Fr

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a complete ERP system, which

also contains a robust set of development tools to support
customization and enhancement. These include an object
designer for each of the seven application object types,
a business application-oriented programming language
with .NET interface capability, a compiler, a debugger, and
programming testing language support.

What you will learn from this book

Apply object-oriented practices to
C/AL programming

Structure your application to avoid

merge conflicts

Who this book is written for

Code clones and their applications in

Dynamics NAV

Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns is intended for

developers, architects, (technical) consultants, and
application managers. You may have very little or no
knowledge of NAV patterns, but you should be acquainted
with programming.

Make your application extensible by

creating predefined hooks and facades

Refactor legacy code and avoid

anti-patterns

Design decision trees to decide when

to use which patterns

$ 34.99 US
22.99 UK

professional expertise distilled

P U B L I S H I N G

Prices do not include

local sales tax or VAT
where applicable

Visit www.PacktPub.com for books, eBooks,

code, downloads, and PacktLib.

Sa

pl
e

P r o f e s s i o n a l

E x p e r t i s e

D i s t i l l e d

Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns

Mark Brummel

Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns will guide you through

the NAV way of solving problems. This book first
introduces you to the patterns and software architecture of
NAV and then helps you to build an example application.
Then it walks you through the details of architectural
patterns, design, and implementation patterns. It also
talks about anti-patterns and handling legacy code.
Finally, it teaches you to build solutions using patterns. It
will guide you through combining abstract patterns using
easy-to-understand examples and will help you decide
which patterns to use in which scenarios.

Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns

Learning Dynamics
NAV Patterns

ee

Create solutions that are easy to maintain, are quick to upgrade,

and follow proven concepts and design
Foreword by Thomas Hejlsberg, CTO of Dynamics NAV

Mark Brummel

professional expertise distilled

P U B L I S H I N G

In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 1 'Introducing Dynamics NAV
Patterns and Software Architecture'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns

About the Author

Mark Brummel is a freelance all-round Microsoft Dynamics NAV specialist,

focused on helping end users of the product.

With http://nav-skills.com/, he evangelizes and documents the 'NAV way'. This

is a combination of architectural principles and design best practices, formalized in a
workshop called Master Class for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Application Architecture and
Design Patterns. The methodology helps in creating solutions that are easy to upgrade,
recognizable for users, and maintainable outside the ecosystem of their creators. All
three elements apply to the original Navision product that was shipped in 1995, and
was extracted, updated, and documented in this methodology. In September 2015,
Packt Publishing published his new book, Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns, which
is about this methodology. He also organizes hands-on workshops together with a
group of MVPs and MCTs from across the globe.
Mark started in 1997 as an end user, and worked for 8 years for the NAV partners after
this. Designing and maintaining add-on systems was his specialization. Some of these
add-on systems exceed the standard product, when it comes to size and complexity.
Coaching colleagues and troubleshooting complex problems is his passion and part
of his day-to-day work. His first book, Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design, was
published in 2010 by Packt Publishing, and updated to Dynamics NAV 2013 Application
Design, published by Packt Publishing, when a new release became available.
Many end users of Microsoft Dynamics NAV struggle with the question of how to
upgrade their two-tier solution to a three-tier solution. Mark can help you answer these
questions and plot a roadmap to the future, retaining the investment in the solution.
When Microsoft introduced the three-tier architecture in 2009, it meant a major shift
for experienced NAV developers and consultants. Mark has trained most of those
that live in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In 2010, he started a think tank called Partner Ready Software together with four
other Dynamics NAV experts. Partner Ready Software brings fresh ideas about
designing applications in NAV, and creates awareness of applying Design Patterns
in creating repeatable solutions.
Mark is an associate in the Liberty Grove Software network, a member of the
NAVUG advisory board, the co-founder of the Dutch Dynamics Community,
the vice-president of the Association of Dynamics Professionals, and an advisor
to Dynamics HUB.
Mark has undertaken a special project and performance tuning of the Dynamics
NAV product on SQL Server. As a unique specialist, he has done breakthrough
research into improving the performance of Dynamics NAV on the SQL Server.
On http://nav-skills.com/, Mark maintains a blog. This blog contains a wide
range of articles about both the Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the SQL Server
product. He is also a frequent speaker at Microsoft events, and publishes articles
on Pulse for LinkedIn.
Since 2006, Mark has been rewarded by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional
award for his contribution to the online and offline communities. He has received this
award ten times.
Mark is married and a father of four, and lives in a small town in The Netherlands.

