Dynamics User Group

Strange errors come during change SourceExpr value in NAV report designer...

Nav developer's blog — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:14:00 GMT

Our colleague raised problem: why he receives strange error during report compile, after he changed SourceExpr value for some control in report designer in NAV 2009. Error message was: Error while validating RDL content: The Value expression for textbox “CompanyInfo” refers to the field ‘PricesInclVAT_YesNo’. Report Item expressions can only refers to fields within the current data set scope or, if Read More......(read more)

Who is the is the winner of the Dynamics Community Competition 2009?

Erik P. Ernst — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:48:00 GMT

For the second time we are now able to announce who the winner of the "Dynamics Community Competion 2009" is. The purpose of this competition was to get more active members of the community, especially the Dynamics User Group. And as the base rule of the competition that neither David Singleton (co-admin) or I could win the competion, that means that the winner is Dave Trenor (aka DaveT).Congratulations to Dave! You're doing a great job! In the period Dave has not been the member with...(read more)

Microsoft is Killing Navision (part 2)

Erik P. Ernst — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:43:00 GMT

In my blog last week I documented the fact that Microsoft is Killing Navision. That has led to a lot of comments, both here and in many other blogs and on LinkedIn. But I think that many people didn't read all of my blog post, as many thought that I said that they where killing Navision because it was a bad product, or that they where planning to dump it any day soon. But do not doubt. NAV or Navision is a great product! And the guys and girls working with the product are all doing a great job...(read more)

Data Emphasis in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 CTP2 (UPDATE !)

waldo — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:23:00 GMT

*** UPDATE *** Seems that Data Emphasis IS conditional. I updated the end of this article. Just scroll down… . A big issue since the release of NAV 2009 is the 'lack' of colors. There was no possibility whatsoever regarding " coloring your fields on pages ". Now, since NAV 2009 Service Pack 1, Microsoft introduces " Data Emphasis " as an enhancement. Let's try to find out what this is about and if it's really an enhancement (there is still no manual for...(read more)

I’m back

Vjekoslav Babic — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:40:22 GMT

It hit me hard today when I realized how long it has been since I last wrote something here. More than a month since my last post, slightly more since anything barely useful. I’ve been trying to write a new post for a while now, and today I just found enough time and inspiration [...] Read More......(read more)

Discreet and process manufacturing difference

Vjekoslav Babic — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:28:22 GMT

When implementing NAV in manufacturing companies, I’ve sometimes heard complaints that the type of manufacturing supported in NAV doesn’t fit the customer needs. And sometimes that’s completely true. NAV supports discreet manufacturing, and it handles it pretty well. But the things do get bumpy when you venture into process manufacturing world. Sometimes customers or even consultants don’t [...] Read More......(read more)

Dynamics NAV Build 29113 - Two bugs

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:38:00 GMT

A short while ago I informed you about an important hotfix for Navision 4.0 SP3 and 5.0 SP1. At one of my larger customers in Germany we implemented this build. It is really working great and solves a lot of problems caused by the Dynamics cursors introduced in build 26410. However we have managed to find two strange issues with it. 1. Adding SQL indexes NAV forgets a filter on Sell-to Cutomer No. in a Select Statement: We found a bug where NAV creates a wrong select statement which is missing a...(read more)

NAV 2009 SP1 - Run pages from objectdesigner | Pros and Cons

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:52:00 GMT

For this blog entry I would like to refer to Eric Wauters (Waldo) blog entry . One thing he describes about NAV 2009 SP1 is the possibility to start pages from the object designer, simply by clicking the run button. This saves you the trouble of running Dynamicsnav:////runpage?page=70000 from the windows run menu or the internet explorer. BUT. Let's see what happens add a record to the table, which page 70000 is based on... And run the page again... The new data is not showing.... WHY? For this...(read more)

Tip #13 - Shift F2 on indexkeys...

