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Create, modify, and maintain applications in NAV 5.0, the latest version of the ERP application formerly known as Navision
- For experienced programmers with little or no previous knowledge of NAV development
- Learn as quickly as possible to create, modify, and maintain NAV applications
- Written for version 5.0 of NAV; applicable for all versions
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Read Chapter 1: The Basic Ingredients [PDF 1.64 MB]
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Table of Contents
Language English
Paperback 480 pages [191mm x 235mm]
Release date
October 2007
ISBN 1904811744
ISBN 13 978-1-904811-74-9
Author(s)
David Studebaker
Topics and Technologies
Microsoft & .NET
Created especially for experienced programmers with no previous knowledge of NAV development, this book is for people who want to learn as quickly as possible to create, modify or maintain NAV applications.
Visit the Free Online Edition and read the full table of contents, including summaries of each chapter as well as chapter 1 in full.
Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV (formerly known as Navision) is a well established Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, part of the Microsoft® Dynamics™ family.
Renowned for its challenging learning curve, Dynamics NAV is a complex piece of software with a unique design structure and, for developers learning to modify or enhance it for vital business purposes, the task can sometimes be overwhelming.
This book will ease you through the complexities of NAV application development. You will learn the skills and develop the confidence to tackle your own critical NAV applications. This book will act as your experienced NAV programming mentor, helping you to become productive as a NAV developer much more quickly.
From basic NAV terminology and concept definitions, through the essential building blocks of NAV data structure and objects, you will gain an understanding of the fundamental underlying concepts of NAV. You will learn practical details about NAV object construction and the tools available, including the Table, Form, and Report Designers. You will learn how to use NAV’s tools to effectively navigate through the various features of objects, including properties, triggers, and C/AL code and receive practical guidance on ways to develop and test in the unique NAV C/SIDE development environment.
A section on software design for NAV is provided along with tips for efficient design of a new NAV application or enhancing an existing application. With its comprehensive collection of NAV information, this book is not only designed to help you learn, but can act as a reference as well.
Read the full Table of Contents for Programming Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV
- Become confident with basic NAV definitions and conventions
- Understand the design and development process of a NAV application
- Understand the unique aspects of the NAV data and process flows
- Data Types, Tables, Forms, Reports, and Codeunits
- C/SIDE and C/AL basics – essential navigation, object construction, numbering, basic syntax, naming rules, SIFT technology, string operators and functions, numeric operators and functions, logical and relational operators and functions
- Control Logic and Flow – Conditional statements, I/O statements, sorting, filtering, data flow, FlowFields, process logic flow, creating new functions, documentation, testing
- Advanced C/AL – modifying existing functions, creating new objects, finding code models, advanced debugging techniques
Chapter 1 covers basic definitions as they pertain to NAV and C/SIDE. It also provides an introduction to seven types of NAV objects, Form and Report Creation Wizards, and tools that we use to integrate NAV with external entities, and ends with a brief discussion of how different types of backups and documentation are handled in C/SIDE.
Chapter 2 focuses on the top level of NAV data structure, tables and their structures. You will work your way through hands-on creation of a number of tables in support of an example application. You will review most types of tables found in the out-of-the-box NAV application.
In Chapter 3, you will learn about the basic building blocks of NAV data structure, fields and their attributes, data fields that are available and field structure elements (properties, triggers) for each type of field. This chapter covers the broad range of Data Type options as well as Field Classes, shows you one of the date calculation tools that gives C/AL an edge in business, and discusses the concept of filtering and how it can be considered as you design your database structure.
In Chapter 4, you will review different types of forms and work with some of them, and review all the controls that can be used in forms. You will learn to use the Form Wizard and have a good introduction to the Form Designer. You will expand your example system, creating a number of forms for data maintenance and inquiry.
In Chapter 5, you will learn about on the structural and layout aspects of NAV Report objects. Also, you will experiment with some of the tools and continue to expand your example application.
Chapter 6 will help you learn about the General Object Designer Navigation as well as more specific navigation of individual (Table, Form, Report) Designers. This chapter also covers variables of various types created and controlled by the developer or by the system, basic C/AL syntax, and some essential C/AL functions.
