According to the released hotfix KB2280492, this was occurred occurs because Microsoft .NET Framework waits for the garbage collector to release resources when .NET COM objects are retained in memory.

Curious as most i looked into the fix they released to see what was actually changed, as it uses some standard .NET components to send the emails with.

So to start with lets take a look at the methods of the old old mail component, that had the issue with the GC (garbage collection):

Next lets take a look at the new component to see the methods that has been added to handle overrides for Dispose():

Looking at the specific method you will see this code in the Dispose():

Simple, thanks Microsoft for fixing and thanks to Steffen Brandt for pointing me to this hotfix! Anyways, as you can see it is back to work now – looking at a week here in southern California with temperatures in the 100′s, ouch – going to be fun!

The above “reflection” on .NET code is done with Red Gates .NET Reflector tool. I will do a blog posting later this week, on how to use this great tool.

Here is the KB files:

download: SMTP Hotfix KB2280492 (10.96KB) added: 24/08/2010 clicks: 26 description:

NAVObjectViewer by Gerd Hübner is one of simplest and most useful tools for a NAV Developer, when you have to dig into a database with modifications, that often are undocumented or you just get a brief explanation of what a previous mod is doing. It is a great alternative to using the Developers Toolkit, as it does not require any setups and other dependencies. Just a quick and easy way to find objects with a nice search interface. And yes, it also has REGEX search capabilities.

First off download the NAVObjectViewer from this download link on MIBUSO: http://mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=1094. This is the official description of the tool from the download page:

“With this tool you can view and analyze NAV text object files. After importing an object file, the objects are displayed in a treeview (explorer like) structure.

You can enter one or more search expressions to get only those objects containing the search strings. You can right click an object to get those objects which use the selected object in any way. For example if you look for the usage of a table object, all objects where shown which use record variables of that table. The matching search strings are highlighted in the text part of the object viewer.

The tool is much simpler than for example Developer’s Toolkit, but it is much faster. You can analyze arbitrary object files from NAV version 2.0 up to 5.0 SP1. There is a new (commercial) version available which can handle object files from NAV 2009, too, including the new page objects and the extended report format (xml part).

Note: If you open an object file created with NAV 2009 with this version of the tool, it may crash due to some missing carriage return signs in the xml part of report objects.

Version 5.1:
- view, analyze and save NAV 5.0 (or older) object text files
- supports regular expressions
- case insensitive search possible
- pdf documentation
- free version 5.1

Update 30/04/2009:
This is an update with some bug fixes (in certain cases the error “No valid NAV object file” appears, though the file is valid) – and some new features. You can manually remove objects from the list and save the displayed objects to a new text file (new Save-Button).”

How to use it very simple. Export the objects of interest from Dynamics NAV in text format from the Object Designer. Open the NAVObjectViewer and load the previously exported text file. You will be presented with something like this:

Enter a search term, eg. the field name: “last counting period” and it filters the objects list to only show objects where this is found:

I love this tool due to it simplistic approach and the REGEX feature for searching the code. The Developers Toolkit has more advanced functionality, but NAVObjectViewer provides 9 out of 10 times exactly what you need.

Thanks Gerd!

Installation is basically

• downloading the Microsoft Application Virtualization client
  
• setup credentials
• Setup serverinformation
• Download updates

This blog post is mainly about the ease of installation, and my first hand experiences with installing App-V. I have never used Application Virtualization before. Here are some screenshots from my installation:

When i started the installer it needed to install some required components:

All required software was installed and then the installer for App V presented itself:

I choose the typical install (as per the documentation):

That all finished within a few seconds. Next step is setup some stored credentials for virtualized applications to use. The installation guide has sections for this for the various OS you can be installing on.

Next run the AppV client,

And setup the new connection via the provided URL. The icon for Dynamics NAV 2009 SP1 gets published to your desktop, and when running the first time it downloads updates:

As you can see it is the regular NAV2009 SP1 it is running – I thought R2 release was required for AppV.

And you are ready to go. I have not done any detailed benchmarking of the performance, but the client seems pretty responsive and pages open up quickly. And App-V it integrates perfectly with all of your local resources.

Back to some testing…

“The purpose of this report is to provide information on what ojbects are included within the modules for Microsoft Dynamics NAV” as follows:

• Search for individual objects and review the modules that include those objects
• Search for all objects included within specific modules
• Description of RIMDX

The spreadsheet has built in macros you need to enable, and looks like this when you search in it:

Due to Microsofts disclaimer in the file, im not sure i can post it in the download section here. But here is the link to the file on the Microsoft Partnersite: https://mbs.microsoft.com/partnersource/ordering/orderingnews/msdnavobjectperreport.htm

A real nice feature i just learned today, is when you do multiple searches it appends the results:

• Form 690: Manage Style Sheets
• Form 691: Send-to Programs
• Form 692: Import Style Sheet
• Form 693: Program Selections
• Form 694: Style Sheets
• Codeunit 403: Application Launch Management

Most of this blog entry is really nothing hot of the press, but i found a nice little trick for getting the records inserted into the tables automatically.

