NAV Developers Blog

Problems in transformation forms to pages using TransformationTools

Nav developer's blog — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:10:00 GMT

After Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 release more and more developers start using it and trying to adopt existing solutions for new 3tier environment. Most workload comes from trying to adopt current forms to new object - pages. Particularly transformation could be done by using TransformationTools, however it is not "best ever" and partners reporting problems and require to fix it... But...(read more)

Table Information including Index information (Usage, Blocks and Reads)

Nav developer's blog — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:34:00 GMT

The query below combines these three queries into one: Index Usage Query Recent Bocking History Table Information Query It can be used to just see the number of records in each table. But also by just changing "ORDER BY", it can be used to see which index cause most blocking / wait time / updates or locks. Or to compare Index Updates with Index Reads to get an idea of cost versus benefit...(read more)

Troubleshooting multi-machine installations of NAV 2009

Nav developer's blog — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:36:00 GMT

The NAV 2009 documentation walkthroughs provide step-by-step instructions for installing NAV 2009 on 2 or 3 machines. However, we have found that some of the same configuration issues come up time after time after installation. When on calls with partners and customers, it seemed to me that this information was spread out all over the place, so I wanted to organize it in a different way for troubleshooting...(read more)

Translate this site using Windows Live Translator

Nav developer's blog — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:50:00 GMT

A new translator service is now available for all whose browser is set to one of the following languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Netherlands Dutch, Russian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, Korean, Arabic. To use it: Scroll down, and on the right hand side of this page, select your language under "Translate this site using Windows Live Translator"...(read more)

Index Usage Information Tool

Nav developer's blog — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:58:00 GMT

Attached at the end of this post is a set of NAV objects that collects index usage information, and displays it in a NAV client so that you can sort tables by no. of Indexes / Index Reads / (Index) Block wait time, etc.: The tool is using these three SQL Queries / DMVs: sys.indexes: Basic information about indexes sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats: No. of Index Reads, updates, etc sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats...(read more)

Converting company names for NAV Web Services

Nav developer's blog — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:26:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I saw an up tick in the number of cases having problems accessing exposed web service. Some of the problem has been because the “CRONUS USA, Inc.” company name converts to an unfamiliar “CROUNS_USA_x002C__Inc”. This will be changing in NAV 2009 SP1 , but until that time it would be helpful to know exactly how company names are converted for NAV Web Services. The rules are: The character...(read more)

How to set dynamically the Key and Sort Order for the pages using NAV 2009 Web Services feature.

Nav developer's blog — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:04:00 GMT

The default methods exposed when a page is published are the so-called CRUD (Create, Read, Multiple and Delete) methods. All of those does not allow to set up previously a key for sorting order nor if the records have to be ascending or descending. In order to retrieve data in a particular sorting order it should be necessary to develop N pages for N related sorting keys. This can be a solution that...(read more)

How to read a SQL Profiler trace file into a SQL table

Nav developer's blog — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 07:03:00 GMT

Just a small tip that I use often when I have a large SQL Profiler trace. Rather than reading through trace files line by line, you can read it into a table and then query it. This syntax creates a new table in SQL Server and loads your trace file into it: SELECT * INTO MyTraceTemp FROM :: fn_trace_gettable ( 'c:\x\MyTrace.trc' , default ) The default parameter means that if the trace is across...(read more)

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)

Where is the zup file again?

Nav developer's blog — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:12:00 GMT

I keep forgetting where the CustomSettings.config, ClientUserSettings.Config etc files are. So I keep looking it up again in "Where is the zup file" . This time, I collected the location of these files in a NAV form so I don't have to look them up anymore. In addition to this you can edit the files from the form directly. It looks like this: The first time you run the form it will insert...(read more)

How to manage NAV DBCS data using C#

Nav developer's blog — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 06:26:00 GMT

It is known that NAV CC (Classic Client) does not support natively DBCS (Double-Byte Character Set) and so does the new NAV 2009 RTC (Role Tailored Client). Due to differences in how the CC and RTC check the code page isn’t still possible to enable DBCS in the RTC but this is possible for the CC by implementing new fin.stx file. This last sentence is duly written and explained in KB 915374. How...(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)

Setting up NAV 2009 on Three machines

Nav developer's blog — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:38:00 GMT

Setting up delegation and SPNs for NAV 2009 on three machines (when the NAV Server and SQL Server are on two seperate machines) is described in "Walkthrough: Installing the Three Tiers on Three Computers" . But in addition to this, also be aware of the following: The syntax of SPNs has changed since KB 968189 You may need to set UserAccountControl flag in Active Directory Also thanks to our...(read more)

SQL Query to show tables, their indexes and index usage

Nav developer's blog — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:11:00 GMT

The SQL query below shows a list of tables sorted by the largest tables first. For each table, the indexes in the table are shown. For each index it shows when the index was last used. The query is designed to collect various pieces of information in one place, and give an overview to help supporting decisions when doing index tuning. The left hand columns show data for the table (No. of receords,...(read more)

Upgrading to Dynamics NAV 2009

Nav developer's blog — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:10:00 GMT

Upgrade procedure to Dynamics NAV 2009 is not very different from upgrade procedures we had in previous versions, but some differences do apply, depending on what we want to achieve with the upgrade. First scenario is executables only upgrade, which is the same as traditional executables upgrade in NAV. That means upgrading classic NAV client to NAV 2009 version by opening previous database versions...(read more)