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- Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
This book is targeted at those who want to learn NAV's powerful and extensive built-in development capabilities. It assumes that you understand programming and are familiar with business application software.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015
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Table of Contents
Programming Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV 2015
Programming Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV 2015
Copyright © 2015 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 authors, 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: July 2015
Production reference: 1240715
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
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ISBN 978-1-78439-420-2
www.packtpub.com
Credits
Authors
David Studebaker
Christopher Studebaker
Reviewers
Mark Brummel
Danilo Capuano
Stefano Demiliani
Commissioning Editor
Taron Pereira
Acquisition Editors
Purav Motiwalla
Sam Wood
Content Development Editor
Neeshma Ramakrishnan
Technical Editors
Utkarsha S. Kadam
Mohita Vyas
Copy Editors
Tani Kothari
Kausambhi Majumdar
Alpha Singh
Project Coordinator
Shweta H Birwatkar
Proofreader
Safis Editing
Indexer
Rekha Nair
Graphics
Abhinash Sahu
Production Coordinator
Melwyn Dsa
Cover Work
Melwyn Dsa
Foreword
Like many other enthusiasts in the NAV community, David ran a family business with his wife, Karen. Their son, Christopher, got his start in NAV by working in the family business. This is the kind of business that made NAV more successful than any other product in the ERP mid-market.
For many years, David has been a key influencer on the new versions of Dynamics NAV and has helped us evolve our developer Help. Based on this work, David wrote his first book on Dynamics NAV in 2007 about how to develop in "classic" NAV.
In 2009, he wrote his second book to help close the gap between the Classic client and the new world of the RoleTailored client and RDLC reporting. Overnight, the book proved to be extremely helpful to the greater community to cross the chasm from the "old" world to the "new" world.
Since then, David and his coauthor and, son Chris, also a NAV expert, have twice rewritten and extended these books to include new versions of Dynamics NAV. Reading the latest book reminds me of how far Dynamics NAV has evolved, both as a product since the first version came out in 1987 and as a thriving community with Karen and David as pioneers and later Chris as a key contributor to books like these.
Michael Nielsen
Director of Engineering,
Dynamics NAV at Microsoft
About the Authors
David Studebaker is the Chief Technical Officer and a cofounder of Liberty Grove Software with his partner, Karen Studebaker. David has had a wide range of development, consulting, sales and management roles throughout his career. He has been a partner or owner and manager of several software development businesses while always maintaining a significant role as a business application developer.
David started programming in 1962. He has been developing in C/AL since 1996. David has been an active participant in each step of computing technology from the first solid state mainframes to today's technology, from binary assembly language coding to today's C/AL. David's special achievements include his role as co-developer of the first production multiprogrammed SPOOLing system in 1967. He has worked on a diverse set of software applications including manufacturing, distribution, retail, engineering, and others.
David has a BS in mechanical engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He has been writing for publications since he was an undergraduate and has had numerous magazine and reference books published. Prior to coauthoring this book, David was the author of Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV (for the Classic Client), Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 (for the Role Tailored Client), and Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. He has been a member of the Association for Computing Machinery since 1963 and was a founding officer of two local chapters of the ACM.
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without my coauthor (and son), Christopher Studebaker. I'm very lucky to get to work with such a smart, knowledgeable son, who is also my good friend.
I especially want to thank my partner in life and at work, Karen Studebaker, for her unflagging support, patience, love, and encouragement in all ways. The first 50 years we have been together have been great; I'm looking forward to the next 50.
One of my life's principle treasures has been the enthusiastic support and love of my children, Christopher and Rebecca, of whom I am very proud. Both are successful, thoughtful, high quality professionals, and managers. More importantly, they each place the highest value to their roles as parents and spouses (here, I say "hi" to my special grandchildren, Cole, Alec, and CeCe, and my terrific in-law children, Elizabeth and Frederick).
Special thanks are due to Michael Nielsen of Microsoft for his wholehearted support of this and the previous three Programming NAV books. Many thanks to Mark Brummel, who knows more about NAV than almost anyone (except maybe Michael) and generously shares his knowledge. I also wish to thank all the people at Microsoft and Packt as well as our technical reviewers who assisted us a great deal with their contributions and advice.
