Navision Employee Portal

Employee Portal provides a Web-based interface that gives employees quick access to mission-critical business information such as invoices, customer data, and some selected reports. Moreover, it real time integrates with the standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV database while collaborating with Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0) or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) to provide you a browser based interface.

Depending on the volume of transactions and the number of concurrent users, you can setup Employee Portal to run with either WSS or MOSS. However with MOSS, you would get additional support for making further developments.

Employee Portal can also be identified as a Web Portal for Sales Persons who travels all over the country. In such instances, salesperson can logging to NAV and start creating Sales Orders or Sales Quotes as required by them.

Let’s look at some typical screens available in the default Web pages.

Item List /Product List Page
This page can be configured as a combination of List Web Part and Card Web Part page in such a way that Item List is available in the top side of the page. Once user clicks on the ‘Card’ hyperlink on the list then user is directed to the Item Card of the particular Item in the bottom of the page.


What is Employee Portal

There are number of options available in the Item Card where user can modify or even delete the existing items from the system. It also gives some reporting options such as ‘Quantity Explosion of BOM’, ‘Rolled-up Cost Shares’ and ‘Detailed Calculation’



Sales Order Page
As in Item Page, existing Sales Orders can be displayed in the top of the page. As and when user clicks on the particular Sales Order Number then user can be directed to Sales Order Card screen where both the header and the line information are displayed.



However there is no static principle in designing the web pages in Navision Employee Portal. With the given Web Parts, you always have the flexibility to for designing each web page according to the user requirement. For example, in the sales Order screen, instead of showing all existing sales orders in the system, you can display all existing customers in the system. From the Customer List you can filter respective sales orders list belongs to particular customer and then you display the card view of a selected sales order.

Since the installation and setup process takes a very sensitive path, it is recommended that you must strictly follow the standard Microsoft Installation and Configuration Guidelines without any change.

To be continued…

Upgrade from NAV 5 to NAV 2009 SP1 – A Quick Guide

Regardless of the version from which you are trying to do the upgrade, the whole process can be divided into two main phases as Object Upgrade and the Data Upgrade. Let’s first look at the Object Upgrade.

In Object Upgrade, you have to identify all the customizations done in the current live version of the customer database and implement the same in a new 2009 SP1 database. Please remember that there are no short-cuts for this process. This is entirely a manual process, but you can make use of the existing tools such as Developer Toolkit. Using the Developer Toolkit you can compare/merge the original version 5 db and the current customer database wherein you can identify the differences between the two databases and implement the modifications in a new 2009 SP1 fresh database. Once you complete this process, you are through with the phase no 1. Remember that this is the most time consuming phase in an upgrade project. If you make any mistakes then you have to suffer a lot in the subsequent processors.

Let’s look at the phase number two which is the Data upgrade. In this case, I am giving you the main steps for continuing with the data upgrade.

1. Prepare for the data conversion.
a. Make a copy of the database in which you will perform the conversion.
b. Verify that both your partner development license file and customer license file have been upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1.
c. Identify a User ID and password of a super user in the system or create a new super user in the system that you can use for the upgrade process. Log in as the super user when you perform the upgrade.
d. Make a backup of the entire database before you start.
e. Test the database for everything except table/field relationships.
f. Test the database for table/field relationships.
g. Compile all objects and resolve what to do with those objects that do not compile.
h. Uninstall Microsoft Dynamics NAV 5.0 from the developer computer.
i. Install Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 on the developer computer, and then start the Classic client.

2. Convert the database to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1.
a. Create a new database in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 and restore the backup of the customer’s existing database into the new database.
b. You can also open a copy of the customer’s existing database with the Classic client in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 and convert the database.

3. Delete all objects except tables.
Delete all forms, reports, dataports, XMLports, codeunits, and MenuSuites, from the database. Do not delete the tables.

4. Import the new customized objects that you created under the Object Upgrade Phase.
In this case, you are supposed to replace all objects using the Import Worksheet window. Once all the conflict objects are found, you can replace all objects by clicking the OK button.

