Conventions, Or Should I Say Conversions

Often you have to convert objects from one type to another e.g. from Integer to Text, from Boolean to Text, etc. Up to version 4.0 there was a codeunit, Codeunit 6201 – Conventions, that had a bunch of functions to convert objects from one type to another. This codeunit disappeared from version 5.0 but many of the functions are still useful, if not to use them than at least to give ideas for other functions or, as they did for me, to start learnig some C/AL code.

So have a look at the code or download the attached codeunit Conventions of which I never understood where the name came from.

CodeToText(VarCode : Code[250];MaxLength : Integer) : Text[250]
IF Setup.RECORDLEVELLOCKING THEN
EXIT(VarCode);
EXIT(LeftPadCode(VarCode,MaxLength,’ ‘));

OptionToText(VarOption : Option) : Text[250]
EXIT(FORMAT(VarOption,0,2));

IntegerToText(VarInteger : Integer) : Text[250]
EXIT(FORMAT(VarInteger,0,2));

SQLDecimalToText(VarDecimal : Decimal) ReturnValue : Text[260]
DecimalSepSymbol := ‘.’;

ReturnValue :=
FORMAT(VarDecimal,0,’<Sign><Integer><Decimals><Comma,’ + DecimalSepSymbol + ‘>’);

CSDecimalToText(VarDecimal : Decimal) ReturnValue : Text[260]
WITH CommercePortalSetup DO BEGIN
GET;
CASE “Decimal Symbol” OF
“Decimal Symbol”::”0″:
DecimalSepSymbol := ‘.’;
“Decimal Symbol”::”1″:
DecimalSepSymbol := ‘,’;
END;
END;

ReturnValue :=
FORMAT(VarDecimal,0,’<Sign><Integer><Decimals><Comma,’ + DecimalSepSymbol + ‘>’);

BooleanToText(VarBoolean : Boolean) : Text[1]
EXIT(FORMAT(VarBoolean,1,2));

DateToText(VarDate : Date) : Text[8]
IF VarDate = 0D THEN
VarText := ‘17530101′
ELSE
VarText := FORMAT(VarDate,0,’<Year4><Month,2><Day,2>’);
EXIT(VarText);

TimeToText(VarTime : Time) ReturnTime : Text[16]
ReturnTime := FORMAT(VarTime,0,’<Hours24,2>:<Minutes,2>:<Seconds,2>’);
IF ReturnTime = ” THEN
ReturnTime := ‘00:00:00′;

TextToInteger(VarText : Text[250]) : Integer
EVALUATE(VarInteger,VarText);
EXIT(VarInteger);

TextToDecimal(VarText : Text[250]) : Decimal
BaseVarDecimal := 1.2;
DecimalSymbol := COPYSTR(FORMAT(BaseVarDecimal),2,1);
EVALUATE(VarDecimal,CONVERTSTR(VarText,’.',DecimalSymbol));
EXIT(VarDecimal);

TextToBoolean(VarText : Text[1]) : Boolean
IF NOT EVALUATE(VarBoolean,VarText) THEN
VarBoolean := FALSE;
EXIT(VarBoolean);

TextToDate(VarText : Text[8]) : Date
Day := TextToInteger(COPYSTR(VarText,7,2));
Month := TextToInteger(COPYSTR(VarText,5,2));
Year := TextToInteger(COPYSTR(VarText,1,4));
EXIT(DMY2DATE(Day,Month,Year));

TextToTime(VarText : Text[8]) : Time
BaseVarTime := 111111T;
TimeSeparator := COPYSTR(FORMAT(BaseVarTime),3,1);
EVALUATE(VarTime,CONVERTSTR(VarText,’:',TimeSeparator));
EXIT(VarTime);

SQLEncodeText(NonEncodedText : Text[250]) : Text[250]
EncodedText := ”;
FOR i := 1 TO STRLEN(NonEncodedText) DO BEGIN
EncodedText[STRLEN(EncodedText) + 1] := NonEncodedText[i];
IF NonEncodedText[i] = ”” THEN
EncodedText := EncodedText + ””;
END;
EXIT(”” + EncodedText + ””)

CSEncodeText(NonEncodedText : Text[250]) : Text[250]
EXIT(NonEncodedText);

