Integration with an External Application

bob_up

A new customer wants to be able to add customers, jobs, purchase orders etc directly into NAV 2009 from their bespoke application (written in Filemaker). They are already reading data from NAV 2009 using ODBC. I have linked systems by means of dataports in the past but havent been asked to go to this level before.

I have been doing background research, including trawling this site, and can see that NAS and the new v2009 'middle tier' are possible starting points (although I am confused by references to the latter as a web-server. our clients application is not web-based).

Can someone point me in the right direction. Is there developer documentation which would show me how an external application could add a record into Navision, firing the code on the appropriate OnValidate and OnInsert triggers ?

kine

I recommend to read some documents about Web Services. What it is, how it can be used. Because the "mid-tier" is can offer you WebServices. And the Web in the name doesn't mean that it is only for Web applications... 8)

bob_up

I see what you mean. Thank you.

canadian_bacon

I think, from a performance standpoint, the best way to do this would be to insert the record to a staging table via ADO and then use the web service to call a codeunit to transfer the record to the appropriate table and at the same time, call the code on the validation triggers.

bob_up

In the meantime I had been considering using pages, exposed as web services. I havent tested this option yet, but assume it fulfills my need to execute code on validation triggers etc ... ?

Your suggestion appeals to me from a link testing perspective, since there would be a physical record of the data being sent from the external application.

Incidentally, what did you have in mind when you suggested a 'staging table' ?