5. Compile all objects in the new database.


6. Upgrade data common to all companies.
Upgrade Security Roles and Permissions
If you are upgrading Microsoft Dynamics NAV with Microsoft SQL Server®, then you must synchronize the security system. In the Classic client, on the Tools menu, point to Security, and then click Synchronize All Logins.

7. for each company, initialize the company in the upgraded database.
You can do this by running the codeunit 2, Company-Initialize.
Close the company and open it again.
Open form 531, Setup Checklist, to update the checklist for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 data structure.


8. Install the new clients.
Make a backup of the new upgraded database.
Remove all previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV from the client computers. Install Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 on all client computers. Also install the other tiers in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV architecture.

9. This is the end of the upgrade process from NAV version 5 to the 2009 Classic Client, but before going into Live, TEST… TEST… TEST…

To be continued...

How to run an External Application within Dynamics NAV

Perhaps you may have inquired the possibility of executing an external program within Dynamics NAV due to many reasons such as;

1. To run an external application like Windows Calendar or Skype within NAV
2. To run a Crystal Report using a Icon available in NAV

Whatever the reason, concept for making this a reality would be as follows;

Initially you may have to find out the directory path where the executable file of the external application is located. For example, let's assume that you are in need of calling the windows Calendar within Payment Journal Screen. You can search the calc.exe file where it is located. Mostly this is available in the windows System32 directory. Therefore the relevant directory path could be defined as 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe'. In CAL, you could call the Calendar Control by giving the following command;

SHELL('C:\WINDOWS\system32\calc.exe');

This can be achieved by placing an additional command button in the Payment Journal Screen. In the 'OnPush' trigger, once you place the following CAL code you can display the Windows Calendar on top of the Payment Journal Screen.



For example, if you want to direct your browser to open a particular Web Site, for example www.microsoft.com you can do it by placing the following command;

HYPERLINK('http://www.microsoft.com');

Let's say if you want to open a PDF document you could do it by giving the following command in CAL;

HYPERLINK('D:\MyDocuments\80042A_00.pdf');

In the above case, D:\MyDocuments\ is the directory path where the relevant PDF file is located and the 80042A_00.pdf' is the PDF file name.

For instance, if you want to call an External Program using the Menu Structure, you will be able to do it by giving a reference to Code Unit in the relevant Menu Object; in the 'OnRun' trigger of the Code unit you can place you CAL commands to call the external application as explained above.

Trace Flag is no more Required

You may remember that customers who were running NAV 5.0 and NAV 2009 with SQL Server option were required to enable the Trace Flag 4616 in the SQL server database. However, this is no longer required with the latest NAV 2009 SP1 version, as it uses “VIEW SERVER STATE” permissions to enable visibility to the required connection information for each user. Therefore, now it is recommended that Trace Flag to be disabled after upgrading it 2009 SP1. If you are going for new installation, of course this is not required at all.
In most cases, we enabled the Trace Flag by adding it to the startup parameters by opening the "Configuration Tools" folder of the "SQL Server Configuration Manager". However, you can disable it now by following the below steps;

1. Go to Start-> Run and select the "Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008" program group, select the "Configuration Tools" of the "SQL Server Configuration Manager" tool.
2. Double-click on the SQL Server service.
3. Select the "Advanced" tab
4. In the list of values double-click on the one called "Startup Parameters"
5. In the list of values for this parameter (mostly at the end), remove the following: ';-T4616'
6. Click OK to save the change.
7. Restart the SQL Server service


Note:
In certain instances, you may have done this by using the DBCC TRACEON command. If that is the case, you could also do this by SQL Server Query Window.

Role Center Configuration

What is Role Center

Role Centers are one of the most attractive features available in the latest of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. Basically, a Role Center is designed to assist users by identifying the specific roles played in their day to day life. It improves the user friendliness of the ERP system by providing them an overview of the tasks and information relevant to their job and helps to plan their daily work.

A role center is a Dash Board Screen for a specific segment of users where all the frequently used options of the ERP could be organized and make available in one single screen. These selected options may contain different data entry screens, batch jobs, reports, analysis screens, data integration objects such as Data ports, XML Ports and even URLs of frequently visiting web sites & email inbox / outbox as well.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 delivers with 21 default Role Centers and they could be further optimized as per the specific needs of the customers. These Role Centers can be customized by each individual according to their priorities so that it promotes the most commonly used data, actions, and reports in their respective role centers.

