Navision and to-dos

hereami

HI ALL,

I'm using Nav 3.70.

Is it possible to make Navision Synchronize with Outlook calendar of more than ne salesperson per session.

I mean...
Now Navision synchronize the to-dos using all the data from the salesperson card. But, before all, it verifiies the Navision User ID to recognize who is currently logged in and start the synchronization process for only the currently logged in salesperson.
I would need to log in as a salesperson with the right to make/modify to-dos in the outlook calendar, create to-dos for me or for other salesperson, and have navision that synchronize with the other salesperson calendar.

Please, Help me!!!

Bye

HAI

Dmitry_Chadaev

Hi,

There should be no problems synchronizing to-dos created/modified for other salespeople with their Outlooks (assuming that you work on the same Navision db and connected to the same Exchange) if:

You are given permissions to create/modify Outlook appointments and tasks in other salespeople' Outlooks; These salespeople have the synchronization enabled on their Salesperson Cards in Navision;

If you have that arranged - go and create/modify to-dos assigned to another SP and they will be synchronized with his/her Outlook.

hereami

Hi Dmitry Chadaev,

You are right... I configured everything as you told me... and it works...

I can synchronize everything from Navision to Outlook...

...BUT ...

... I can't synchronize from Outlook to Navision i not only for the logged in salesperson...

Do you know how I can override this Navision behavior? Navision let you start the Synchronize to Otlook batch job only for the currently logged in person.

If you know something that could help me in this... please, let me know...

I need this functionality very much!!!

THANKS A LOT.

Bye

HAI

Dmitry_Chadaev

Hi Hereami,

In my opinion - there is nothing you can do about synchronization from Outlook to Navision for appointments, tasks and contacts which belong to another person.

The problem is that Outlook does not rise events for adding/changing items in other Outlooks on your client, so there is nothing to react on in Navision.

But if you change for example an appointment in the Calendar of another salesperson and he is currently working in Navision (it is open at least on his PC) and has the synchronization enabled, then the event will be fired on his PC and the Appointment will be synchronized with his Navision (and if you work on the same DB - you will see it as well). The same goes for Tasks and Contacts.

hereami

Hi Dmitry Chadaev,

Thank you very much for your help...

So you think that there's nothing to do... it's a shame!!!

This isn't a good feature of Navision... doesn't it?

And what about extending the "Synchronize With Outlook" batch job to make it work with other salesperson than the one currently logged in?

It'll be possible to go that way?

Thanks in advance...

Bye

HAI

RobertMo

this topic was already discussed. serach the forum and you will learn how to do it.

Dmitry_Chadaev

Hi Hereami,

Let me disagree with you The fact that the appointments, tasks and contacts which belong to another salespeople are not synchronized in real-time from your Outlook to your Navision is not Outlook Integration's fault - it is Outlook that doesnt give anything to react on...

But it is off course possible to extend the Synchronize with Outlook batch so it could synchronize those items as well (if synchronization is enabled and properly setup for other salespeople in Navision).

Try to debug the process of changing another salesperson's to-do in Navision and you will see that Navision loggs-in to his Outlook using his settings specified on his Salesperson Card and accesses his Outlook items by their EntryID. Just remember to change the Salesperson record back to the "current salesperson".

Conclusion: Since it is possible to access items which belong to another Salesperson - it is possible to synchronize them

So the Outlook Integration is quite nice after all, it just doesnt show all its potential

Dmitry_Chadaev

Sorry - forgot to mention - it should be Navision 3.70 (there you can find this "substitution" of the "current salesperson")

hereami

Hi Dmitry Chadaev,

---
First of all:

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Your replies are very exhaustive and well detailed... perfect for me because I'm some sort of Navision Newbie...
---

Thanks a lot for the tip about looking how the process of changing another salesperson's to-do works in Navision... I'll give it a look!!!

SO, you are right...

So the Outlook Integration is quite nice after all, it just doesnt show all its potential

I'll give it a look!!!
With the help of my programmers colleagues i'll try to follow your suggestions...

Can you give me a small example of what you think is the best way to follow... what can I modify and... how?

Only if this isn't too much disturb...

Thanks a lot in advance...

Bye

HAI

Dmitry_Chadaev

Hi Hereami,

You are welcome Yes, I like this feature - it's like a hobby to me

As I said you should start by debugging the process of changing another salesperson's to-dos in Navision and you will see that Navision loggs-in to his Outlook using his settings specified on his Salesperson Card and accesses his Outlook items by their EntryID.

There are 2 categories of Outlook items which you'll have to synchronize - those which were synchronized with Navision before and those which were not synchronized before.

So set up the synchronization for 2 salespeople (ask someone to connect to your DB and setup the synchronization).

1. Ask this another SP to synchronize a Contact and a To-do with his Outlook (so that EntryIDs of these items were logged in table 5121 Synchronization Entry). Now from your Navision client - open his To-do card (the one he got synchronized), turn the Debugger on, change the Description (for example) and see how the code accesses the corresponding Appointment (or Task) in his Outlook. See the same for the Contact. This is how you can accesss items from another Outlooks if they were synchronized before.

2. To access the rest of the items (which were not synchronized with Navision) - you can use indexes. Simply make the same trick with substitution of the current salesperson (from the 1st paragraf) and retrieve items from the Appointments or Contacts collections one by one. See for example ImportAll function from Codeunit 50714 Contact Handler. There are absolutely similar methods for OAppointments and OTasks collections.

Now you should combine this 2 methods of acessing other SP's Outlook items in the Synchronize with Outlook batch... Or write a new one (I'd prefer that). This new batch should have 3 stages (as I see it):

1. Iterate through Table 5121 Synchronization Entry - to synchronize items which were synchronized before - retrieving them by their EntryIDs; 2. Iterate through items in Appointments, Tasks and Contacts collections (skipping the ones which were synchronized in the first iteraction) - to import newly created items in Navision; 3. Export Navision records (to-dos and contacts) which belong to another salespeople and were not synchronized in step 1 and 2 - to other salespeople' Outlooks.

This sounds to me as quite a big project Hope you're not scared yet :shock: Good luck!

BTW, are you from Milan? Can you write me an e-mail please? My address is on my profile. I have a small question about getting around in Milano this summer

hereami

Hi Dmitry Chadaev,

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

For your clear and exhaustive explanation.


It sounds quitre a big project to me too!!! And Yes... I'm a little scared !!!

Now, I just have to try to follow your suggestions!!!

Thanks a lot again....

Bye

HAI