Preface
Hi, and welcome to the world of Design Patterns. This is how I open my short
introductory video about this subject that I made for Microsoft. You can find it on
my YouTube page together with more than 15 hours of Patterns content.
This book is about Patterns and clean coding practices. It is about creating software
that users will recognize as Microsoft Dynamics NAV, that other developers can
maintain, and that is as easy to merge and upgrade as possible with the technology
we have today.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and before that, Navision Software, always had a specific
footprint. I often call it Navision DNA. It is what makes our beloved product unique
and successful.
But what is "it"? What is this Navision DNA? This is the question that we will try to
answer in this book. You will find that many answers can be found in the product,
dating back to 30 years ago. We will also find some answers in the object-oriented
programming best practices and the clean coding concepts.
Together, these form a recipe for writing good software in C/ALour programming
language. Despite the fact that we are not object oriented, we can learn from other
initiatives around Patterns and practices.
After reading this book, I hope that you have some fresh ideas, or maybe even
recognition that you're already doing a lot of these things in the correct way.

Preface

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture, will introduce
you to the concept of good software architecture and Design Patterns. Dive into the
history and learn some characteristics that are specific to our product, which makes
our Patterns unique.
Chapter 2, Architectural Patterns, will discuss various ways of designing the tables that
are used in the product and have proven to be successful. You will find that up to 99
percent of all the tables can be easily categorized. By following these Patterns, your
software will be recognized and proven to be working.
Chapter 3, Design Patterns, will discuss some of the most popular and well-known
software elements that you can reuse to solve problems, in other words,
Design Patterns!
Chapter 4, Building an Example Application using Patterns, will show you what happens
if we combine the Patterns from Chapter 2, Architectural Patterns, and Chapter 3,
Design Patterns, together in a solution. We should have something that makes sense
and looks like a Microsoft Dynamics NAV application.
Chapter 5, Coding Best Practices, will explain that in Microsoft Dynamics NAV we
can write code almost anywhere, but should we do this just because we can? Let's
learn how to structure our code. We will steal some ideas from object-oriented
programming while we're at it.
Chapter 6, Anti-patterns and Handling Legacy Code, will show you how you can migrate
the existing legacy code into more structured software. We will touch base on
refactoring and clean code.
Chapter 7, Building Solutions Using Patterns, will help you write an application to run
a Bed and Breakfast. We will learn how to divide processes into classes, and select
which Patterns to apply. At the end of this chapter, we will write test code and
upgrade our software to a new version.

Introducing Dynamics NAV

Patterns and Software
Architecture
"Design patterns have always been the "secret source" of NAV, enabling
developers to learn new areas of the application and be productive without a huge
ramp up. This makes design patterns key to understanding the architecture of NAV
and writing repeatable code."
Michael Nielsen, Director of NAV Development
In this book, we will journey into how to build repeatable and upgradable solutions
for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We will do this using a combination of design
patterns and coding best practices. We will also cover anti-patterns, and the
methodologies of handling the legacy code.
By improving the repeatability and upgradability of your software, the total cost
of ownership (TCO) is reduced, which leads to better margins and better return
on investment (ROI).
The examples and screenshots are based on the current version of the product,
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015, but all of the concepts can be applied to any
older version of the product too.
In this chapter, we will cover:

Introduction to Software Design Patterns

Pattern elements and hierarchy

[1]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

The Dynamics NAV building blocks

The Metadata driven development

What do we mean by 'patterns'?

