Developing

ataris

I want to find out what the best manual will be for learning what all the properties do on the system?

Any clues?

Marije_Brummel

Most properties are not well documented and rarely used. Just start experimenting with it.

But I guess this is not the answer you are looking for.

Do you have any specific properties you want explained?

Try searching on them on this forum. If you don;t find it, post it and we will create the documentation together.

Microsoft calles this system MSDN.

Savatage

http://www.waldo.be/modules.php?name=Downloads

dlacaba

I usually use the F1 key and hope for the best. Sometimes you get good info sometimes you don't.

lzr

You have a developer manual on the Navision cd. It is the largest file with 650+ pages

DenSter

The only available developer manual is the fairly expensive Microsoft one, which you should get anyway if you are planning to get certified. They contain tons of information and exercises that will get you started.

What I did when I started out (I didn't go to tha training until 3 months after I started) is open all possible objects and just browse all the properties, and read the F1 help. Then I'd play around with it, see what happens when you change things. You will have to figure out yourself how to use most of it anyway, no training can tell you everything.

Marije_Brummel

DenSter wrote:

The only available developer manual is the fairly expensive Microsoft one, which you should get anyway if you are planning to get certified. They contain tons of information and exercises that will get you started.

What I did when I started out (I didn't go to tha training until 3 months after I started) is open all possible objects and just browse all the properties, and read the F1 help. Then I'd play around with it, see what happens when you change things. You will have to figure out yourself how to use most of it anyway, no training can tell you everything.

Hey Daniel

You've just described the best way to learn Navision. =D>

ataris

In my mind the developers manual you get with the cd is rubbish. Doesn't go into detail and the examples are shockingly bad, I wish they would get there act together in regards to documents and training. In any case I have started openning up the objects and pressing F1 to see what they do. I was hoping there was a manual that would get me started that listed them and what they do.

The manual you suggested are they the new developers ones, developers 1 and developers 2 manuals. Has anyone got these and do they explain everything in detail and well.

DenSter

I learned to develop with version 2.5 and the developer manuals are very well suited for that purpose. I have seen all versions of the manuals since and all of them give you enough information to get you started.

ataris

Compared to .NET manuals they aren't up to the same standard. This is just what i think and I'm not very experienced in programming and I'm feeling really frustrated that there isn't anything geared towards the beginner. However i do realise alot is down to going on the system and working it out and reading the manuals but i personally think the manuals could be better. I'm sure all developers who know the system and have been developing for a while would think the manuals are sufficient.

I haven't seen the latest developers manuals, are they good?

DenSter

Oh I agree that it would be very nice to have tons of books to choose from, like the .NET books. However, just because those books exist for .NET development does not mean that the Navision manuals are 'rubbish'.

You have to realize though that the .NET developer community is about 5000 times bigger than the Navision developer community. I am very surprised that there is no book yet, but just because of supply and demand it makes sense that such a book doesn't exist yet.

Note that the guides on the product cd are not the ones that I am talking about here.

ataris

I totally agree with you 100%.

ataris

What expensive manual you talking about?

DenSter

The certification manuals. Those are not on the product cd, you have to buy them from MS.

lzr

So the certification manuals are better? I thought it would be enough with the developer manual on the cd to pass the dev1 + dev2 exam. Am I wrong?

DenSter

It depends on how new you are to Navision development. For some people it is enough, but I always recommend you study the actual certification manuals. At this point I could probably take the dev 1 exam without reading anything.

zimiwings

From my experience with the tests, there will also be questions, that have to do with methodology and other things, that MS thinks you need to know. So for me, the manuals (Development I and II, Version 4) were quite helpful to pass the tests (I started out with 2.0), because I found nothing on these topics on the CD.

Shenpen

It's important to note that besides the application designer / solution developer guides there is somewhere (I think on the install CD?) a PDF called something like "C/AL object architecture" or something like it, I don't remember the exact name there is the word "architecture" in it. It describes the journal -> ledger logic and other stuff. Very handy.

Actually I think the best way is to simply "steal" from the standard. For example it is not easy to create a document style form by hand and not be it ugly, but you can just save as the sales invoice form and subform, change the source tables, change the subformlink, delete fields and menu items and code from the triggers etc. and it's done.

Marije_Brummel

Shenpen wrote:

Actually I think the best way is to simply "steal" from the standard. For example it is not easy to create a document style form by hand and not be it ugly, but you can just save as the sales invoice form and subform, change the source tables, change the subformlink, delete fields and menu items and code from the triggers etc. and it's done.

I think the salesforms are a wrong example here, If you have a simple doc/line structure you are deleting for half an hour while making a new form is only a few minutes work....

Marije_Brummel

Shenpen wrote:

It's important to note that besides the application designer / solution developer guides there is somewhere (I think on the install CD?) a PDF called something like "C/AL object architecture" or something like it, I don't remember the exact name there is the word "architecture" in it. It describes the journal -> ledger logic and other stuff. Very handy.

Could you send me this document? I don't think I have it and I am sure it is not on our product CD's.

Shenpen

Mark Brummel wrote:

Could you send me this document? I don't think I have it and I am sure it is not on our product CD's.

The problem is I also don't have, this is why I wrote I don't remember the name. I checked now the 4.0 intall CD and yes this is not there, maybe I saw on an older install or dunno where. If you still have a 3.7 install check it, maybe it is there. Maybe I even remeber the title wrong. It's a book where the first part describes how the database works on the physical level and the second part describes journal -> ledger logic and such.

Shenpen

Certification manuals? What certification manuals? When I did the exams in 2003 there was the Application Designer's Guide and the Solution Developer's Guide. Has it changed?

DenSter

There have been certification training manuals ever since I started working with navision in early 2000.

HalMdy

I've got the document !!!!

It's a 3.10 version.


Send me a mail (vincent.evrard@addx.be) and I send you directly the file ...

Marije_Brummel

HalMdy wrote:

I've got the document !!!!

It's a 3.10 version.


Send me a mail (vincent.evrard@addx.be) and I send you directly the file ...

Thanx. Mail is sent.

We have everything back up to 3.04 for DOS, but I cannot find the doc...

Shenpen

I still don't get it: both exams were easily passable only by AD guide and Solution D. - guide, so what else do the cert. manuals contain that these ones do not?