I work for a company which supports a Navision system for its clients (version 4.0). Basically the end users only see the forms which our company (and our selected solution centre) develop while my role is to advise the users how to use these forms, e.g. how to fill out an order, correct an order, cancel orders etc.
With regards to tables, reports, codeunits etc. the client never sees this side of Navision, but I occasionly manually change data in tables, run reports and other minor things, usually to correct mistakes made by the users or to fix minor bugs which I’ve been trained to deal with. But I would like to get to know the system more, learn how to create these tables, and reports, and dabble with C/AL. Unfortunately there is no scope for this sort of advancement with my current employers, and I will be forever stuck in this limited support role, never getting to know how to really develop NAV, or get the opportunity to even try.
Is there any avenue to ‘practice’ developing NAV? I know it’s not like downloading the JDK (for example) and start programming in Java right away with a book on hand. How would I go about advancing my knowledge in this field? I’d love to have a mini NAV system on my home computer for example with a dummy database which I could experiment with. Is this possible?
You can download the client part of Nav 5 with a (date restricted) demo db from here http://www.mibuso.com/dlinfo.asp?FileID=950 Its the standard cronus db - which is more than enough to get going on. The csideclient allows you to have a single file db which you open locally. Unfortunatly the only way to get hold of the documentation is through a partner - but you should be able to do this through your existing company without any difficulty. Ian
As a start you can read through the Application Developer Guide (look in the download section) which will give you a very good background. The main barrier you will hit is access to a development license. The licence with the demo database that Ian is recommending is geared up for using the form but not developing (there is very limited development potential on a cronus licence).