To make it more simple for you guys to find and discover blogs post from the NAV team members we are combining our blogs into the NAV Team Blog, so I will no longer be posting on the CLAUSL blog. All post from this blog have already been migrated to the NAV Team Blog.

If you still want to follow blogs especially from me please follow this link: http://blogs.msdn.com/nav/archive/tags/Clausl/default.aspx

Thanks to all for giving me more than 40.000 reads on this blog.

See you all at the NAV Team Blog.

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

A new version of the Style Sheet Tool for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is now available. This will also support Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and our upcoming SP1 release.

Please find it here:

CustomerSource: https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/NAVStyleSheetTool

PartnerSource: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/deployment/resources/supplements/NAVStyleSheetTool

Thanks to Robert Miller for making this happen

/Claus

In the new RoleTailored client in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 you do not have the possibility to place a field exactly where you want on a page. You can control in which order they should be shown, but where the field will be placed, is up to the RoleTailored client. This is quite different compared to the Classic where we could define Xpos and Ypos for each control.

Using Sub groups in the Page Designer you can control how fields are grouped. This way you can fix fields to the left side of a FastTab and to the right side of the FastTab. Let see an example of this.

Here is how the "General" FastTab on the Customer Card looks out of the box with no customizations:

But adding 2 Sub Groups you can have the General FastTab look this:

How did I do this? Well let's have look at Page 21 in Page Designer where I have added these 2 groups marked with blue:

While the "General" and "Group 1" seem very similar in Type and Subtype, the important part to notice here is INDENTATION. My "Group 1" is indented under the "General" FastTab group. And when indented under a FastTab group this will be displayed as group and not as a FastTab.
Then of course I have indented the fields "No., Name, Address, Address 2, Post Code and City" below "Group 1" to have these fields captured in this group. For "Group 2" I done the same.

Actually we go one indention level deeper. Try to add a Sub Group in either "Group 1" and "Group 2" and indent some of the fields into to this new sub Group.

Using Sub Groups gives a bit more control on where fields are placed in the page on the RoleTailored client.

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

I just want to promote our blog about reporting in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, in case you have not already spotted this one.

So if you are interested in Reporting in Microsoft Dynamics NAV this is the blog to follow. Also this is your directly link to the product team, so if you have suggestion on what we should blog about, or features you would like to see in the future, please comment on one of the blog posts or use the E-Mail/Contact Form to contact us.

Please find the Microsoft Dynamics NAV reporting blog here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/nav-reporting

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Small tip, if you want to use SQL Server Express 2008 instead of SQL Server Express 2005 which is included in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 RTM installation, here is what to do:

The Demo installation of NAV 2009 RTM is looking for a instance called MSSQLSERVER, so if this is not detected during install, SQL Server Express 2005 will be installed, and Demo Database will be attached to SQL 2005 even though you might have had SQL 2008 Express installed.

So to avoid this set the Instance to MSSQLSERVER on the SQL Server 2008 Express. This way SQL Server 2008 Express will be used and SQL Server 2005 will not be installed.

Note: SQL Server 2008 requires the following:

.NET Framework 3.5 SP1
Windows Installer 4.5
Windows PowerShell 1.0 (Included in Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008)

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Yes we just released NAV 2009, but our Developer help has now already been updated, and can be found here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?linkid=126282

This update includes new and improved Developer, Installation, and Administration content versus what shipped with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 installation media, including

• Nearly 80 bugs fixed. 197 topics updated or added (~15% of the total).
• Updates to C/SIDE Reference to reflect Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009.
• Major improvements to content on How to Develop for NAV, particularly explanations on the differences in developing for the two clients.
• Updates and new content for Page Designer and File Handling topics.
• New content on security for the RoleTailored client.

Also notice that the files nav_adg.chm, nav_install.chm are merged with the cside.chm, so now all Developer Help is found in cside.chm.

We will continue to improve the Developer Help so expect an update to the Developer help in the near future. Here subjects like debugging in RoleTailored client, which I previously described on my blog, will be explained in more details.