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:44:00 GMT

This was also a great tip for me. I saw someone do it when I was onsite at an enduser. Everyone who works with the key's in NAV tables hassled with this, I am sure. When you hit F6 on a key you get the field list. This is only usefull when you add a key on one field. What you want is to go to the form that allowes you to add more than one keyfield. This (seems to be) able to achieve with shift+F2....(read more)

Tip #12 - Migrate from Native to SQL Server - Keys

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:33:00 GMT

It has been almost two years since I presented a successfull session at Directions USA about migrating from the Navision Native (C/Side or Classic) database to SQL Server. This session was repeated in EMEA half a year later. You can download the slides here . It was only recently that I found another thing you have to realise when you migrate. It was related to table 49 Invoice Post. Buffer. Some of you might know that it is used in both codeunit 80 and 90 to combine G/L entries by (VAT) posting...(read more)

SQL Transactional Locking

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:19:00 GMT

Another blog entry about locking in SQL Server. I really hope this is not getting boring. I just like to get some myths and roumors out of the way, that's all... Hopefully my older blog entries clarified the LOCKTABLE command resulting in SQL Server locking either records or ranges of records. For this post to be clear I would like to start writing some code. This codeunit contains two functions. Bot functions have their own local variable for the Customer table. Please note that the first function...(read more)

Tip #11 - The 'page' variable

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:47:00 GMT

When NAV2009 was released, a new variable type was introduced called page. As most of you know, page and form numbers are transparent in NAV. This means that every page should have a form and vice versa. Depending of the client it will show the page or form with that number. For example: The table 21, customer ledger entry has a DrillDownFormID. This refers to form 25. But if you drilldown in the Role Tailored Client it will show page 25. I've created a new Table with a Form and a Page, both...(read more)

Tip #10 - NAV2009 Drop Down List

Marq — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:19:00 GMT

Following the blog of Claus about drop down lists I would like to add some follow which is new for most developers. Claus' blog give a very accurate description about how to work with this new cool feature of NAV2009 but when I was explaining it for a developers class I found a little mistery. The blog describes that, when you do not specify it, NAV will show the primairy key. But how does that explain the drop down of the Currency... Please note that it shows Code and Description... And nothing...(read more)

Product Suggestions for Microsoft Dynamics

Alex Chow — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:29:00 GMT

Got a suggestion to make the product better? Go here to log your suggestions (or complaints, rants, raves, etc). It's about time Microsoft has something like this. https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions Make your voice count! Microsoft is listening!...(read more)

Average Cost to Implement Dynamics NAV (Navision)

Alex Chow — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:57:00 GMT

First of all, there are no 2 businesses that are exactly the same. I don't care if they're in the same industry, if the owners are siblings, and/or if they live in the same household. Companies are as unique as the fingerprints of the owners that run them. As such, no 2 implementations are exactly the same. This is because the people that work inside the companies are unique. They live the company culture that are defined by their managers. And the company culture are as unique as the personalities...(read more)

Data Emphasis in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 CTP2

waldo — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:07:00 GMT

Important: This article was updated in a new blogpost. I suggest you read the new version of it here . A big issue since the release of NAV 2009 is the 'lack' of colors. There was no possibility whatsoever regarding " coloring your fields on pages ". Now, since NAV 2009 Service Pack 1, Microsoft introduces " Data Emphasis " as an enhancement. Let's try to find out what this is about and if it's really an enhancement (there is still no manual for this … so...(read more)

NAV 2009 SP1: Keyboard Shortcuts

waldo — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:51:00 GMT

Recently (read: today) I contacted Microsoft for a list of shortcuts in Sp1. Apparently it was already in the help-file of NAV 2009 SP1 CTP2, so you can imagine how embarrassed I was by asking this question. On the other hand … this is the easiest blog post ever for me. Enjoy the list: RoleTailored Classic Action RIGHT ARROW RIGHT ARROW Move to the next field or character LEFT ARROW LEFT ARROW Move to the previous field or character UP ARROW UP ARROW Move to the field above in the same column...(read more)

NAV 2009 SP1 Marketing Beta VPC is available to download

waldo — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:53:00 GMT

Finally, it's time for all you partners to stop reading the "bla bla" and start doing the "boom boom". The Download of SP1 Marketing Beta VPC is available on Partnersource and you can download it here . I would like to encourage you to download this VPC to get familiar with the new features or NAV 2009 as such. It's great for "readiness" and "awareness" to your consultants....(read more)

Tip #9 - Gain access to a database without a password

Marq — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:48:00 GMT

This is often an issue when you get a SQL Backup from a customer to analyse.

