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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The book begins by giving you a brief introduction to setting up your NAV environment and shows you how to install and configure it according to your requirements. You will then dive deep into the latest design patterns, network architecture, and topologies. We will show you how you can integrate NAV with the Microsoft platform, and secure your deployment by managing roles and permissions.
Moving on, we will explain how to monitor and manage server instances using the Administration tool. We’ll discuss how you can take advantage of the expanded extensibility and connectivity capabilities for a tighter integration with the cloud as well as handheld devices. Then, we’ll show you how you can make use of the PowerBI capabilities that have been built into Dynamics NAV.
By the end of the book, you will be confident in developing and administering a Dynamics NAV implementation that will leverage all of the new features.
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Seitenzahl: 351
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017
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Table of Contents
Mastering Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
Mastering Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
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, 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 published: March 2017
Production reference: 1170317
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-78646-430-9
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Credits
Author
Rabindra Sah
Copy Editor
Stuti Srivastava
Reviewer
Danilo Capuano
Project Coordinator
Vaidehi Sawant
Commissioning Editor
Aaron Lazar
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Acquisition Editor
Denim Pinto
Indexer
Tejal Daruwale Soni
Content Development Editor
Priyanka Mehta
Graphics
Abhinash Sahu
Technical Editor
Dhiraj Chandanshive
Production Coordinator
Nilesh Mohite
About the Author
Rabindra Sah is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV technology specialist. He started his career as a Dynamics NAV consultant in the year 2011 with a Microsoft gold partner company in Nepal, where he fortified his functional skillset and evolved as a versatile Dynamics NAV professional. His hunger to solve problems and positive communication skills helped him flourish as an all-round consultant. His deep understanding of the Dynamics NAV system allowed him to successfully implement the company's first international project, which was funded by International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society. He has been a part of more than 12 full-phase Dynamics NAV projects and has earned several appraisal certificates from the clients and donor organizations for his extraordinary dedication and co-ordination.
Rabindra is a technology enthusiast and quick learner of new technologies, which has allowed him get along with the latest Microsoft releases and related technologies. In addition to Dynamics NAV expertise, Rabindra also has a deep understanding of .NET technologies. Besides .NET, he also possesses a deep-level understanding of programming languages such as C and Java, which broadens his domain of competence. He believes that learning and sharing should go hand in hand, so, he is also an active member of online Microsoft communities, where he loves spending his time resolving the issues posted by other developers and end users. He is also an active blogger and loves to post problems and solutions that he comes across in his daily professional life.
To further improve his skills and better understand the evolving Dynamics NAV system, he recently took several on-campus courses, such as algorithms, design patterns, software engineering, and enterprise architecture, during his Master’s in Computer Science at Maharishi University of Management in United States.
He is also an active volunteer item writer for Association of Dynamics Professionals for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Certification, where he participates in online meetings and contributes to the design of the certification examinations. He also creates materials for the examinations. Recently, he also got involved in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV courseware project lead by some of the best brains in the field.
He is currently working as a Senior Associate for Microsoft Dynamics NAV in RAND Group, a Microsoft gold partner company, in Texas, USA.
You can find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabindrasah.
I am very grateful to God and to everyone who kept me motivated and encouraged me throughout the process of this book.
First of all, a special thanks to my parents--my mom, Pramila Sah, and my papa, Shatrughan Sah; my grandpa, Sri Narayan Sah; my family, Om Shankar Sah, Govind Sah, Umida, and Shaanvi; other family members, Bipin, Navin, Meena, Uday Shankar, Hari Shankar, and Punita; my special friend Anjani, and my close friends Rohit, Navin, Shamid, and Pavan, who always stood behind me and allowed me to spend a lot of time apart from them.
A big thanks to Robert Sherlock, Donnita Bass, Thu Tran, and Anatoly Sinyavin for helping me grow as a better professional these past years.
I would also like to thank my university, Maharishi University of Management, and all the professors there who helped me fortify my technical skills and gain enough confidence to aim for higher goals.
I would like to extend my thanks to the editors and all the members at Packt who directly or indirectly helped me on this book, especially, Priyanka, Denim, and, last but not least, Danilo Capuano.
