Is there a way to have searchable item descriptions with text fields longer than 250 characters?

tomenfuego

Hi,

I'm aware that this isn't exactly a new request but I've been searching forever and haven't found any solutions. I'm working to implement my company to NAV 2016 from using a QuickBooks add-on called Fishbowl. Fishbowl isn't all that great for what it does but one thing that it does have is in the Items module, it allows users to enter in text, basically a free form to put in as much text as you'd like without a character limitation. My team of engineers have used this field to their advantage to describe our parts they have fabricated in our shop with very specific/intricate details. The benefit to this is you can actually search these large character fields without any limitations.

I understand that NAV can only house 250 characters per field. I know changing the description field is bad news so I'll skip over that right away. To remedy my issue though, I thought about adding several custom 250 character fields to the item card and just making my team search through their broken up descriptions. My engineering team doesn't really like that idea but currently its my best bet.

I also understand that there is the extended text aspect that we could also use. However, I'm not aware of that being an option for searching.

I heard in NAV 2017 there's a new aspect called Item Attribute but I'm not so sure it's something that would fit my situation as you have to specifically call out item attributes and assign them to fields. We have over 10k of parts so that would be quite the undertaking.

Here's an example of what our text can typically look like:

Tank, ASME Tank, 300 gallon, 36" O.D. SINGLE SHELL TANK, 36" O.D. X 72" STRAIGHT SIDE, SHELL: 316L S/S 1/4" Plate, TOP HEAD: 1/4" Plate 36" O.D. ASME Flanged & Dished 316L s/s, Bottom HEAD: 1/4" Plate 36" O.D. ASME Flanged & Dished 316L s/s, (4) Sidewall Mounting Lugs w/ Pad (304s/s), 12" Diameter Top Blind Flange w/ (2) 3" Ports & (4) 2" Ports, (1) 4" Shell Port, (1) 3" Shell Port, (1) 4" Bottom Head Outlet Port, Interior & Exterior Welds Ground Flush and Polished, 32Ra Interior Finish, 43 Ra Exterior Finish.


Is there something that might be a viable solution that others are currently using? Any other engineering intensive companies out there using NAV with large part descriptions they use or calling out parts?? I'm interested in either a 3rd party add on or anything at this point.

Thanks

kriki

[Topic moved from 'NAV Tips & Tricks' forum to 'NAV Three Tier' forum]

parm

Hi,
To use search and filters, the Item Attribute in Nav 2017 are the best solution.
With this you will enforce standard description of items.

The main issue that you have is to parse the actual description and convert to items.

If you don't need the search, you can use notes or attachments to hold that information.

To go completely out of the box, put the descriptions on text files on a file share a use windows indexing services to index and search, but this is outside NAV.

regards and good luck.

parm

archer89

For a solution please follow https://moxie4nav.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/how-to-work-with-big-item-descriptions/