Walkthrough: Developing a Sales Rep Role Center for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet Client

Article
09/30/2015

In this walkthrough, you will learn how to create a new Role Center for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client. Developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client occurs in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment and is not much different from developing for one of the other Microsoft Dynamics NAV clients. This walkthrough will concentrate on how to build a Role Center for a sales representative, which links to already existing page objects, but combined in a way so that it works well on the tablet.

About This Walkthrough

This walkthrough illustrates the following tasks:

Creating a Role Center page.
Adding existing pages to the Role Center.
Adding actions to pages from the Role Center.
Testing the Role Center page.

Prerequisites

To complete this walkthrough, you will need:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV installed with a developer license.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Server components.
CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database.
A supported browser. For more information, see System Requirements for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016.

Story

Simon is a partner developer working for CRONUS International Ltd. Nancy is a Sales Representative at Contoso Consulting. Simon has to build a new Role Center to support Nancy in her job. When at work, Nancy spends part of her time on the road with only her tablet available on customer visits. Nancy needs access to KPIs on the front page. She needs easy access to filter for the customers who she will visit. When at the customer site, she creates sales quotes. Simon wants to build a Role Center that can be used on a tablet and he wants to reuse as much code and as many page objects as possible.

Creating a Role Center Page

Simon starts by creating a new Role Center page using Page Designer. He starts by creating a new Role Center page, and then he will add relevant pages to the Role Center.

To create a Role Center Page

In the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment, on the Tools menu, choose Object Designer.
In Object Designer, choose Page, and then choose New. The New Page window opens.
Choose Create a page using a wizard, choose RoleCenter, and then choose the OK button.
On the first line, in the Name field, type RoleCenterContainer.
On the File menu, choose Save. Set Name to Sales Rep Role Center, and set ID to 50006. Choose the OK button.

Adding Pages to the Role Center

Simon wants to add already existing pages to help Nancy access activities, customers, and charts to the Role Center that he just created.

To add pages to the role center

In the development environment, choose Object Designer, and then choose the Role Center you created in the previous steps.
In Page Designer, on the first empty line, set the Type field to Group.
On the next line, set the Type field to Part, and set the SubType to Page.
On the View menu, choose Properties.
In the PagePartID property, use the Page List window to choose the Mini Activities page (1310).
In the same way add a new line of the SubTypePage, which points to the My Customers (9150) page in the PagePartID property.
On the next line, set the Type field to Group.
Then, on the next line, set the Type field to Part, and set the SubType to Page.
In the PagePartID property, use the Page List window to choose the Mini Generic Chart page (1390).
Add another new line of the SubTypePage, which points to the Mini Trial Balance (1393) page in the PagePartID property.
Close Page Designer, and choose Yes to save and compile the Sales Rep Role Center page.

Adding Actions to the Role Center

With the pages in place on the content area of the Role Center, Simon now adds actions that link to other pages, which Nancy uses in her daily work on the tablet. He adds the Sales Quote as an action item available from the action pane in the New group, the Customer and Item lists as Home items, which, on Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client will display in the navigation pane.

To add actions to the role center

In the development environment, choose Object Designer, and then choose the Role Center you created in the previous steps.
On the View menu, choose Page Actions.
In the Type field, choose ActionContainer.
In the SubType field, choose ActionItems.
On the next new line, in the Type field, choose ActionGroup and in the Caption property, enter New.
On the next line, in the Type field, choose Action.
In the Name property, enter Page Mini Sales Quote.
In the RunObject property, choose Page Mini Sales Quote (1324).
In the RunPageMode property, choose Create.
In the Image property, choose the Quote image.
In the Promoted property, choose Yes.

The following table shows all of the actions you should have, including the one that you created during steps 1 through 11. Create the next actions following steps 6 through 11.

Type	SubType	Name	Properties
ActionContainer	ActionItems	(default)	(default)
ActionGroup	none	(default)	Set Caption to New
Action	none	<Page Mini Sales Quote>	Set RunPageMode to Create Set Image to Quote Set RunObject to Page Mini Sales Quote (1324) Set Promoted to Yes
ActionContainer	HomeItems	(default)	(default)
Action	none	Page Mini Customer List	Set Caption to Customers Set PromotedCategory to New Set RunObject to Page Mini Customer List (1301) Set Promoted to Yes
Action	none	Page Mini Item List	Set Caption to Items Set PromotedCategory to New Set RunObject to Page Mini Item List (1303) Set Promoted to Yes

Check the indentation of your page elements and adjust if it is required.
Close Action Designer and then save and compile the Sales Rep Role Center page.

Simon now wants to test the Sales Rep Role Center that he created, and for testing purposes he uses a browser window. He enters a URL that specifically opens the page 50006 from tablet.aspx. His URL now resembles this: http://MyNAVWeb:8080/DynamicsNAV90/tablet.aspx?page=50006. For more information, see How to: Open the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet or Phone Client from a Browser.

Next Steps

Nancy now has a Role Center that gives her access to most of the information that she needs when she is on the road. The next step for Simon is to refine the Sales Rep Role Center by adding more functionality, for example, the ability to retrieve more lists or making sure that Nancy can smoothly continue to work when she is back at the office on her desktop computer.