Much of what I know about NAV was gained while working with excellent teams of associates at Studebaker Technology and Liberty Grove Software. All my life, I have benefitted from the help of many friends, mentors, and associates. Life would be very poor without all these kind and generous folks.
May you enjoy using this book even a fraction as much as I enjoyed working on it with Chris.
Christopher Studebaker is an NAV developer/implementer and has 15 years' experience in designing, developing, implementing, and selling in the NAV and SQL Server environments. He has specialized in retail, manufacturing, job shop, and distribution implementations, mostly in high user count and high data volume applications. Chris has worked on many NAV implementations with integrations to external databases and third-party add-on products. Some special applications include high-volume order entry, pick-to-light systems, procurement analysis, and web frontends.
Chris acts in a consulting and training role for customers and for peer NAV professionals. He provides training both in informal and classroom situations, often developing custom course material to support courses tailored to specific student group needs. Courses have included various NAV functional and development areas.
Before becoming a certified NAV developer, Chris was a certified environmental consultant working with manufacturing facilities to meet national and state regulations. His duties included regulatory reporting, data analysis, project management, and subcontractor oversight. His accomplishments include obtaining several safety certifications and managing projects for hazardous material management and abatement.
Chris is an expert at NAV installation, configuration, and development. He has been working with SQL in both NAV and other Microsoft applications for over a decade. He has a bachelor of science degree from Northern Illinois University and has done graduate work at Denmark Technical University. Chris was the coauthor of the Packt Publishing book Programming Microsoft Dynamics 2013.
First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, David and Karen Studebaker, for giving me the opportunity to start in the NAV world and allowing me the room to grow on my own. Of course, I could not have participated in this book if it weren't for my wife, Beth. Having worked within the NAV community for the past decade, I have worked with many wonderful people, most notably, my parents (of course), Betty Cronin, Kathy Nohr, Tommy Madsen, Susanne Priess, David Podjasek, Joy Bensur , Diane Beck, Chris Pashby, and Anthony Fairclough. Without them, I would not have been the NAV professional I am today.
About the Reviewers
Mark Brummel is a freelance all-round Microsoft Dynamics NAV specialist focused on helping end users of the product.
His passion is evangelizing and documenting the "NAV way". This is a combination of architectural principles and design best practices formalized in a workshop called Master Class for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Application Architecture and Design Patterns. The methodology helps in creating solutions that are easy to upgrade, recognizable for users, and maintainable outside the ecosystem of their creators. All three elements apply to the original Navision product that shipped in 1995 and are extracted, updated, and documented in this methodology.
In 2015, his new book, Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns, will be published, which is a book about his methodology. He also organizes hands-on workshops together with a group of MVPs and MCTs all across the globe.
Before starting freelancing in 2006, he started in 1997 as an end user and worked 8 years for NAV partners after that. Designing and maintaining add-on systems was his specialization. Some of these add-on systems exceed the standard product when it comes to size and complexity. Coaching colleagues and troubleshooting complex problems are his passions and part of his day-to-day work.
Many end users of Microsoft Dynamics NAV struggle with questions about how to upgrade their two-tier solution to a three-tier solution. Mark can help you answer these questions and plot a roadmap to the future, retaining the investment in the solution.
When Microsoft introduced the three-tier architecture in 2009, it was meant to be a major shift for experienced NAV developers and consultants. Mark has trained most of them in the Netherlands and Belgium.
To be able to share knowledge in an efficient and global way, Mark wrote the book Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design and Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Design, which is often referred to as the NAV Bible. Its content is applicable to newer and older versions of the product too.
In 2010, he started a think tank called Partner Ready Software together with four other Dynamics NAV experts. Partner Ready Software brings fresh ideas of designing applications in NAV and creates awareness about applying design patterns while creating repeatable solutions.
Mark is an associate in the Liberty Grove Software network, a member of the NAVUG advisory board, and a cofounder of the Dutch Dynamics Community.
A special project and performance tuning of the Dynamics NAV product on SQL Server. As a unique specialist, he has done groundbreaking research in improving the performance of Dynamics NAV on SQL Server.