Wherever you look in life, you see patterns. Even life itself follows a pattern. Patterns
help us in being organized by giving us structure, which makes things easier for us
to understand. Without structure, we start being stressed and disorganized.
As this is true for many things in our lives, this is also true in computer
programming. Applying structure in our computer programs make them easier to
understand and maintain. Each profession has patterns that have proven to
be successful in certain conditions, and unsuccessful in other conditions.

Software design patterns

Good old Wikipedia defines software design patterns succinctly as "A general reusable
solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design." By
nature, people look for ways to get organized and structured. It is not a surprise
that during the 1970s and 1980s people started to look for structures in computer
programming, which was a new, fast growing business.
You can read more about the software Design Patterns on Wikipedia at https://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern. Software design patterns,
especially in object-oriented programming (OOP), gained popularity in the
1990s when after Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software was
published by the Gang of Four, Erich Gamma, Chard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John
Vlissides. They published 23 classic software design patterns. Since then, many
other patterns have been documented. Many of these were based on object-oriented
programming, but people also started to document patterns outside this context.

The Procedural software design patterns

The product that we work with, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, has a programming
language that people refer to as Procedural. It was invented in the 1980s and is
based on Pascal, which is a very popular programming language that is still loved
by many.
In this article, Paul Ford explains the history of code, procedural
languages, and object oriented programming at http://www.
bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-paul-ford-what-iscode/#b06g24t20w15.
[2]

Chapter 1

As with everything in life, we seek structure, hence we can apply software

design patterns to Procedural languages. We just need to look carefully at all the
object-oriented content that is available, and cherry-pick what applies. We can
then complete this content with specifics of our language.
Procedural languages preceded the more modern object-oriented languages. One
of the challenges that object-oriented programming is trying to solve is grouping
things together that belong together. For this, classes are used. In this book, we
will attempt to do this as well by treating tables and codeunits as a class, and then
grouping functions together accordingly.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Design Patterns

The base application that is shipped with Microsoft Dynamics NAV is full of design
patterns, general reusable solutions to a commonly occurring problem within a
given context in software design. Using these patterns when applicable, not only
do you use solutions that have proven to work, but you also create software that
people recognize as Dynamics NAV, since it will probably behave the same as the
standard software.

The object-oriented patterns

The most well-known object-oriented patterns are those that are documented in
the book called Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, which we mentioned
earlier in this chapter. Examples of these patterns are Builder, Prototype, Bridge,
Singleton, Faade, and Adapter. We reuse some of these names in this book when
they resemble the original pattern. Another object-oriented pattern is the ModelView-ViewModel (MVVM) pattern, which also applies to Dynamics NAV.

Non-object-oriented patterns
The base design patterns from object-oriented programming are pretty much
targeted at structuring applications, running as Windows services or applications.
With Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we get all of that out of the box. We don't have to
think of how to get the data from the database, or how to handle concurrency.
For a better understanding of object-oriented patterns and why they
don't apply to Dynamics NAV and C/AL, please read and watch
the information at http://www.newthinktank.com/2012/08/
design-patterns-video-tutorial/.

[3]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

The functional oriented patterns

The patterns that we use in Dynamics NAV typically are functionally oriented.
They are sometimes even focused on the typical ERP problems, such as storage and
formatting of address information. They still solve commonly occurring problems.

Patterns elements and hierarchy

Many books about patterns use different ways to categorise them. Patterns are
closely related to the application building blocks, such as tables, fields, functions,
and codeunits. Patterns will help us categorize these elements, so that we can learn
different table types, and codeunit types.

Architectural patterns
When a pattern describes table definitions or a methodology to move data from
one set of tables to another, we refer to it as an Architectural Pattern.
By learning Architectural patterns, we understand how the application's large
building blocks are constructed. There are only a dozen of these patterns that are
most commonly used. Examples are Master Data, Journals, and Rules tables.
This does not mean that any other way of designing tables and moving data is
wrong by definition. It might just not be a common way of doing it, making
your code harder to understand for others, and less easy to maintain.

