Any resources/suggestions to start C/AL Programming from scratch?

mdhashmi999

Hey Fellas,

hope you are doing good.
I Was looking for a start in C/AL Programming from basics. I Am familiar with the coding used in reporting but i
want to have a complete understanding i.e a clear picture of the language to develop strong skill in C/AL.
Any suggestions appreciated.

Juhl

https://www.packtpub.com/all?search=Nav

RockWithNAV

There are many online portals where you can have PDF to initiate with and apart from this you have many you tube videos where you can have the practical experience.

Google is always a life line for each and every software professionals.

NavSolution

If You Cant Even Google it, How Can You Find Different Problems Solution.

kriki

[Topic moved from 'Navision Attain' forum to 'General Chat' forum]

dyee4613

Hi everyone,

I'm in the same boat as mdhashmi999 and I've been googling but I haven't really found the resources I've been looking for so I signed up here to hopefully get a little guidance.

- For development sites, the Packt site has been linked pretty frequently but that is just a list of books not recommendations for the actual book. I was thinking of buying "Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV - Fifth Edition". Is this the best option?

- I signed for an image academy course "Development Environment Introduction in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 and Dynamics 365". The first thing it tells us to do is go into the development environment and I have no idea how to access this. I've unsuccessfully googled this a few times.

Please provide me a little guidance so I can get started. Thank you!

Juhl

That book is good.

BUT remember, NAV is not a programming language! It’s an ERP system....
The programming is a small part of it, and quit simple.
Understanding the customer, knowing the standard application, and knowing where to extend the system, is the most important part.
I’ve seen programmers develop what was already there, because they didn’t know or understand the NAV standards, patterns and ways of doing things.

So you need to understand business and workflows, before you can develop anything

dyee4613

Thanks Juhl. My company is about to go through an upgrade (nav 09 to nav 18) and our implementation specialist (who suggested I do this) plans to have me sit in on a lot of our meetings. I think sitting in on the meetings with each department where they explain their work flow, the reports they run, and the data they grab from each report will give me a pretty strong understanding of the customer side. Since most of our reports are currently in classic, we are going to have to take inventory of what reports we don't need and what we can do without customization in 18 so I should be spending a good amount of time learning the standard applications in Nav. Do you have any advice to learn the standard apps of Nav 18?

My rough timeline is spend the first 6 months learning Nav/C/AL and the next 6 months practicing modifying code slightly and watching our Microsoft Partner upgrade some reports and try to understand what they're doing and why. I'm hoping after a year I should be ready to do some small scale development. I'm not trying to be an expert, I just want to be able to do some of the easier tasks so we aren't paying our Microsoft Partners ungodly amounts for tasks that are beneath their skillsets.

Juhl

.

Juhl

About report usage, my blog post here might be interesting.
https://juhl.blog/2017/08/08/report-usage-logging/

Learning standard NAV is mostly learning by doing. Most books cover programming, but not usage. Some partners make their own manuals and sell them, and there are some MS training books, but only for 2013. But the still apply.
Play with a demo in the sections your company needs.

Regarding your situation.
I understand your company’s wish, but don’t nessesary agree. Even small modifications, can have big impact, and maybe your time could be spend on core business, instead of doing vendor work. Also you need to buy developer license to be able to do some “real damage”.
If you need to build a new office, do you instruct all your employees to become construction workers? Or what if you leave the company?
What about code documentation between you and the NAV partner.

Maybe it can work, but I have seen more examples on this not working, and giving me more work! (Partner)

dyee4613

Great points. I didn't think of some of the complexities here. It's hard to justify the like 7k fee if I'm just going to do minor modifications and we have an existing partner. I'll have to ask our consultant to walk me through his vision in a little more detail. But I figure at worst, I can always be a technically savvy point of contact who can provide specific instructions to our Microsoft Partner for upgrades.