Preface
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 is a modern enterprise resource planning application that covers a wide range of user demands. The NAV technical platform gives end-users and applications developers access to cutting-edge technologies, while the front-end business application meets most of the daily needs of small and medium-sized companies. Still every business is individual and must face unique challenges, and it is impossible to foresee all demands from business users to the ERP software.
To satisfy the requirements of each unique company, NAV offers a wide variety of tools to extend standard functionality. This toolset includes the internal development environment that enables developers to tailor the business application to individual needs. Besides, in this book you will find multiple recipes guiding you through the integration of external libraries developed in .NET languages, into NAV applications.
With the recipes in this book, you will customize NAV applications, develop business logic, extend user interfaces, and organize solutions with custom role centers arranged specifically for each functional role in the organization.
The book then proceeds to reporting tools, which are the essential part of any enterprise software. You will build informative and interactive reports with built-in NAV tools, and use Visual Studio reporting tools and SQL Server Reporting Services to design and publish reports. Readers not so skillful in application development, but proficient in Excel or Power BI, will learn how to load data from NAV into their favorite reporting system and model comprehensive reports.
System administrators will find useful recipes on different aspects of NAV server configuration and security features.
What this book covers
Chapter 1 , Writing Basic C/AL Code, describes NAV 2016 server and client installation and configuration and introduces the NAV 2016 development environment along with the basics of the NAV application language, C/AL.
Chapter 2 , Advanced C/AL Development, delves deeper into C/AL development and NAV application objects. You will learn how to store your data in tables, present the data in UI with pages, export, import, and structure the data in XMLPorts and queries, and write efficient and reusable code.
Chapter 3, Reporting and Data Analysis, introduces the reader to NAV reporting capabilities. The chapter begins with an in-depth description of C/SIDE Report objects, shifting to integration with external tools in the second part. You will learn how to present NAV data in different reporting systems, including Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services, and MS Excel.
Chapter 4, .NET Interoperability in C/AL, covers the integration of .NET assemblies into the NAV client application language. Recipes in this chapter give an overview of the DotNet data type in NAV, various extensions of C/AL aimed at supporting the .NET interoperability and development of custom .Net assemblies and their integration into NAV.
Chapter 5, Extending C/AL with COM Components, walks the reader through developing COM components and the integration of COM into the NAV application.
Chapter 6, SharePoint Integration, provides an overview of corporate web portals on the SharePoint platform and various ways to integrate NAV elements into the corporate sites.
Chapter 7, Control Add-ins, covers extending the NAV user interface with custom controls written in .NET languages, such as C#, or in JavaScript.
Chapter 8, Web Services, covers publishing SOAP and OData web services from NAV to expose data and functionality through standard communication interfaces over the Web. You will learn how to publish and consume NAV web services and protect web service endpoints from unauthorized access.
Chapter 9, Events and Extension Packages, covers the events which have been introduced in NAV 2016 to allow application developers to extend NAV functionality without modification to the base application code. We will go through subscribing to different types of events to receive notifications of changes in database, user actions, and events in the app business logic. The chapter then covers developing extension packages that utilize the idea of events to bind third party extensions to NAV application code.
Chapter 10, PowerShell, gives an overview of the reach set of PowerShell cmdlets available in NAV shell.
What you need for this book
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2 Express, Standard, or Enterprise
Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium or Ultimate edition
Instead of Visual Studio 2012, you can use its free version, Visual Studio Code, to develop .NET code in C#
To design report layouts, Visual Studio is also required. VS report designer can be replaced with the free Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Report Builder
Microsoft Office 2016. The book covers different aspects of integration between NAV and Office applications.
Power BI is required for data analysis in Chapter 3, Reporting and Data Analysis.
The R language environment. Two recipes in Chapter 3, Reporting and Data Analysis, use R scripts for statistical analysis of NAV data. These will require R.
SharePoint Server 2016 or SharePoint Online subscription
Java SE Development Kit 8 and an IDE for Java development, for example, Eclipse.
Windows Management Framework 3.0 must be installed to use features of PowerShell 3.0. Installation is required on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008. In Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and higher versions, PowerShell 3.0 is integrated into the operating system.
Who this book is for
This book is intended for NAV developers, administrators, and advanced users who want to take the most from NAV implementation. The reader is expected to be familiar with basic programming and have a good knowledge of NAV business application. Understanding of object-oriented principles, as well as some experience of programming in C# and/or Java would be helpful.
Sections
In this book, you will find several headings that appear frequently (Getting ready, How to do it, How it works, There's more, and See also).
To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we use these sections as follows:
Getting ready
This section tells you what to expect in the recipe, and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.
How to do it…
This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe.
How it works…
This section usually consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section.
There's more…
This section consists of additional information about the recipe in order to make the reader more knowledgeable about the recipe.
See also
This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe.
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: "Open the ClientUserSettings.config file located in the AppData directory."
A block of code is set as follows:
SalesLine.SETFILTER( "Document Type",'%1|%2', SalesLine."Document Type"::Order, SalesLine."Document Type"::Invoice);
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
Install-NAVApp -ServerInstance DynamicsNAV90 `
-Name "ILE Posting DateTime"
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Click Next, then select the option Do not export the private key."
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.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors .
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Downloading the example code
You can download the example code files for this book from your account at http://www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files e-mailed directly to you.
You can download the code files by following these steps:
Log in or register to our website using your e-mail address and password.
Hover the mouse pointer on the SUPPORT tab at the top.
Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
Enter the name of the book in the Search box.
Select the book for which you're looking to download the code files.
Choose from the drop-down menu where you purchased this book from.
Click on Code Download.
You can also download the code files by clicking on the Code Files button on the book's webpage at the Packt Publishing website. This page can be accessed by entering the book's name in the Search box. Please note that you need to be logged in to your Packt account.
Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:
WinRAR / 7-Zip for Windows
Zipeg / iZip / UnRarX for Mac
7-Zip / PeaZip for Linux
The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Extending-Microsoft-Dynamics-NAV-2016-Cookbook. We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!
Errata
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books-maybe a mistake in the text or the code-we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.
To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy
Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
Questions
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at [email protected], and we will do our best to address the problem.