Design patterns
Any pattern that is not related to the table definitions, or moving data in the
database, is a Design Pattern. There are dozens of patterns, and in this book we'll
only focus on the ones that are most commonly used, such as number series and
entity state.

Structuring code
Even if you follow the patterns in this book step-by-step, your solution will be hard
to maintain if you don't bring structure to your code. There are standard ways and
best practices for doing this. You can find a lot of them online, mostly related to
object-oriented programming, but also outside of object-oriented programming.
We can translate these best practices so that they can work with C/AL. This will
help us implement best practices in Dynamics NAV, which are widely accepted in
computer science.
[4]

Chapter 1

The coding standards

The readability of your code depends in large part on how you handle variable
naming and code punctuation.
For Microsoft Dynamics NAV, a wide range of documented standards are available
that we will discuss in detail. Following this standard will enable other developers
to read your code with ease, and seamlessly integrate your code into standard
code. Remember, Microsoft Dynamics NAV offers access to the entire source of
the application, so it makes sense to follow standards that are already applied
throughout the standard code.
This makes it easier to clone (copy) parts of the application.

Anti-patterns
Where there are best practices, there can also be ways that are proven to be less
productive. These are referred to as anti-patterns. Anti-patterns are bound to context,
which means that a good pattern applied to the wrong problem can be an anti-pattern.

Code cloning
A typical example of an anti-pattern in computer programming is code cloning. This
means copying and pasting similar code in your application rather than normalizing
it into classes and functions. Code cloning is applied in Dynamics NAV in large
proportions.
When working with C/AL, being able to copy a part of the application and making
it specific to certain needs is considered powerful.
This does not yet make code cloning a good thing. We will explain good and bad
examples of code cloning, and help you with a set of criteria about when cloning
can be applied, and when it should be avoided.
There are many good and bad examples available in the standard application.
We will discuss them in Chapter 6, Anti-patterns and Handling Legacy Code.

Legacy code
The Microsoft Dynamics NAV application code started being developed in 1980s,
and grew organically.
Despite the fact that the original architect applied many patterns, we still know today
from the very early days we can safely say that many parts of the application are not
optimized in a way they could be if one would have the opportunity to start over.
[5]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

Handling legacy code is highly important for the lifecycle of your application.
Thousands of companies have been using Dynamics NAV for more than two
decades, upgrading their solution every few years to the latest version.
To provide this upgrade opportunity, one should be careful when redesigning
the application.
This makes it even more important to start with the correct patterns
from the beginning.

Especially when dealing with limited resources, a situation that most Dynamics NAV
development centers face, we want to spend as much time as possible in making new
features instead of fixing issues or rewriting existing code.
We will discuss examples of how the legacy code in Microsoft Dynamics NAV
was preserved, and how and when it was updated when necessary.

Upgradability
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has a great track record of being upgradable from one
version to the next. It is possible to upgrade all the way from the earliest MS-DOS
versions of the product to the latest version running on Azure in the cloud.
This requires the application architects to be very careful in making decisions.
Changes made to the application may live for many years or even decades.
When upgrading to newer versions, there are two big challenges.

Code Upgrade: each time Microsoft ships a new version of the product,
we have to see if the changes that we made to their code still function as
intended. This requires not only merging code and testing of the application,
but also doing a fit/gap analysis each time new functionality is added to the
base application.

Data Upgrade: if there are changes in the way the data is stored in the table
objects, we have to provide software programs that convert the data from the
old structure to the new structure. This is referred to as the Upgrade Toolkit
for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. You will learn about this in Chapter 6,
Anti-patterns and Handling Legacy Code.