SQLEncodeCode(VarCode : Code[250];Length : Integer) : Text[250]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(CodeToText(VarCode,Length)));

CSEncodeCode(VarCode : Code[250]) : Text[250]
EXIT(VarCode);

SQLEncodeOption(VarOption : Option) : Text[250]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(OptionToText(VarOption)));

CSEncodeOption(VarOption : Option) : Text[250]
EXIT(CSEncodeText(OptionToText(VarOption)));

SQLEncodeInteger(VarInteger : Integer) : Text[250]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(IntegerToText(VarInteger)));

CSEncodeInteger(VarInteger : Integer) : Text[250]
EXIT(CSEncodeText(IntegerToText(VarInteger)));

SQLEncodeDecimal(VarDecimal : Decimal) : Text[250]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(SQLDecimalToText(VarDecimal)));

CSEncodeDecimal(VarDecimal : Decimal) : Text[250]
EXIT(CSDecimalToText(VarDecimal));

SQLEncodeBoolean(VarBoolean : Boolean) : Text[5]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(BooleanToText(VarBoolean)));

CSEncodeBoolean(VarBoolean : Boolean) : Text[5]
EXIT(CSEncodeText(BooleanToText(VarBoolean)));

SQLEncodeDate(VarDate : Date) : Text[12]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(DateToText(VarDate)));

CSEncodeDate(VarDate : Date) : Text[12]
EXIT(CSEncodeText(DateToText(VarDate)));

SQLEncodeTime(VarTime : Time) : Text[14]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(TimeToText(VarTime)));

SQLEncodeDateTime(VarDate : Date;VarTime : Time) : Text[19]
EXIT(SQLEncodeText(DateToText(VarDate) + ‘ ‘ + TimeToText(VarTime)));

LeftPadCode(VarCode : Code[250];MaxLength : Integer;FillChar : Text[1]) : Text[250]
Length := MaxLength – STRLEN(VarCode);
IF Length <= 0 THEN
EXIT(VarCode);
EXIT(PADSTR(”,Length,FillChar) + VarCode);

PutSynchMessageValue(VAR SynchMessageQueue : Record Table6224;No : Integer;Name : Text[190];Value : Text[250])
SynchMessageQueue.”No.” := No;
SynchMessageQueue.Name := Name;
SynchMessageQueue.Value := Value;
SynchMessageQueue.INSERT;

HEXEncode(Char : Char) : Text[3]
AsciiValue := Char;
IF AsciiValue > 255 THEN
ERROR(Text000,Char);
REPEAT
a := AsciiValue DIV 16;
b := AsciiValue – a * 16;
AsciiValue := a;
HexValue := COPYSTR(‘0123456789ABCDEF’,b + 1,1) + HexValue;
UNTIL AsciiValue = 0;

IF STRLEN(HexValue) < 2 THEN
HexValue := ‘0′ + HexValue;

EXIT(‘-’ + HexValue);

LinkEncode(WebSiteCode : Code[20];LinkNo : Code[20];TemplateNo : Code[20]) : Text[250]
IF NOT PagePropColl.GET(WebSiteCode,LinkNo,1) THEN
EXIT;

IF (TemplateNo <> ”) AND
(PagePropColl.”Template Prop. Coll. No.” <> 0)
THEN
IF TemplPropColl.GET(
WebSiteCode,PagePropColl.”Template No.”,
PagePropColl.”Template Prop. Coll. No.”)
THEN
IF TemplPropColl.”ASP FileName” <> ” THEN
EXIT(UPPERCASE(TemplPropColl.”ASP FileName”) + ‘,’ + LinkNo);

RemoveBackslashIfThere(VAR Path : Text[256])
IF Path <> ” THEN BEGIN
IF Path[STRLEN(Path)] = ‘\’ THEN
Path := COPYSTR(Path,1,STRLEN(Path) – 1);
END;

MakeFilePath(FileFolder : Text[256];FileName : Text[256]) : Text[250]
IF FileName = ” THEN
ERROR(Text001);
IF FileFolder = ” THEN
EXIT(FileName);

EXIT(FileFolder + ‘\’ + FileName);

