ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Developer Digest - vol 239
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.
List Your Variables in this Order
Tom Hunt says: “The AL compiler will fuss at you if you don’t have your variables in the official order. I did some looking online, and I found a post on a forum that that outlines the official order to use. I put that in a Word document that I’ve posted on my wall, and here it is for you if you’d like to do something similar:
Variables should be listed in the following order:
- Record variables
- Form variables
- Report variables
- Dataport variables
- Codeunit variables
- Dialog, file and BLOB variables
- Simple variables
Record variables are listed in an order that reflects the hierarchy of the tables used in the database. Base tables come before journals and other non-posted lines and headers, which themselves come before ledger entries and posted lines and headers.
EXAMPLE VAR GLSetup : Record 98; UserSetup : Record 91; ItemPostingGr : Record 94; Item : Record 27; ItemJnlTemplate : Record 82; ItemJnlBatch : Record 233; ItemJnlLine : Record 83; ItemReg : Record 46; ItemLedgEntry : Record 32;
The Dynamics User Group forum post, Style Guide Variable Declarations Order is the source of this information.
Also, I’m actually not a fan of this order, but it is what was passed down from the mountain, so it’s what we’re supposed to do. If nothing else, it gives you an outline showing what the original NAV developers were doing.”
Matt T responds: “It’s actually been a standard for forever (as long as I can remember); just no one followed it, including me. I’m waiting for them to require alphabetization.”
Jon asks: “Tom, What does the compiler do when it’s not in that order?”
Matt T replies: “It just gives you a warning message that your variables are in the wrong order. It will still compile. But if you let your warnings build up it’s easy to get to the point of missing something important, like potential overflow errors.”
Tom as well: “It complains in AL in 2018, but it lets your compile go on. It does nothing in older NAV versions. I’m not sure what it does in BC.”
D365 Business Central Web Client Filtering
Kyle asks: “I like the web client filtering where you just right-click on the column heading and add a filter, much like you do in Excel. But how do you add a filter for a field that isn’t on that Page?”
Tom M replies: “In the latest BC version, if you right-click on the column header and choose Filter, it opens up the filter pane on the left. Press the + Filter button, and you can choose any field. Do you like the shameless RPM on BC plug in my images? 🙂 “
What is BC14?
Kyle wants to know: “What is BC14? Is that the April feature release, or farther out in the future?”
Bill replies: “Spring release of BC SaaS.”
Saurav adds: “BC 14 is also Spring (April) Release. It’s different than BC 13.x, and there is an upgrade path from BC 13.x to BC 14. It’s On Premises and SaaS.”
Kyle asks: “Is it a CU of the existing Business Central on premises, or is it a new installation kit that resets the counter back to zero on cumulative updates?”
Saurav clarifies: “It’s not a cumulative update. It is a new product and I don’t expect a CU for 14.x, as it does follow the old NAV release procedure. Cumulative Update will be available for 13.x, which is Business Central earlier releases.“
Docker Image Tags for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central On Premises
Kyle shares one of his infamous ‘Developer Tip of the Day’: “You can get a list of Docker image tags for Business Central on premises, and yes, BC14 is available. Hat tip to Waldo for figuring out how to do that. Read more in his List all Business Central Docker Image Tags on Microsoft Container Services post, complete with URLs that take you straight to a JSON with all the tags!
If you are interested in NAV development, be sure to see our collection of NAV/BC Development Blogs.
Read the “How To” blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central.