[6]

Chapter 1

The upgrade frequency

Traditionally, customers used to upgrade the software every few years. The initial
version is the active release when the implementation of a project starts. After go-live
of the project, a system would typically not be touched, most often because of the
upgrade cost.
Microsoft used to ship major releases of their software every few years. For
customers, it was considered best practice to upgrade every other major version,
depending on the return on investment.
This image illustrates this practice:

However, this best practice of upgrading has shifted dramatically with the
introduction of a connected world, internet, and cloud. There is an increasing
demand for being up to date with application software, and always being current.
New technologies are introduced in a higher frequency than ever before, and this
has impacted the way Microsoft ships the Dynamics NAV product.
We changed to yearly release cycles and frequent rollups, which often contained
new features, and new technology. Instead of upgrading every few years, there
is a requirement to be (almost) always current on version, as illustrated in the
next image:

This methodology is especially important when running in a Multi-Tenant

environment, where individual customers no longer have a decision in their
upgrading strategy.

[7]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

Design patterns and upgrades

The cost of making the upgrades can be reduced by avoiding conflicts, and/or by
automatically resolving conflicts. Implementing design patterns and coding best
practices can help us achieve this and make upgrading easier.

Delta files
Another method to reduce the costs of shipping and merging software is using the
delta files, which were introduced in 2014 by Microsoft.
Delta files are based on flat text definitions of Dynamics NAV objects, and are
handled by PowerShell commandlets. The algorithms can create and apply text
files on all the versions of Dynamics NAVfrom 2009 and forward.
The Delta file describes, as the name implies, the delta between two objects in such
a way that they can be applied to other systems quite easily. This saves time and
money in merging the software.

Repeatability
In a cloud-first mobile-first world, repeatability becomes increasingly important.
Where barely 20 years ago consultants were driving around in their cars to
customers to install software and explain its use, there is an increasing trend towards
click-try-buy ERP systems.
In this ecosystem, intuitive use is very important. Microsoft has invested in a user
interface that makes it easier to use Dynamics NAV from a metadata perspective.
However, to be really more user friendly, the metadata (UI) needs to be optimized too.

Design patterns and repeatability

Repeatable UI has been documented in Design Patterns. This makes it easy for
developers to implement this in their own applications, and also makes the software
work similarly across the application.
We differentiate between the classic and modern UI patterns. With multiple display
targets and new devices, such as tablets being added to the product in an agile way,
the UI patterns are a moving target and subject to change, version-by-version. An
example of an updated pattern is statistics, wherein the classic UI totals were hidden;
they are now visible on documents.

[8]

Chapter 1

The following image illustrates an example of a modern UI on a tablet:

Lifecycle of a design pattern

Although design patterns are powerful when applied correctly, they can have
negative side effects when applied in a situation where they should not be used.
When choosing a design pattern to be used, it is important to see if it matches
the requirements.
For example, when we need a table to store setup data, we might think of the
Singleton pattern, but this only allows us to store a single set of data. If we need
multiple sets, we might want to implement the Rules pattern. Both the patterns
are documented in this book.

Technology changes
Design patterns can be made obsolete due to technology changes. Some languages
have more built-in capabilities than others.
For example, C# has overloading, where the same function has different arguments.
This is something that Dynamics NAV does not have. Therefore, we have a design
pattern called the Argument table. This would be obsolete if we could overrule a
function from the design time, or based on business logic.
The patterns in this book have been tested and documented for Microsoft Dynamics
NAV 2015, but typically work in older versions of the product too.
Some of the design patterns in Dynamics NAV go as far back as the MS-DOS version
of the product.
[9]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

Old habits die hard

With technology changing, we should also question ourselves each time we design
software, if we are still using the most optimal ways.
A typical example is this structure that we see a lot in the Dynamics NAV product;
for example, in codeunit 81 Sales-Post (Yes/No):
OnRun(VAR Rec : Record "Table")
Table.COPY(Rec);
Code;
Rec := Table;
Code()

This code pattern started its life in the MS-DOS days, and just stayed in the
application without being technically required. Developers apply it to their own
objects just because it exists in many places in the standard application. We'll
discuss alternative approaches in this book.

