Microsoft Dynamics NAV Design Patterns

The base application that is shipped with Microsoft Dynamics NAV is full of design patterns, general reusable solutions to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. Using these patterns when applicable, not only do you use solutions that have proven to work, but you also create software that people recognize as Dynamics NAV, since it will probably behave the same as the standard software.

The object-oriented patterns

The most well-known object-oriented patterns are those that are documented in the book called Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, which we mentioned earlier in this chapter. Examples of these patterns are Builder, Prototype, Bridge, Singleton, Façade, and Adapter. We reuse some of these names in this book when they resemble the original pattern. Another object-oriented pattern is the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern, which also applies to Dynamics NAV.

Non-object-oriented patterns

The base design patterns from object-oriented programming are pretty much targeted at structuring applications, running as Windows services or applications. With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we get all of that out of the box. We don't have to think of how to get the data from the database, or how to handle concurrency.

For a better understanding of object-oriented patterns and why they don't apply to Dynamics NAV and C/AL, please read and watch the information at http://www.newthinktank.com/2012/08/design-patterns-video-tutorial/.

The functional oriented patterns

The patterns that we use in Dynamics NAV typically are functionally oriented. They are sometimes even focused on the typical ERP problems, such as storage and formatting of address information. They still solve commonly occurring problems.