How one recognizes a Master Table in Navision?

Bagheera

Apart from knowing from manuals which tables are the master tables of functional areas is there another way to recognize a master table from its attributes/properties?

Is there a characteristic that a Master Table must have and no other tables have?

Thank you in advance.

DenSter

There is no checkbox in the table designer that says 'this is a master table'. You kind of have to know per functional area what the master tables are. So in the Inventory, the Item table is the master table. In the S&R area, the Customer table is the master table. Etcetera, etcetera....

I believe there is a section on the differences between various types of tables in the application designers guid on the product cd. Look for it in the Doc folder, it's called "w1w1adg.pdf".

Bagheera

First of all thanks for the reply.

I found the document you describe but I cant find the section that lists differences between types of tables... Any clue where this can be found?

DenSter

I tried to find it in that document, but I couldn't.... it must have been in a training manual.

Basically, being a master table does not imply any physical design restrictions, so you can do anything with a 'master table' that you can do with any other table. The way you use a master table is different though.

A master table is the main functional table of a functional area (Item for Inventory, Customer for S&R, Vendor for P&P, etc.), and contain static data only. It has a 'Card' type form as its main data entry form. So for a master table (let's say you have a table called Gadget) you'd create a form called 'Gadget Card', and a non-editable 'Gadget List' form. The card form is for entering and maintaining gadgets, and the list form is for selecting gadgets from the list. Following Navision design standards, you don't use the 'Gadget List' form for entering or maintaining data.

All other tables, that serve supporting roles, or that contain transactional data, are not master tables. For a non-master table (let's say we have a table called Widget), you'd have a 'Widgets' form, which serves both purposes (creating/maintaining as well as selecting from the list). However, over the years, this distinction has diluted a bit, since there are many 'card' type forms for tables that are not considered master tables. There are functional areas with more than one master table, like General Ledger, which has G/L Account and Bank Account.

hth

Bagheera

Again thanks for the reply and the explanation. That was very helpful till the end of the post which confused me a bit...

You say that General Ledger FA has 2 Master Tables. The Functional Areas V2.60.01.xls file that comes with the Navision Installation indicates that only 2 FA have 2 Master Tables:

Fixed Assets: Fixed Asset, Insurance
Human Resources: Employee, Payroll Control

For G/L the same excel document lists G/L Account as the only master table whereas Bank Account table is not listed anywhere not even in the Supplementary Tables....

DenSter

It's not very important whether or not the G/L area has 1 or 2 master tables. When I started out they called it like that, maybe by now they've changed their minds....

Like I said, it's what is done with the tables that makes it a master table. The Bank Account table has a Card type form and a non-editable List form, which in my book makes it a master table. You could also make a case that since bank accounts have nothing to do with General Ledger, it should not be considered as a master table of that area.

Don't worry too much about what it's called and be aware of the functional difference. Ten to one you'll be adding 'master table'-like functionality to non-master type tables at one point or another and vice versa.

Bagheera

I am worried cause I am having the programming exam in a few days and a friend of mine who just had it told me that there was a question about that.

"Which Functional Area has 2 Master tables?"

DenSter

Then I'd go with what you found in documentation. I am writing these replies from memory, and my wife would tell you to never trust my memory :whistle: