=

TotalSalesLine[i]."Line Amount" - TotalSalesLine[i]."Inv. Discount Amount";

IF i<>2 THEN //SFI0003A

VATAmount[i] := TempSalesTaxLine1.GetTotalTaxAmount * ExchangeFactor;

IF SalesHeader."Prices Including VAT" THEN

TotalAmount2[i] := TotalSalesLine[i].Amount

ELSE

TotalAmount2[i] := TotalAmount1[i] + VATAmount[i];

END;

END;

EXIT(TotalAmount2[AmountType + 1]);
 

Disk Usage 100% in Windows 10

From Saurav Dhyani: If anyone is facing an issue of Disk Usage at 100% in Windows 10 like me, please follow the steps in this article in the Microsoft Community.

There are additional to steps for Skype or Lync. For Google Chrome disable. Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly and protect your device from dangerous sites.
​

Leadership

Harvard Business Review has some nuggets of wisdom for us as usual:

There’s No Such Thing As an Average Business, Just Average Ways to Do Business

Getting Teams with Different Subcultures to Collaborate

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 111

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Project Madeira Update August 2016

On August 29, Microsoft made a new update of Project “Madeira” available for you, with additional capabilities and new extensions.

The latest update of Project "Madeira" includes new capabilities which are detailed in Microsoft’s announcement blog.

At a glance:

Smart Notifications give Advice and Recommendations

With this update, you'll notice such notifications display when you create a sales invoice for a customer that has an overdue balance, or when the amount in the sales document exceeds the credit limit specified for the customer. For more information, see Smart Notifications.

New Sales and Inventory Forecast Extension

In this update, we introduce the new Sales and Inventory Forecast Extension that provides insights about potential sales and a clear overview of expected stock-outs. The extension uses Cortana Intelligence to predict future sales based on sales history to help avoid inventory shortage. For more information, see Sales and Inventory Forecast.

Smarter Sales and Purchase Documents

We've made several small but important improvements to sales and purchase documents such as: ability to cancel posted credit memos; sales invoices now include package tracking number and shipping agent code; and the ability to cross reference and substitute items.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 112

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Importing Multi-Currency Open Accounts Payable Invoices

Tom Marshello asks: “Does anyone have any experience importing multi-currency open AP invoices? I am trying to bring in some invoices in YEN. I loaded the currency factor that would make everything tie in USD in the import and the Purchase Journal accepted it just fine, but when I post the journal, NAV decides to ignore the fact that I entered the currency factor and looks to the currency table and uses the conversion rate from there, instead of basing it on the posting date.

We figured out that we can just load the historical exchange rates and drive NAV to use those by its posting date, but it was a bit frustrating to learn that NAV has a mind of its own regarding currency factors that I entered in the journal. It’s like dealing with a kid at times. Or maybe I am just a bad parent and didn't provide the right incentive (most likely a problem between the keyboard and the chair). Help, anyone?”

Trish Maes asks: “Tom, is the YEN also set as the Additional Reporting Currency in this company?”

Resolution: “Trish, thanks for talking through this with me today. I am happy to report that the problem is solved. You were correct that RapidStart was not validating the currency factor; re-entering them in the journal fixed the issue. You are a Rock Star! Thanks!”

The Debate on Extensions and Weighing the Impact on Partners

In Jason Gumpert’s article on MSDynamicsWorld.com, he outlines the upcoming releases of Dynamics NAV (2017 and the Financials portion of Dynamics 365), outlining the impact of NAV Extensions for Upgrades, Partners, User Licensing, and the future impact. Read the full article on the Extension Debate (login required).

Are We Moving to Visual Studio Completely?

Saurav asks this after seeing the Directions 2016 session line up, noting a session done by Stuart Glasson and Esben Nyhuus Kristoffersen titled, “C/AL in Visual Studio Code.” It’s an interactive session about building extensions, new tools and compiler, events, and AppSource. There is much discussion and speculation, but Matt Traxinger reminds us, “It only makes sense. Just remember, everyone, Visual Studio is not the same as C# or other .NET Languages. They are not synonymous. C/AL isn't going anywhere.”

Leadership Learnings

I love this HBR article shared by Dan Sass on how Bad Writing is Destroying Your Company’s Productivity. It can also destroy your brand.

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

Auto-Testing: Good Thing or Not So Much of a Good Thing?

In the Microsoft World

In theory, I completely agree with auto-testing. In the past, I've been on development teams that heavily leaned on unit and system testing. However, at least in NAV practice, I can see a huge imbalance between test maintenance and benefit.

Microsoft runs tests on all their supported NAV versions twice a day. With monthly cumulative updates and multiple language versions, there are hundreds of public branches of NAV actively being developed, built and delivered on a monthly basis at Microsoft; the main branch with roughly a million lines of code. Microsoft supports hundreds of databases used by over 100,000 clients. So, for Microsoft, a test plan is written once for each version, and, the benefit is enormous.

In a “Normal” World

A typical client’s database represents a single version being used by a single client. Test plans and scripts take the same amount of time to write whether it’s supported by one client or 200,000. For ArcherPoint clients, each test plan would take 10 to 100 times longer to create than manually testing the same functionality. The payoff would not come soon enough to realize any gains at all.

Compounding the uphill battle for auto-testing gains in a single user system is frequent customizations. Every time a customization is introduced, new tests will need to be added and old tests will break. I can't imagine re-writing test plans during an upgrade. During the upgrade, the test phase is traditionally a manual process performed entirely by the clients’ key users. Theoretically, if we were to write auto tests for all of their functional processes, we could eliminate some of this test phase. However, at what cost? Certainly it would add cost to the upgrade project.

Auto-testing adds cost to an upgrade. It adds cost period. What is the gain and when is that gain realized?

Don’t get me wrong, I love writing auto test scripts. And there’s no better feeling than seeing the green light after running an auto-test that just posted 15,000 sales orders. But, is it worth the cost for our clients? Maybe in multi-tenant environments? Can we automate some, without adding too much cost? Can anyone see any low hanging fruit in auto-testing? Is auto-testing a good thing or not so much of a good thing? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this - please comment on this post below.

For more on testing in NAV (auto and manual), and NAV in general, please visit our resource center.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 113

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 114

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Financials and Trade Bootcamp

Ready for intensive Dynamics NAV training? Microsoft is offering a two-week training program in their Dallas office October 17-28.

Curriculum includes:

• 80439: Introduction in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• 80435: Application Setup in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• 80534: Finance Essentials in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• 80535: Finance Advanced in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• 80263: Multi Site Operations in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
• 80440: Trade in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Register before it’s too late!

The Upcoming Azure Hardware Stack

Curious about Microsoft Azure? Watch this video (11 minutes) in the ComputerWorld article from the Microsoft Azure product manager discussing the initial configuration for Microsoft Azure Stack hardware requirements for some more insight into the product.

Dynamics NAV Technical Resources

If you missed the Microsoft Ignite conference, don’t despair, you can catch up on these sites:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Technical Resource Page 

This page includes links to the resource pages for Microsoft Dynamics NAV, they include documentation, tips and tricks, troubleshooting, and other information that's relevant to each topic. The information is compiled by the people who develop, document, and support Microsoft Dynamics NAV. For more information, please visit here. (sign in required)

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Team Blog  

This site includes the latest information and announcements written by various Dynamics NAV team members. Check it out: the NAV Team Blog.

Random Thought

Without custom, there would be no Customer. – Jon Long, ArcherPoint Developer. In our world, this is very true, Jon.

Something to Ponder…

The Law of Emotional Reactions

For every emotion, there is an equal and opposite reaction (unless you’re dealing with sociopaths, in which case, these rules just don’t apply). 

Pain creates empathy. Insults create shame. Accomplishment creates jealousy. Anger creates fear. Kindness creates gratitude. Isolation creates longing. Our emotions volley back and forth, triggering offensive and defensive reactions in each other all the time. When we encounter emotions we’re confused by, we should try to figure out what triggered them. If we can do that, we’ll be better able to shift the emotional inertia and move in new (hopefully better) directions. - Jessica Hagy

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

You Must Defeat Lookups to Stand a Chance: Programming Lookups Using Pages 

Often in NAV development, we have times on pages when we need to do a lookup into a table, find a record, and return it to our original page. There are some super-easy ways to do this that come with constraints, and some less-easy ways to do this that are significantly more robust. I’ll try to talk about them, since I don’t see any good tutorials out there on “el Google”. (You may believe that “el Google” is Spanish for “the Google”, but that’s incorrect. It’s actually Spanish for “the chupacabra”; I use some unusual methods for web searches.) 

Setting up a Lookup into a Table: Easy Way

The first super-easy way to set up a lookup into a table comes when you have a table field that relates to another record. If you set the TableRelation property on a table field, and the related table has a LookupPageID property assigned, and you then add the field to a page, NAV will automatically give you a drop-down box showing the records from the table.  (To customize the drop-down box, see this blog entry, written by ArcherPoint’s most handsome developer.) The drop-down box looks like this: 

(That’s a picture from NAV 2013 that I already used in another blog entry, because I’m lazy.)

If you have a page field that’s NOT actually related to a table field, there’s an easy to do a lookup on that, too.  All you have to do is set the TableRelation property of the field to the table you need a lookup for, and NAV will automatically give you the drop-down box lookup, just like if you’d set TableRelation on a table field.

(Not only does setting the TableRelation property work on the newfangled versions of NAV with pages, but it will even work with forms in the NAV legacy client; at least, I believe it does as far back as I recall.)

Setting a Lookup into a Table: A Bit More Complex, Using a Dynamic Filter

All of that is great when you have a simple, straightforward relationship.  But sometimes things are more complex, like when you want to dynamically filter your lookup somehow. That’s when you have to write some actual code. 

Let’s say you had customization request for the Sales Order page. If the Sell-to Customer No. begins with “0”, you need to do a lookup into the Item table on items beginning with “1.” If the Sell-to Customer No. begins with any other character, you need to do a lookup into the Resource table where the Resource begins with “M.” Whatever the chosen record is, you’re going to put the primary key value into a variable called LookupExperiment. 

To pull this off, we start by creating a global code variable called “LookupExperiment” and we add it to the Sales Order page. It looks like this:

And to make our lookup happen, we add some local variables and code to the OnLookup trigger for the LookupExperiment field.  The local variables are as follows:

Lookup Experiment - OnLookup(VAR Text : Text) : Boolean
Next, we add the following code to the OnLookup trigger:

IF COPYSTR("Sell-To Customer No.",1,1) = '0'THEN BEGIN
  Item.RESET;
  Item.SETFILTER("No.",'1*');
  CLEAR(ItemList);
  ItemList.SETRECORD(Item);
  ItemList.SETTABLEVIEW(Item);
  ItemList.LOOKUPMODE(TRUE);
  IF ItemList.RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK THEN BEGIN
    ItemList.GETRECORD(Item);
    LookupExperiment := Item."No.";
  END ELSE BEGIN
    LookupExperiment := 'ITEM NOT FOUND';
  END;
END ELSE BEGIN
  Resource.RESET;
  Resource.SETFILTER("No.",'M*');
  CLEAR(ResourceList);
  ResourceList.SETRECORD(Resource);
  ResourceList.SETTABLEVIEW(Resource);
  ResourceList.LOOKUPMODE(TRUE);
  IF ResourceList.RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK THEN BEGIN
    ResourceList.GETRECORD(Resource);
    LookupExperiment := Resource."No.";
  END ELSE BEGIN
    LookupExperiment := 'RESOURCE NOT FOUND';
  END;
END;

We use COPYSTR to evaluate the value in Sell-to Customer No. Based on that, we set our filter on an Item or Resource record according to our needs. After that, we send the record to the appropriate list page using SETRECORD, and we make sure the list page uses the same view as the record variable by using SETTABLEVIEW. (If you leave out the SETTABLEVIEW, no filters will be shown on the list page.)  We make sure the list page is primed for a lookup by calling LOOKUPMODE and passing a value of TRUE.  Doing the IF [list page].RUNMODAL = ACTION::LookupOK tells NAV to run the page and look at the results. If the user hits OK, then the returned value from RUNMODAL is equal to Action::LookupOK. (Action is a system-level Option field that we use to evaluate the result from running the page in LOOKUPMODE.) 

Once the user has chosen a record, we use GETRECORD to set our record variable to the chosen record from the list page. We can then set our LookupExperiment variable to the primary key value from the record. And, if the user hits the Cancel button on the list page, we set LookupExperiment to give an error message.

That’s really all there is to it.  Note that if you’re using the NAV legacy client to try to work on NAV 2009 or previous versions, you basically do the same thing, just with forms instead of pages. Good luck coding!

For more information on programming lookups in tables NAV, and other NAV-related programming topics, please visit our resource center today.

SPECIAL STREET FIGHTER UPDATE: It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I learned that I need to block more and do fewer dragon punches on wakeup to achieve victory in Street Fighter V. Once I got those two things to click and started to get the rhythm of a setup for my critical art, I went on a 14-win streak and pulled myself from bronze rank up to silver. Perseverance is the key.  (Now if I could only make the time to play even more . . . maybe someday I’ll achieve platinum rank.)

For more step-by-step instructions on how to perform specific tasks in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, see our collection of How-To blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 115

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Dynamics 365 and Cloud ERP

Here we are, on the heels of NAV Directions and NAVUG Summit, and whether you attended these conferences or not, chances are you’re hearing about Dynamics 365 and cloud computing more than ever. With a release date of November 1 for Dynamics 365, there is a lot to be excited about. Let’s review:

With this initial release, there will be two versions of Dynamics 365: the Business edition and the Enterprise edition. The Business package incorporates Dynamics CRM and Project Madeira (Dynamics NAV) while the Enterprise version includes Dynamics CRM and Dynamics AX. Both are hosted on Microsoft Azure, and both boast a more complete integration with the Office 365 suite of tools – blurring the lines of what application you are actually working in – which makes for great strides in productivity.

The Business version, formerly called Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials, will include financials, sales, and marketing, while the Enterprise edition will include operations, sales and marketing, field service, project service automation, and customer service. Top both off with Microsoft’s PowerBI, Flow Automation, and PowerApps (add-ins from Microsoft and partners will be available on AppSource, where over 200 line-of-business apps are currently being offered) makes for an incredibly powerful set of tools.

Further, Business Insider says Microsoft will launch its price war with Salesforce with the release of Dynamics 365 as it combines CRM with ERP, and will compete with both Salesforce, SAP, and Oracle cloud applications. Should be interesting.

Microsoft is also doing amazing things using their Cortana Intelligence Suite. Machine learning offers some amazing advancements in analytics. I was enthralled with the demonstration of Cortana taking an order at a McDonald’s drive-thru.

Microsoft provided a live stream of the Dynamics 365 announcement at Summit last week. You can view it on demand by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

If you’re curious about the security of Microsoft’s Azure data warehouses, they have more than Amazon at this time. View the video to learn more:

NAVUG Summit Faves

What were some of your favorites from NAVUG Summit? Tell us by commenting below.

I loved the member marketplace on the expo floor. It is interesting to see the wide variety of companies using Dynamics NAV. Here are the companies that participated in this year’s marketplace:

Mars Symbioscience - https://www.cocoavia.com/
San Francisco Bay Company - http://www.gourmet-coffee.com/
Seventh Generation - http://www.seventhgeneration.com/
Stonewall Kitchen - www.stonewallkitchen.com
Sunrise Identity - www.sunriseid.com
TW Garner Food Company - https://www.texaspete.com/ ; https://greenmountaingringo.com/

Thanks for the samples!

Summit 2017: Nashville!

Summit grew considerably this year, and I expect we will see similar growth at Summit 2017 in Nashville, TN. Budget now to attend this can’t miss event: Oct 10-13, 2017. Send your team and participate! Sharing our knowledge and experiences with NAV is what makes the NAVUG community so special. Learn more about becoming a NAVUG member today!

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 116

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

FOB, TXT, and DELTA

Saurav Dhyani shares his thoughts on an article written by Vjeko, titled C# Injection: Don’t Trust the FOB. He agrees: FOB, not good. TXT, good. DELTA, best. Others agree and note that we should always recompile everything we import after importing whether FOB, Text, or Delta.

Jon Long also notes: “Another, perhaps even more dangerous reason to not trust FOB's, is that a text file can be saved accidentally, or on purpose, with an FOB extension. Obviously, if you were to import this type of "FOB," it would overwrite everything without opening the import worksheet. This could be especially dangerous in a dev environment that has no proper source control. That is why I always open FOB's in a text reader first, to make sure it's actually an FOB. So, yes, I agree, FOB's should not be trusted, but, it's not just because of injections.”

Register as a Microsoft App Developer

Are you interested in publishing an App to the App Store? You will need to register as an app developer with Microsoft first. A developer account lets you submit apps and add-ins to Microsoft marketplaces, including the Windows Store, Office Store, Azure Marketplace, and more to come.

You can sign up for either individual/student account which costs approximately $19 USD, or a company account which costs approximately $99 USD. This is a one-time registration fee and no renewal is required.

Concerns with Microsoft Dynamics NAV Extensions

Waldo shares his concerns with Dynamics NAV Extensions, part 2 of 3. He shares these common concerns:

• Why can’t I see the code?
• Why is my IP not protected if I share my code?
• Can you use extensions in the wrong way?
• Are extensions a solution for upgrades?
• Why do I have to develop in something other than C/SIDE?
• Will on premise NAV die?
• Will my developers’ knowledge be wasted?

Check out Waldo’s first post on this topic.

Want to learn more?

Have other concerns or questions about Dynamics NAV? Or just want to be in the know about the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center and never miss an update.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of Dynamics NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 117

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Lanham Scanning Not Incrementing

Jimmie Sanchez shares that he ran into an issue in Pack Line Scanning where scanning is not incrementing. For example, if you scan or type an item in, and then scan/type the same item in again, it will not register. The issue occurs with commands as well. Lanham said it was an issue that showed up for NAV 2016. There is a hotfix from Lanham Associates available. Contact your Lanham partner for the hotfix.

NAV 2017 Available for Download Now

Suresh Kulla, Microsoft MVP, shares that NAV 2017 is available for download. Login is required.

