With Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 it is time to drill into the new features we have for you in the reporting area.

Enhanced connection with Visual Studio when editing layout (RDLC)

a. Easy refresh of dataset in Visual Studio

In NAV 2009 SP1 you had to close down Visual Studio when you made any modifications to the dataset (Section designer). With NAV 2009 R2 you can keep both the NAV Report designer and Visual Studio Layout designer open.

To see this feature in action

1. Open a report in design mode and select “View/Layout”

2. With both Report Designer and Visual Studio window, open add new field to the dataset (Section Designer)

3. Now, to activate the refresh action you need to both save and compile. Only saving, or only compiling the report, will not activate the dataset refresh action in Visual Studio.

4. Navigate back to Visual Studio and you will see this message:

5. Select “Yes” to accept the Refresh

6. Lastly, right click ”Result” under ”DataSet”, and select Refresh

Or

Select the Refresh Button

7. You will now see your new added item to the dataset, and you can now add this to your layout.

b. Better protection when closing Report Layout in Visual Studio

In NAV 2009 SP1, it was possible to accidentally close down the Report Designer in NAV and thereby leaving Visual Studio with the Layout open in an unsaved state. With NAV 2009 R2 it is no longer possible to close down the Report Designer in NAV without closing Visual Studio first.

To see this feature in action:

1. Open a report in design mode and select “View/Layout”

2. With both Report Designer and Visual Studio window open, try closing the NAV Report Designer window. You will see this message:

c. Better protection when opening report layout for design in Visual Studio

In NAV 2009 SP1 it was possible to accidentally open several version of the same report layout in Visual Studio. This can easily cause confusion, so with NAV 2009 R2 it is no longer possible to open several versions of the layout in a report.

To see this feature in action:

1. Open a report in design mode and select “View/Layout”

2. With both Report Designer and Visual Studio window open select “View/Layout” again and you will see this message:

Printer Selections now available in Role Tailored client

In NAV 2009 SP1 the only way to define which reports should be printed to which printers was in the Printer Selections form as Printer Selections did not work from Role Tailored client. So you had to have the Classic client installed to configure the Printer Selections in NAV 2009 SP1. You could of also have use the workaround described here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nav-reporting/archive/2009/10/19/printer-selections-in-role-tailored-client.aspx

With NAV 2009 R2 we now have Printer Selections working from Role Tailored client.

To see this feature in action:

1. Open Role Tailored client and type “Printer” in the search box

2. Select Printer Selections and you get this page:

3. To edit the list or create a new select “New” and you will be able create a new or edit what you already have defined:

New action images for PDF

You might have seen my blog post on how to send an e-mail with a report attached as a PDF file.
If you have not seen this here is the link: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nav/archive/2009/10/08/send-email-with-pdf-attachment-in-nav-2009.aspx

In NAV 2009 R2 we have some new icons which we can use.

So if you want to send an e-mail with a report attached as a PDF file in NAV 2009 R2, you might want to consider using the image called: “SendEmailPDF”

And if you want to save a report as a PDF file from RoleTailored client, you might want to use the image called:” SendAsPDF”

And yes it would be great if guys one day could add your own icons to the RoleTailored client. Hopefully we will have this feature in a future version of NAV.

Recently Microsoft hosted a Hot Topic session that included the reporting features discussed in this post. It is called  "Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 Hot Topic: What's New for Developers." A recorded version of the session can be seen at the Partner Learning Center.

This is what I had to share today; I hope you appreciate the new reporting features which will be available in NAV 2009 R2. And as always I’m happy to get feedback about reporting features you would like for us to implement in future releases. So use the Contact Form to write directly to the core reporting team or use MS Connect to give suggestions:https://connect.microsoft.com/dynamicssuggestions

Thanks,
Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV