Specifying id= in fin.exe command line

bhalpin

This has me baffled.

I want to run two instances of the locally installed NAV client through desktop shortcuts. I've done it in the past, but that machine is long dead. I know I have to specify a 2nd zup file to make this work, and that's accomplished by appending id=<whatever> to the command line.

The NAV Inst & Config documentation example looks like this:

d:\fin\fin.exe servername=My server, company=cronus international ltd., id= chris

And further in the doc they say if id is not specified then 'Fin' is the default. And if it is the value should be:

Name of ID (including path if ID file is not located in Microsoft Dynamics NAV folder)

So, to start I setup a shortcut with the following target:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe"

It works. But to specify a separate zup file I added id=C:\600sp1II to the target. It doesn't work; I get the error

The filename C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe id=C:\600sp1II.zup contains a character that cannot be used.

(Typical, they don't say which character. [-( )

(And, notice: they appended .zup to the filename - so it's pretty clear fin.exe parses the command line properly.)

After lots of messing around I find that if I leave off the C:\ the shortcut works. If I add it back (or any path) it fails.

I give up - what's the secret here?

](*,)

DigiTecKid

So in the target you have double quotes around?
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe
And your id parameter is outside the quote?
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" id=C:\600sp1II

And still you get this error?

DenSter

Try id="C:\600sp1 II.zup"

bhalpin

Yes, that's exactly the target text.

Now I've tried this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" template=C:\temp, id= "C:\600sp1II"

I've added the template= clause to specify a different temp file path. (And, when I do get NAV to boot using that, the template specified is ignored.)

Using the above, I get

The filename C:\600sp1II.zup contains a character that cannot be used.

It doesn't seem to matter whether I use id= "C:\600sp1II" or id= C:\600sp1II

bhalpin

Update:

template= is the wrong switch, it should be 'temppath'. Now with the following target, NAV boots:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" temppath=C:\temp, id=C:\600sp1II

The only (real) difference is removing the space between id= and the path. I've tried it now with and without that space - with the space, NAV won't boot.

DenSter

bhalpin wrote:

with the space, NAV won't boot

Yeah that's what I meant, leave out the space, and if there's a space in the file name, you need the double quotes around the value. I've made it a habit to always use the double quotes for parameter values, and to never use any spaces in there.

bhalpin

So, the space after the = kills NAV ... someone flunked programming 101.

kine

bhalpin wrote:

So, the space after the = kills NAV ... someone flunked programming 101.

No, it is just how the parameters are processed, space is dividing parameters in common command line...

bhalpin

Then what are the commas for?

kine

the commas are the non-standard way to separate parameters. This way I saw only in connection with NAV,other applications are using spaces (like "-a=ss -b:ddd" or "/a=ss /b:ddd" etc.).