Waldo shares a blog on what’s new in NAV 2017. Note his disclaimer at the beginning of his post. ArcherPoint will be updating their website soon with more detailed information.

And here’s a blog post from Paul White on this latest release, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017.

Lastly, another Microsoft MVP here at ArcherPoint, Saurav Dhyani, posted his blog on Dynamics NAV 2017 Item Attributes. All of Saurav’s NAV 2017 blogs are linked to from his NAV 2017 blog page.

Internet of Things

ArcherPoint has talked about the Internet of Things (IoT) and the impact on manufacturing, however, what we didn’t cover was the potential for hacking, and how vulnerable our machines are to hacking. In a recent experiment by a reporter at The Atlantic, it was proven how quickly hackers can take down a whole system. In the experiment he built a virtual Internet-connected toaster, put it online and just waited for it to be hacked. It took 41 minutes. You can read about the whole IoT hacking experiment here.

For Your Health

Dan Sass shares an article from Johns Hopkins, telling of a new heart test you may need, but likely haven’t heard about yet.

Along that same vein – technology and cardiac care– this article from Harvard Medical School shares their predictions for the high-tech procedures and devices that will be making a big impact on cardiovascular health in the near future.

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 118

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Resources for Dynamics 365

We heard a lot of Dynamics 365 at NAVUG Summit this year, and we are all excited for the new features and functionality. Saurav Dhyani shares a wealth of resources for you to learn more about Dynamics 365:

Blog - https://community.dynamics.com/b/msftdynamicsblog
Documentation - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/
Explore Dynamics - https://explore.dynamics.com/
Dynamics Community Business New Section - https://community.dynamics.com/business
Dynamics Community Enterprise New Section - https://community.dynamics.com/enterprise
“How-to” support pages - https://community.dynamics.com/business/b/financials/archive/2016/11/01/how-to-get-support-for-dynamics-365-for-financials
Dynamics 365 Team Blog (from CRM to…) - https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/crm/

Dynamics 365 Pricing Released

Business Edition: Two Plans ($40 per user/month full use and $5 per user/month light use)
Enterprise Edition: Two Plans ( $70 per user/month for 500 users and $210 per user/month)

Pricing Details & Licensing Guidelines can be downloaded using link below: 
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/pricing

Welcome to Microsoft Dynamics 365!

Celebrating the ArcherPoint Team

Every year, ArcherPoint celebrates our fellow tribe members that go above and beyond living the ArcherPoint Core Values. This year, we had an abundance of nominations, so many of us living the core values across the organization every day. And, for the first time ever, we have a tie! 

This year’s winners are:

Delighting Clients – Todd Tipton
Building the Tribe – Tammy Fawcett
Learning and Challenging –Dan Sass and Saurav Dhyani

Please join us in congratulating Todd, Tammy, Dan, and Saurav for being recognized as great examples of living the ArcherPoint core values.
#corevalues #delightingclients #buildingthetribe #learningandchallenging

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

Notification Messages in Older Versions of Dynamics NAV

As we all know, it's easy to display an informational message to the user with the C/AL keyword MESSAGE. But, how many of you have encountered clients with MESSAGEs built up over time, where the user had to click through five MESSAGEs when entering a sales line, for example?  MESSAGEs are cluttered, intrusive, invasive, modal and require user interaction in order to make them go away. Basically, MESSAGEs are an outdated way to make the user aware of something.

NAV 2017 introduces notifications for the Web Client, an easy, non-intrusive and non-invasive way to display a message to the client via an information bar just below the action pane. Notifications require no interaction from the user to make it go away and can even include an action, like navigate to the customer card.

Figure 1 - Modeless notifications in later versions of Dynamics NAV

ArcherPoint’s own Saurav Dhyani published a blog discussing smart notifications in NAV 2017.

Modeless Notification Messages in Dynamics NAV 2017

If you're looking for something like this to replace MESSAGE for the versions of NAV from 2009 RTC to 2016, then this blog entry is for you.  The inspiration for this blog entry was the search for a modeless way of displaying an informational message to the user that requires no interaction.

I'm sure you're familiar with the Notes FactBox, present on most page objects, where users can send notifications to one another. The code shown further below will enable you to generate a new notification and have it displayed immediately (at least in my testing).

The example shown below occurred just after changing a value on the Item Card. To achieve this, a new Subscriber function was created in NAV 2016; the event to which the function subscribed was the OnAfterValidate for a custom field on the Item Card; in the function, code was written to call the custom function CreateNotification.

