Development

How to replace DotNet in AL

  • Reading time:7 mins read

A lot of us still have a ton of C/AL code sitting around in existing databases that sooner or later will have to be moved into AL. A lot of us also have a ton of AL code using DotNet that we want to be able to run in Microsoft’s cloud (that is: not on-prem). And I guess most of us don’t want to maintain a DotNet-less and DotNet-ful versions of our code.

Sooner or later, you’ll want all of DotNet out of your AL. Even if you are a seasoned .NET developer, you’ll want all DotNet out of AL.

Anyway, when you need to replace DotNet, what options do you have? Let’s take a look at all possible paths.

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Invoking Azure Functions from AL recording available

  • Reading time:1 min read

The “Invoking Azure Functions from AL using Visual Studio Code” webinar is over, and it was a pleasure delivering it for you, folks. There were 350+ people registered for it, and over 200+ people attended it. With those kinds of stats, who wouldn’t want to deliver more of these?

So, I can promise to prepare a couple of more Azure Functions from AL seminars, covering different kinds of topics, including handling binary data, XML, advanced JSON, and similar. Stay tuned.

In the meanwhile, if you didn’t have a chance to watch the session today in prime time, you can access it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp13-nfVoEg&feature=youtu.be

Thanks to Mark and folks at NAV-Skills and Liberty Grove for making this possible.

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Invoking Azure Functions from AL

  • Reading time:5 mins read

One elegant way of replacing your .NET interoperability code with something else is by using Azure Functions. Sounds good in theory, but what does it take in practice? And what are Azure Functions, anyway?

Let me not take too much latitude, and let me just say that Azure Functions are a way of running simple pieces of code as a service that you can invoke like any other RESTful web services. And of course, they run in Azure. To learn more about them, follow this link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-functions/functions-overview

Creating them is as simple, as invoking them, so let’s get started with an extremely simple demo that will illustrate how amazingly powerful they are, and why they are a perfect solution for replacing your .NET code with something better.

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State of .NET Affairs

  • Reading time:17 mins read

I said a word or two about progress last week. Apparently, VS Code is not the only place where we take a small step back to be able to make a huge leap forward; .NET might seem like another one.

You know it, right? You know that if you want to run your .NET code in D365 for Financials, you are out of luck, and you do know that this applies to as much to Microsoft .NET Framework out-of-the-box types as it does to your own, custom-built .NET assemblies. If you don’t know that yet, then let me bring you up to date: In your D365 apps built on Extensions “v2” technology, you won’t be able to use anything .NET; you simply won’t be able to compile AL code that includes a DotNet variable declaration.

This is neither fake news, nor is it news per se. It has been known at least since October last year when Microsoft first presented AL Language extension for VS Code during Directions US in Phoenix. Soon after the VS Code session there was a round table (in all honesty, I have never seen a table, let alone a round one, at any of round table sessions at any conference) on the topic of .NET future, and the mood was grim. At first everyone thought it was a bad joke, then all held hopes high that Microsoft is simply “feeling the pulse” to see how the channel would react to such a disturbing change. But soon it became obvious that .NET interoperability is on its way to be gently ushered out of the (relevant) technology stack of NAV and that we should start getting ready for the day when it’s not there anymore.

So, what is the current state of .NET in NAV, what is the future of it, and what can you do about it?

Let’s take them one by one.

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Is Visual Studio Code really an improvement

  • Reading time:8 mins read

Progress often doesn’t look like progress at all when it first arrives.

When on July 3, 1886, Daimler Benz presented his first car, it had a 0.75 horse-power engine that could reach a top speed of 16 km/h. It was able to cover 45 km on a single fuel tank, and it could only take two passengers. Compared to best horse-driven carriages of the day, especially taking the availability of stuff you could use as fuel, this was hardly a progress. Horse-driven carriages bested this car on all fronts, and by large margins.

Imagine what the world would look like today should Daimler Benz heeded the naysayers and mockers of his day, and they were not in short supply.

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Sorting out the DLL hell, Part 2: The Solution

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Deploying .NET assemblies to clients and servers in need is no simple affair. In my last post I have explained the problem, and announced the solution.

As promised, in this post I bring you the solution.

To be fully honest, this post only brings the conceptual solution, just a little brain game for you to train your .NET brain muscles a bit. The actual code I’ll deliver in the next post.

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What’s New in NAV 2016: Code Editor

  • Reading time:4 mins read

Three years ago I was doing a presentation about something or other about NAV at a non-NAV conference. That’s in front of normal developers. And you can imagine what their impression was of the state of the technology when, in front of a couple of hundred mostly C# developer, I opened the C/AL editor.

I don’t need to be concerned about that anymore, because Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 comes with a new code editor, which comes with a number of features the whole NAV community way hoping for since I remember. And I started forgetting a long time ago.

Namely, we now have:

  • Proper syntax highlighting
  • Line numbers
  • Change indicators
  • Auto-complete intellisense style. Ish.
  • Syntax tooltips
  • And – hold your seats! – undo!
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Server Extensibility Demos

  • Reading time:1 min read

Yesterday, as a part of Microsoft’s Road To Repeatability program, I delivered a live meeting session about server extensibility in NAV in which I focused on certain areas of .NET Interoperability and Web Services that in my opinion align well with the R2R message.

As promised, here are the materials from the presentation:

I provide this as-is, with no comments, documentation or anything – you are free to use any of these materials in your projects, and I welcome your questions here about presentation content and demos. I’ll do my best to answer them on my earliest convenience.

I hope you enjoyed the presentation yesterday (if you were attending) and that you find these materials useful.

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The “Life Hack” from today’s Session

  • Reading time:1 min read

And yes, I almost forgot… Somebody (sorry, I didn’t catch the name) asked me to put my life hack on the blog as well, so here it is. For all of you who were not there, I use this as a template for declaring .NET variables – until Microsoft provides means to declare them in a simpler ways. Inline, anyone?

So – download the life hack, or cheat sheet, here: https://vjeko.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Life_Hack_No_1.docx

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DEmos from the .NET Interop for Mere Mortals

  • Reading time:1 min read

Thanks to everybody who attended my session today at NAV TechDays 2014 in Antwerp. As promised, here are the goodies from the session. I’ve simply taken the objects and I deliver them here with no explanations or comments – when Luc publishes the sessions and the slide decks on Mibuso, you’ll be able to figure out what’s what. I hope you don’t mind.

I’ve also included my demo from the PRS session today, about the Service Locator pattern. The ZIP file does not include the Visual Studio solution – you can find it in my previous post, that I’ve put here yesterday.

I hope you find these examples useful and that they help you get started with .NET Interop quickly.

Download the files here: https://vjeko.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/NAVTechDays2014.MereMortals.zip.

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