Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Basic data
developer	Microsoft Corporation
Current version	Dynamics 365 Business Central 2019 Release Wave 2 (On-Premises) ; (October 1, 2019)
operating system	Windows
category	ERP , business software
License	Proprietary
German speaking	Yes
	dynamics.microsoft.com

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is standard software for ERP systems . In 2002 Microsoft took over the Danish manufacturer Navision Software A / S and integrated it into its Microsoft Business Solutions division . Since then, Microsoft Dynamics NAV has been gradually merged with the other ERP solutions from Microsoft. The version from 2017 therefore no longer bears the former name Navision , but is called Microsoft Dynamics NAV . From 2018, the software was continued under the new market name Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central On-Premises , which can now also be rented in the new version as SaaS software Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central . A special feature here is the common source code basis of both variants.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is used in particular by small and medium-sized companies and is sold by corresponding Microsoft partners in the business solutions area. These adapt the standard software to the respective company processes. The adjustments are made in the product-specific programming language C / AL . There is a multitude of industry solutions for various industries , which are often developed by Microsoft partners.

history

Navision was originally developed by Navision Software A / S, a Danish company. The software solution spread mainly in Europe, where it was distributed by Navision Solution Centers (NSCs). The focus was on Denmark and Germany. The software had its own set-oriented proprietary database that was specially tailored to the needs of the ERP software.

Navision had worked with Microsoft for a long time before it was acquired by Microsoft in July 2002. Microsoft wanted to position itself in the market for ERP systems. The current version , which was released in December 2017, is Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018. Previous product versions were Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017, NAV 2016, NAV 2015, NAV 2013 R2, NAV 2013, NAV 2009 R2, NAV 2009 SP1, NAV 2009, NAV 5.0 SP1, NAV 5.0, Microsoft Navision 4.0 SP3, 4.0 SP2, Microsoft Business Solutions Navision 4.0 SP1, 4.0, 3.70, Navision Attain 3.60, 3.10, 3.01, 3.0, Navision Solution 3.0, Navision Financials 2.65, 2.60, 2.50, 2.01, 2.0 , 1.3, 1.2, 1.0 and with a character-oriented user interface there was NAVISION 1.00 to NAVISION 3.56a, which was also referred to as the “blue version”.

Timetable

1983: Erik Damgaard and Preben Damgaard found Damgaard Data and put Danmax financial accounting for the IBM PC under PC-DOS on the market in Denmark .

1984: Jesper Balser, Torben Wind and Peter Bang found PC & C and launched a PCPLUS financial accounting system for the IBM PC under PC-DOS in Denmark .

1987: PC&C brings the successor system Navigator in client / server architecture onto the market as 16-bit software.

1990: Lars Damsgaard Andersen, Jesper Bowman and Per Grønfeldt found PC&C Vertriebs GmbH based in Hamburg.

1993: Damgaard Data launch Concorde XAL.

1994: IBM takes over 50% of the shares in Damgaard Data Development.

1996: PC&C changes its name to Navision Software A / S and, in close cooperation with Microsoft, launches the first ERP software Navision Financials under Windows 95 as 32-bit software with a proprietary database. The collaboration with IBM ends there.

1997: Damgaard introduces AXAPTA in a beta version with the code name Atlanta .

1998: Damgaard Data buys back the IBM shares.

1998: Concorde Software GmbH based in Böblingen changes its name to Damgaard GmbH.

1998: Damgaard brings AXAPTA onto the market.

2000: Navision Software and Damgaard announced their merger. As NavisionDamgaard , they want to jointly develop and sell their ERP products for medium-sized businesses in the future. Navision buys Damgaard through a one-to-one share swap. With Jesper Balser and Preben Damgaard, the company will have two bosses.

2001: It is decided to make the name Damgaard disappear. As a result, the company is only called Navision A / S; the previous products Damgaard Axapta and Damgaard XAL will be renamed Navision Axapta and Navision XAL .

2001: Damgaard XAL (previously Concorde XAL ) is to be maintained, but major investments in further development are not expected here.

2002: Microsoft takes over Navision A / S. The purchase offer submitted on May 7th was successfully completed, the group will take over the Navision shares for around 1.45 billion euros.

2002: Microsoft Business Solutions will "seamlessly continue" the development, marketing and support of the Navision applications according to their own statements. These are integrated into the portfolio under the names Microsoft Navision Axapta , Microsoft Navision Attain , Microsoft Navision C5 and Microsoft Navision XAL .

2003: Microsoft announces: Support and improvement of the solutions Microsoft Business Solutions – Axapta and Microsoft Business Solutions – Navision until at least 2012. (The predecessor systems Navision C5 and XAL are not mentioned.) Development of a single comprehensive business solution based on Microsoft .NET- Platform. Availability of this solution from 2008.

2008: Change of the product names: Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta becomes Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Business Solutions-Navision becomes Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Both systems are being developed further, but it has not yet been determined whether they will be merged into a single application.

2018: Change of product names: Microsoft Dynamics NAV becomes Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on-premises, as well as the launch of the cloud-based ERP application Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Version history

version	Intern	date
1.0		11/1995
1.1		06/1996
1.2		04/1997
1.3		11/1997
2.0		08/1998
2.01		07/1999
2.5		12/1999
2.6		10/2000
3.01		09/2001
3.10		05/2002
3.60		09/2002
3.70		07/2003
3.70A		03/2004
3.70B		08/2005
4.0		08/2005
5.0		03/2007
5.0 SP1		04/2008
2009	6.0	12/2008
2009 SP1		09/2009
2009 R2		12/2010
2013	7.0	09/2012
2013 R2		10/2013
2015	8.0	09/2014
2016	9.0	10/2015
2017	10.0	10/2016
2018	11.0	12/2017
Business Central "Spring 2018"	12.0	04/2018
Business Central "Fall 2018"	13.0	10/2018
Business Central "Spring 2019"	14.0	04/2019
Business Central 2019 Release Wave 2	15.0	10/2019

C / AL

C / AL ( C / SIDE Application Language ) is an internal programming language for Microsoft Dynamics NAV based on the C / SIDE development environment . C / AL is event-driven, but not object-oriented. C / AL is one of the 4th generation programming languages . C / AL is syntactically related to Turbo Pascal , but does not have such a strict typing as Pascal.

Practically the entire range of functions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is programmed in C / AL and accessible to the solution center. This means that NAV can be adapted to the needs and wishes of customers.

Access to C / AL can optionally be acquired in a developer license . This gives programmers the opportunity to adapt the application to their specific requirements. The application objects can be easily ported using a binary or text-based import / export function .

Version 14.0 will be the last version that supports C / AL. After that, Business Central will only be programmable in the new AL language with the Visual Studio Code development environment .

C / SIDE

Under C / SIDE ( Client / Server Integrated Development Environment ) one understands on the one hand Microsoft Navision's own development environment, which is based to a large extent on the internal database model, as well as the proprietary database used by Navision itself.

Up to around Navision 3.60 this database was recommended as the basis for installations. This can still be used up to Dynamics NAV 2009 R2 when using the previous Classic Client , but the Microsoft SQL Server was increasingly recommended for newer installations ; only this optionally also supports the role-based client introduced from NAV 2009. From NAV 2013 onwards, only the Microsoft SQL server can be used. The disadvantage of Navision's own database, often also known as the "native database" or more recently as Microsoft Dynamics NAV Classic Server , is that it cannot be addressed with SQL commands, or only to a limited extent, as well as the limited backup and restore options compared to Microsoft SQL Server. Navision is not compatible with other database servers such as Oracle Database .

The Navision database is characterized by high stability, transaction security, triggers and high speed in the formation of sums. Exactly this functionality is required very often in accounting systems (totaling on accounts or within time periods).

SIFT technology

Deviation from classic principles of database structure

With a little trick it is achieved that with only three database accesses (correctly by accessing a special index) sums of any large amount of data can be formed. Access to the individual values for summation is therefore not required.

This technology is implemented directly within the database under the protected name SIFT (SumIndex Field Technology or SumIndexed Flow Technology). The calculated sums are displayed in so-called FlowFields. FlowFilters are used to restrict the values specified in the FlowFields to certain specified criteria.