New design patterns

Sometimes, new technologies are introduced, such as charting. This then requires the
new patterns that did not exist before. The following image is an example of a chart:

Other examples are patterns based on Query objects, and patterns for Activity Pages.
Neither of these existed in the older versions, hence there was no requirement for
Design Patterns.
Sometimes, we can reuse the existing patterns for new elements. The Activity Page
uses the Singleton Pattern that we typically see for the Setup data. This adds new
functional implementations for patterns, and the pattern documentation needs to
be updated.
Developing SolutionsWriting software can, in many ways, be compared to building
houses, or even building entire villages or cities. We need to plan ahead, but we also
need to adjust to time. Things that we thought were brilliant in the 1990's are now
considered old. Also with software, we need to maintain, rebuild, and rearrange
as time goes by.
[ 10 ]

Chapter 1

Software architecture in Microsoft Dynamics

NAV
One thing that we need to consider when working with Microsoft Dynamics NAV
is that both the metadata, and the base application deliver the base architecture for
us. Unlike working in other development environments, programmers in Dynamics
NAV seldom start from scratch.

Metadata
Much of the program's behavior is determined by metadata, which is interpreted
at runtime.
The metadata is a combination of elements, methods, and properties that gives the
program its unique behavior. This also limits the possibilities that developers have
using the application that enforces a certain level of simplicity.
Understanding the Metadata and base application is core for achieving success in
developing your own application. The patterns and best practices in this book will
help you with this.

Building blocks
To develop solutions in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we have seven main building
blocks. These blocks determine the behavior of our application together with the
programming code.
The following screenshot shows the Object Designer that allows the development
access to the main building blocks:

Let's go over these one by one.

[ 11 ]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

Table
The Table object allows us to define how the data is stored in the database, as well
as in business logic.
The only database option for Microsoft Dynamics NAV is Microsoft SQL Server.
The SQL Table definitions are automatically created, based on the Table object in
Dynamics NAV.
All the business logic is handled by the Dynamics NAV runtime. The SQL Server
options, such as foreign keys, triggers, or stored procedures are not used.
Unlike many other applications, Dynamics NAV is not fully normalized, given a few
exceptions. Tables are bound one-to-one with the user interface. This adds a certain
level of simplicity to the design that makes it easy to understand and work with. It
also allows us to store historical information in a relatively simple way. For example,
the customer address is copied to the posted invoice, as it was the time the invoice
was printed.
This way of designing tables is crucial to understand when we deep
dive into the design patterns in the later part of this book.

Page
The user interface of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is defined using the Page objects. This
is done by a combination of binding a Page object to a Table, and adding metadata.
The designer is not what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) as we
design for multiple display targets using one object definition. This
makes defining the UI a highly abstract task.

The Page object inherits all the properties and methods from the underlying table.
Developers have the option of adding additional properties and methods, as well
as business logic that is specific to the behavior of the object.
All the logic to Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) from the database is
automatically generated by the system. This makes it very easy to work with, but
also enforces the relationship between a Page and Table.
We can overrule this by implementing the Model-View-ViewModel Pattern, which
we will discuss later in Chapter 3, Architectural Patterns. This pattern allows us to have
a UI, which is unbound to the way the data is stored in the SQL Server database.

[ 12 ]

Chapter 1

Report
In Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the Report objects are used for both: printing
documents, and creating batch routines for data modification.
Reports are typically used to print business documents such as invoices, reminders,
and balance due lists.
In addition to printing, they act as containers for batch processes, such as combined
invoicing and batch posting. The reasons for using reports instead of codeunits are the
possibilities of adding the UI (request page), and the built-in iteration capabilities.
This object type is outside of the scope of this book, although we occasionally
mention it when describing patterns.

