(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

Microsoft announced a three-tier RoleTailored client (RTC) with Version 2009. As from Version 2013, Microsoft offers only three-tier RTC with NAV. In RTC, the object of type “FORM” is replaced by “PAGE”. Pages provide the core way to interact with an NAV RoleTailored client. The business logic called by the page is executed on the NAV Server tier, whereas previously, the form was used by the client system to execute the business logic.

A page and form share lots of similarities in terms of properties, triggers, and controls. Some controls and features are reintroduced with a new presentation style and name. For example, “buttons” become “actions”, “Tab Control” becomes “FastTabs”, and “Zoom” is known as “About this Page”. The following screenshot will help you to understand new naming conventions of page controls:

The preceding screenshot is of the Role Center page for the Sales Order Processor profile. With NAV 2013, we received 21 profiles and 21 Role Center pages, designed considering each profile work area. The following screenshot also gives additional information about the same profile:

Updating the subform page from a parent page

The subform page only reloads data when it knows it needs to. Unfortunately, it is not very smart. This recipe will show you how to force a subform page to refresh itself.

How to do it…

1. Create a new page from Object Designer.
2. Choose the Create Blank Page option to design a page from scratch.
3. Add the following global variables to the page:
   

   Name	Type
   A	Integer
   B	Integer

4. Next, add a global function called SetValues.
5. Add the following parameters to the function:
   

   Name	Type
   Aparam	Integer
   Bparam	Integer

6. Now add the following code to the function.

   A := Aparam;
   B := Bparam;

7. Add another global function called UpdateSelf.
8. Then add the following code to the function:

   CurrPage.UPDATE;

9. From the Page Designer window, set the following page property (Shift+ F4):
   

   Property	Value
   PageType	CardPart

10. Add the following variables in the Page Designer window:
    

    Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name
    Container	ContentArea		MainContainer
    Group	Group		MainGroup
    Field		A+B	Sum of A & B

11. After the previous configuration and coding, Page Designer will look similar to the following screenshot:

    

12. Save and close the page (for later use, remember the ID it is saved under).
13. Now let’s create another new page using Object Designer.
14. Then add the following global variables:
    

    Name	Type
    A	Integer
    B	Integer

15. Later, add the following variables in the Page Designer window:
    

    Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name
    Container	ContentArea		MainContainer
    Group	Group		MainGroup
    Field		A	Value For A
    Field		B	Value For B
    Part	Page		ChildPage

16. Make sure all controls are indented under Container as shown in the following screenshot:

    

17. Next, in the OnValidate trigger for each field, add the following code:

    CurrPage.ChildPage.PAGE.SetValues(A,B);
    CurrPage.ChildPage.PAGE.UpdateSelf;

18. In the next row, add the value Part for the column Type, and for the column SubType add value as Page.
19. Set the following properties for the Part section (Shift+ F4):
    

    Property	Value
    Name	ChildPage
    PagePartID	The ID of the page you just created

20. Finally save and close the page.
21. On execution of the page, you will see a window similar to the following screenshot:

    

How it works…

To understand the concepts behind this recipe, we will use the following figure:

The main page knows only about things that are directly on itself, that is, two integer variables and a subform page. The main page can request the subform page to return some values and can also tell the subform page to set values if it needs to, but it cannot do it directly. The subform page can only be of type CardPart or ListPart.

Also, the subform page knows only about things that are on its own page. These include the two integer variables (completely different than the two integer variables on the main page), the SetValues function, and the UpdateSelf function. While the main page can request information from the subform page, the opposite does not hold true. The subform page knows nothing about the main page.

That explains why we add code where we do. For the subform page to display the sum of A and B, we have to tell it what the values of A and B are. Remember that just changing the values on the main page is not enough. That’s why we have the SetValues function. We call this function every time the values are changed (OnValidate) in the main form.

That again is not enough, though. Just because the values have changed in the subform page, it doesn’t mean the subform page is smart enough to understand that it must display the new information. Ordinarily, you would have to click on the subform page (or select it; you can do anything that makes it the active control on the page) for it to refresh. You can also do this with code, using the CurrPage.UPDATE command.

Creating a FactBox page

In RTC, we can see small boxes on the right-hand side of the pages, which display brief information about the current record. To maintain the standard NAV GUI in customized pages, it is suggested to add FactBox related to the pages. In this recipe, we will create a FactBox page based on Item table and add it on the default Item List page.

How to do it…

1. Create a new page from Object Designer.
2. Leave the Table Name field blank and choose the Create Blank Page option to design a page from scratch.
3. From the Page Designer window, set the following page properties (Shift+ F4):
   

   Property	Value
   PageType	CardPart
   SourceTable	Item

4. Add the following variables in the Page Designer window:
   

   Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name
   Container	ContentArea		MainContainer
   Field		“No.”	<No.>
   Field		Description	<Description>
   Field		Inventory	<Inventory>

5. The indented Page Designer window will look similar to the following screenshot:

   

6. Save and close the page (for later use, remember the ID it is saved under).
7. Choose page 31(Item List) in Object Designer and click on the Design button.
8. At the end of Page Designer, under FactBoxArea, add a new Part of type Page.
9. Now set the following properties for Part (Shift+ F4):
   

   Property	Value
   PagePartID	The ID of the page you just created
   SubPageLink	No.=FIELD(No.)

10. To adjust the sequence of FactBoxes, use the up and down arrow buttons.

    

11. Save, close, and run the page. You should find your FactBox in the Item List page.

    

How it works…

FactBox is nothing but a subform page; that’s why the page type has to be a CardPart or ListPart page. We have created our page based on the Item table with three simple fields. As we are assigning the Inventory field directly to a control, even though it is of type flowfield, we do not need to explicitly calculate it using CALCFIELD.

To use our new subform page as FactBox, it’s important to add it under a container of type FactBoxArea. To set the first position (by default), we used indentation buttons. Users can use the personalization functionality of RTC and rearrange the position of FactBox as per their convenience.

To associate the FactBox data with the main page’s record, we need to set up the relation between the main page and the FactBox page. To achieve this, we used the SubPageLink property. If we do not set this property, we will see that of all the item records, FactBox displays information of only the first record.

There’s more…

Microsoft suggests using the word “FactBox” as a suffix for all the FactBox pages. It will help to identify these pages easily.

See also

• Creating a Queue page
• Creating a Role Center page

Creating a Queue page

The Queue page is a part of the Role Center page. This recipe will help us to create a Queue page, which we will be utilizing in our next recipe, Creating a Role Center page.

How to do it…

1. Create a new blank page from Object Designer.
2. Set the properties of the page as follows:
   

   Property	Value
   Caption	Activities
   PageType	CardPart
   SourceTable	Sales Cue

3. Add the following variables in the Page Designer window:
   

   Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name	Caption
   Container	ContentArea		MainContainer	<MainContainer>
   Group	CueGroup		ForReleaseGroup	For Release
   Field		“Sales Quotes – Open”	OpenQuotes	Open Sales Quotes
   Field		“Sales Orders – Open”	OpenOrders	Open Sales Orders

4. Set the following property in the OpenQuotes line:
   

   Property	Value
   DrillDownPageID	Sales Quotes

5. Set the following property in the OpenOrders line:
   

   Property	Value
   DrillDownPageID	Sales List

6. After the previous configuration and coding, our page should look similar to the following screenshot:

   

7. Keep the cursor on the ForReleaseGroup line and navigate to View | Control Actions.
8. Then add the following variables:
   

   Type	Name	Caption
   Action	Action1	New Sales Quote
   Action	Action2	New Sales Order

9. Set the following property in the New Sales Quote line:
   

   Property	Value
   RunObject	Page Sales Quotes

10. Set the following property in the New Sales Order line:
    

    Property	Value
    RunObject	Page Sales Order

11. Compile, save, and close the page.
12. When you run the page, you will see a window similar to the following screenshot:

    

How it works…

The first part of the Role Center is known as activities. This is where the users look to know what actions they need to perform. The activities are built on top of special tables known as cues. These cue tables are made mostly of FlowFields and FlowFilters. We are going to build our activities part on the Sales Cue table. It should display any Open Sales documents we are working on.