If you have issue viewing the new file, you might one to check out the resolution found in this KB902225

/Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Dynamics NAV

First I want to say thanks to people who attended Michael Rosenørn and My session, about building a Role Center in 1 hour, at Convergence 2008 last week in Denmark. Our evaluation score for this session was second highest out of all sessions at Convergence, so we must have done something right :-) Thanks guys!!!

Still I a have a feeling that there are so much more I would like to share with you on how we build up the Role Center, so I have decided to share our demo script for this session.

To the readers which did not attend the session. Michael acted as the Customer and I as the Partner and Live implementer at stage.

The story: Michael (The customers) is requesting Me(The Partner) to implement a Role Center for his Election Manager user profile. The Election Manager is responsible for following up on sponsor for the upcoming election. We are imaging that there is a big election coming up even though we all know this just finished in the US.
So the Election Manager need to keep track of the sponsors in his portfolio. Which sponsor has delivered what they have promised? And which sponsor have not delivered? Election manager will need to get a fast overview of which Sponsor he need to follow up on.
Also the Election Manager needs to setup events and would like to see who is responsible for each of these events. So with this background we start building the Role Center.
Credit goes to Andy Blehm, our Developer Lead on the Client team, for coming up with this story. Thanks Andy.

You can find the Demo Script here. In this zip file you will find the following files:

1. Election - Demo Script.docx (This is the actual Demo Script, no proofreading so if there is any spelling mistake please just blame me)
2. Election Demo Data.txt (Demo Data to import before demo)
3. Election Objects START.fob (Prepared Objects. These are prepared to keep the demo in 1 hour, many of the prepared demo objects are explained during the demo)
4. Election Objects START.txt (and in txt format as well if you prefer this)
5. Election Objects END.fob (All objects included the objects build during the demo. If you just want to see what we build and don't care about the demo script, this is your file )
6. Election Objects END.txt (and in txt format as well if you prefer this)

Regards,
Claus Lundstrøm

UPDATE 23 February 2009!!! Today my TAP partner GAC asked if it is possible to debug with Visual Studio Express 2008. I could not find any place where we have documented this, so I thought I would share the answer with the readers on this blog. And yes you can debug NAV 2009 with Visual Studio Express 2008. So a purchase of Visual Studio 2008 Standard is not required for this task. Please note that SP1 need to be installed also on Visual Studio Express.

Thanks,
Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

---
UPDATE!!! Debugging is not available in the Marketing Beta, so if you have access to a later build you can try this out. If not you will have to wait for RTM.
Also note that SP1 for either Visual Studio 2005 or Visual Studio 2008 is required.
---

In this post I will give you a example on how to debug in NAV 2009.

1. EnableDebugging in CustomSettings.config found here: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60\Service

2. Now Restart the “Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server” service

3. Now we have debugging enabled. Now start the RoleTailored client. This will take a bit longer to start up, because C# files are generated for each of the objects. (Pages, Codeunits, Reports etc.)

4. Now we need to find a place to debug. In this example I will make a codeunit with a simple message and add this to an action on the Customer list.

5. Create a Codeunit. Ex. 50000

6. OnRun trigger place the following code: MESSAGE ('Debug test')

7. Save and compile Codeunit 50000.

8. Now let us add this codeunit to a action. Design page 22 and navigate to the Actions on page 22.

9. Insert a new action below the the Customer Action group

10. Hit F9 and enter this code on the Debug test -  OnAction trigger: CODEUNIT.RUN(50000);

11. Save and compile page 22

12. OK we now have all code completed so now let us set a breakpoint in Visual Studio.

13. Navigate to “C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60\Server\MicrosoftDynamicsNavServer\source\Codeunit”

14. Assuming that you have Visual Studio installed, (In my case I’m using Visual Studio 2008 with SP1) open Codeunit50000.cs

15. If you have UAC turned you will need to open Visual Studio with “Run as administrator”.

16. Now we need to attach the NAV service. Select “Debug / Attach to process…”

17. Attach Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Server.exe

18. Your screen should now look like this:

19. Now add a break point on the message “Debug test”

20, With this done now let us go to RoleTailored client.

