Item Description has 30 characters

lally

Hi all,


Can i know Item Description and Description 2 has only 30 characters in Nav 2009.


when it comes customer/ Vendor it has 50 characters.


Is there any reason ?


Please let me know.

matttrax

Probably because it's always been 30 and it's a nightmare to change it

Belias

Customer and vendor "Name" field was text30 in previous versions, and then it has been increased to text50 in standard application...it has not been done with item description (and i don't think there are plans to do it).

As mattrax said, don't even think to do it unless you have to choose between "increase description" and "cut yourself between the fingers with paper sheets"

matttrax

Belias wrote:

As mattrax said, don't even think to do it unless you have to choose between "increase description" and "cut yourself between the fingers with paper sheets"

Sometimes I think that if I ever had my own solution center or lead a development team I would give this task to a new junior NAV developer just to mess with them....I'm such a mean person. :whistle:

lally

Thanks,

I am not going to change the length.

I am would like to know the reason only.

infonote

If you change the length of the item description, use the developer's toolkit to find where it is used. Remember if you change it in one place, you have to change it everywhere.

idiot

Reasons:
Nav is still in DOS days when Bill Gates said "640K ought to be enough for anybody"
M$ too busy with other bugs rather than to enhance the length
VARs want to earn $ from upgrades (nightmare to upgrade a length-enhanced database)
...

Belias

infonote wrote:

If you change the length of the item description, use the developer's toolkit to find where it is used. Remember if you change it in one place, you have to change it everywhere.

he(she?) said he don't want to change it...by the way, there's no particular reason in it: 30 is the default lenght of text fields...it has been changed in customer/vendor name fields probably because a lot of requests from customers/partners to microsoft.
What is the problem? :-k you have description 2 afterall

chengalasettyvsrao

Yes, may be this is the reason customer/vendor name fields probably because a lot of requests from customers/partners to microsoft.

stevedivimast

30 chars (plus 30 in description 2) in item description are not so much....
I changed Item description (and Item description 2) lenght from 30 to 50 chars and il was not a nightmare, bur just a 4 hour work.
In many table descriptions fields are already 50 chars lenght (Sales lines, purchase lines....).
You have just to change 2/3 tables other than table 27 Item and sone function parameter lenght and it work fine.
I have somewhere a list of all the change you need toenlarge item description lenght to 50 char.
If you think it can be useful i can posty it.

lally

stevedivimast wrote:

If you think it can be useful i can posty it.

please post that tables.

stevedivimast

I was wrong. I modified more than 2 or table.
Modification was really very simple anyway
Here is my modification list (as is!!!)

Form 99000811 Prod. BOM Where-Used Modify Setcaption
Form 99000812 Prod. BOM Matrix per Version Modify Setcaption

Table 27 Item Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50 Search description From 30 To 50
Table 30 Item Translation Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 90 BOM Component Description From 30 To 50
Table 1013 Job Item Price Description From 30 To 50
Table 5401 Item Variant Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 5407 Prod. Order Component Description From 30 To 50
Table 5700 Stockkeeping Unit Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 5715 Item Substitution Description From 30 To 50
Table 5718 Nonstock Item Description From 30 To 50
Table 5901 Service Item Line Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 5913 Loaner Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 5940 Service Item Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50 Item Description From 30 To 50
Table 5964 Service Contract Line Description From 30 To 50
Table 7380 Phys. Invt. Item Selection Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000763 Routing Header Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50 Search description From 30 To 50
Table 99000771 Production BOM Header Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50 Search description From 30 To 50
Table 99000772 Production BOM Line Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000774 Family Line Description From 30 To 50 Description 2 From 30 To 50
Table 99000779 Production BOM Version Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000786 Routing Version Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000788 Production Matrix BOM Line Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000790 Where-Used Line Description From 30 To 50
Table 99000829 Planning Component Description From 30 To 50

Belias

what about variables that are text30?
if you assign them a description field with lenght 50 (i mean 50 FILLED characters) you'll have a runtime error!
and what about

mytext1 := item."description";
mytext2 := mytext1;

you have to increase the lenght of both mytext1 and mytext2 variables...neither the toolkit can catch this case...
Also, you increased description 2, too...the work is doubled

DenSter

The fields make up just part of the job. What you're missing is all the Text30 variables that are set with the description. You're going to get customer calls with overflow errors for a long time.

matttrax

stevedivimast wrote:

I changed Item description (and Item description 2) lenght from 30 to 50 chars and il was not a nightmare, bur just a 4 hour work.

Then you probably missed A TON of places. Your database might not use all of those places, but there's no way you got everything in the entire system in only four hours.

As Belias said, what about the variables? Function parameters?

It's a recursive process. If you extend the length of description you have to check each of the fields / variables / parameters that it is assigned to. Then repeat for each of those. Then repeat again for the next set. Until you eventually don't have anything else.

stevedivimast

You are right, there are some other object to modify, bat they are not so much (no more then 10 more or less).
In a lor of table (sales lines, purchase lines....) description and description 2 are already 50 char long, so in a lot of places descriptions are manage ed 50 char long. This fact reduce a lot the number of object you have to modify.
I change the item description lenght in all my customer database, and i have no problem at all.
I'm sorry but I'm not in my office now and i cannot post the complete list of modification you need to enlarge description to 50 char.
I did this modification in Nav 5 sp1 and I did the same in Nav 2009 and Nav2009Sp1.
I know that change Field lenght in database field is not a trivial job, but for item table this change is not a nightmare.
Try it to belive it!
If you want to change description lenght from 30 to 60 that is another story (and this is a nightmare for sure).
50 char lenght in description fields is managed (almost!!!) everywhere. (I mean that Text variable and Function Text parameters are already defined as 50 char lenght almost (ALMOST!!!) everywhere Item are involved).

DenSter

stevedivimast wrote:

this change is not a nightmare.

I agree with you that this is not rocket science, and if you know where to look it is not a difficult task. Just be careful what you are telling inexperienced people. You said this takes less than 4 hours. Surely you have spent MUCH MUCH MUCH more on this than just 4 hours. Your list is probably the result of doing this many times before, in different versions, and having dealt with countless calls from customers when they find *another overflow issue*. Over the years, you've probably kept a list of these issues, just in case you need to do it again, which is a very smart thing to do, because the request is quite common.

FOR YOU it takes less than 4 hours, because you've obviously done it before, and you know where to look. For others, without your specific expertise, this is simply not the case, and I think you should be careful to tell people that this is a quick and easy job. Easy? Yes. Quick? Not for the inexperienced.

stevedivimast

You are right Daniel,
It didn't take just 4 hour to do that, but much more time!!. What I mean is that it took less time I expected, but SURE more than 4 hour (I'm not a Navision guru... :oops: ).
I decided to modify Item Description field because ALL my customer (I mean ALL 100%!) complain about 30 char item description lenght and I was forced to do that.
In any case i thought it was more difficout to do. (I means: it was not a joke, bat not so hard).
I'm sorry if someone thought I was presumptuous reading my words. It was not my intention (90% of my knowledge about Nav ids through Mibuso).
I'll pay more attention at my words in my next posts (but remember I'm not an English mother language)...
Sorry again.

DenSter

Don't worry about it Steve, no need to say you're sorry, our misunderstandings are mostly because of language anyway (the only Italian I know are names of dishes ), and we both mean the same thing. You are totally correct to point out that it's not "difficult" to do this.

Your contributions are always appreciated :thumbsup:

tinoruijs

Just today I noticed Item Description and Description 2 are now in NAV2013 50 characters text.
I don't know when it changed, but it did. That's nice. I'm doing an upgrade/reimplementation and this is great news.