Chapter 7 covers a number of practical tools and topics regarding C/AL coding and development. You will learn about C/AL Symbol Menu and how it assists in development. This chapter also discusses various Computation, Validation and Data Conversion functions, Dates, Flowfields and SIFT, Processing Flow Control, Input–Output, and Filtering functions.
In Chapter 8, you will review a number of tools and techniques aimed at making the life of a NAV developer easier and more efficient. There is also a section on Code Analysis and Debugging.
Chapter 9 will help you deal with software design for NAV. It will help you with the design of NAV modification, creating a new function area or enhancing an existing functional area, and also provides you with the information needed for designing a new NAV application.
Chapter 10 focuses on interfaces with NAV. Overall, you will learn about MenuSuites, Dataports, XMLports, and advanced Interfaces in this chapter.
Chapter 11 will help you become even more productive in C/AL development. It provides some tips for design efficiency and it will help you learn about updating and upgrading the system and more about enjoying working with NAV.
Fast-paced and to-the-point, this book takes you through the important topics of Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV with clear explanations and practical example code. The book's selection of topics is driven by what the working developer needs to know in order to become productive as quickly as possible.
- The business applications software designer/developer who:
- Wants to become productive in NAV C/SIDE – C/AL development as quickly as possible
- Understands business applications and the associated software
- Has significant programming experience
- Has access to NAV including at least the Designer granules, preferably a full development license and a standard Cronus demo database
- Is willing to do the exercises to get hands-on experience
- The Reseller manager or executive who wants a concise, in depth view of NAV’s development environment and tool set
- The technically knowledgeable manager or executive of a firm using NAV that is about to embark on a significant NAV enhancement project
- The technically knowledgeable manager or executive of a firm considering purchase of NAV as a highly customizable business applications platform
The reader of this book:- Does not need to be expert in object-oriented programming
- Does not need to have previous experience with NAV
David Studebaker
David Studebaker is currently a Principal of Liberty Grove Software, Inc., with his partner Karen Studebaker. Liberty Grove Software provides development, consulting, training, and upgrade services for Microsoft Dynamics NAV resellers and firms using NAV internally. Liberty Grove Software is a Microsoft Certified Partner. David has been recognized by Microsoft three times as a Certified Professional for NAV: in Development, in Applications, and in Installation & Configuration. He is also a Certified Microsoft Trainer for NAV. He began developing in C/AL in 1996.
David Studebaker has been programming since taking his first Fortran II course in 1962. In the fall of 1963 he took the first COBOL course taught at Purdue University, where the first U.S. computer science department was later created. The next spring, undergraduate student David was assigned to teach the graduate level class. Since that time, David has been an active participant in each step of computing technology: from the early mainframes to today’s technology, from binary assembly coding to C/AL. He has worked with over 40 different models and brands of computers, over a dozen operating systems and over two dozen different programming languages.
Special projects include the development of the first production SPOOL system in 1967. In the decades following, David was project manager and lead developer for several commercially distributed business application systems. Application areas in which David has worked range from engineering to manufacturing to freight carriage to general accounting to public mass transit to banking to not-for-profit and association management to legal billing to distribution/inventory management to shop floor data collection and production management.
David has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, both with concentrations in computer science. David has been a computer operator, systems programmer, applications programmer, business analyst, consultant, service bureau operations manager, bureaucrat, teacher, project manager, trainer, documenter, software designer, mentor, writer, and entrepreneur. He has been partner or owner and manager of several computer systems businesses, while always maintaining a significant role as a business applications developer. David’s work with relational databases and 4th generation languages with integrated development environments began in 1984.
David assisted in script writing for a series of audio training courses for early PC operating systems and wrote for a newsletter Computers in Education. A series of articles by David for several trade and professional magazines were published concerning the use of computer systems to track and help manage manufacturing shop-floor operations. He was lead author of the Product Identification and Tracking section of the SME Tool and Manufacturing Handbook. For over ten years, David was a reviewer of business applications-related publications for Computing Reviews of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). David has been a member of the ACM since 1963 and was a founding officer of two local chapters of the ACM.
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