The default 21 Role Centers available in the System

Profile ID	Role Center ID
ACCOUNTING MANAGER	9019
AP COORDINATOR	9002
AR ADMINISTRATOR	9003
BOOKKEEPER	9004
CEO	9019
DISPATCHER	9016
IT MANAGER	9018
MACHINE OPERATOR	9013
ORDER PROCESSOR	9006
OUTBOUND TECHNICIAN	9017
PRESIDENT	9019
PRESIDENT - SMALL BUSINESS	9020
PRODUCTION PLANNER	9010
PROJECT MANAGER	9015
PURCHASING AGENT	9007
RESOURCE MANAGER	9014
SALES MANAGER	9005
SHIPPING AND RECEIVING	9008

Role center Configuration and Personalization

The difference between configuration and personalization is that configuring a Role Center changes the user interface for all users with the same profile, whereas personalizing a Role Center only changes the user interface for a single user. This means that configuration is something done by the System Administrator or the System Manager mostly at implementation time, whereas Personalization is something done by the individual users depending on the priorities of their day to day life and it will not affect the role centers of other users.

To be able to configure a Role Center, you must satisfy the followings;
1. You must be an administrator with the role SUPER.
2. You must be the owner of the particular Role Center

Role center configuration tasks would be typically performed by an administrator, SUPER user, or Microsoft partner. Alternatively, this could be delegated among the groups’ heads of each users segment.
Once you open the application in the configuration mode, you could start doing the following tasks;

• Configure the Actions pane.
• Configure the FactBox pane.

How to open the application in Configuration Mode

1. Decide on the Role Center to be customized. In this case, let’s assume that we are going to configure the order processor Role center. Firstly, you must be the owner of the order processor Role Center. To do this; go to Administration -> Application Setup -> Role Tailored Client -> Profiles

2. Through the Profile List, go to the Profile Card and select the ORDER PROCESSOR as the profile id. Define the Owner Id as your account. This will transform your account as the owner for the ORDER PROCESSOR role center.

3. Now you are required to assign ORDER PROCESSOR role center as your default role center. To do this; go to Administration -> Application Setup -> Role Tailored Client -> User Personalization

4. Retrieve your account in the User Personalization Card. Now assign order processor as the profile id.

5. Go to the Administration, expand the Application Setup node, and then click RoleTailored Client, and open Profiles.

6. Go to the command line mode and change to the directory into the place where the RoleTailored client executable file is available. For example, type the following command: cd c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60\RoleTailored client



7. Once the directory path is changed, type the following command in order for opening the RoleTailored client in configuration mode
cd c:\Program Files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\60\RoleTailored client\ Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Client.exe -configure -profile:"order processor"



This will open the Dynamics NAV 2009 application in the configuration mode, where you will be able to proceed with your customization affecting all users whom will be assigned with the current applicable Role Center.

To be continued....

Dynamics Navision Presentation at ANC

Thank you very much for your participation in the Seminar...

It was on 3rd Feb 2010 from 4.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m. at ANC Auditorium. Our session was all about Dynamics NAV and its attractive features among the other ERP systems in the market. We shared our knowledge on MS Dynamics NAV and its various aspects;

a) Brief introduction on "what is ERP" and the impact of ERP on business process? - By Apsara who is a Project Manager - MS Dynamics NAV

b.) Integration facilities available in the MS Dynamics NAV with SQL server, SharePoint, MS BizTalk Server and other related technologies.

c.) Some useful facts on upgrading earlier versions of Microsoft Navision into the latest version of MS Dynamics NAV 2009 and its Role Tailored Architecture

d.) Flexibilities and the features available in MS Dynamics for customization in tailor-making the software according to the individual customer requirements.

c.) In the arena of ERP implementation, who are the Partners and their role? what are the Services?

And many more.....

Again thank you... and our special thanks to NetAssist Team for organizing such an interactive session...!!!