ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 157
The NAV community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff, is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.
As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media…so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.
Dynamics NAV 2016 and 2017: Building Reports
Brian Winfrey notes that Microsoft’s requirements document does not list Visual Studio Community Edition as a supported edition for NAV 2016 and 2017, rather Professional and Ultimate editions are listed. “I don’t see any technical limitation in using VSCE, i.e., I can open and view the layout in graphical form. Does anyone know if any other limitation exists? Why would MSFT not list VSCE as a supported edition, licensing compliance?”
Bill replies, “I’m thinking you’re on track with that: https://www.visualstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/VS2017_COMMUNITY_RC_ENG_Eula.1033.pdf.
I’m not sure if that applies to using it for a customer, I would think it would be, and Community Edition is outside of our realm of use. Technically, no there’s no reason it doesn’t work.”
Matt warns, “It is technically against EULA to use it for the majority of companies. There’s no reason we can’t be using SQL Report Builder, though. It does everything that Visual Studio does.”
Bill responds, “I think you still want Visual Studio in there. I find a couple nice features missing from Report Builder. I can’t see the document outline so trying to get a quick overview of all the textboxes to track a specific one down, the get/set data is a little rougher because it doesn’t seem to handle the large string as well and the expression box doesn’t have line numbers.”
Saurav chimes in, “I do agree what Matt Traxinger said, that we should use report builder for report dev starting NAV 2013 R2 and onwards.”
Bill Warnke notes that “Yes, it’s nice to have the Visual Studio for report development but there are all the required features in Report builder for Report Developer.
We also have to think about future versions, I am sure that Report builder will be the only tool that will be supported in future. Report Builder is tried and tested tool for Report dev and being used for SQL Reporting (Core behind NAV Reporting).”
Enabling and Disabling a FastTab in Dynamics NAV C/AL Code
Gwen Cain asks, “In NAV 2017, does anyone know how to enable/disable a FastTab in C/AL code? I have 3 FastTabs on a page. The client wants an active checkbox on each tab and then when the active checkbox is clicked for one, then the other two are disabled. I have been searching and cannot figure out how to do this. Has anyone tried this before? Thanks!”
Matt: I have never tried with a FastTab, just fields. You’ll want to create a global boolean and set the IncludeInDataset property to Yes. Then set the visible property on the FastTab to the name of that boolean variable.
You would then typically set the value of that boolean in the OnValidate of your checkbox and in the OnAfterGetRecord trigger of the page. May need to do a CurrForm.UPDATE(FALSE) as well.
That should point you in the right direction I think.
Suresh: You need to assign a variable to the enabled property of the FastTab and have a function which will control the variable. I have created a quick example for you. When you click Disable Invoice Tab it will disable the invoice tab.
Gwen replies, “Thanks Matt Traxinger and Suresh Kulla. After I posted, I starting thinking in similar directions as both of you. Great ideas! Thanks for helping me clear my mental block.”
Stay abreast of what is new in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV community and at ArcherPoint by subscribing to our monthly newsletter, Better Business, by completing the form in our Resource Center.
And, if you are interested in NAV development, be sure to see our collection of NAV Development Blogs.