About the Reviewer
Danilo Capuano is a senior Software Engineer with over 10 years industry experience. He lives in Naples, Italy, where he earned a degree in Computer Science. He currently works as a Solution Architect on Microsoft Dynamics 365 NAV in an IT company.
You can contact him on his official website, http://www.capuanodanilo.com/, or find him on Twitter at @capuanodanilo.
He has reviewed the books, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook, Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Design, and Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, all by Packt.
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Preface
The goal of this book is to explain Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 from the root level and understand the different capabilities of the system. The book will give you a deep understanding of the system, which will help you to improve your activities such as development, implementation, testing, version control, and maintenance. The book heavily focuses on the methods for improving the performance of the system so as to minimize the cost on one hand and improve the productivity and user experience on the other. The book mostly covers real-life scenarios and presents solution in simplified manner to engage all kind of readers.
After reading this book, you will understand the different features, techniques, and technologies that directly impact on the implementation of the system. The book focuses on reducing the time and increasing the productivity of developers, consultants, and administrators and provides the ways to handle the process in a standard fashion.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Microsoft Dynamics NAV Installation, explains about the installation process of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 in detail. It mostly covers the cloud technologies and how NAV can be deployed on cloud. The chapter also explains in detail how PowerShell can be better utilized to make life easier
Chapter 2, Upgraded Features and Configurations in Dynamics NAV 2016, helps you understand the different components that take part in configuration processes. The chapter covers most of the latest features and their implications in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. You will get an overview on design pattern and their significance to the system.
Chapter 3, The C/AL and VB Programming, explains the core concept of coding with the C/AL programming language and the compilation details. You will get some hands-on practice with VB programming if you follow the contents carefully. The main intention of this chapter is not to provide the details about the functions and features, but provide the core concept which will boost the concept of computer programming with respect to C/Side Development Environment. This chapter is highly recommended, not only for technical professionals, but also for non-technical readers.
Chapter 4, Testing and Debugging, shows you how to find out the testing technique in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. Here you will also learn how to write your own test code and test it yourself. In addition to the self-generated unit test, we will examine the test codeunit provided by Microsoft which is more than 600 in count. You will learn how they can be used to test the standard process. This chapter will discuss the core concept of testing with respect to the Dynamics NAV system.
Chapter 5, Design and Development Considerations, explains the design and development considerations of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Most consultants do not understand the importance of design considerations and they end up generating a weak design, and eventually an inefficient system. This chapter is intended to provide a broad perspective on how to approach any design or design operation, and how to convert that design to the actual development. The chapter will also clarify the difference between customization and development. It also explains how you can understand the dataflow using a special feature called test posting.
Chapter 6, Version Control and Code Management, covers totally new concept of version control, which is somewhat new to the Dynamics NAV world. For most experienced consultants and developers who have strong C# and other programming experience, this concept might not be that new, but those who have always worked with the NAV system might perceive this as being new. You will learn the most basic ways to harness some of the functionality of version control in Dynamics NAV. For some, it might look like a lengthy process to actually implement, but once you understand the core concepts, you will love it and implement it in team projects in particular. In this chapter, you will also understand the pattern that can be used while branching and how it can be of great importance while using version control.
Chapter 7, Tuning Up the NAV System, shows how you can avoid designing a low performing system in the first place, and secondly you will observe how you can better optimize low performing system. It is essential to understand the core of the system and its performance in standard given condition so that we can easily sense any slowdown in the system.
Chapter 8, Security in Dynamics NAV 2016, explains all about security aspects of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV system. You will be able to consider some of the important contents of security system. You will also understand how to prevent your system from different malicious logics and how to reduce the risk of security failures. It is highly recommended for everyone, especially administrators, to understand the concepts in this chapter in order to provide a robust defensive environment to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
Chapter 9, Upgrade and Migration, explains about the modern upgrade process. You will also get an overview of the most optimal and efficient ways of upgrading process, which involve automating the processes, analyzing the time and effort, and understanding the core concept behind the upgrade project. You will also perceive the difference between the upgrade processes if carried out on different versions and how that might affect the project duration.
