Book Image

Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV - Fifth Edition

By : Marije Brummel, David Studebaker, Christopher D. Studebaker
Book Image

Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV - Fifth Edition

By: Marije Brummel, David Studebaker, Christopher D. Studebaker

Overview of this book

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a full business solution suite, and a complete ERP solution that contains a robust set of development tools to support customization and enhancement. These tools provide greater control over financials and can simplify supply chain, manufacturing, and operations. This book will take you from an introduction to Dynamics NAV and its integrated development tools to being a productive developer in the Dynamics NAV Development Environment. You will find this book very useful if you want to evaluate the product's development capabilities or need to manage Dynamics NAV based projects. It will teach you about the NAV application structure, the C/SIDE development environment, the C/AL language paired with the improved editor, the construction and uses of each object type, and how it all fits together to build universal applications. With this new edition, you will be able to understand how to design and develop using Patterns and new features such as Extensions and Events.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Introduction to NAV 2017

"Time changes all things; there is no reason why language should escape this universal law."
                                                                                                         - Ferdinand de Saussure
"When we use a language, we should commit ourselves to knowing it, being able to read it, and writing it idiomatically."
                                                                                                            - Ron Jeffries

Microsoft Dynamics NAV has one of the largest installed user bases of any enterprise resource planning (ERP) system serving over 100,000 companies and one million plus individual users at the time of this writing. The community of supporting organizations, consultants, implementers, and developers continues to grow and prosper. The capabilities of the off-the-shelf product increase with every release. The selection of the add-on products and services expands both in variety and depth.

The release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 continues its 20+ year history of continuous product improvement. It provides more user options for access and output formatting. For new installations, NAV 2017 includes tools for rapid implementation. For all installations, it provides enhanced business functionality and more support for ERP computing in the cloud, including integration with Microsoft Office 365.

NAV 2017 is also the base foundation for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Financials, which is a cloud-based subset of the product that you can customize using extensions. We will discuss the concept of extensions in this book.

Our goal in this chapter is to gain a big picture understanding of NAV 2017. You will be able to envision how NAV can be used by the managers (or owners) of an organization to help manage activities and the resources, whether the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit. You will also be introduced to the technical side of NAV from a developer's point of view.

In this chapter, we will take a look at NAV 2017, including the following:

  • A general overview of NAV 2017
  • A technical overview of NAV 2017
  • A hands-on introduction to C/SIDE development in NAV 2017