Figure 2 - Using a note to achieve modeless notification in versions of Dynamics NAV 2009 RTC to 2016

Dynamics NAV code to Create a new function CreateNotification

Here's how you achieve this in a custom codeunit:

    PROCEDURE CreateNotification@1240060003(_Note@1240060007 : BigText;_Notify@1240060008 : Boolean;_UserID@1240060009 : Text[132];_RecordID@1240060012 : RecordID);

    VAR

      _RecordLink@1240060004 : Record 2000000068;

      _RecRef@1240060011 : RecordRef;

      _char1@1240060000 : Char;

      _char2@1240060001 : Char;

      _is@1240060003 : InStream;

      _NewID@1240060005 : Integer;

      _os@1240060002 : OutStream;

      _TextToWrite@1240060006 : BigText;

      _TextSmall@1240060013 : Text[250];

    BEGIN

      // AP0004 >>

      // code portions courtesy Matt Traxinger - http://mibuso.com/downloads/i-love-nav-enhanced-notes-v2.01

      // first, prepend the BLOB text with the length of the text

      IF _Note.LENGTH <= 255 THEN BEGIN

        _char1 := _Note.LENGTH;

        _TextToWrite.ADDTEXT(FORMAT(_char1));

      END ELSE BEGIN

        _char1 := 128 + (_Note.LENGTH - 256) MOD 128;

        _char2 := 2 + (_Note.LENGTH - 256) DIV 128;

        _TextToWrite.ADDTEXT(FORMAT(_char1) + FORMAT(_char2));

      END;

      // second, append the actual text passed as parameter

      _TextToWrite.ADDTEXT(_Note);

      // third, get the actual user ID passed in as parameter

      IF _UserID <> '' THEN

        IF COPYSTR(_UserID,STRLEN(_UserID)) = ',' THEN

          _UserID := COPYSTR(_UserID,1,STRLEN(_UserID) - 1);

      // fourth, generate a new Record Link rec for the RecordID passed as parameter

      _Note.GETSUBTEXT(_TextSmall,1);

      _RecRef.GET(_RecordID);

      _NewID := _RecRef.ADDLINK(_TextSmall);

      // fifth, write the text (with prepended length) to the Record Link rec

      _RecordLink.GET(_NewID);

      _RecordLink.CALCFIELDS(Note);

      _RecordLink.Note.CREATEOUTSTREAM(_os);

      _TextToWrite.WRITE(_os);

      // sixth and final, set some additional fields and modify the record

      _RecordLink.Type := _RecordLink.Type::Note;

      _RecordLink.Notify := _Notify;

      _RecordLink."To User ID" := _UserID;

      _RecordLink."User ID" := LOWERCASE(_RecordLink."User ID");

      _RecordLink.MODIFY;

      // AP0004 <<

    END;

Dynamics NAV code to Call the Function

Here's the code to call the function, located in the custom EventSubscriber function:

      _Item.GET(Rec."No.");

      _RecRef.GETTABLE(_Item);

      _RecID := _RecRef.RECORDID;

      CreateNotification(_bt,TRUE,USERID,_RecID);

Here are the variables for the above code snippet:

      _Item@1240060004 : Record 27;

      _bt@1240060008 : BigText;

      _RecID@1240060003 : RecordID;

      _RecRef@1240060005 : RecordRef;

Thanks to Matt Traxinger for his community contribution of Enhanced Notes. His code formed the basis for this modification (and saved a lot of research).

A quick Google search revealed other, similar pages referencing this topic:

https://community.dynamics.com/nav/f/34/t/198109

https://robertostefanettinavblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/07/how-to-manage-nav-notifications-by-cal/

For more information on Dynamics NAV 2017 features, please visit our website. 

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 120

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Retrieving Setup Tables in Dynamics NAV

Bill Warnke asks, “Anyone have any thoughts on retrieving setup tables like the code below? Is this considered an anti-pattern yet? The goal would be to avoid going to the SalesSetup table but with the 2013+ data caching why bother?”

GetSalesSetup()

IF NOT SalesSetupRetrieved THEN BEGIN

SalesSetup.GET;

SalesSetupRetrieved := TRUE;

END;

Kyle Hardin responds, “I’ve never bothered. I just make sure my GET isn't in a loop and is somewhere early in the code.

I've not run the numbers, but one might argue that the C/AL logic analysis is as expensive as a cached database fetch.”

Jon Long notes, “Good pattern. Used in OOP.”

Suresh Kulla shares an article titled “Read Once Initialization and Validation”

Excel Print & Send from the NAV Item List

Kyle Hardin asks, “If I am on an Item list, and choose Print & Send, Microsoft Excel, does that call C/AL code I can get to, or is that built into the RTC and is untouchable? I have a customer request to fix the problem that the resulting spreadsheet is (mostly) un-editable. You can't delete rows or columns. It looks like the resulting spreadsheet is one of those fancy XML-embedded database spreadsheets like RapidStart uses.”

