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Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application


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Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application : by More by Boris Makushkin
Added on Saturday Dec 20th, 2003
Author HyperLink : Not Available
Computer Industry
Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application More Computer Industry Articles Navision Attain Database access via C/ODBC in ASP.NET Application
Author: Boris Makushkin
Date Added: Monday Dec 20th, 2004
Category: Computer Industry Navision Software was
purchased by Microsoft and now it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions
together with Microsoft Great Plains, Axapta, Solomon, Microsoft Retail
Management System and Microsoft CRM.  Navision has extremely strong position on
mid-size European and US markets, plus it has excellent manufacturing solution. 
Our goal is to help IT departments to support and tune Navision with in-house
expertise and skills.


The topic of this
article is Navision database access from ASP.NET application via C/ODBC
interface.  Our goal will be ASPX page accessing Navision Customers.


 


Let’s begin




In our case we will use Navision Attain 3.6
with Navision Database Server, Navision Application Server and Navision
Client.  These components are installed on Windows XP.  You also need to
install C/ODBC component form Navision Attain CD.

Let’s create ODBC DSN for Navision data
access.  Select Control Panel -> Administrative Tools
-> Data Sources (ODBC).  Then select System DSN tab and press
Add button.  We’ll use C/ODBC 32-bit data access driver.  We’ll name
Data Source Name Navision, Connection leave Local.  As
the database (Database button) select Program FilesNavision
AttainClientdatabase.fdb (demo database).  Then click Company
button – we’ll use CRONUS demo company.  It is important for C/SIDE correct
database access to setup proper options for C/ODBC connection.  Press
Options button and look at the options available – we’ll need
Identifiers parameter – it defines identifiers types, which will be
transferred to the client application.  In order to work correct with MS SQL
Server 2000 with C/ODBC source we need to use these type: “a-z,A-Z,0-9,_”.
 Now
DNS
is
done. 
Let’s
create
Linked
Server.

Open
MS
SQL
Server
Enterprise
Manager. 
Open server tree for the server,
which you plan to use, for this server open Security folder and Lined
Servers.  With right click select New Linked Server in context menu.  In the
dialog box opened in the Provider Name select Microsoft
OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers.  Let’s name our Linked Server
NAVISION.  In Data Source  string enter ODBC DSN name -
 NAVISION in our case.  Linked Server is ready!  Let’s select
tables list and look at the data from Navision Attain database.

Next we need to create small stored
procedure for sales data selection.  Here
is
the
text
of
the
procedure:


SET
ANSI_NULLS ON



SET
ANSI_WARNINGS ON



GO



 



CREATE
PROCEDURE NavisionCustomers AS



 



DBCC
TRACEON(8765)



SELECT
No_, Name, Address, City, Contact FROM OPENQUERY(NAVISION, 'SELECT * FROM
Customer')



 



RETURN




 



Let’s clarify some points here.
 TRACEON(8765) directive allows us to work with the data of variable length,
returned by C/ODBC driver.  Without it we can not select Navision tables fields
– we will have these errors:



 



OLE DB
error trace [Non-interface error:  Unexpected data length returned for the
column:  ProviderName='MSDASQL', TableName='[MSDASQL]', ColumnName='Ship_to_Filter',
ExpectedLength='250', ReturnedLength='1'].



Server:
Msg 7347, Level 16, State 1, Line 1



OLE DB
provider 'MSDASQL' returned an unexpected data length for the fixed-length
column '[MSDASQL].Ship_to_Filter'. The expected data length is 250, while the
returned data length is 1.



 



OPENQUERY command opens linked server and
gives it execution request, and returns record set selected.   Directives
ANSI_NULLS and ANSI_WARNINGS  are required – they provide the possibility of the
execution for heterogeneous requests.  To test the procedure you can give its
name in MS SQL Query Analyzer – EXEC NavisionCustomers




Now we need to create ASP.NET application.
 Let’s use free RAD environment ASP.NET WebMatrix.  You can get infor and
download it at

http://asp.net/webmatrix
.  You
need
.NET
SDK
1.1 installed, before WebMatrix
installation.

Launch WebMatrix, select creation of the
Data Pages -> Editable Data Grid in the wizard
screen.  Let’s keep all the defaults suggested.  On the access page created
we’ll change the header to Navision Attain Customers, select Verdana
font and the font size desired.  Next place on the page the component
SqlDataSourceControl and tune it’s – Connection String :
server='(local)'; database='Alba';trusted_connection=true (change server and
database name to your actual names), and SelectCommand – as EXEC
NavisionCustomers

For our Data Grid, which will show
customers, define DataSource as SqlDataSourceControl1, and
DatKeyField – as No_

Next switch to code edition mode and make
these changes:


In the DataGrid_Delete
method let’s correct the request for the customer deletion to the one we
need

Change DataGrid_Delete
code, base on the fields we plan to use



Launch our application and test it.  This
is
it!


 


Happy customizing,
implementing and modifying! If you want us to do the job - give us a call
1-866-528-0577 or 1-630-961-5918!


help@albaspectrum.com


 


Boris Makushkin is Lead
Software Developer in

Alba Spectrum Technologies
– USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company,
serving Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas,
Atlanta, Miami, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Moscow, Europe and internationally
(
http://www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Microsoft CRM SDK, Navision, C#, VB.Net,
SQL, Oracle, Unix developer.




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