As you know in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Dataports are not supported in the Role Tailored client. For this issue Microsoft extended XML Ports to make it possible to export also variable or fixed text files with Dataports additional to XML file format.
But are Dataports really not supported in the RT client?
Well, during a workshop the following idea was coming up:
What will happen if I design a report in and for the classic client, but I will not design sections for it? Instead sections we place DATAPORT.RUNMODAL(number) in the OnPreDataItem of the report.
(For anyone who didn’t know this scenario: if a report doesn’t have a RDLC layout a classic client session is executed)
WOW: The Dataport still works! Sure, the report request form is coming up before, but maybe for some situation this will be helpful.
(Note: it is recommended and I also prefer to use XML ports instead of workarounds in the role tailored client, but if sometimes the time becomes tight, this can be “a solution”.)
note that when the RDLC is not in the report, the RTC launches the classic client and runs the report from the classic client that is why the dataport runs.
for this to happen you have to install the RTC and classic on the users workstation. in the future the classic client will no longer be available, so this is a transitional product and you should be preparing for the future and begin moving your dataports to XMLports.
The only thing you should be really careful is to tell the people that the classic client will not available in the future. There is no statement from Microsoft about this or other changes.
So the classic client in the current versions (NAV 2009 and earlier) is supported by the maintenance support for the next 10 years. This is the only statement which you can get official from ms by access partner or customersource