Chapter 10, Interfacing NAV with Other Applications, helps you understand the most important concept of integration with external systems. An interface is like a trade route through which the outside world can help your system grow. The best software has the most secure and powerful integration system so that it can be extended as per your requirements. Here you can learn all the concepts that can be used in Microsoft Dynamics NAV to make it an even better and stronger solution.
Chapter 11, Extending Dynamics NAV 2016, helps you understand the different integration concepts of the Dynamics NAV 2016 system with other Microsoft and related technologies. You will learn how you can better utilize the power of other languages and technologies in the Dynamics NAV system. You will also get a glimpse of different reporting tools, some NAV based extensions, and how they can be implemented along with Dynamics NAV system.
Chapter 12, The Future of NAV, covers an overview of major future products from the perspective of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. In addition to the future releases of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you will also see an overview of closely related technologies such as Dynamics 365, which is one of the most talked about and most confusing technologies in terms of future of Dynamics technology. You will also find out about the new development environment, which can be used to develop vertical solutions such as extensions, with a simple interface.
What you need for this book
The following software is required for this book:
Who this book is for
This book is ideal for administrators, developers, and consultants who are looking to take their knowledge of Dynamics NAV to new heights. You're expected to have a basic knowledge of Dynamics NAV workflows and C/AL, C/SIDE development.
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: "Also call this local function, AddItem, into the OnRun trigger."
A block of code is set as follows:
LOCAL AddItem() CLEARLASTERROR; IF ExceptionHandle.Try('12345','MyTestItem') THEN MESSAGE('Item added Successfully') ELSE MESSAGE('Error Returned Error : %1 - %2', GETLASTERRORCODE,GETLASTERRORTEXT);When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
LOCAL AddItem() CLEARLASTERROR; IF ExceptionHandle.Try('12345','MyTestItem') THEN MESSAGE('Item added Successfully') ELSE MESSAGE('Error Returned Error : %1 - %2', GETLASTERRORCODE,GETLASTERRORTEXT);Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
C:\Python34\Scripts> pip install -upgrade pipC:\Python34\Scripts> pip install pandasNew 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: "In the Report Properties window, click on the code option in the left pane."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
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Questions
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Chapter 1. Microsoft Dynamics NAV Installation
Have you ever had the chance to spend a night at a sea-side cottage, where you can appreciate the vast endlessness of nature from a window? It captivates our imaginations and instills a desire to understand the vastness of this creation.
Let's change the perspective and visualize the same sea from a height (let's say, from a space station), and you can see all its boundaries, its size, and its color and understand its significance. Similarly, if you want to understand a software, then you have to see it within a broader context. It allows us to intake the most out of it in an optimum way.
Now, returning to the ground, instead of the sea-side, here we will discuss C/SIDE, and instead of an ocean, we will discuss the vastness of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016.
Here, in this chapter, we will learn about the different new technologies that have been implemented in the installation process of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016. The chapter will also guide you through the step-wise installation process with detailed diagrams and screenshots.
The chapter intends to clear the confusion about PowerShell, which is an essential component of the Administration section in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV world. Microsoft has made PowerShell compulsory in some sections. The chapter requires a basic-to-medium level knowledge of the installation process. We will not include the basic installation steps so as to save time and space, and will focus more on the current hot topics in the field of NAV Installation.
At the end of this chapter, we will explain the different terminologies and techniques used by expert NAV Administrators. This chapter is intended for those whose systems are on-premise, and who are looking to better manage it on-premise, or are planning to opt for cloud technologies.
In this chapter, will cover the following points:
The background- before we start
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is a Microsoft Product, which delivers a complete ERP Business solution for small- and medium-sized organizations. You might want to know why this software package is not suitable for large industries; let's investigate this.
First, let's understand the difference between a large customer (Enterprise-level industry) and a smaller customer (Small and Medium business) from the ERP perspective. The ERP software sees a customer as a large enterprise if the number of employees is over 5,000. A company with lesser number of employees but a greater turnover can also be taken as an Enterprise-level customer. Another key factor in determining the size of a company is the size of data, whether it is high or low.
