Can you link external MySQL tables to NAV 2018?

Lilithyan

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the concept of connecting and using external Tables in NAV. In this specific case our customer want to use an external MySQL database together with NAV 2018 CU5. The development is going to be "old school" in C/AL via the development client.

NAV is supposed to read and write into these external Tables.

I know there is the table property TableType where you would (probably?) define the Table as ExternalSQL, that the fields in NAV and MySQL have to be identical (Order of Fields, Name, Type, Length) and that a connection has to be established to get the data from the MySQL database.

But I have no bloody clue how to create the connection and which other pitfalls to avoid. While one of my colleagues has some notion on how it should be, he's never done it with a MySQL Database.

So the three big questions: Can/Should you connect NAV 2018 to an external MySQL database? If yes, how can/should it be done? If no, why and what is a better alternative?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Ciao,

Lils

RemkoD

Usually it's not recommended to connect separate applications on sql level. If it's part of one application you can adopt the MySQL tables into the NAV. Data transfer on sql level bypasses the business logic from the other application. Security is a thing if you want to connect two databases, especially if they are hosted on different machines. I think the best practice is to create a web interface for the MySQL Database and use web services to read and write data in the MySQL Database.