Navision Licensing - Only IDE - No Standard Funcionalities

markborges

Hi all,

I tried to search the forum with some information about this, but I couldn't.

I used to be a Navision Developer, and, despite some of the bad functionalities/good functionalities that don't work, I think Navision is a very good tool for quick development of small commercial systems (Inventory Control, Tape/DVD Renter Store, etc)... I tried to do a simple program, with some tables, forms, and reports, and I got to work it all so fast that I was wondering...

...Does Microsoft license only the C/SIDE and C/AL functionalities, without Nav Modules (like G/L, Fixed Asset, Sales & Receivables, ...) ?

I mean... when you create a new Database, there are no objects inside of it... So I can start from "ZERO" to create a new system inside Navision....

Does Microsoft have a license for something like that? :-k

This may seem very silly, but I think Navision has a great potential for some kind of programs...

Hope somebody knows..

Thanks in advance!

kriki

I know of some company in Belgium that used it as a development platform. They just kept the original objects (you need codeunit 1!). But for the rest, they didn't use anything.
But I think they had a full development-license.

tinoruijs

You can just begin to develop in the 50.000 range.
Then it would not be necessary to buy Solution Developer and Application Builder.
And when building a new database, maybe it's enough to import codeunit 1 and your 50.000-range objects.

jlandeen

I don't think Microsoft's current licensing model really works very well in this case - and I think it's an excellent idea. Navision really can help provide the required infrastructure to rapidly build and maintain business ready applications.

Maybe this is what they were trying to get to with the original project green and a "Business Framework". If it is...it's still a good idea, even if project green is no longer active.

merana

Maybe I month ago I asked Microsoft same question, and they confirm that there is no licencing model applicable for this.
You just have to purchase licences, and additional application objects, and then do whatever you want. They just don't care would you or would you not use existing bussines objects.
This is expensive solution.

It would be great to use all knowledge and expirience we have. We just can hope that this will change.

jlandeen

I've gotten the same kind of answer from MS in the past.

It would be nice if there was some way they could just license the Navision Engine/Environment - maybe rebranded as something else to prevent confusion & maybe allow them to seperate Navision Support from any completely different applications.

Maybe someday!

Fozzie

In the past, it was possible to only buy the General Ledger granule (I think it is granule ID 3010) and the necessary objects and/or Application Builder/Solution Developer to develop your own solution in a NAV-database.

Indeed now, with the new license policy of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you need at least the Business Essentials license for each (concurrent) user before you can use it as an application. With a cost of 1.500€ (in most countries) this is not a feasible solution.

I think MS was indeed opting for releasing the C/SIDE Development environment as a tool for developers to build rich applications really fast, but in the end this project was killed. It would be asum though if they could integrate C/SIDE in the next version of Visual Studio.NET, where you can compile your C/AL-code into C# and use it in other .NET applications! Looking forward to it (if it happens...)!

jlandeen

I'm a developer at heart so code reuse, ease/speed of development and overall effeciency are all concerns I think are critical to building & maintinaing business applications. A lot of these can be addressed by developing some (or all of) an application in Navision.

After working alongside other developers I really do know that 1 Navision developer can develop applications very quickly using the Navision's development environment (and deploy, maintain them very easily) - faster then a team of developers using an enterprise toolkit!

DenSter

Not quite as easy as NAV development, but MS Access comes very close in ese of use and development.

jlandeen

I agree that in terms of development they can be comparable, but part of ease of use is working in a multi-user environment & handling updates. Navision has processes & tools in place that help with this - but Access doesn't.

Thats why I think with just a few small tweaks - using a very small set of the base Navision objects & the IDE would provide an excellent framework to build an enterprise level application.

Alex_Chow

tinoruijs wrote:

You can just begin to develop in the 50.000 range.
Then it would not be necessary to buy Solution Developer and Application Builder.
And when building a new database, maybe it's enough to import codeunit 1 and your 50.000-range objects.

You still wouldn't be able to access the code inside tables and forms.

tinoruijs

Alex Chow wrote:

tinoruijs wrote:

You can just begin to develop in the 50.000 range.
Then it would not be necessary to buy Solution Developer and Application Builder.
And when building a new database, maybe it's enough to import codeunit 1 and your 50.000-range objects.

You still wouldn't be able to access the code inside tables and forms.

That's true.
You wouldn't have to buy both I meant. Only Application Builder.

DenSter

jlandeen wrote:

I agree that in terms of development they can be comparable, but part of ease of use is working in a multi-user environment & handling updates. Navision has processes & tools in place that help with this - but Access doesn't.

Thats why I think with just a few small tweaks - using a very small set of the base Navision objects & the IDE would provide an excellent framework to build an enterprise level application.

Actually you can have an Access front end hosted on a server, and it can be hooked up to source safe, and you can host all the tables on SQL Server as well, with even much better integration with SQL Server logic than NAV. I would say as far as multi-user capabilities it is just as powerful, as long as you implement it properly.

<edit> Not nearly as scalable though </edit>