Publish a page as web service and UI

AitorEG
AitorEG Member Posts: 342
in NAV Three Tier
Hello everyone,
We are going to implement a development to improve de picking of a warehouse with a PDA. My first idea, is to implment it with WebServices, publishing pages that are going to be accesible from the terminal.
How can I do for implement a page with an accesible UI for the user?
I've read that I should probably implement new simple pages in NAV, adapting them to a small screen.
Any hint about this issue? Am i focusing on the right direction?

Thank you very much!

Answers

  • HannesHolst
    HannesHolst Member Posts: 119
    edited 2017-03-03
    Hi AitorEG,

    Publishing a page using NAV-Webservice is a little bit misleading.
    Basically, when publishing a Page, the Page is used to structure the response-data.

    In a standard installation, Page 21 is published. Search for "web service" in NAV and copy+paste the OData- or SOAP-URL into your Webbrowser. What you will see, is the response-data you have to handle when publishing a page.

    As you can see then also, the data is accessible inside the response by properties which the same name as the fields on a Page.

    Your WebService-Consumer has to handle this (JSON-)response and create an UI.
    The benefit of a Page published as a Webservice is, that you do not have to create code by yourself to handle the request-data for creating/modify/delete a Customer. It's all done by NAV.
    When you publish a codeunit with the same functionality, you would have to parse the request-data first, before creating/modify/delete the actual customer.

    But, using a WebService is the correct way to handle your requirement.

    Good luck.

    My blog - https://www.HannesHolst.com/
  • AitorEG
    AitorEG Member Posts: 342
    HannesHolst wrote: »

    In a standard installation, Page 21 is published. Search for "web service" in NAV and copy+paste the OData- or SOAP-URL into your Webbrowser. What you will see, is the response-data you have to handle when publishing a page.

    As you can see then also, the data is accessible inside the response by properties which the same name as the fields on a Page.

    Yes, I've checked that. In the OData URL, I see something like this:
    9w6ushkq2ynd.png
    With today's date, and repeated several times.
    And in the SOAP URL, I can see an xsd file, like this:
    18ijvaofcubn.png

    HannesHolst wrote: »

    Your WebService-Consumer has to handle this (JSON-)response and create an UI.
    The benefit of a Page published as a Webservice is, that you do not have to create code by yourself to handle the request-data for creating/modify/delete a Customer. It's all done by NAV.
    When you publish a codeunit with the same functionality, you would have to parse the request-data first, before creating/modify/delete the actual customer.
    So, the idea is that I have to implement some code, that creates the UI and consumes the web service, am I right? What it's the most extended/recommended programing language to make this?

    Realkly appreciate your answer, thank you very much
  • HannesHolst
    HannesHolst Member Posts: 119
    AitorEG wrote: »
    So, the idea is that I have to implement some code, that creates the UI and consumes the web service, am I right? What it's the most extended/recommended programing language to make this?

    Hi,

    Yes, this is the idea of the concept.
    The desirable programming language depends on the requirements of the implementation.
    In your case, most people would choose PHP or .Net probably.

    Maybe, for PHP exists a framework already which is able to create some kind of UI for the above scenario.
    Let me know if you find something in this direction, I'm interested.

    Cheers
    My blog - https://www.HannesHolst.com/

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