With SIFT, the totalized values are also saved with the field index. The sum of the values between the two values is determined by subtracting the highest total index value from the total index value of the value preceding the lowest data record.

example

A table contains the following values, sorted chronologically:

date	amount	SumIndex
2006-01-10	50	50
2006-02-01	100	150 (= 50 + 100)
2006-06-01	50	200 (= 150 + 50)
2006-12-12	200	400 (= 200 + 200)
2006-12-30	40	440 (= 400 + 40)

When inserting a data record, the associated SumIndex value (as can be seen in the last column of the table) is determined by simply adding the amount to the previous SumIndex value.

To calculate the sum of all values from 2006-06-01 to 2006-12-30, proceed as follows:

you determine the value of SumIndex of the last record in the range (2006-12-30): 440
you are looking for the lowest record in the selected area: 2006-06-01
one determines the value of SumIndex of the previous data record (2006-02-01): 150
the difference between the SumIndex values is equal to the sum of all values in between: 440 - 150 = 290

This procedure also works with an arbitrarily large number of values between the two quantities sought.

Objects

The functionality of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is based on objects that are stored in the database itself. Microsoft Dynamics NAV consists of the object types Table, Page, Report, Codeunit, XMLport, MenuSuite and Query. The object types XMLport and MenuSuite are included from version 4 of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the object Page from version 2009 and the object Query from version 2013, in which the objects Form and Dataport that existed in older versions have been removed. The object types TableData and System are application- internal object types that cannot be changed by developers who can adapt or create new object types.

The table object represents the definition of the table itself, e.g. B. Field names and data types of the fields, whereby the TableData object is representative of the actual data.

The form object is usually used to display the table data. Data records can be created, displayed, modified or deleted using the forms. Forms that are linked to a table are referred to as bound forms, whereas forms without a link to a table are called unbound forms. From version 4, unbound forms no longer exist in the standard database. In older versions, the main menu was displayed with unbound forms, which was replaced in version 4 by the MenuSuite object. As of NAV 2013, this property type is no longer included.

The page object is used in the RTC (Role Tailored Client), which was introduced in version 2009, to display table data, queries and menus. The business logic contained in Pages and other object types is executed on the middle tier , in contrast to Forms, where the Classic Client is responsible for processing . They can be used and displayed equally in all client types (Windows client, web client, SharePoint client, tablet / phone client). Pages are designed to match the newer Office products (version 2007 and newer) and Windows 7. The basic rendering scheme is specified by the page type (including card (map), list (overview), role center (role center), worksheet (booking sheet), confirmation dialog (confirmation window), navigate page)). It can then be adapted by changing other properties within the scope of the rendering process (which are identical for all client types prior to NAV 2015 Cumulative Update 4, the client cannot be determined here at runtime). In contrast to forms, however, you can no longer freely design pixel-perfect and the variability of the layout on map displays is noticeably limited.

The report objects are used to print out the table data on a printer or as batch processing without printing out on paper (so-called ProcessingOnly reports). With reports z. B. Print out inventory lists or sales invoices.

Codeunits are containers for functions and program code.

Dataport objects are used to import and export table data in plain text format. From NAV 2013 this object type is no longer included, the functionality has been integrated into the XMLports.

XMLport objects are used like dataports for importing and exporting data, but these are specially designed to store data and the like. a. structure in XML format. As of NAV 2013, the former data port functions were also integrated.

MenuSuite objects are required to set up the so-called Navigation Pane , which was introduced with version 4 and which is similar to the navigation area in Outlook. The Navigation Pane has replaced the main menu used in older versions, which consisted of several unbound forms. It is used to move around the application.

Query objects (from NAV 2013) are used to create database queries that can be used for read access within the other objects. In the medium term, these are intended to largely replace the read access previously coded in C / AL, as this enables better performance in conjunction with the SQL server.

Table, Form, Page, Report, Codeunit, Dataport, XMLport and Query objects contain triggers in which program code can be stored.

Trigger

In the C / SIDE environment, a program code can be stored in existing triggers. There are three types of triggers:

Documentation trigger

Documentation triggers are located in all objects (with the exception of the MenuSuite ) and are used for documentation purposes. Any content in these triggers will not be executed.

Event trigger

Event triggers are executed by databases when certain events occur. These triggers are automatically created by the system when new objects are created in databases. It is not possible to create these triggers manually.