There are cases where Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been implemented in companies with 500, 1000, and even a couple of thousand users. But the main idea behind choosing the right ERP Software depends on many factors such as the following:
As a consultant, our duty is to determine the best solution, and convince the customer on that. We must make sure that the system covers all the functionalities, or most of it. The performance should be within the acceptance limit. Their system should be equipped with sufficient interfacing API and services so as to integrate the updates and third-party integration, as the customer might like to integrate some in the future. It should provide out-of-the box customization features so that the client does not have to rely heavily on the developers for small changes. This, in turn, can be one of the most decisive factors, as modern users want some level of control with themselves. The system should guarantee easy and cost-effective customization if requested by the user. It should not be rigid. The cost of the system should be within an acceptable range, since clients have a budget for the product implementation. Last but not least is the maintenance cost; if the cost of maintaining the software is too high, then it is less likely that the customer is going to choose the product. Most of the customers also want to know the maintenance time requirement of the system.
Here we can conclude that there is a very thin line when we want to select the right product, since some of the products have a stronghold in some of the aforementioned points, while others have advantages regarding other points. We should spend an ample amount of time determining the right product for our client. Thankfully, Microsoft Dynamics NAV fulfills most of the criteria mentioned here, and so, it is the leader in the Dynamics family when it comes to the number of satisfied customers and number of implementations.
Architectural components
Microsoft Dynamics NAV can be installed on-premise, as well as on cloud. It is the most flexible and robust product of the Microsoft Dynamics family. Microsoft Developers have worked a lot on installation and configuration, which allows the product to have multidimensional installation options. It can be easily deployed to a multitenant environment. It supports PowerShell, which is like a magician, and provides added power when it comes to administering and installing the system. Installation of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 on Azure is one of the key points to look for. We will be more focused around these points in this book.
I have tried to show the easiest and most efficient ways to accomplish the installation process in this chapter. There might be other ways, but I have tried to stick with the simplest one.
We should always install three core components of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, which are the three tiers that comprise the core of NAV Architecture.
Three-tiered architecture
Like previous RTC versions, the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 architecture is a three-tiered architecture, which uses three core components as follows:
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Client Tier
Middle Tier
Data Tier
RTC (Windows Client/ Web client, web-service clients (SOAP Web Services and OData Web Services), and an NAS services client for programmatic access)
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server
SQL Database Server (Application Database, Tenant Database)
Client User Interface
For example: Frontend Application-RTC
Multitenant server, which manages business logic and all kinds of communication.
For example: Multitenant Server-Development Environment
Database Server of Data layer
For example: SQL Database server-Database
Here in the following diagram, you can clearly understand the different tiers in the Microsoft Dynamics system:
NAV Application Server
NAV Application Server, or NAS, is a middle-tier server component, which can be utilized without a user interface for task scheduling, client offloading, and specialized integration scenarios. Since, it executes business logic without any user interaction, they are managed completely from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV server administration tools in the NAS Services tab:
It is always better to create a Microsoft Dynamics NAV server instance for each NAS services application. The following are the two main reasons:
Whenever you use NAS services for Microsoft Office Outlook integration, managing job queues, create a separate Microsoft Dynamics NAV server instance for each NAS service application, then modifying the setting for one of these services will not affect other services. On the other hand, configuring NAS services applications to use separate server instances makes better use of the server resources. This lets you run more applications with less degradation.
Multiple configurations
We can implement multiple configurations for the three-tier architecture in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
The core components that comprises the tiers must be installed. We can choose a single machine for all the three tiers, or a separate machine for each tier.
Multitenant environment
There are various architectures that can be implemented for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV installation process. It all depends on the requirements. If there is a need of a single database system for a single group of users, then multi-tenancy has not much significance. But when we are trying to implement Dynamics NAV as a SaaS, keeping the system constant for multiple clients, then the significance of multi-tenancy comes into play.
Note
Multi-tenancy is a software architecture where a single instance of the software runs on a server and supports multiple customers or tenants.
In a multi-Tenant environment, we keep the business data of each tenant (client) in different databases while keeping all the SQL Server application objects in a different database.
Because of the level of separation between the three layers, now we can use the same shared NAV objects with more databases.
Each tenant can hold one or more companies, as depicted in the following diagram:
Azure (cloud service)
Microsoft Azure is an infrastructure and cloud-computing platform, which helps us solve problems such as building, deploying, and managing different applications. They are implemented by huge datacenters managed by Microsoft Corporation. It initially started with the IaaS service, but later also started providing PaaS.
