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

Retrieving the system date and time

Most times, we need to capture the system date and time of users' actions on NAV. This recipe will illustrate how to get the system date and time.

How to do it...

Let's create a new codeunit from Object Designer.
Now add the following code into the OnRun trigger of the codeunit:
```
MESSAGE('Todays Date: %1\Current Time: %2', TODAY, TIME);
```
To complete the development of the codeunit, save and close it.
On executing the codeunit, you should see a window similar to the one in the following screenshot:

How it works...

The TODAY keyword returns the date and the TIME keyword returns the time from the NAV Server system.

In the case of the older version of the NAV client—specifically the classic client—the date and time are taken from the client computer, which allows users to manipulate the system clock as per their personal requirement.

You can also retrieve the system date and time all at once using the CURRENTDATETIME function. The date and time can be extracted using the DT2DATE and DT2TIME functions respectively.

Note

For a complete list of date functions, run a search for the date function and the time function in the Developer and IT Pro Help option in the Help menu of Microsoft NAV Development Environment

There's more...

The change log is a base NAV module that allows you to track changes to specific fields in tables. The following code can be found in the 423, Change Log Management codeunit in the InsertLogEntry() method:

ChangeLogEntry.INIT;
ChangeLogEntry."Date and Time" := CURRENTDATETIME;
ChangeLogEntry.Time := DT2TIME(ChangeLogEntry."Date and Time");

Here, instead of using the WORKDATE function, we use the CURRENTDATETIME function and then extract the time using the DT2TIME function. The system designers can just do the following setup:

ChangeLogEntry.Date := TODAY;
ChangeLogEntry.Time := TIME;

The advantage of using CURRENTDATETIME over TODAY and TIME is minimal. CURRENTDATETIME makes one request to the system while the second method makes two. It is possible that another operation or thread on the client machine could take over between retrieving the date and time from the computer; however, this is very unlikely. The operations could also take place right before and after midnight, generating some very strange data. The requirements for your modification will determine which method is best suited, but generally CURRENTDATETIME is the correct method to use.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Overview of this book

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 7 Programming Cookbook - Second Edition

Retrieving the system date and time

How to do it...

How it works...

Note

There's more...

See also