On the site, http://nav-skills.com/, Mark maintains a blog. This blog contains a wide range of articles about both Microsoft Dynamics NAV and SQL Server products. He is also a frequent speaker at Microsoft events and publishes articles on Pulse for LinkedIn.
Since 2006, Mark has been rewarded by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional award for his contribution to online and offline communities. He has received the award 10 times.
Mark is a father of four, is married, and lives in a small town in the Netherlands.
Danilo Capuano is a senior software engineer with over 10 years of industry experience. He lives in Naples, Italy, where he earned a degree in computer science. He currently works as a consultant for Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Microsoft Dynamics CRM at a Microsoft Gold Partner company, where he also completed the MCTS certification.
He is already a reviewer of several books on Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
You can contact him on his home page at http://www.capuanodanilo.com/
You can also contact him via Twitter at @capuanodanilo.
Stefano Demiliani is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), MCAD, MCTS on Microsoft Dynamics NAV, MCTS on Sharepoint, MCTS on SQL Server, and a long-time expert on other Microsoft-related technologies.
He has a master's degree in computer engineering from Politecnico of Turin.
He works as a senior project manager and solution developer for EID (http://www.eid.it/), a company of the Navlab group (http://www.navlab.it/), one of the biggest Microsoft Dynamics group in Italy (where he's also the Chief Technical Officer). His main activity is the architecture and development of enterprise solutions based on the entire stack of Microsoft technologies (Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft Sharepoint, and Azure and .NET applications in general), and he's often focused on engineering distributed service-based applications.
He works as a full-time NAV consultant (15+ years of international NAV projects), and he is available for architecture solutions based on Microsoft's ERP and for NAV database tuning and optimization (performance and locking management). He's the author of several different Microsoft Certified NAV add-ons.
He has written many articles and blogs on different Microsoft-related topics, and he's frequently involved in consulting and teaching. He has worked with Packt Publishing in the past for many Microsoft Dynamics NAV-related books.
You can get more details and keep in touch with him by reaching http://www.demiliani.com/ or via Twitter (@demiliani).
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Preface
Welcome to the worldwide community of Microsoft Dynamics NAV developers. This is a collegial environment populated by C/AL developers who readily and generously share their knowledge. There are formal and informal organizations of NAV-focused users, developers, and vendor firms scattered around the globe and active on the Web. Our community continues to grow and prosper, now including over 110,000 user companies worldwide.
The information in this book will help you to shorten your learning curve of how to program for the NAV 2015 ERP system using the C/AL language, the C/SIDE integrated development environment and their capabilities. We hope you enjoy working with NAV as much as we have.
A brief history of NAV
Each new version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is the result of inspiration and hard work along with some good fortune and expert technical investment over the last thirty years.
The beginning
Three college friends, Jesper Balser, Torben Wind, and Peter Bang, from Denmark Technical University (DTU) founded their computer software business in 1984 when they were in their early twenties. This business was Personal Computing & Consulting (PC & C) and its first product was called PC Plus.
Single user PC Plus
PC Plus was released in 1985 with the primary goal of ease of use. An early employee said its functional design was inspired by the combination of a manual ledger journal, an Epson FX 80 printer, and a Canon calculator. Incidentally, Peter Bang is the grandson of one of the founders of Bang & Olufsen, the manufacturer of home entertainment systems par excellence.
PC Plus was a PC DOS-based single user system. PC Plus' design features included these:
The PC Plus product was marketed through dealers in Denmark and Norway.
The multi-user Navigator
In 1987, PC & C released a new product, the multi-user Navigator and a new corporate name, Navision. Navigator was quite a technological leap forward. It included the following:
In 1990, Navision was expanding its marketing and dealer recruitment efforts in Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Also in 1990, V3 of Navigator was released. Navigator V3 was still a character-based system, albeit a very sophisticated one. If you get an opportunity to study Navigator V3.x, you would instantly recognize the roots of today's NAV product. By V3, the product included these features:
When Navigator V3.5 was released, it also included support for multiple platforms and databases. Navigator V3.5 would run on both Unix and Windows NT networks. It supported the Oracle and Informix databases, as well as the one developed in-house.