Differences between on-premise and cloud
This quick public cloud adoption can be explained by several factors such as the following:
The latest member of the Dynamics Family, Dynamics 365, is not hosted on Azure, since Azure does not provide SaaS.
The difference between on-premise and the different cloud services can be better understood by the following diagram. As you can see, in on-premise setup you have different levels of control whereas in the cloud services the controls and access are limited:
Microsoft Azure - relevant services
There are a number of relevant services that play an important role during the deployment process. They are as follows:
Virtual machines services are similar to the on-premise environment and the installation is also pretty much the same.
Cloud services (Ports load balancer scale fail over)A cloud service has one public IP-address. It is located in a region or affinity group. It is possible to link to the owned domain. It can contain multiple VMs with local IP addresses.
All the VMs can be accessed via endpoints on the cloud service. Endpoints can be loaded-balanced or port-forwarding.
Storage (Hard disks backups)Storage in Azure contains hard disk space where we can put backup, PowerShell commands, and other files.
Network VPN (VM network)Network VPN helps extend the private network space in the public domain where you can define other virtual machines, or VM. Each VM has a unique IP address in the same subnet so that they can see each other and communicate as per the command.
Active Directory (User directory synchronized from AD Office 365 users)Azure Active Directory provides identity and access monument. It can be integrated with the on-premise Active Directory. It can also be used to Integrate with Dynamics NAV.
Microsoft Azure Management Portal
Use the link, https://manage.windowsazure.com/, in order to access the management portal of Windows Azure. It manages all Azure Services. Also, PowerShell is available for more options (this topic is covered in detail in a later part of this chapter).
Note
To access the link https://manage.windowsazure.com/, make sure you have a subscription for Windows Azure.
Three-service model
Cloud computing offers its services in three different models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). These models offer increasing abstraction. The following diagram shows how services provided using the same channel have been categorized so as to keep it easy to understand:
Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service helps companies to move their physical infrastructure to the cloud with a level of control similar to what they would have in a traditional on-premise data center. Core data center infrastructure components are storage, servers (computing units), the network itself, and management tools for infrastructure maintenance and monitoring. These are depicted in the following diagram:
Infrastructure as a Service taxonomy
Note
IaaS includes virtual machines, servers, storage, network gear, and any other hardware/OS.
Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service provides the user with a configurable application platform including a preinstalled software stack. PaaS can be understood as another abstraction layer above the hardware, OS, and virtualization stack:
Platform as a Service taxonomy
Software as a Service
PaaS provides execution runtimes service without direct access to the OS (databases, development platforms, and application servers).
Software as a Service is a cloud services delivery model, which offers an on-demand online software subscription.
The latest SaaS release of Microsoft is Dynamics 365 (previously known as Project Madeira). The following diagram illustrates the SaaS taxonomy. Here you can clearly understand different services such as Sales force, NetSuite, and QuickBooks which are distributed as SaaS:
Software as a Service taxonomy
Note
SaaS includes software services such as Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and so on.
Difference between on-premise, SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS services
In an on-premise architecture, one needs to take care of all the services and layers of the software system starting from the network layer up to the application layer (client). Here, the cost of maintenance is high, and it is a redundant service.
In IaaS, Microsoft provides a virtual abstraction of the operating system, which can be used as any on-premise operating system, and hence it lowers the cost of maintaining low-level systems.
In PaaS, a specific platform is exposed to the user so as to make the service even more precise and the user is concerned only up to the platform he/she is using; all the layers below it are managed by Microsoft.
SaaS is the latest of all services, where specific software can be isolated from all those complex layers. The user just needs to worry about the software layer, and everything beyond that is handled by the cloud factory. It is the easiest and most efficient model in cloud technology.
Introduction to the NAV Universal application
Nav Universal is an application designed for phones and tablets to run Microsoft Dynamics NAV. It is the client-side part, which offers portability and flexibility of usage. It is basically targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses which want to access data from a hand-held device, on the go.
In general day-to-day use, these apps are used for functions such as the following:
The following diagram illustrates the architecture of the NAV Universal application in details:
The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client support the same credential types as the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client.