Bill Warnke notes that he believes the Print & Send to Excel function skips the style sheet functionality. Faithie Robertson suggests adding a "Create Excel Output" Boolean and using the Excel Buffer to output a usable excel spreadsheet. The ones that go through the client "print" function cannot be sorted due to all the merge fields. And you can easily search for uses of the Excel Buffer and find the code to get you started.

Design Pattern: Security – Sensitive Data Encapsulation

From the Dynamics NAV Team blog comes this blurb, Design Pattern: Security- Sensitive Data Encapsulation, on how to protect sensitive data that is scattered throughout various parts of Dynamics NAV, often times residing in the same tables as non-sensitive data. Included is a handy link to the NAV Design Patterns wiki site.

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 121

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

NAV 2016 – Insert Events Not Firing in Codeunit 1

Kyle Hardin asks, “Has anyone experienced a problem in NAV 2016 with the Insert events not being fired in codeunit 1? I'm not inserting anything with code (not that it should matter), but I can't get any of these to fire:

OnGlobalInsert (legacy)

OnDatabaseInsert

OnAfterOnGlobalInsert published event, and I am subscribed to that with my own new codeunit

I can't get them to work for inserts or modifies. Which looks to me like ChangeLog isn't going to work at all.

Any advice? Build 44974, which is CU4.

I've been through the fix lists through CU13 for both Application and Platform.”

Jon Long suggests restarting the service tier service.

Suresh shares a link on how to test your event subscription and Matt suggests running the Event Subscriptions page to ensure they are active.

Kyle replies, “I have tried all of the above. Still no success. This is what I did:

Build new vanilla VM

Install NAVDEMO for 2016 CU13

Create a new codeunit with two functions, both subscribed to Codeunit 1:

LOCAL [EventSubscriber] SynchronizeOnGlobalInsert(RecRef : RecordRef)

MESSAGE('3');

LOCAL [EventSubscriber] SynchronizeOnDatabaseInsert(RecRef : RecordRef)

MESSAGE('4');

That is all I changed. Everything else is out-of-the-box.

I get no messages for creating any of these:

G/L Account

Item

Customer

Vendor

Dimension Value

I tried RTC. I tried running the table and inserting that way. I tried insert with code with an INSERT(TRUE). I have restarted the NST. I have rebooted. I have stopped the NST and deleted each and every C# file in ProgramData and the restarted again. Nothing.

I checked the subscribed events. Both are there.

Then I added message('1') and message('2') to codeunit 1 in OnGlobalInsert and OnDatabaseInsert. I don't get any messages from there either, so this isn't an event problem.

In fact, the only time I can get any message is when I add a permission set to a user, or grant new permissions to a permission set. Special tables.

I am going to try this same experiment in NAV 2017, but I am stuck in 2016.”

Helle Madsen figured it out. You have to actually turn on Change Log for a particular table in order for those triggers in CU1 to fire. The magic appears to happen in the CU1 function GetDatabaseTableTriggerSetup. I haven't taken apart the code, but it looks like it builds a list of "interesting" tables, and if your table isn't in that list, you don't get the insert events to fire.

Problem solved!

Dynamics 365

Karthik Bharathy shares how to use PowerApps and Dynamics 365 together including how to get a trial version, setting up Odata feeds, and configuring your Odata credentials in his blog, PowerApps and Dynamics 365 for Financials.

If you haven’t already, you can view Microsoft’s “first look” video of Dynamics 365 here.

Dynamics NAV 2017

ArcherPoint’s Saurav Dhyani shows in this video what’s new in Dynamics NAV 2017 (part 1).

New Microsoft Tools in Office 365

Microsoft Teams promises to give Slack a run for their money. Why else would Slack post a snarky letter in response to the Teams announcement? We are hoping it works as advertised.

And don’t forget about Microsoft Planner, launched earlier this year. My O365 tiles are becoming quite numerous!

Leadership & Culture

Here’s a good read on Netflix culture. Check out their slideshare.

Learn how to manage your emotions without fighting them in this HBR article.

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 122

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Exporting Dynamics NAV Database on SQL Server 2016

If you need to export your NAV database to a .bacpac format, and are running SQL 2016, be sure you are running the latest update of the Microsoft SQL Server Data-Tier Application Framework (DacFx) or SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) (August 2016 or later) or you will run into a potential issue.

New Development Tools for Dynamics NAV

Are you ready to see what new tools are available for NAV developers? Wait no more! In this Dynamics NAV Team blog, new tools are introduced: In-Client Designer and Visual Studio code. Both of these tools can help you build extensions. Note that you will need an Azure Subscription to use.

