ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 169

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.

Did You Miss Microsoft Tech Days?

If so, you can now view the NAV Tech Days 2017 Application SaaSification video on YouTube. Additionally, MSDynamicsWorld’s Jason Gumpert wrote a nice summary of what NAV developers are most excited about with the upcoming modern development tech in his article Dynamics NAV Developers Celebrate Broader Microsoft Tech Landscape (login required).

Dynamics NAV Cumulative Updates for November 2017

Sowkarthika shares the latest updates for Dynamics NAV from Microsoft:

Cumulative Update 12 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 (Build 18976)

Cumulative Update 25 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 (Build 49424)

Cumulative Update 37 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 (Build 49425)

Cumulative Update 49 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 (Build 49431)

Cumulative Update 56 for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 (Build 49426)

Dynamics NAV Developers Collaborate in Real-Time

Suresh shares Visual Studio Live Share, which enables developers using Visual Studio 2017 or Visual Studio Code to collaborate in real-time.

Bill is intrigued: “Wow. The collaborative debugging is pretty wild.”

Processing-Only Reports in Dynamics NAV

Kyle: Nav 2015+: I did not know that processing-only reports do not have to have a data item at all. You can put code in either the Pre or Post Report triggers, but it gets you a free request page if you need to prompt for something. See C83 as an example.

Suresh: Many of the processing-only reports are like that, even in older version we have those. For example Copy Sales or Purchase document reports, Carry out function report for requisition.

Code Question of the Day

Kyle asks a “silly code question of the day.”

If I do this:

FOR X := 1 TO STRLEN(SomeString) DO BEGIN

Does it call that STRLEN function every time it goes back to the top of the FOR loop?

Matt T: Yes, because there is no guarantee that the length of SomeString did not change within the code inside of the loop. When you write it as a WHILE loop it's easier to see that the condition needs to be re-evaluated each time through.

X := 1;

WHILE X <= STRLEN(SomeString) DO BEGIN

X += 1;

//If I did this it would cause the initial stored value to be incorrect

//SomeString := COPYSTR(SomeString, 2);

END;

Kyle: Since I know the string will not change, this would be more efficient than my initial code.

Y := STRLEN(SomeString)

FOR X := 1 to Y DO BEGIN

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