Off course you can create a user on SQL and change the password, but it is easier.

Navision stores the users into two tables. User and 'Windows Login', The first table is for database logins, the latter for Windows Logins.

When you delete all records from both tables Navision will no longer ask for passwords and allowes blank access.

So to all end users: Protect your backupfiles!

Tip #8 - SQL Server Script button

Marq — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:30:00 GMT

This tip is about the SQL Server Management studio again.

Many Dynamics Nav customers and consultants are very new to SQL and the programming language T-SQL.

The SQL Server has solved that with introducting tons of wizards for common tasks like backing up databases and creating users.

Let's look at one of those (Backup);

With this wizard we can easily create a full, incremental or transaction log backup of the database.

Without going in the details about this wizard I would like to point out the script button

This button exists on a lot of SQL Server wizards. When you push it you get this in your query window

You can use this to either study T-SQL or create your own scripts to reuse or schedule!

Tip #7 - SQL Range Locks

Marq — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:49:00 GMT

In my previous tip (http://dynamicsuser.net/blogs/mark_brummel/archive/2009/06/13/tip-6-find-locked-records.aspx) I showed you how to find which exact records are locked and 'proved' row locking with the 'LOCKTABLE' command.

But even then you can eperience another fact. Sometimes SQL 'locks' records that are not yet created. This can be very irritating, especialy when for example several users are creating sales orders in batches.

What causes this to happen?

The answer can be found in the serveral locking types SQL server knows. The easiest one is the record lock. This lock is what you get when you 'GET' a single record when fitering on the unique value or 'primairy key' in Navision language.

To check this we will write the following code

(Don't you love the colors )

When we run the codeunit, a Sales Line is inserted. Please notice you need the .GET to actualy insert the records because of the buffered inserts introduced in SP1 of 5.0

When we open a second client on the same SQL Server database and open the Sales line table we see the record

This is because SQL Server does not know the Version Principle that the Classic or 'Native' database knew. We can actualy see a record that is not yet committed into the database. COOL.

Now let's check the locks in SQL Server. We do this using the sp_lock command.

I will not go into details about lock types but you can read some here. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191272.aspx

All that is interesting now is that we can insert a neighbouring record using a second client.

To do this we copy the codeunit and change the numbers.

After executing we see this in a 'Third' client.

And this in the SQL Management Studio

So lesson learned: We can create two neigbouring records in the sales line with two transactions from two clients. No blocking, no deadlocks, nothing.

Perfect. So how come I have (dead)(b)locks in my database.

Let's release both locks by hitting Ja. (Dutch for Yes )

And write a new codeunit.

This reads all saleslines from the 'Mark' document without a cursor.

Now when we issue sp_lock we get this

Note that we get 'RangeS-U' types of locking.

Now let us try to create line number 30000.

When running this codeunit we get this error

THIS IS WHY YOU GET BLOCKS AND DEADLOCKS.

Navision is full of this kind of statements.

So how do I avoid this.

First lesson is to avoid the validate statement when populating records. This is a very nasty habbit of a lot of developers. Have a look at standard NAV code. How many validates are there in Codeunit 80? And 12?

Another trick can be to read into a temp table first and 'get' the records one by one.

Good luck with this one.

Send me an email when you want the objects.

Microsoft is killing Navision

Erik P. Ernst — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:52:00 GMT

If you like me thought that a career working with Navision, or Dynamics NAV as Microsoft likes to call our system, would be a career for life then I think you need to start and rethink that option. Microsoft is slowly but surely killing Navision without replacing it with Dynamics NAV! Take a look at the below statistics taken from Google Trends shows it very clearly. The statistics from Google Trends are made based on how many times users are searching for a specific word or search terms. Microsoft...(read more)

What do SPNs actually do - NAV 2009

Nav developer's blog — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:36:00 GMT

Three terms keep coming up when setting up NAV 2009 when NAV-server (middle tier) runs on a different machine than SQL Server: - Delegation / Impersonation - Kerberos - SPN Delegation / Impersonation is what it says it is. Kerberos is handled more or less automatically by Windows. But what do SPNs actually do.... (un)fortunately SPN can't be explained without first explaining Delegation and Kerberos Read More......(read more)

NAV 2009 Web Services (Part 3 – finally a web service!)

ryanwhittaker — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:39:00 GMT

Up to this point we have been preparing the structures needed to support our application. We have created the traditional simple tables and forms, as well as gone through the process of generating some pages equivalent to those forms. The entire reason for the latter work was that it is only possible to expose pages or codeunits via web services.