21. Navigate to Customer List and see that you have a new action called “Debug test” under “Related Information”

22. Now select “Debug test”

23. Visual Studio will come back in focus with the breakpoint selected.

24. Now try to hit F5 and debugging will continue and RoleTailored client will come back in focus and show the message “Debug test”:

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

First, if you have not downloaded the just released Marketing Beta for Dynamics NAV 2009, this can be downloaded from here. Requires access to Partner Source.

In the Marketing Beta for Dynamics NAV 2009 you will find new walkthroughs for how to create Pages for the new RoleTailored client.

But one thing that you can not find in the “nav_adg.chm", are what icons you can use in the RoleTailored client, because this topic will be added later.

So to save you the time reverse engineering the Demo Database to create this list, if you are to create a new page, let me share these icons with you.

But first let me give you an example on a Action and an Activity Button. If you already are familiar with this, you can skip to the end of this blog, where all the icons are listed.

Example of an Action in Page Designer:

1. Open Object Designer

2. Navigate to the new Page object

3. Design page 22, Customer List

4. Navigate to the bottom of the page to access the Page Object itself

5. Right click and select “Actions”, you view should now look like this:

6. You are now looking at the Action Designer which is captured inside the Page Designer.

7. Scroll down to <Action58>, Bank Accounts and select properties on this action. Your view should now look like this:

8. The most important property here is the “RunObject”, which tells which object are activated, when this Bank Accounts action is clicked, but for this blog I’m concentrate on the “Image” property so I will not go into more detail for the “RunObject”. Notice that the Image property is undefined. So how will this action actually look in the RoleTailored client if no image is associated to this action? Let us promote this action and see.

9. Set “Promoted” to Yes

10. Set “PromotedIsBig” to Yes

11. Save and compile page 22.

12. Open RoleTailored client.

13. Navigate to the Customer List, if you have the Customer List open already, just refresh the list by clicking“Refresh” in the top right corner. You will now see your “Bank Accounts” action promoted with the default icon used. The default icon will be used when the Image property has not been set:

14. Now let set the “Image” property on the “Bank Accounts” action. Go back to the Action Design for Page 22 and select the properties for the “Bank Accounts” action.

15. Set the “Image” property to “BankAccountStatement”

16. Save and compile page 22.

17. Refresh Customer List in RoleTailored client and your icon for “Bank Accounts” action will now look this.

Now let us look at an example of an Activity Button in Page Designer:

1. Activity Buttons belongs to the RoleCenter so to create or modify an Activity Button we need to be designing a Page of PageType “Rolecenter”. So let us look at page 9006.

2. Design page 22

3. As for the Actions the Activity Buttons are also found in the Action Designer, so Navigate to the bottom of the page to access the Page Object itself.

4. Right click and select “Actions”, you view should now look like this:

5. Instead of modifying an existing Activity Button as we did for the Action above, let us create a new one.

6. Navigate to the ActionContainer ActivityButtons area of the Action Designer:

7. Role Center 9006 has one Activity Button called “Posted Documents”. Let us create a new Activity Button call “Bank” just above “Posted Documents”. Place your cursor on “ActionGroup” “Posted Documents” and press F3.

8. A new line is created. Set “Caption” to “Bank” and “Type” to “ActionGroup”

9. Open properties and set “Image” property to “Bank”.

10. Make sure that the 2 ActionGroups “Bank” and “Posted Documents” are at the same indention level. You might need to move “Bank” to the right to align with “Posted Documents”.

11. We could stop now and see the Activity Button in RoleTailored client, but let us add an action to this new Activity Button, so we actually have something happening when you click the Activity Button “Bank” in the RoleTailored client.

