Locking and Unlocking Objects– Auto-Lock on Design

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2, you can lock an object in Object Designer using Lock option. Along with Lock we have other options like Unlock and Force Unlock.

Along with these features you can automatically lock an object while opening the object in design mode.

This option is available in the Tools->Options->Auto-Lock on Design.

Even though you can lock objects, it is still possible for developers to have concurrency issues, as shown in the following examples.

• A developer opens an object in the designer but does not lock it. The developer makes several changes to the object and saves the changes periodically. At the same time, a second developer locks the object, and the first developer cannot save design changes to the object. The first developer gets an error message that the object is locked by the second developer.
• A developer locks an object. A second developer opens the locked object in read-only mode, and then the first developer unlocks the object. The second developer still cannot save design changes to the object even though the object is now unlocked because it is open in read-only mode.

System Indicator–Dynamics NAV 2009 R2

Till now all NAV users including developers or end users felt little difficult to identify the different instances of NAV. Now we have a solution called system indicator in NAV 2009 R2 release to differentiate different instances like production environment and test environment.

Once you setup the system indicator in the company information, you can see the indicator text in the top right side of each page in the Role Tailored Client…Cool…

NOTE: Refer GetSystemIndicator function in the Codeunit 1 ApplicationManagement.

What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 R2

MSDN is updated with the latest help related to NAV 2009 R2 Application updates and Developer updates.

Please click the link and get updated with the latest stuff.

Book Review–Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 Programming Cookbook

Intended Audience:

This book seems to more appropriate for people who already have experience with Dynamics NAV and may want to review or have a quick overview of the basics.

I believe that a person with some programming background can also use this as a quick jump start to be able to be able to work on Dynamics NAV.

Content/ Information:

The content of the book is appropriate as per the title. The author has given appropriate technical information to convince the reader. By appropriate information I mean to say that the only specific (more frequently used) information is provided with reference to standard Dynamics NAV coding (wherever necessary).

The sections “How it works” and “There is more”, are really helpful as they are short and to the point.

The author’s style of writing is more informal, without compromising the quality. I really appreciate this style, because I believe the intended audience of this book would rather like to quickly review or update themselves with the content rather than spend time on formal and lengthy notations.

Overall the style completely suits the intended audience.

How did the book affect me?

I really liked the book from Chapter 6 onwards. Because this book has touched the areas in Dynamics NAV which a developer would like to precisely go through. The topics covered under Chapter 6 to Chapter 12 are really interactive and at the same time some parts of it can be used like tips and tricks.

Usually these topics are not covered together and have to be search for and more over the explanations are too lengthy. I believe that these topics are very useful and can be quickly reviewed whenever required with less complexity.

How well the book has achieved its goal?

The book achieves its goal, to be a “cookbook” ! It is precise and to the point. So no complaints, but I would like to place some of my concerns especially in earlier chapters:

• I would have liked if more functions and data types were covered in Chapter 1, as many a times it mentions us to refer to C/SIDE reference guide for other/ similar kind of functions/data types.
• The book gives appropriate examples, but forgets to mention the syntax. Nothing major but I think it would help people (especially new to Dynamics NAV) more.

Overall the books do achieves its goal. Here is a quick link to this book.

Book Review - Microsoft Dynamics NAV Administration

This is a helpful book for the beginners to get good idea on the following concepts:
                Installing Dynamics NAV and its components.
                Securing Dynamics NAV applications.
                Backup and Restore options.
                Performance Tuning.
                Reporting Dynamics NAV.
But the major chapters explained here are more or less available in different formats like MSDN and other Microsoft standard materials.
It would be good if the book covers more on Application Virtualization.
Overall I see this book as a very good guide to learn install, configure, deploy and administer Dynamics NAV.