Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Overview of this book

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 is a business management solution that helps simplify and streamline highly specialized business processes. Learning NAV programing in NAV 7 gives you the full inside view of an ERP system. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook covers topics that span a wide range of areas such as integrating the NAV system with other software applications including Microsoft Office, and creating reports to present information from multiple areas of the system,. We will not only learn the essentials of NAV programming, you will also be exposed to the technologies that surround NAV including.NET programming, SQL Server and NAV system administration. Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook is written in a direct, to-the-point style to help you get what you need and continue working in NAV. The first half of the cookbook will help programmers using NAV for the first time, by walking them through the building blocks of writing code and creating objects such as tables, pages, and reports. The second half focuses on using the technologies surrounding NAV to build better solutions. You will learn how to write .NET code that works with the NAV system and how to integrate the system with other software applications such as Microsoft Office or even custom programs. You will learn everything you need to know for developing all types of NAV CSIDE objects, as well as how to integrate and maintain a NAV system.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

Acknowledgements

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

String, Dates, and Other Data Types

Introduction

Retrieving the system date and time

Retrieving the work date

Determining the day, month, and year from a given date

Using the date formula to calculate dates

Converting a value to a formatted string

Creating an array

Creating an option variable

Converting a string to another data type

Manipulating string contents

General Development

Introduction

Displaying the progress bar and data in process

Repeating code using a loop

Checking for conditions using an IF statement

Using the CASE statement to test multiple conditions

Rounding decimal values

Creating functions

Passing parameters by reference

Referencing dynamic tables and fields

Using recursion

Working with Tables, Records, and Queries

Introduction

Creating a table

Adding a key to a table

Retrieving data using the FIND and GET statements

Advanced filtering

Adding a FlowField

Creating a SumIndexField

Retrieving data from FlowField and SumIndexField

Using a temporary table

Retrieving data from other companies

Using a query to extract data

Creating a query to link three tables

Working with queries in C/AL

Designing Pages

Introduction

Creating a page using a wizard

Using multiple options to run the page

Applying filters on the lookup page

Updating the subform page from a parent page

Creating a FactBox page

Creating a Queue page

Creating a Role Center page

Creating a wizard page

Displaying a .NET add-in on a page

Adding a chart to the page

Report Design

Introduction

Creating an RDLC report

Using multiple options to run a report

Adding custom filters to the Request Page

Setting filters when report is loaded

Creating reports to process data

Creating a link from report to page

Creating a link from report to report

Adding totals on decimal field

Adding interactive sorting on reports

Creating a matrix report

Diagnosing Code Problems

Introduction

Using the debugger

Setting breakpoints

Handling runtime errors

Using About This Page and About This Report

Finding errors while using NAS

Roles and Security

Introduction

Assigning a role to a user

Creating a new role

Using the FILTERGROUP function

Using security filters

Applying security filter modes

Field-level security

Assigning permission to use the About This Page function

Killing a user session

Leveraging Microsoft Office

Introduction

Sending data to Microsoft Word

Managing stylesheets

Sending an e-mail from NAV through SMTP

Exporting data using the Excel Buffer

Creating data connection from Excel to NAV

Showing data in Excel using PowerPivot

Creating an InfoPath form for the NAV data

Creating charts with Visio

OS Interaction

Introduction

Using HYPERLINK to open external files

Working with environmental variables

Using SHELL to run external applications

Browsing for a file

Browsing for a folder

Checking file and folder access permissions

Querying the registry

Zipping folders and files within NAV

Integration

Introduction

Sharing information through XMLports

Writing to and reading from a file using the C/AL code

Creating web services

Consuming web services

Sending data through FTP

Printing a report in a PDF, Excel, and Word format

Writing your own automation using C#

Using ADO to access outside data

Working with the SQL Server

Introduction

Creating a basic SQL query

Understanding SIFT

Using the SQL profiler

Displaying data from a SQL view in NAV

Identifying Blocked and Blocking sessions from SQL

Setting up a backup plan

Maintaining the transaction logfiles

NAV Server Administration

Introduction

Creating a NAV Server Instance

Configuring NAS to run Job Queue

Creating a user on NAV

Changing the NAV license

Creating a new database

Testing the NAV database

Index

Customer Reviews

5 star

4 star

3 star

2 star

1 star

Converting a string to another data type

Sometimes, a string representation isn't enough. In order to perform certain actions, you need your data to be in a certain format. For example, we are reading data from a text file, so our entire data is simple text, which needs to be converted into an appropriate data type to use it in NAV. This recipe will show you how to change that data into a format that you can use.

How to do it...

Let's start by creating a new codeunit from Object Designer.
Now add the following global variables:

Name

Type

Length

DateText

Text

30

DateValue

Date

Name	Type	Length
DateText	Text	30
DateValue	Date

Write the following code into the OnRun trigger of the codeunit:

DateText := '01/10/2012';
EVALUATE(DateValue, DateText);
MESSAGE('Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 launch date is %1', DateValue);

To complete the development, save and close the codeunit.
On executing the codeunit, you should see a window similar to the one shown in the following screenshot:

How it works...

The EVALUATE() function takes in two parameters. The first is a variable of the type that we want our value to be converted into. This could be date, time, Boolean, integer, or any other simple data type. This parameter is passed by reference, meaning that the result of the function is stored in that variable. There is no need to do a manual assignment to get a return value.

The second parameter is the string that you need to convert. This text is usually stored in a field or variable, but can also be hardcoded.

Note

EVALUATE() returns a Boolean value when executed. If the conversion is successful, it returns TRUE or 1; otherwise, it returns FALSE or 0. If the function returns FALSE, an error will be generated.

There's more...

The EVALUATE() function is widely used in NAV C/AL code. The following code snippet is taken from the CheckCreditCardData() function of the 825, Do Payment Mgt codeunit:

EVALUATE (IntValue1,FORMAT(TODAY,0,'<Year>'));
EVALUATE (IntValue2,COPYSTR(DOPaymentCreditCard."Expiry Date",3,2));
IF IntValue1 > IntValue2 THEN
  ERROR (Text006, CreditCardNo, DOPaymentCreditCard.FIELDCAPTION ("No."));

Before completing a transaction, the credit card's validity period needs to be checked. The preceding code extracts the year from the current date provided by the TODAY function and the expiry date of the credit card. Both the values are evaluated using the relational operator. If the card has expired, the system will execute a predefined error message in text constant Text006.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Overview of this book

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Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Converting a string to another data type

How to do it...

How it works...

Note

There's more...

See also