Blog

I’ve been asked too many times why I am not blogging more about Stratus, the web client for NAV developed by my company. People really want to know about it, and I am really keeping it far too silent.

Let’s change that. Instead of sending a ridiculous amount of e-mails every day, I’ll just keep you all posted through this blog.

So, where are we right now? Here’s again a small overview of developments on various fronts.

Is there a website or something?

There is now It was a long debate should we stick with the name Stratus or change it to something else. Despite all the arguments on the contrary, we have settled to go for Stratus. So, the website is available at http://www.StratusNAV.com/.

I hope the decision was right.

Can I get a test drive?

Of course. We have started the official public test-drive the moment we published our site. If you want to test it for yourself, please follow the link above, and click on the Test Drive in the main menu.

Why is it taking so long, why aren’t you already selling like crazy?

Actually, there are three reasons. First, product is still in development and we are still working on several important features.

Second, we have started several projects with customers, and we would like to have couple of tested cases before we go officially live.

Last, but not least (definitely not least!) – we have started negotiations with several telecom companies that are interested in providing Stratus as a Cloud solution for small companies. With some of them we are very close to closing the deal, with some we have done pilots for months, and later this year we expect Stratus Cloud to be available in several countries worldwide.

Are there any new features done since the last announcement?

There are several that we have been working on intensively. First, there is a change in how metadata is processed. First version depended on a transformation process, which converted NAV objects to Stratus metadata, and it was not the best thing to do. Now, Stratus connects directly to NAV metadata. This means that as soon as you change an object in NAV, it is available in Stratus. Any type of customization (new object, changed object) readily shows in web without any need to reconfigure anything.

Second major thing is personalization. Stratus now fully understands NAV personalization, and any change in personal settings is taken to Stratus. On top of this feature, we have enabled customizing the web experience without having to create new objects, or do any development—you simply log in as a dedicated Stratus role, then configure the user interface for web, using the most familiar tool of all: the RoleTailored Client itself.

We have also enabled the UI interaction by C/AL calls which are normally unavailable in web services (any UI code, Page.Run, confirmations, messages, etc.)

There are some major other features in development, namely the reports feature, which will allow running of any kind of reports, even those with request page.

It looks cool on your server, but I’d like to test it on my server. Can I?

Yes. Within a couple of weeks, we are going to open the public beta program, and you will be allowed to sign up for it. It will give you the access to installation files, and you’ll be able to deploy Stratus in your own environment and test it with your database, customers, add-ons, etc.

The only catch will be that during beta program you will be obliged to provide feedback on bugs, missing features, etc. Please stay tuned.