Symbols demystified

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

Over the last months, I have received a lot of questions on Symbols:

  • Why does Compile-AppInNavContainer get different symbols than VS Code?
  • When I import new objects to Business Central, why don’t I get the symbols?
  • Why do I have the Assert Codeunit twice?
  • Why can’t Business Central find the Assert Codeunit?

Just to name a few.

This blog post will try to explain how symbols works and give an answer these questions, by showing some samples. Continue reading

What’s new in NavContainerHelper 0.5.0.1

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

NavContainerHelper 0.5.0.1 was released recently. Read this blog post to learn what’s new. Continue reading

Who are you following?

Update april 12th – added a few to my list – have more reading to do:-)

Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV is part of a vibrant community with a lot of very active people. Tweets, blog posts, webinars, books, github projects could easily fill up my day just trying to follow everybody who are working on our product. This blog posts lists some of the people/sites you can follow if you, like me, are passionate about Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV. Continue reading

NavContainerHelper – Certificates

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

If you haven’t read the first post about the NavContainerHelper, you should do so.

If you want to secure the communication to your container, you need to use a certificate. Continue reading

NavContainerHelper

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

What are Containers? What is Docker?

If you are new to Docker and Containers, please read this document, which describes what Containers are and what Docker is.

If you want more info, there are a lot of Channel9 videos on Containers as well

If you have problems with Docker (not NAV related), the Windows Containers Docker forum is the place you can ask questions (read the readme first). Continue reading

NAV on Docker version 0.0.4.1

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker.

Some of you might already know what lies behind this cryptic title, some of you might not care. This post describes what changed in the Generic image version 0.0.4.1, which today is the foundation of all images on the Docker hub and of course also of the generic image on the docker hub. Continue reading

Can I run NAV 2015 (and earlier) on Docker?

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

NAV on Docker is here to stay, and a lot of partners have discovered how NAV on Docker can save a lot of time in their development processes. NAV ships and maintains Docker images for all NAV versions (all CUs, all localizations) since NAV 2016RTM. One of the questions I have been asked a lot is, whether we will ship images for older versions of NAV. Continue reading

Creating workshop machines on Azure

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

During Directions US and Directions EMEA, we had to spin up approx. 2000 Azure VMs for our hands on labs.

All of these machines was deployed individually from PowerShell (multiple simultaneous jobs, but still one job=one VM) running on my Developer Machine in Lyngby. The scripts used to create these VMs has been shared with a number of partners with the same need. Continue reading

The 10 command(ment)s of Docker (NAV on Docker #6)

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

I recommend that you read this blog post before reading this.

In this blog post I will describe the 10 docker commands I use most frequently and what I use them for. The commands can be executed in a Command Prompt, PowerShell or PowerShell ISE on a machine with Docker installed. In any case, you need to be running as administrator. Continue reading

Multiple ways to run a NAV on Docker image (NAV on Docker #5)

Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

If you haven’t read this blog post, then please do so before continuing here.

A lot of examples (like the prior blog post) will use docker run to start a NAV on Docker container, but there are actually a lot of different ways to start these containers. Some of these methods will run the container locally, some will spin up the container on Azure.

In the end, what you get is NAV running somewhere and you can connect, demo, use and develop using it. Continue reading