Around this time, several major strategic efforts were initiated. On the technical side, the decision was made to develop a GUI-based product. The first prototype of Navision Financials (for Windows) was shown in 1992. At about the same time, a relationship was established that would take Navision into distribution in the United States. The initial release in the US in 1995 was V3.5 of the character-based product, rechristened as Avista for the US distribution.
Navision Financials for Windows
In 1995, Navision Financials V1.0 for Microsoft Windows was released. This product had many (but not all) of the features of Navigator V3.5. It was designed for complete look-and-feel compatibility with Windows 95. There was an effort to provide the ease of use and flexibility of development of Microsoft Access. The new Navision Financials was very compatible with Microsoft Office and was thus sold as "being familiar to any Office user". Like any V1.0 product, it was quickly followed by a much improved V1.1.
In the next few years, Navision continued to be improved and enhanced. Major new functionalities were added, such as:
Various Microsoft certifications were obtained, providing muscle to the marketing efforts. Geographic and dealer base expansion continued apace. By 2000, according to the Navision Annual Report of that year, the product was represented by nearly 1,000 dealers (Navision Solution Centers) in 24 countries and used by 41,000 customers located in 108 countries.
Growth and mergers
In 2000, Navision Software A/S and its primary Danish competitor, Damgaard A/S, merged. Product development and new releases continued for the primary products of both original firms (Navision and Axapta). In 2002, the now much larger Navision Software, with all its products (Navision, Axapta, and the smaller, older C5, and XAL) was purchased by Microsoft, becoming part of the Microsoft Business Systems division along with the previously purchased Great Plains Software business and its several product lines. All the Navision and Great Plains products received a common rebranding as the Dynamics product line. Navision was renamed Dynamics NAV.
Continuous enhancement
As early as 2003, research began with the Dynamics NAV development team planning moves to further enhance NAV and take advantage of various parts of the Microsoft product line. Goals were defined to increase integration with products such as Microsoft Office and Microsoft Outlook. Goals were also set to leverage the functional capabilities of Visual Studio and SQL Server, among others. All the while, there was a determination not to lose the strength and flexibility of the base product.
NAV 2009 was released in late 2008, NAV 2013 in late 2012, followed by NAV 2015 in late 2014. The biggest hurdles to the new technologies have been cleared. A new user interface, the Role Tailored Client, was created as part of this renewal. NAV was tightly integrated with Microsoft's SQL Server and other Microsoft products such as Office, Outlook, and SharePoint. Development is more integrated with Visual Studio and more .NET compliant. The product is becoming more open and, at the same time, more sophisticated supporting features such as Web Services access, Web and tablet clients, the integration of third-party controls, RDLC, and Word-based reporting, and so on.
Microsoft continues to invest in, enhance, and advance NAV. More new capabilities and features are yet to come, continuing to build on the successes of the past. We will all benefit.
C/AL's Roots
One of the first questions asked by people new to C/AL is often "what other programming language is it like?" The best response is "Pascal". If the questioner is not familiar with Pascal, the next best response would be "C" or "C#".
At the time the three founders of Navision were attending classes at Denmark Technical University (DTU), Pascal was in wide use as a preferred language not only in computer courses, but also in other courses where computers were tools and software had to be written for data analyses. Some of the strengths of Pascal as a tool in an educational environment also served to make it a good model for Navision's business applications development.
Perhaps coincidentally (perhaps not) at DTU in this same time period, a Pascal compiler called Blue Label Pascal was developed by Anders Hejlsberg. That compiler became the basis for what was Borland's Turbo Pascal, which was the "everyman's compiler" of the 1980s because of its low price. Anders went with his Pascal compiler to Borland. While he was there, Turbo Pascal morphed into the Delphi language and the IDE tool set under his guidance.
Anders later left Borland and joined Microsoft, where he led the C# design team. Much of the NAV-related development at Microsoft is now being done in C#. So the Pascal-C/AL-DTU connection has come full circle, only now it appears to be C#-C/AL. Keeping it in the family, Anders' brother, Thomas Hejlsberg also works at Microsoft on NAV as a Software Architect. Each in their own way, Anders and Thomas continue to make significant contributions to Dynamics NAV.