Upgrading Dynamics NAV

This blog by Microsoft developers in Copenhagen offers suggestions and tips for successful upgrades of Dynamics NAV including Anti-Patterns, re-running upgrade code, parallelism, and access to cloud machines.

Fact Box Update

Sowkarthika Rajendran offers a solution if you’ve noticed the NAV Fact Box not automatically updating.

“Some of you may have noticed that fact box doesn't get updated automatically unless you refresh the page or reopen the page. (e.g., Credit Limit in Customer Statistics fact box available on Customer Card.)

Solution: You can add CurrPage.UPDATE in OnValidate Trigger of Credit Limit field.”

Help with Barcoding on Reports

Request for with Barcoding on reports: “Has anyone run into barcoding issues where the item no. is barcoded and the item no. has a space in it? The scanner only picks up the item no part before the space. Using 128 barcodes and still getting the same results.

Kyle Hardin responds, “If you have a star at the beginning and end of the barcode, it shouldn't matter what's in between, space included.”

Leadership Lines

5 Words Leaders Should Stop Using In 2017

"To evolve, we need a new mindset. I call this mindset the innovation mentality, and our growth as businesses and human beings depends on it. 

Our strategies for success in 2017 when it comes to everything from change management, diversity and inclusion to brand management and consumer engagement must move people to the center of our growth strategies. 

Those strategies must become less about the business defining the individual, and more about the individual defining the business. Our legacy demands that we turn the spotlight of accountability on ourselves to create a culture of significance for everyone."

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.

ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 123

The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff—is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.

As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media...so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.

Converting Inventory with Blank Location Code

The team is working on a project to convert inventory from a blank location to using a location code. The issue is that all the sales orders have reservations to inventory, so we need to break that link, convert the inventory, and then create new reservations.

Does anyone have an approach for creating reservations for all open sales lines?

Kyle Hardin posts, “This code can do that. I have a 3PL integration that imports sales orders, so I had to create the reservations from scratch as I create each sales order line:

CLEAR(ReservationEntry);
WITH ReservationEntry DO BEGIN
SETRANGE("Source Type", DATABASE::"Sales Line");
SETRANGE("Source Subtype", SalesLine."Document Type");
SETRANGE("Source ID", SalesLine."Document No.");
SETRANGE("Source Ref. No.", SalesLine."Line No.");
SETRANGE("Lot No.", Buffer.Lot);
IF ISEMPTY THEN BEGIN
CreateReservEntry.SetDates(0D, 0D);
CreateReservEntry.CreateReservEntryFor(
DATABASE::"Sales Line", SalesLine."Document Type",
SalesLine."Document No.", '', 0, SalesLine."Line No.", SalesLine."Qty. per Unit of Measure",
Buffer.Confirmedlotquantity, Buffer.Confirmedlotquantity, '', Buffer.Lot);
CreateReservEntry.CreateEntry(Item."No.", SalesLine."Variant Code", SalesLine."Location Code",
Item.Description, DT2DATE(Buffer.DMDate), DT2DATE(Buffer.DMDate), 0, 2); // surplus
END; // with
END;

CreateReservEntry = codeunit 99000830

Buffer is just a holding record that I have imported from the 3PL, so you'd need to change those to whatever is appropriate, probably the sales line itself.”

UPDATED: The code snip above didn't do what Ed needed with the reservations. I used it for importing web orders and didn't care about reservations, but the code above does deal with item tracking for lots which I did care about.

The team settled on this code:

Set the Reserve Type on the order line to Always

CLEAR(ReservMgt);
ReservMgt.SetSalesLine("Sales Line");
ReservMgt.AutoReserve(FullAutoReservation, 'Auto Reserve Through Batch Function',
"Planned Shipment Date", "Outstanding Quantity", "Outstanding Qty. (Base)");

Another suggestion was: during a hybrid upgrade, we used dataports to bring out the lot tracking table data and then bring it back in. It seems you could do the same thing and change the location code in the associated tables.

And lastly, the conclusion: The two lines above seemed to work fine on all sales orders. These were straight reservations against Item ledger entries not related to lot or serial number. We had to transfer 17,000 items with quantity on hand to a new location and let all the sales orders re-reserve against the new item ledger entries.

Leadership Lines

"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit."
- Conrad Hilton  
 
"If your work is becoming uninteresting, so are you. Work is an inanimate thing and can be made lively and interesting only by injecting yourself into it. Your job is only as big as you are."
- George C. Hubbs  

Want to be kept abreast of what's new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.

If you are interested in NAV development, check out our collection of NAV Development Blogs.