Integrating Microsoft Dynamics NAV in SharePoint Sites

Article
06/05/2016

You can set up Dynamics NAV to be available as an app for SharePoint. This means that Dynamics NAV data can be shown in a SharePoint site, and that you can modify the data on the SharePoint site through the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client.

You can deploy Dynamics NAV as an app for SharePoint Online and SharePoint on-premises.

SharePoint and Dynamics NAV

If you set up a SharePoint site, you can add Dynamics NAV as an app to the site so that the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client opens when the user chooses an icon. Then, you can add web parts that show Dynamics NAV data, such as a list of sales invoices with overdue payments. Users can drill down into the data and the web parts will open the relevant page in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client when the user chooses an icon or a link.

For example, if you provide financial services to several subscribers, you want your subscribers to be able to see their data in a SharePoint site. In that case, you can create separate subsites for each subscriber so that they have access to only their data. Their data is stored in dedicated business databases, because you have deployed your Dynamics NAV solution in a multitenant deployment architecture. You add Dynamics NAV as an app so that users can open the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client when they choose an icon, and they are signed in to Dynamics NAV automatically. Then, you add parts to show the subscriber’s list of unpaid sales invoices, or a chart that reflects top sales. When the user chooses the list of unpaid sales invoices, the underlying page from Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client opens as a seamless part of the SharePoint site. The user can filter and modify the data without having to sign in to a new site.

Warning

The users' access to Dynamics NAV is not restricted to the page that you expose in SharePoint. You must assign the relevant permissions to each user in Dynamics NAV.

You can set up a site collection with a site for each subscriber to your services, or you can set up a single site with general information. In this scenario, your Dynamics NAV implementation is most likely to be a multitenant deployment with a tenant for each of your subscribers. But you can choose other deployment scenarios, such as using Dynamics NAV companies in shared databases for your subscribers. Similarly, you can deploy Dynamics NAV as an app for SharePoint that is used internally exclusively by users in your own organization. In general, the configuration of the app and how Dynamics NAV and SharePoint interact are the same in both scenarios.

Deploying Dynamics NAV for Integration with SharePoint

To integrate with SharePoint, you must have a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server and Dynamics NAV Web Server instance. These components can be deployed on-premise or on a cloud service, such as Microsoft Azure.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance that you want your app for SharePoint to access must be configured for multitenancy and configured with AccessControlService as the credential type. For more information, see Authenticating Users with Azure Active Directory.
The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Server components instance that you want to use for your app for SharePoint must be configured to be able to run in the SharePoint site. The default configuration prevents the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client from running inside an iframe in an external website. If you want to show Dynamics NAV data in app parts, you must remove the X-FRAME-OPTIONS setting in the web.config file. For more information, see Embedding the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Client in a Website on Another Web Server.

The Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Server components instance must be configured to use secure authentication and SSL. For more information, see How to: Configure SSL to Secure the Connection to Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Client.
Each user who will access Dynamics NAV from your app for SharePoint must be set up in Dynamics NAV. For example, create the users with Windows authentication or with user name/password authentication, depending on your deployment scenario. But you must also specify an authentication email address on the Microsoft 365 Authentication FastTab in the User Card window. The authentication email address must be the same account that the users log on to Microsoft 365 or SharePoint Online with. If you set up this account in your Microsoft Azure AD tenant, you achieve a deeper integration between SharePoint and Dynamics NAV. By creating the users of the SharePoint site as users in Dynamics NAV with this authentication email address, they achieve single sign-on when they access Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client from the SharePoint site, for example. For more information, see How to: Create Microsoft Dynamics NAV Users.
Upcoming releases of some browsers, such as Google Chrome 80 and Microsoft Edge, will include changes to how cookies are handled. To ensure that the SharePoint app works with these browser versions, make sure that the Dynamics NAV platform has been upgraded to a recommended update version as described in Preparing Dynamics NAV or Dynamics 365 Business Central for Upcoming Changes to Browser Cookie Policy.

Building an App for SharePoint

In order to add Dynamics NAV as an app to a SharePoint site, you must create a provider-hosted app for SharePoint in Visual Studio. This includes configuring an appManifest.xml file, so that the app can be added to a site. The app manifest describes metadata such as the title, the publisher, and the URL of start page for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client so that the app will open the relevant Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client address. Also, you can add one or more client web parts for the Dynamics NAV pages that you want to show on the SharePoint site. You can choose to use an already existing page, or you can create specific pages that are only used for SharePoint. For example, you can create a part that is based on page ID 9305, Sales Order List. Then, you deploy the app to your SharePoint site, and you add the part as an app part that will show the page in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client as a list of sales orders without navigation elements. The list resembles any other list in SharePoint, but it is the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client, and the data is current. For more information, see Embedding Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Client Pages in Other Websites and Developing and Installing a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Apps for SharePoint.

Apps for SharePoint and Multitenant Deployments of Dynamics NAV

You can deploy Dynamics NAV in a multitenant deployment architecture. When you create an app for SharePoint that will access the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client, you must decide if you want to deploy the app for a specific tenant, or if the app can be used by all tenants that are mounted against a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instance. Then, in the app manifest for the app, you include a tenant parameter in start page URL according to the following:

If you want the app to apply to a specific tenant only, then set the tenant parameter to the tenant ID, such as https://www.solutions.com/DynamicsNAV/?tenant=tenant1 or https://www.solutions.com/DynamicsNAV/WebClient/?tenant=tenant1* (for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 and earlier versions). In this example, the tenant ID is tenant1. The value of the tenant parameter must be included in tenants list of alternative IDs.

Alternatively, if you have configured the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Server components to accept host names, you can specify the host name in the URL in the app manifest. For more information, see How to: Configure the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client to Accept Host Names for Tenants.
If you want the app to apply to all tenants, then set the tenant parameter to {HostUrl}, such as https://www.solutions.com/DynamicsNAV/?tenant={HostUrl} or https://www.solutions.com/DynamicsNAV/WebClient/?tenant={HostUrl}(for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 and earlier versions).

When the app accesses the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client, HostUrl is automatically replaced by the SharePoint site address where the app is installed. Because the SharePoint site is tenant-specific, this parameter identifies the tenant.

You must include all SharePoint site addresses that can access a tenant in the tenant's list of alternative IDs.

Note

For more information about how to set alternate IDs for tenants, see How to: Mount or Dismount a Tenant on a Microsoft Dynamics Server Instance.

Installing Dynamics NAV as an App

When you have built your app for SharePoint in Visual Studio, you must publish it in order to create the deployment package. Depending on your scenario, you can deploy the app to SharePoint in different ways.

For example, you can publish the app to the SharePoint store so that it is accessible for others to install on their SharePoint sites.

If you want to install the app only on your own SharePoint sites, you can upload it to your SharePoint app catalog from where you can install it to the relevant SharePoint sites. For example, if you have a SharePoint site collection with a site that is used internally and a site that is publicly available. Then, you can add different parts to the two sites, such as a read-only part on the public site, and an editable part on the internal site. For more information, see Developing and Installing a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Apps for SharePoint.