Codeunit
When writing business logic, Codeunits are the preferred place to do this. They act
as containers for the code that allow us to structure our programming using known
concepts such as encapsulation.
In this book, we will discuss different types of codeunits that are used as part of
the design patterns, as well as best practices to structure our code.
We will discuss how, and why codeunits should be used for code in Chapter 5,
Coding Best Practices.

Query
Most business logic in Microsoft Dynamics NAV is bound to the table object, since
the table behaves as a class with methods and properties.
However, when using complex iterations over many data items, it can be costly to
loop over them one-by-one.
To solve this, we can define Query objects that act as predefined SQL Server queries,
allowing us to join multiple tables in one read and only read the columns that
we need.

XMLPort
To interface with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, we can use XMLPort objects. They are
outside the scope of this book.

[ 13 ]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

MenuSuite
The MenuSuite object helps us to search the application. They are outside the scope
of this book.
To learn more about these object types and what you can do with
them, please read Programming Microsoft NAV 2015, by David
Studebaker, published by Packt Publishing.

Metadata
Table objects behave as classes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and are the base of our
application. They are bound to tables in the SQL Server, and need to contain all the
fields that will be used in the Page objects.
This does not mean that we cannot add references to other tables in a table object.
We can reference to other tables using Flowfields and Flowfilters objects.

Flowfields
When we define a field in a Table, it gets added to the SQL Server table definition
automatically, unless we change the FieldClass property. Flowfields and Flowfilters
objects are only a part of the Dynamics NAV Metadata. They do not exist as a part
of the SQL Server table definition.
If we change the property, we can join fields from other tables that we can display
on all the Page objects, since they are treated as normal fields. We can also use them
in C/AL code for filtering and sorting. The latter is a new option in Dynamics NAV
2015 where we can, for example, do GLAccount.SETCURRENTKEY(Balance). This
used to be impossible.
The following screenshot shows the property in the Object Designer:

[ 14 ]

Chapter 1

Flowfilters
When using Flowfields, you can use any field in the table as a where clause.
However, sometimes you might need values that are set by users at runtime. This
is what Flowfilters are used for. They are defined as fields in the table, but are not
added
to the SQL Table definition, or available as filter or sorting criteria.

Base application
Most development projects in Microsoft Dynamics NAV don't start from scratch
as empty projects. They often start from the base application that Microsoft ships.
This is an ERP application that allows their users to streamline business processes.
The application originated in the 1980s just as the programming language did,
and has grown organically since its first introduction.
To be an excellent Microsoft Dynamics NAV developer, understanding business
processes is maybe even more crucial than understanding the language, objects,
and design patterns.

Functional processes
Microsoft Dynamics NAV allows you to administer many of the functional processes.
Although they all have different purposes, such as general ledger, inventory, sales,
purchasing, jobs, and manufacturing, they all use the same elements that make the
application recognizable for the end user.
If a user is able to post something to the general ledger, it is very likely that they can
easily understand posting to the inventory. Posting sales and purchase documents
have the same similarities.
This is possible by using the same structures across the application. This also makes
it easier for developers to learn new parts of the application.
Many of these structures have been in the application for a long time, since they are
very closely related to ERP programming. Others have been added more recently,
since they are more related to intuitive UI in correlation with app-like programming.
To learn more about these functional areas and what you can do with
them, please read the Microsoft NAV 2013 Application Design book by
Mark Brummel, published by Packt Publishing.

[ 15 ]

Introducing Dynamics NAV Patterns and Software Architecture

Summary
In this chapter, we have learned what design patterns are, and how they started
and were introduced in computer science. We learned how design patterns can
be applied to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We also learned about anti-patterns.
In the next chapter, we will build a small application in Microsoft Dynamics
NAV that consists of different design patterns brought together.

[ 16 ]

Get more information Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns

Where to buy this book

You can buy Learning Dynamics NAV Patterns from the Packt Publishing website.
Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet
book retailers.
Click here for ordering and shipping details.

www.PacktPub.com

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