In a discussion about C/AL and C/SIDE, Michael Nielsen of Navision and Microsoft, who developed the original C/AL compiler, runtime, and IDE, said that the design criteria were to provide an environment that could be used without the following:
Paraphrasing some of Michael's additional comments, the goals of the language and IDE design were to do the following:
Michael is still working as part of the Microsoft team in Denmark on new capabilities for NAV. This is another example of how, once part of the NAV community, most of us want to stay part of this community.
What you should know
To get the maximum out of this book as a developer, you should have the following attributes:
If you have these attributes, this book will help you become productive with C/AL and NAV much more rapidly.
Even though this book is targeted first at developers, it is also designed to be useful to executives, consultants, managers, business owners, and others who want to learn about the development technology and operational capabilities of Dynamics NAV. If you fit into one of these or similar categories, start by studying Chapter 1, An Introduction to NAV 2015, for a good overview of NAV and its tools. Then you should review sections of other chapters as the topics apply to your specific areas of interest.
This book's illustrations are from the W1 Cronus database Dynamics NAV V2015.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, An Introduction to NAV 2015, starts with an overview of NAV as a business application system. This is followed by an introduction to the seven types of NAV objects, and the basics of C/AL and C/SIDE. Then we will do some hands-on work and define Tables, multiple Page types, and a Report. We'll close with a brief discussion of how backups and documentation are handled in C/SIDE.
Chapter 2, Tables, focuses on the foundation level of NAV data structure: Tables and their structures. We will cover Properties, Triggers (where C/AL resides), Field Groups, Table Relations, and SumIndexFields. We'll work our way through the hands-on creation of several tables in support of our example application. We will also review the types of tables found in the NAV applications.
Chapter 3, Data Types and Fields, we will learn about fields, the basic building blocks of the NAV data structure. We review the different Data Types in NAV. We will cover all the field properties and triggers in detail. We'll also review the three different Field Classes. We'll conclude with a discussion about the concept of filtering and how it should be considered in the database structure design.
Chapter 4, Pages – The Interactive Interface, we will review the different types of pages, their structures (Triggers, Properties) and general usage. We'll build several pages for our example application using Page Wizard and Page Designer. We will also study the different types of controls that can be used in the pages. In addition, we'll review how and where actions are added to the pages.
Chapter 5, Queries and Reports, we will learn about both Queries and Reports, two methods of extracting data for presentation to users. For Queries, we will study how they are constructed and some of the ways they are utilized. For Reports, we will walk through report data flow and the variety of different report types. We will study the two Report Designers, the C/SIDE Report Designer and the Visual Studio Report Designer and how a NAV report is constructed using both of these. We'll learn what aspects of reports use one designer and what aspects use the other. As in the previous studied objects, we will discuss Properties and Triggers. We will review how reports can be made interactive and will do some hands-on report creation.
Chapter 6, Introduction to C/SIDE and C/AL, we will learn about general Object Designer Navigation as well as the individual Designers (Table, Page, Report). We'll study C/AL code construction, syntax, variable types, expressions, operators, and functions. We will then take a closer look at some of the more frequently used built-in functions. The chapter will wrap up with an exercise on adding some C/AL code to a report objects created in an earlier exercise.
Chapter 7, Intermediate C/AL, we will dig deeper into C/AL development tools and techniques. We will review some more advanced built-in functions including those relating to dates and decimal calculations, both critical business application tools. We'll study the C/AL functions that support process flow control functions, input/output, and filtering. Then we'll do a review of methods of communication between objects. Finally, we'll apply some of what we've learned to enhance our example application.
Chapter 8, Advanced NAV Development Tools, we will review some of the more important elements of the Role Tailored User Experience, in particular the Role Center Page construction. We will dig into the components of a Role Center Page and how to build one. We'll also cover XMLports and Web Services, two of the powerful ways of connecting NAV applications to the world outside of NAV. To better understand these, we will not only review their individual component parts, but also go through the hands-on effort of building an example of each one.