12. Create new line bellow, the “Bank” “ActionGroup”, and set “Caption” to “Bank Accounts” and “Type” to “Action”. Make sure that this action is indented one level in from the ActionGroup  above.

13. Open properties for “Bank Accounts” and set “RunObject” to “P371” (Page Bank Account List)

14. Now restart RoleTailored client to see your new Activity button. Note: Refresh does not work in Activity Button area of the Role Center, so you will need to restart the RoleTailored client to see your “Bank” Activity Button. Hopefully this we be solved in a future build, so you don’t need to restart to see your changes made in Page Designer. :-). After the restart you RoleTailored client should now look like this:

So now you have seen how to set the “Image” property on an Action and an Activity Button, let us see the icons you can use.

Icons which can be used for Actions:

Icons which can be used for Activity Buttons:

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

I have now be asked many times how the new Drop Down window in Microsoft NAV 2009 is defined, so let me give you an example on how this works.

In this screen dump, I have just clicked the Drop Down arrow on the field ”Bill-to Customer No”, on the Customer Card, and our new Drop Down window appears displaying the columns No., Name, City, Post Code, Phone No. and Contact.

So how do I define that when I click “Bill-to Customer No.” it displays a Drop Down? And how are the columns defined which are displayed in the Drop Down?

Let us look at a field which actually shows a List page and change this field to show a Drop Down. This could be ex. “Post Code” also found on the Customer Card.

Let us see what happens when I click “Post Code”:

So in standard NAV 2009 we show a List page where the use can select from the available Code and Cities found in the demo database. I would like to change this into a Drop Down so let us go into the Object Designer and explorer why I shown a List page when clicking the Post Code field.

My first thought is to look at Page 21 in the Page Designer and look at the properties for “Post Code”:

But since nothing is specified on the “Lookup” property this must be on table level. In table 18 you find the following code  “PostCode.LookUpPostCode(City,"Post Code",TRUE);”

With this on the OnLookup trigger we will show a List page and not a Drop Down, so let us delete what is on the OnLokup trigger and see how the “Post Code” fields now behaves in the RoleTailered client:

So now I got my Drop Down on “Post Code” but I actually want to sort the columns different and add other columns to the Drop Down. To do this I used a new thing we call “Fields Groups”.

Since when I look at the “Post Code” on the customer card we actually lookup in Post Code table 225, so to change the columns displayed we need to look at this table, so back to Object Designer and design table 225.

In design mode click “View” and notice a new field called “Field Groups”. Notice that this is blank, so the “Code” and “City”  which are displayed in Drop Down above are shown because these fields are Primary Keys specified on the Table.

Now let us define the columns shown in the Drop Down window of “Post Code”.

In the Name type “DropDown” and in group select the assist button and select City, Code and City Search:

Your Field Group should now look like this:

Now compile table 225 and go back to your Customer Card. If you had one open already you will need to reopen since we have changed the underlying data.

Your Drop Down now displays like this:

We have now completed created our new Drop Down window, but before I end this blog I would to like show you a bit more what you can do with this Drop Down.

I have been been in the NAV group for almost 10 years now so I’m a keyboard shortcut addict so let me show a small tip.

While standing on the “Post Code” field press “ALT+ARROW DOWN”, Drop Down will show up.

Now type “New”. The Drop Down will now be sorted on all cities starting with “New”:

You might have noticed that “City” is bold in the Drop Down. This signals that the Drop Down will be searched based on upon the field “City”. So in this case when we type “New” we will see the Cities which start with “New”

Now let us make “Code” the default.

Press “ARROWDOWN” to get down into to Drop Down.

Press “ARROWRIGHT” to get to the “Code” column. Notice that “Code” now becomes bold, and if you are still searching on “New” the list will become blank:

Now type “US“ and your Drop Down window will now be sorted on all codes which is starting with “US“:

Also notice that “Code” going forward will be column to sort on as this information is stored in the Personalization store.

So here you have it, my first blog ever.

Thanks,

Claus Lundstrøm, Program Manager, Microsoft Dynamics NAV