The new functions in codeunit are:

LaunchApp(DataXML : Automation "'Microsoft XML, v4.0'.DOMDocument40";StylesheetID : GUID;ApplicationXML : Automation "'Microsoft XML, v
EXIT(AppLaunchMgt.LaunchApp(DataXML,StylesheetID,ApplicationXML));

SelectStyleSheet(ObjectType : Integer;ObjectID : Integer;VAR StyleSheetID : GUID) : Boolean
EXIT(AppLaunchMgt.SelectStyleSheet(ObjectType,ObjectID,StyleSheetID));

ManageStyleSheets(ObjectType : Integer;ObjectID : Integer)
StyleSheets.SetObject(ObjectType,ObjectID);
StyleSheets.RUN;

These function needs to have these specifics ID’s in codeunit 1:

• LaunchApp, ID=116
• SelectStyleSheet, ID=117
• ManageStyleSheets, ID=118

when you have the objects imported, and the functions created in codeunit 1 you are almost ready to rock and roll. You just need to setup the Send-To Program in table 2000000065 and import the Stylesheets via Tools, Manage Style Sheets. At least that is the way i used to do it until i found i could just run Codeunit 403 Application Launch Management, as it actually inserts all these records for you. Nice!

Now you are ready to go.

Of course you might want to change the Cronus logo in the default stylesheets to be your own logo. There are multiple guides on how to this, but i have found this to be a very quick/dirty way to do it:

1. Open the stylesheet in eg. Notepad.exe, and search for “bindata”, you will see a big section of Base64 encoded text. That is the Cronus logo in bitmap format, encoded to Base64. Delete this.
2. Go to http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp and input your own logo, choose output to Base64 text and copy/paste this back into notepad, where you just deleted the Cronus logo.
3. Thats it.

The previous guide i used was from http://www.nextequalzero.com/2008/03/using-send-to-functionality-in-a-non-v5-dynamics-nav-database but suggested inserting all the records by hand. And a guide to change logo: http://www.nextequalzero.com/2008/02/xml-stylesheets-for-dynamics-nav-adding-your-logo

Also the official MS guide is here: https://mbs.microsoft.com/downloads/partner/Nav/50material/TechWhitePapers/XMLStyleSheetsTechWhitePaper.pdf

There are also a lot of hints on this on the main user groups MIBUSO and Dynamicsuser.

Read a random Dynamics NAV article

Really a great little that links to the pages listed in his iNAVigate google search page.

Here is a short URL for the random NAV blog entry: http://j.mp/RandomNAV

Who reads this blog? Please share a short message in the comments to this post, you can be as anonomous as you want, or you can give a short introduction to yourself. Have a great weekend!

1. Application Designers Guide
   (Also available in the F1 Online Help in the application)
2. C/AL Programming Guide
   (Programming-, Naming-, Numbering-conventions in NAV)

These books should be mandatory reading by any developer/person doing development, but real world experience unfortunately shows they aren’t. Even for ISV products you see some scary interesting examples.

So in case you haven’t seen this before, here they are. Fortunately some of the new Dynamics NAV books cover these basic principles too, especially on how naming conventions are in NAV:

“Precise and consistent terminology helps the end user work with the application. Rules for naming and abbreviating everything will also  help programmers gain an understanding of the base application and develop new features faster.”

So no need for using prefixes for your variables eg.:

recCustomer
l_Customer
g_Customer

when you just can use: Customer

download: CAL Programming Guide (908.96KB) added: 07/07/2010 clicks: 326 description: To make it easy to maintain an application, it is important to follow a few strict guidelines when writing C/AL™ code. This chapter describes these guidelines. · General C/AL Programming Format · Multilanguage Functionality · C/AL Statements · Miscellaneous · User-Defined Functions · User Messages · Table Locking · Putting Functions in Objects

download: Application Designers Guide (9.39MB) added: 07/07/2010 clicks: 229 description: This manual provides information about the C/SIDE® development system. It is part of the documentation and Help materials for Microsoft Dynamics™ NAV. When you create a C/SIDE application, you combine different types of application objects into a whole that solves a business problem. Each of the seven types of application objects available has its own part in this manual. The manual is divided into 12 parts. Each part contains one or more chapters. The first chapter in a part always deals with the fundamentals, for example, "Form Fundamentals," and the succeeding chapters present more advanced information. In addition to this manual, C/SIDE has an online Reference Guide. Here you can find reference information about programming issues: functions, triggers, properties, and so on.