Chapter 9, Successful Conclusions, we will study in detail how NAV functions are constructed and learn how to construct your own functions. We will learn more about tools and features built into C/AL and C/SIDE. We will study the new debugger, review the support for Test-Driven Development, and take a look at the ability to integrate .NET Client Add-ins. We will integrate a .NET Add-in into our example applications. Finally, we will review tips to design efficiently, update and upgrade the system with the goal of helping us to become more productive and high quality NAV developers.
Appendix, Review Answers, provides you with the answers to the questions given in each chapter.
What you need for this book
You will need some basic tools including at least the following:
Access to other NAV manuals, training materials, websites, and experienced associates will obviously be of benefit, but they are not required for the time with this book to be a good investment.
Who this book is for
This book is for:
The reader of this book:
Conventions
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text 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: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."
A block of code is set as follows:
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "In the Description column, we will put notes for the fields that need properties set later."
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[email protected]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
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Errata
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Questions
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Chapter 1. An Introduction to NAV 2015
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
--Galileo Galilei"Everything really interesting that happens in software projects eventually comes down to people."
--James BachMicrosoft Dynamics NAV has one of the largest installed user bases of any enterprise resource planning (ERP) system serving over 100,000 companies and one million plus individual users. The community of supporting organizations, consultants, implementers, and developers continues to grow and prosper. The capabilities of the off-the-shelf product increase with every release. The selection of the add-on products and services expands both in variety and depth.
The release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 continues its 20 plus year history of continuous product improvement. It provides more user options for access and output formatting. For new installations, NAV 2015 includes tools for rapid implementation. For all installations, it provides enhanced business functionality and more support for ERP computing in the cloud, including integration with Office 365. In addition, a new approach to upgrading that comes with NAV 2015 promises to lower the cost of ownership in the future.
Our goal in this chapter is to gain a big picture understanding of NAV 2015. You will be able to envision how NAV can be used by the managers (or owners) of an organization to help manage activities and the resources, whether the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit. You will also be introduced to the technical side of NAV from a developer's point of view.
In this chapter, we will take a look at NAV 2015, including the following:
NAV 2015 – an ERP system
NAV 2015 is an integrated set of business applications designed to service a wide variety of business operations. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 is an ERP system. An ERP system integrates internal and external data across a variety of functional areas, including manufacturing, accounting, supply chain management, customer relationships, service operations, human resources management, as well as the management of other valued resources and activities. By having many related applications well integrated, a full featured ERP system provides an enter data once, use many ways information processing toolset.
NAV 2015 ERP addresses many functional areas. Some of them are listed as follows:
A good ERP system such as NAV 2015 is modular in design, which simplifies implementation, upgrading, modification, integration with third-party products, and expansion for different types of clients. All the modules in the system share a common database and, where appropriate, common data.
The groupings of individual NAV 2015 functions based on the department's menu structure is shown in the following figure. It is supplemented by information from Microsoft marketing materials and some of the groupings are a bit arbitrary. The important thing is to understand the overall components that make up the NAV 2015 ERP system.
NAV 2015 has two quite different styles of user interface (UI). One UI, the Development Environment, targets developers. The other UI style, the RoleTailored Client, targets end users. In NAV 2015, there are three instances of the RoleTailored Client – for Windows, for Web interaction, and for tablet use. The example images in the following module descriptions are from the RoleTailored Client Departments menu in the Windows Client.
Financial Management
Financial Management is the foundation of any ERP system. No matter what the business is, the money must be kept flowing, and the flow of money must be tracked. The tools which help to manage the capital resources of the business are part of NAV 2015's Financial Management module. These include all or part of the following application functions:
The Financial Management section of the Departments menu looks as follows:
Manufacturing
NAV 2015 Manufacturing is general purpose enough to be appropriate for Make to Stock (MTS), Make to Order (MTO), Assemble to Order (ATO), as well as various subsets and combinations of those. Although off-the-shelf NAV is not particularly suitable for most process manufacturing and some of the very high volume assembly line operations, there are third-party add-on and add-in enhancements available for these applications. As with most of the NAV application functions, Manufacturing can be implemented to be used in a basic mode or as a full featured system.