Function trigger

If a function is created in an object, a new "function trigger" is created that bears the name of the function. The program code that is executed when the function is called is then stored in new function triggers.

outlook

The latest version of Dynamics NAV was given the new market name Dynamics 365 Business Central On-Premises and was first published in October 2018. At the same time, the Business Central web client was updated.

With the 2019 Release Wave 2 Update (formerly Fall Update , from October 1, 2019) both the Windows client was discontinued and the programming language C / AL was converted to the new language AL with the standardized development environment Visual Studio Code . Dynamics 365 Business Central can only be used with this version via web client or Windows app . With the cloud version of Business Central for SaaS operation, customer adjustments are then only possible using so-called extensions; with the on-premises version, adjustments can still be made conventionally (now in AL).

The last version of Navision released in December 2017 under the old name is Dynamics NAV 2018.

According to official information from Microsoft, support from NAV (Navision) was extended to 10 years at the beginning of 2008: 5 years of mainstream support and 5 years of extended support. Support begins with version NAV 5.0.

In the first quarter of 2008 a solution for small businesses and micro businesses was released. This solution was named Microsoft Dynamics Entrepreneur Solution 2008 and was based on Dynamics NAV 5.0. However, Microsoft has stopped the further development of Entrepreneur in order to be able to strategically focus its marketing on NAV 2009. (Announced by letter and email to MS Partner and at the 2008 Microsoft Dynamics ERP launch in Fürstenfeldbruck, September 8/9, 2008)

Dynamics NAV 2009 was the first NAV release to receive the year number usual for Microsoft software instead of the previous version number (in continuous internal versioning: 6). This version offered for the first time:

The option to choose between the new role-based client ("Role Tailored Client") and the known client, which is now referred to as the "Classic Client".
Optional three-tier architecture instead of the previous two-tier architecture.
Changes to the user interface, e.g. B. new shape design, graphics (info parts), icons (stacks of paper), action panel, breadcrumb bar, command bar.
Programming is still done in C / AL, but the source code is ported internally to C # and a DLL is created.
As of version NAV 2009, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (or higher) is required for the role-based client; if the previous client is used, the proprietary Dynamics NAV database server can still be used, which is no longer technically developed.

From version NAV 2013 (in internal versioning: 7) older technologies such as the Classic Client, the proprietary “native” server, NAS (Navision Application Server), C / FRONT, Forms, Dataports and conventional report objects are no longer offered or supported . NAV 2013 was the first version that was designed for Unicode and for three client types, a Windows client (previously known as RTC (Role Tailored Client)) and a new role-based web client (compatible with Internet Explorer , Firefox , Chrome and Apple Safari ) and a new SharePoint client. In NAV 2015 (in internal versioning: 8), tablet clients tailored to tablets were also introduced, which are available via the app stores for Windows , Android and iOS . NAV 2015 can be hosted in -house, with external providers or via cloud computing on Microsoft Azure . As of NAV 2013, Query is available as a new object type , with which read operations in the database can be implemented more efficiently. Open Data Protocol (OData) is supported for the first time for data exchange (in NAV 2013 limited to read access, from NAV 2013 R2 also write operations to the database are possible). As development environments functionalities of the former Classic Client and Microsoft Visual Studio used as programming languages include both Visual Basic for reports as well as C # for optional add-ins along with the proprietary language C / AL used. In order to make add-ins usable when using the web client, both JavaScript and HTML5 are supported from NAV 2013 R2 . The multi-tenant capability for managing group structures and subsidiaries, which was already available in older versions, was expanded to include multi-tenant capability in NAV 2013 R2 in order to be able to operate legally independent companies as separate "tenants" (tenants) together in a database. As of NAV 2013 R2, the management of the source code has been relocated from the C / SIDE development environment to the server so that even temporary offline tenants receive the program changes the next time they are online .

literature

Andreas Luszczak, Robert Singer, Michaela Gayer: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 - Basics . Microsoft Press Germany 2013, ISBN 978-3-86645-568-9 .
Jürgen Holtstiege, Christoph Köster, Michael Ribbert, Thorsten Ridder: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 - mapping business processes correctly. A practice-oriented compliance guide . Microsoft Press Germany 2013, ISBN 978-3-86645-569-6 .
Michaela Gayer: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 - Introduction to Design and Programming. MBS training 2017, ISBN 978-3-9502492-3-1

Web links

Official product website via Microsoft Dynamics NAV