Thankfully the task of registering and publishing a web service from within NAV is a very, very simple affair.

From within the Classic client navigate to, and run form 810 – Web Service.

Our first task is simply going to be to get a list of Vehicle records out of NAV. In order to do this we will need to expose our Vehicle List page (in my case this is page 50002).

To do this we simply select the Object Type = Page, enter the Object ID = 50002; give the service a name = Vehicle, and tick the published flag.

Next we need to make sure that the NAV Web Service service is actually running. This can be done by checking the services.msc for your machine.

In my case I have created a second set of middle tier services (thanks to FreddyK and the following posting: http://blogs.msdn.com/freddyk/archive/2008/10/29/multiple-service-tiers.aspx ), but the one I am interested in here is the highlighted web services – DEV service. As we can see this is running as required.

So how do I make sure that something is actually being exposed before we look at consuming the web service (in the next post)? The answer is that we must verify our web service availability. We do this by navigating to the following URL in our web browser of choice:

http://<Server>:<WebServicePort>/<ServerInstance>/WS/<CompanyName>/services

NOTE: The company name is optional and case-sensitive and the rest of the values can be found in your CustomSettings.config file.

In my case this converts to: http://localhost:7047/Dev/WS/services

Success!!!! The Vehicle page has been published and is exposing itself via the port specified.

Next time we actually get to something where I really am going to start to learn as I go – we will try to write an application in C# to retrieve our data via the web service. As I've mentioned a few times, and as the Microsoft Statement of Direction (see: http://dynamicsuser.net/blogs/admin/archive/2009/05/21/what-is-the-plan-with-microsoft-dynamics-nav-until-2017.aspx ) mentions we are moving more and more towards using a .NET programming environment so I need to make sure that I am familiar with this environment as soon as possible. I see the current touch point as the web services so getting familiar with these and exploring exactly how to interact with and consume them is where my current focus is.

NAV2009 SP1 - Making it usable

Marq — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:07:00 GMT

NAV2009 SP1 is finished and being tested now. As a MVP I have access to the CTP releases. Unfortunately that does not automaticaly mean I have time for it. As dad of three and partner of a succesful business it is difficult to find time.

When NAV2009 RTM was stil under development I decided to use it for our own accounting for a while (CTP3) to see how it works in real life. This gave me a good view of the usability of the new client.

This is absolutely not bad. It is easy to create purchase and sales documents and analyse your business.

However, there where some major issues that made it difficult for me to be really entousiastic. Some of these where solved before the release, but some where postponed.

With SP1, most of these issues are solved.

1. Pageup - Pagedown in card pages

In SP1 you can browse though the records if you are in a page.

Hurray.

2. Copy Previous

F8 is back!!! They even kept the shortcut (for a change).

3. Matrix forms are back

Well, not entirely true. For those of you who know the add on for Pebblestone fashion; this is full of matrix forms. Pebblestone is always one of the first ISV's to update the add on for new version but that could not be done in NAV2009. Together with Microsoft they found a solution. This has been called the 'Pebblestone' solution ever since. The solution was to create a list page with freeze pane. The population is done via code and the columns are caption classes.

Microsoft has implemented the Pebblestone solution as standard solution in the application now.

I want to thank Microsoft for making a fancy product usable!

Besides these improvements they also made all kind of other things you can read about in Waldo's blog.

http://dynamicsuser.net/blogs/waldo/archive/2009/05/11/microsoft-dynamics-nav-2009-service-pack-1-overview.aspx

But IMHO these improvements are useless if the product is not usable.

/Mark