We are trying to install Navision 3.6 in our company. One developer is telling us if we use SQL Server then he can make the needed reports for our managers to be available on the web. He means each manager will have a webpage and they will see the information regarding the bank accounts, Customers, Venders and so on. And other developer telling us the first developer does not know what is he talking about and he is looking for lot of problems. Any idea?
Hi Jaykan, Both the developers must be telling about their experiences, coz, this is very much possible to create web based report from SQL Server usin ASP or any other language like that. But again, getting the data in propper format may cause the developer lots of problems, coz the datatype of navision are not same in SQL. Cheers
Hi Girish, thank you for the input, the problem is both developers are new for this kind of project with Navision. The have done other ERP programs but Navision is first time. Jaykan
quote:
Originally posted by girish
Hi Jaykan, Both the developers must be telling about their experiences, coz, this is very much possible to create web based report from SQL Server usin ASP or any other language like that. But again, getting the data in propper format may cause the developer lots of problems, coz the datatype of navision are not same in SQL. Cheers
This is a quite wide question, and answers all depend on your actual requirements… Solutions vary from the simplest (like saving your report in html) to much more complex solutions. Some questions could be “which reports” or “how often”, but i suggest you contact your NSC to analyse your needs further.
Why the managers need web-based-data ? Is it a “must have” ? My experience is that often a discussion with such sort of managers and some painting on paper leads to pages which will be simply realised in Navision. Or is it a solution for the developers because they don’t know Navision ???!!!???
We have 3 kinds of users First group who work directly with the Navision; they can input data and receive their reports directly. Second group Sales people they connect through Internet to get information and input orders. Third group are users that only they need to receive reports and they do not need to know how Navision works. Instead of printing the reports on the paper we want each person to receive the information he wants from the webpage. Example is like Euroshell or some banks that they have the account information on the web and you can see what do want to see and even you can design the page to meet each group requirement. If you believe there are better solutions I will appreciate your input. Regards
Simple solution is to print reports in html. However this way the users have no way of setting filters or investigating /detailing the information further. If this is neccessary i guess you need to look at some kind of management information system. Another solution could be for the users to create their own reports using odbc interface. It alle depends on what exactly the users need, an how much you are willing to pay for it And in the end you might end up realizing the best, simplest and cheapest solution is to give the users access to Navision and train them in using the system.
Hello Lennart, Yes they do need filtering, investigating and detailing the information. For example they want to know inventory, balance in the bank accounts, customer balance and etc. Is there a management information system that you know to do this kind of work? Also, if you can explain little more on “ user to create their own reports using odbc interface”. Thank you for the useful information
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Originally posted by Lennart Nielsen
Simple solution is to print reports in html. However this way the users have no way of setting filters or investigating /detailing the information further. If this is neccessary i guess you need to look at some kind of management information system. Another solution could be for the users to create their own reports using odbc interface. It alle depends on what exactly the users need, an how much you are willing to pay for it And in the end you might end up realizing the best, simplest and cheapest solution is to give the users access to Navision and train them in using the system.
Hi Jaykan, As other people have said, you can definitely generate webpages out of SQL db with a little experience in ASP. But I would recommend using Navision since you can take advantage of all the features offered by Navision especially if you they will need to investigate further … You could have them dial into Navision as the second group of users. And you can setup in Navision what is the Main Menu for a user so you could design in Navision a very simple screen with say only the buttons for the reports they need to run. If the filtering method of Navision is too much for them you could design interface forms for each report asking for the parameters needed. I honestly think that it is a much more elegant solution and for someone with a little Navision experience something you could do in a lot less time than developing web inquiries straight into the SQL db. Also I want to warn you that is you do decide to go the SQL end way you must make sure that all operations are read only and there is nothing updated on the Navision tables since those updates will not be validated the normal Navision way … Hope this helps. Cristi Nicola P.S. If you have anymore questions please feel free to ask me at cnicola@bmiusa.com (questions in romanian welcome too [:D])
Hi Jaykan, to basically answer your initial question, the second one is correct. It is not at all practical to redesign all the navision reports in sql. (yes its possible, it just isn’t practical). You need to carefully design the needs of these users, and relate this back to the data they need, and its value to them. for example it is very easy to take a very complex report in navision, and generate an excel spread sheet. this can then be posted on the web, in many cases this may be a good solution, but in the end, only you will know that.
Hi Jaykan, It is possible to provide people with Navision standard reports over the web but it is complicated. I did this for a customer as part of on-line system where they wanted pdf reports available with filtering options etc. When finished the code was a module in its own right… One of the side-effects of this was that each report to be published had to have a few amendments: 1) Special code to cope with filters entered online 2) Speed tweaking (some of the standard reports are sloooow) 3) Code to prevent dialog boxes popping up. Best regards Simon
Hello, everybody! Nice to meet you. I’m for the first time at these forums. There are some interesting functionalities in Navision. They are called e-commerce: Commerce Gateway, Commerce Portal and User Portal. Theoretically User Portal is very good and aloows to do a lot of things using web, but it has some serious errors, and it’ almost impossible to work with it. But the other functionalities are stable and easy to work with. So there is no need in using ASP or some other language. Nevertheless using SQL SERVER is more convenient.
User portal is NOT designed for use over the web, and Navision make this very clear in the documentation.
I’m terrbly sorry[:)],but I suppose you’re not quite right. "The User Portal design and development workflow is in many ways different from the way Navision Attain is traditionally designed and developed. Not only has the technology changed from software application to Web-enabling an existing application, but the user groups have alsochanged… Designing for the Web, as opposed to a Windows application… " (It’s taken from "User Portal Developer’s Guide"p.2-2)