Specifying id= in fin.exe command line

bhalpin · 2010-10-07

This has me baffled.

I want to run two instances of the locally installed NAV client through desktop shortcuts. I've done it in the past, but that machine is long dead. I know I have to specify a 2nd zup file to make this work, and that's accomplished by appending id=<whatever> to the command line.

The NAV Inst & Config documentation example looks like this:

d:\fin\fin.exe servername=My server, company=cronus international ltd., id= chris

And further in the doc they say if id is not specified then 'Fin' is the default. And if it is the value should be:

Name of ID (including path if ID file is not located in Microsoft Dynamics NAV folder)

So, to start I setup a shortcut with the following target:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe"

It works. But to specify a separate zup file I added id=C:\600sp1II to the target. It doesn't work; I get the error

The filename C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe id=C:\600sp1II.zup contains a character that cannot be used.

(Typical, they don't say which character. [-( )

(And, notice: they appended .zup to the filename - so it's pretty clear fin.exe parses the command line properly.)

After lots of messing around I find that if I leave off the C:\ the shortcut works. If I add it back (or any path) it fails.

I give up - what's the secret here?

](*,)

DigiTecKid · 2010-10-07

So in the target you have double quotes around?
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe
And your id parameter is outside the quote?
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" id=C:\600sp1II

And still you get this error?

DenSter · 2010-10-07

Try id="C:\600sp1 II.zup"

bhalpin · 2010-10-07

Yes, that's exactly the target text.

Now I've tried this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" template=C:\temp, id= "C:\600sp1II"

I've added the template= clause to specify a different temp file path. (And, when I do get NAV to boot using that, the template specified is ignored.)

Using the above, I get

The filename C:\600sp1II.zup contains a character that cannot be used.

It doesn't seem to matter whether I use id= "C:\600sp1II" or id= C:\600sp1II

bhalpin · 2010-10-07

Update:

template= is the wrong switch, it should be 'temppath'. Now with the following target, NAV boots:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Dynamics Nav\600SP1\Classic\fin.exe" temppath=C:\temp, id=C:\600sp1II

The only (real) difference is removing the space between id= and the path. I've tried it now with and without that space - with the space, NAV won't boot.

DenSter · 2010-10-07

bhalpin wrote:

with the space, NAV won't boot

Yeah that's what I meant, leave out the space, and if there's a space in the file name, you need the double quotes around the value. I've made it a habit to always use the double quotes for parameter values, and to never use any spaces in there.

bhalpin · 2010-10-07

So, the space after the = kills NAV ... someone flunked programming 101.

kine · 2010-10-08

bhalpin wrote:

So, the space after the = kills NAV ... someone flunked programming 101.

No, it is just how the parameters are processed, space is dividing parameters in common command line...

bhalpin · 2010-10-08

Then what are the commas for?

kine · 2010-10-08

the commas are the non-standard way to separate parameters. This way I saw only in connection with NAV,other applications are using spaces (like "-a=ss -b:ddd" or "/a=ss /b:ddd" etc.).

Specifying id= in fin.exe command line

Comments

Categories