NAV Manufacturing includes the following functions:
The Manufacturing section of the Departments menu looks as follows:
Supply Chain Management
Obviously, some of the functions categorized as part of NAV 2015 Supply Chain Management (SCM), for example sales and purchasing, are actively used in almost every NAV implementation. The supply chain applications in NAV include all or parts of the following applications:
Even though we might consider Assembly to be part of Manufacturing, the standard NAV 2015 Departments menu includes it in the Warehouse section. The Supply Chain Management section of the Departments menu looks as follows:
As a whole, these functions constitute the base components of a system appropriate for distribution operations, including those which operate on an Assemble to Order basis.
Business Intelligence and reporting
Although Microsoft marketing materials identify Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting as though it were a separate module within NAV, it's difficult to physically identify it as such. Most of the components used for BI and reporting purposes are appropriately scattered throughout various application areas. In the words of one Microsoft document, "Business Intelligence is a strategy, not a product." Functions within NAV that support a BI strategy include the following:
Relationship Management
NAV's Relationship Management (RM) functionality is definitely the little sister (or, if you prefer, little brother) of the fully featured standalone MicrosoftCustomer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The big advantage of the NAV RM is its tight integration with NAV customer and sales data. For those who need the full Microsoft CRM, prior versions of NAV have had a module connecting it to NAV. The same connector has been released for NAV 2015.
Also falling under the heading of CRM is the NAV Service Management (SM) functionality. While the RM component shows up in the menu as part of sales and marketing, the SM component is identified as an independent function in the menu structure.
Human Resource management
NAV Human Resources (HR) is a very small module, but relates to a critical component of the business - employees. Basic employee data can be stored and reported via the master table (in fact, one can use HR to manage data about individual contractors in addition to employees). A wide variety of individual employee attributes can be tracked by the use of dimensions fields. NAV functions that support HR are as follows:
Project Management
The NAV project management module consists of the jobs functionality supported by the resources functionality. Projects can be short or long term. They can be external (in other words - billable) or internal. This module is often used by third-parties as the base for vertical market add-ons (such as construction or job-oriented manufacturing). This application area includes parts or all of the following functions:
Significant changes in NAV 2015
NAV 2015 contains added capabilities in a variety of areas including business functionality, enhanced development tools, a tablet client, more Internet compatibility, and increased integration to other Microsoft products. For information on what was new in NAV 2013 R2, review the MSDN notes at:
Some of the mentioned items include Manual Payment Processing, bank reconciliation enhancement, SEPA Debit and Credit handling, Web Client Enhancements, new Windows PowerShell capabilities, a new Help Server, and features to better implement and manage NAV on Windows Azure.
Information on the minimum hardware and software requirements to install and run Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 are found in the embedded Developer and IT Pro Help topic System Requirements for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015. Following are some of the specific areas where NAV 2015 contains significant changes (this list is representative, not comprehensive).
Application changes
Significant changes to applications include:
Client enhancements
Significant client enhancements include:
Development tools
Significant new development tools include:
Other areas
Other new areas include:
A developer's overview of NAV 2015
From the point of view of a developer, NAV 2015 consists of about 4,000 potentially customizable off-the-shelf program objects plus the Integrated Development Environment (the C/SIDE development tools), which allow us to modify existing objects and create new ones.
The NAV 2015 system is an object-based system made up of the seven different object types available in NAV. Strictly speaking, NAV is not a full-featured object-oriented system. A full-featured object-oriented system would allow the definition and creation of new object types, while NAV only allows the creation and modification of instances of the seven predefined object types.
NAV object types
Let's start with basic definitions of the NAV 2015 object types:
The C/SIDE integrated development environment
NAV 2015 includes an extensive set of software development tools. The NAV development tools are accessed through C/SIDE which runs within the Development Environment client. This environment and its complement of tools are usually collectively referred to as C/SIDE. C/SIDE includes the C/AL compiler. All NAV programming uses C/AL. No NAV development can be done without using C/SIDE, but other tools are used to complement C/AL code (such as Visual Studio, .NET, COM controls, and OCX controls among others).