Other books on Amazon:

Implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Application Design

Programming Microsoft Dynamics NAV

The NAV/SQL Performance Field Guide

In earlier versions you were relying on either local customization or using a document management add-on like Matrix Docs. The new standard Dynamics NAV feature could have been a game-stopper for these add-ons, if it wasnt because of some limitations to the way it is implemented in Dynamics NAV. Looking at the Table 2000000068: Record Link, which is a system table, you will notice you can design this table and add code into the misc. triggers on the table for both field validation and RIMD triggers. Great, well not really – as the “form” used is not a real “form”. When you click the paperclip or use the shortcut key Ctrl+L to open the Record Links a form that looks like a real Dynamics NAV form opens up. But try to design it – nothing happens. Also when validating a field or inserting a record, you will notice it does not trigger any of your triggers on the table.

The functionality is available from any record in the system (almost). And if you look at codeunit 80 Sales-Post and codeunit 90 Purch.-Post, you will actually notice that the standard functionality actually moves the links from Sales/Purchase Header to the posted documents.

Codeunit 80 Samples:

SalesShptHeader.COPYLINKS(Rec);
...
ReturnRcptHeader.COPYLINKS(Rec);
...
IF HASLINKS THEN DELETELINKS;

Lets take a look at these functions that is available on the record variables. The new functions can be found from the C/AL Symbols Menu:

So if you wanted to create your own links form, it would be pretty simple. Unfortunately you would have to modify each and every form where you want the new functionality on, to override the CTRL+L shortcut (and if users still use their mouse to click on the paperclip, it still will go to the standard form).

• Table 409 SMTP Mail
  
• Form 409 SMTP Mail
• Codeunit 400 SMTP Mail

And of course an updated license file for the customer, that adds the permissions for the new 5.0 objects. If they are not on the v5 executables they also need to install the “Microsoft.Navision.Mail.dll” automation control. I have created a small package here that is a selfextracting rar file, that automatically installs the component into the Global Assembly Cache.

Here are the objects (from 5.0SP1):

download: SMTP objects (7.11KB) added: 29/06/2010 clicks: 136 description: Table 409 SMTP Mail Form 409 SMTP Mail Codeunit 400 SMTP Mail

And the Mail automation installer:

download: Microsoft.Navision.Mail (156.94KB) added: 29/06/2010 clicks: 169 description: External component for SMTP mail in Dynamics NAV. Updated with KB981354, to support SMTP port selection.

Usage is very simple:

SMTP.CreateMessage(SenderName,SenderAddress,Recipients,Subject,Body,HtmlFormatted);
SMTP.Send();

you will see methods for AddRecipients, AddCC, AddBCC, AppendBody and AddAttachment. The component also supports HTML in the body section.

Update 6/29/2010:

I just received a message from my danish colleague Steffen Brandt, that a hotfix is available from Microsoft, that allows you to change the standard SMTP port 25. The KB981354 has the information. I will update the download section tomorrow, so it has the latest DLL’s and fob’s.

Hotfix code changes:

Add column 6 in the SMTP Mail Setup table(409) as follow:

...
{ 6   ;   ;SMTP Server Port    ;Integer       ;InitValue=25; }
...

4.	Add the SMTP Server Port field in the SMTP Mail Setup form(409) as follow:

...
{ 14  ;TextBox      ;3850 ;1540 ;5500 ;440  ;Name=<SMTP Server Port>;
                                                 ParentControl=1;
                                                 InPage=0;
                                                 DecimalPlaces=0:0;
                                                 NotBlank=Yes;
                                                 Numeric=Yes;
                                                 SourceExpr="SMTP Server Port";
                                                 MinValue=1 }
    { 15  ;Label        ;440  ;1540 ;3300 ;440  ;ParentControl=14; }
...

5.	Change the code in the SMTP Mail codeunit(400) as follows:
Existing code 1

...
      Mail@1000 : Automation "{68AEAA7B-9523-3511-AF5F-F2381D2C6F04} 1.0:{F9DAE2A4-D2F8-37C3-86D5-E4FFE166D860}:'Microsoft Navision Mail'.SmtpMessage";
...

Replacement code 1

...
      Mail@1000 : Automation "{68AEAA7B-9523-3511-AF5F-F2381D2C6F04} 7.0:{F9DAE2A4-D2F8-37C3-86D5-E4FFE166D860}:'Microsoft Navision Mail'.SmtpMessage";
...

Existing code 2

...
                Mail.Send(
            "SMTP Server",Authentication <> SMTPMailSetup.Authentication::Anonymous,"User ID", Password);
...

Replacement code 2

...
                Mail.Send(
            "SMTP Server",Authentication <> Authentication::Anonymous,"User ID",Password,"SMTP Server Port");
...