All about Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Business Central
Author: Ammolh Saallvi
I'm a Dynamics NAV/Navision developer and helps partners and end-users with their NAV implementations. I do everything from third-party management advisory, training to new NAV teams, project management, training, setup and development.
Do you want to hire me to help getting your project a success? Then contact me via dropping one email from linkedin
Expertise in end-to-end development of software products from requirement analysis to System Study, Documentation and Testing. Demonstrated abilities in analyzing information system needs, evaluating end-user requirements, custom designing solutions, troubleshooting for complex information systems management. Deft at carrying out risk analysis, impact analysis, project reviews and documentation. Strong Problem solving & Technical skills coupled with confident decision making for enabling effective solutions leading to high customer satisfaction as well as low operational costs.
Certifications:-
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist -Dynamics
Microsoft Sure Step Certified Professional
Moderator at DUG Forum
Specialties: • ERP Implementation
• Client/Server Programming
• Coding, Testing, troubleshooting and documentation.
• Database Tuning and SQL
• Database Performance
• Debugging large programs
• Project Management and Resource Management.
With the release of business central V20 lot of new features are introduced and one of the features in you can define multiple layouts for reports while developing
In earlier days we are defining multiple layouts as below.
Now with the new release new rendering section is added while creating report in AL development
In the above rendering section we can define multiple layout as below
After compilations of report we can see the layout is created as below
So with new year major version of business central is about to release and in context of that Microsoft released preview version of business central 2022 Wave 1 (BC 20). This preview version only possible to create for Sandbox and non production environment.
How to get this preview environment to get the hands on the new release
On the cloud version of business central one can create Sandbox as below for preview version
This preview version available on docker also.
For Docket Artifacts user following PowerShell command.
Recently one of my customer asked me to add few more fields on primary key and I was looking at the customer like he asked something which is daunting task to be done with business central as everybody aware of that we can not change the primary key fields when table is already having data as while deploying the app it throws an error as below
Even I tried using Force sync also but it is still failing to deploy the app as this is breaking change for the app.
Now question is how to do this and overcome from such situation as your customer is behind you to do that.
To make it work we need to use ObsoleteState and ObsoleteReason that means we need to make your table obsolete and create a new table with new primary key and change the references in all those object where the object is referred.
To make the table obsolete mention the property as below.
Obsolete property value
Value
Description
No
Not obsolete. This is the normal/default setting.
Pending
Will become obsolete in a future version.
Removed
Has been made obsolete.
After making above table obsolete created new table with the new primary key.
Next point is how to transfer data in the new table .
To transfer data from obsolete table to new table used Installed code unit . Additionally you can use temporary table to update data from old table to new table.
If you would like to learn more about ObsoleteState Property then visit here.
As we are gearing up for new release of business central and already the buzz is started for new version . Here I will list few upcoming features which I am looking forward in new version.
Today morning there was issue raised by my consultant stating that text on business central reports showing weird characters as below.
Though these reports was working well on On-Premise but after uploading to cloud it started showing those weird characters.
After checking report layout found that using the same fonts which is available on cloud version of business central but it still fails.
Why ? What could be the reason.
After checking found that customer created data in local language and to display those we need to have font which support those characters to show and I change the font on report and it showed correctly. (Surprisingly the font I used to show report data it worked properly and show data correctly and even it is not listed in the standard list .I think it depends on your country also)
On your own container you have leverage to install the font by using PowerShell command.
But for cloud please choose font wisely so it will not break your app.
With the release of Business Central Wave 2 2021 aka BCV19 lot of new features has been added to make life easier of developer and/or customers.
To keep database performance always high and size of database in control we need to remove some data from database as part of maintenance .but after removing the data what if user would like to review the data again.
In new version Microsoft comes up with new extension called Data Archive.
The main purpose of this extension whenever you delete the records it will archive the records. With this extension archive data will be stored in JSON format in the extension. Media field is created for the storage of JSNO format (Data Archive Media Field)
Lets See how it works in reality
The archive data is stored in Tenant Media table which is not considered while calculating database size. If user would like to revisit some data then you might need to query Azure Cosmos database or you can export data in excel.
Hopefully this will help.
Next blog we will look into how to use the archive functions in AL code.
Do you remember this post of mine where in I mention Microsoft hosting an event for launch of Business Central Wave 2 2021.
Yesterday this event gone live and all the recordings are available to view till 31st December 2021.As like the most event this event is not live and all sessions are recorded and there will be no chat room or live Q & A sessions.
You can view the session by registering here Join the Event and it will redirect you to following screen to register
Just register yourself and get the more details insight of features implemented in business central wave 2 2021 by going through above sessions.
I just gone through few session and found it very well explained and looking forward for all other sessions.
Ammolh Saallvi Blog 