By adding the Group line to our page and specifying SubType as CueGroup, we tell the RTC to display the fields indented beneath it in a specific way. Activities are displayed as stacks of paper that grow and shrink based on the numbers returned by the FlowFields in the cue table. Additionally, in order to provide the same type of data access that you would gain on a form, we specify DrillDownFormID for each of the fields or activities. We can also define actions on our group lines. In this example we have created simple links to create new sales quotes and sales orders.

See also

• Creating a FactBox page
• Creating a Role Center page
• Adding a chart to the page

Creating a Role Center page

The Role Center is like a dashboard that displays data and functionality related to a specific user role. This recipe will show you how to create a Role Center page for the new RTC.

How to do it…

1. Create a new page from Object Designer.
2. Set the properties of the page as follows:
   

   Property	Value
   PageType	RoleCenter

3. Add the following variables in the Page Designer window:
   

   Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name
   Container	RoleCenterArea		Content
   Group	Group		LeftSide
   Part	Page		Activities
   Part	System		Outlook
   Group	Group		RightSide
   Part	Page		MyCustomers
   Part	Page		MyItems
   Part	System		MyNotes

4. All of the previous lines should be indented as shown in the following screenshot:

   

5. Now set the following properties in the Activities line
   

   Property	Value
   PartType	Page
   PagePartID	The Queue ID of the Activities page that we created in the previous recipe

6. Then set the following properties in the Outlook line:
   

   Property	Value
   PartType	System
   SystemPartID	Outlook

7. Set the following properties in the MyCustomers line:
   

   Property	Value
   PartType	Page
   PagePartID	My Customers

8. Set the following properties in the MyItems line:
   

   Property	Value
   PartType	Page
   PagePartID	My Items

9. Set the following properties in the MyNotes line:
   

   Property	Value
   PartType	System
   SystemPartID	Notes

10. Compile, save, and close the page. The resulting Role Center should look similar to the one shown in the following screenshot:

    

How it works…

We begin with a container, but this time we set the SubType field to RoleCenterArea. This essentially divides the page vertically into a left and right section. We add groups for each of these sections and then choose what to display.

Deciding what to display is fairly straightforward. Instead of adding fields to our group, we add parts. First we choose what type of part will be shown. For our activities, this will be a Page object, so we set the PartType property to Page and PagePartID to the object ID of the page. Directly beneath that part, we are displaying the built-in Outlook part. For this, we set the PartType property to System, because it comes with NAV, and the SystemPartID property to Outlook. The right-hand side is made up of similar parts.

For more details on the PartType option, visit the following URL:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd355029(v=nav.70).aspx

See also

• Creating a FactBox page
• Creating a Queue page

Creating a wizard page

A wizard is a page that takes you through specific sections using the Next and Back buttons. Here we will show you how to design a page that will do exactly that.

How to do it…

1. Create a new blank page from Object Designer.
2. Set the properties of the page as follows:
   

   Property	Value
   PageType	NavigatePage

3. Create the following global variables:
   

   Name	Type	Length
   FullName	Text	200
   Address	Text	200
   DateofBirth	Date
   ContactNo	Text	30
   BackEnable	Boolean
   NextEnable	Boolean
   FinishEnable	Boolean
   Step1Visible	Boolean
   Step2Visible	Boolean
   Step3Visible	Boolean
   Step4Visible	Boolean

4. Add the following variables in Page Designer:
   

   Type	SubType	SourceExpr	Name
   Container	ContentArea		Content
   Group	Group		Step1
   Field		FullName	Enter Your Full Name
   Group	Group		Step2
   Field		Address	Enter Your Present Address
   Group	Group		Step3
   Field		DateofBirth	Enter Your Date of Birth
   Group	Group		Step4
   Field		ContactNo	Enter Your Contact no.

5. They should be indented as shown in the following screenshot:

   

6. Select Group and Step1 and set the Enable property with a value Step1Visible.
7. Select Group and Step2 and set the Enable property with a value Step2Visible.
8. Select Group and Step3 and set the Enable property with a value Step3Visible.
9. Select Group and Step4 and set the Enable property with a value Step4Visible.
10. Then navigate to View | Page Actions (Ctrl+ Alt+ F4) to add actions on the page.
11. In Action Designer, add the following variables:
    

    Type	Name	Caption
    Action	Action1	&Back
    Action	Action2	&Next
    Action	Action3	&Finish

12. Set the following properties for Action1:
    

    Property	Value
    Enabled	BackEnable
    Image	PreviousRecord
    InFooterBar	Yes

13. Set the following properties for Action2:
    

    Property	Value
    Enabled	NextEnable
    Image	NextRecord
    InFooterBar	Yes

14. Set the following properties for Action3:
    

    Property	Value
    Enabled	FinishEnable
    Image	Approve
    InFooterBar	Yes

15. Add this code on the action trigger of Action1:

    DoStep(CurrentStep-1);
    CurrPage.UPDATE;

16. Add this code on the action trigger of Action2 and Action3:

    DoStep(CurrentStep+1);
    CurrPage.UPDATE;

17. Next, create a new function DoStep.
18. Add the following parameters to the function:
    

    Name	Type
    Step	Integer

19. Add the following code to the function:

    CurrentStep:=Step;
    CASE Step OF
    1:
    BEGIN
    Step1Visible:=TRUE;
    Step2Visible:=FALSE;
    BackEnable := FALSE;
    NextEnable := TRUE;
    FinishEnable := FALSE;
    END;
    2:
    BEGIN
    Step2Visible:=TRUE;
    Step1Visible:=FALSE;
    Step3Visible:=FALSE;
    BackEnable := TRUE;
    NextEnable := TRUE;
    FinishEnable := FALSE;
    END;
    3:
    BEGIN
    Step3Visible:=TRUE;
    Step2Visible:=FALSE;
    Step4Visible:=FALSE;
    BackEnable := TRUE;
    NextEnable := TRUE;
    FinishEnable := FALSE;
    END;
    4:
    BEGIN
    Step4Visible:=TRUE;
    Step3Visible:=FALSE;
    BackEnable := TRUE;
    NextEnable := FALSE;
    FinishEnable := TRUE;
    END;
    5:
    BEGIN
    MESSAGE(‘%1%2%3%4’,FullName,Address,
    DateofBirth,ContactNo);
    CurrPage.CLOSE;
    END
    END;
    CurrPage.UPDATE;

20. To start with step 1, add the following code to the OnOpenPage trigger:

    DoStep(1);

21. Compile, save, and close the page.
22. When you run the page, you will see a window similar to the following screenshot:

    

How it works…

The page contains four steps, only one of which is visible at any given time. To control this, we assigned a Boolean variable to all the StepxVisible properties. To control the movement of steps, we need to control our actions. To achieve this, we added other Boolean variables to the Enable property of our actions.

Our custom function DoStep decides what should be visible and what should not. It is just a large CASE statement based on the Step variable. In the first frame, for example, we can’t move backwards to disable the Back button. We can’t finish until we get to the last frame, so the Finish button is disabled until that point.

In the Back and Next buttons, we decrement and increment the Step variable, so that the DoStep function knows what to do. To keep track of the current step, we assign a value to the global CurrentStep variable; on the back action, we subtract 1 whereas on the next action we add 1 into CurrentStep.

Summary

This article provides an overview of how to create different pages using RTC. The pages provide a core way to interact with NAV RTC.

Resources for Article :

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Further resources on this subject:

• Types of services in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 [Article]
• Overview of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 [Article]
• Microsoft Office Excel Programming Using VSTO 3.0 [Article]

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