ReportNonValidValue(Name : Text[150];Value : Text[256])
IF Value = ” THEN
ERROR(Text002,Name)
ELSE
ERROR(Text003,Value,Name);

CheckForInvCharAndMakeDescript(FieldName : Text[250];FieldValue : Text[250];VAR Description : Text[250])
FOR i := 1 TO STRLEN(FieldValue) DO
IF FieldValue[i] IN ['.',',',' '] THEN
ERROR(Text004,FieldName);

IF FieldValue = ” THEN
Description := ”
ELSE
Description := UPPERCASE(COPYSTR(FieldValue,1,1)) + LOWERCASE(COPYSTR(FieldValue,2));

Download the Codeunit by clicking the link below and renaming the file to .zip:Codeunit 6201, rename from .doc to .zip.

Make Exporting Excel Formulas Fully Multilanguage Aware

I have been struggling with exporting data from Dynamics NAV to Excel Spreadsheets including formulas lately. I had the problem with a custom developed export to excel so I checked the code in the Excel Buffer table to see how standard Navision solved the problem only to see that the problem also existed in standard NAV too.

Let’s explain the problem first. What happens is that for people with a Microsoft Office version in Language A and a Dynamics NAV client in language B, Navision does not translate the formulas correctly. You can reproduce it as follows.

Make sure the language of your Dynamics NAV client and of Microsoft Office are different. Open your Dynamics NAV client go to the Budget form and run the “Export to Excel …” function. You’ll see that the formulas aren’t be translated as they should, giving errors in Excel.

English NAV Client and Spanish Office, wrong formula

Standard Dynamics NAV uses multilanguage text constants to translate the Formulas in the Excel Buffer table. The problem is that this only works if your Microsoft Office language equals your Dynamics NAV Client language and on top of this, for it to work you need to translate ALL the formulas you want to use to ALL the languages you want to use. Not a fun thing to do but feel free to use a page like this fonctions XL en 9 langues or this Microsoft Excel function translations to get started putting all your formulas into multilanguage text constants.

Since we have some workstations where the Dynamics NAV client and Microsoft Office use a different language, I was looking for something better and this post on mibuso handed me the solution. Below I put the code if you want this feature to work for the Excel Buffer table but you’ll see that it is easy to adopt it to all of you custom code that exports to Excel with formulas.

Table 370 – Excel Buffer

Add the following local variables to the CreateSheet function:

• autScriptControl Automation variable with SubType ‘Microsoft Script Control 1.0′.ScriptControl
• txtCode Text variable with Length 1024
• autDictionary Automation variable with Subtype ‘Microsoft Scripting Runtime’.Dictionary
• txtFormula Text variable with Length 1024
• intI Integer variable

Remove all languages but English from the text constants SUM, SUMIF and others should there be others.

Change to code of the CreateSheet function as below:

XlWrkSht.Name := SheetName;
IF ReportHeader <> '' THEN
XlWrkSht.PageSetup.LeftHeader :=
STRSUBSTNO('%1%2%1%3%4',GetExcelReference(1),ReportHeader,CRLF,CompanyName);
XlWrkSht.PageSetup.RightHeader :=
STRSUBSTNO(Text006,GetExcelReference(2),GetExcelReference(3),CRLF,UserID2);
XlWrkSht.PageSetup.Orientation := XlLandscape;
IF FIND('-') THEN BEGIN
//CRQ.001 start insert
CREATE(autDictionary);
CREATE(autScriptControl);
//CRQ.001 end insert
REPEAT
RecNo := RecNo + 1;
Window.UPDATE(1,ROUND(RecNo / TotalRecNo * 10000,1));
IF NumberFormat <> '' THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).NumberFormat := NumberFormat;
//CRQ.001 delete start
//  IF Formula = '' THEN
//    XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Value := "Cell Value as Text"
//  ELSE
//    XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Formula := GetFormula;
//CRQ.001 delete end
//CRQ.001 start insert
IF Formula = '' THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Value := "Cell Value as Text"
ELSE BEGIN
txtFormula := GetFormula();
txtCode :='objCell.Formula=objList.Item(1);';
intI := 1;
autScriptControl.Language := 'JScript';
autScriptControl.AddObject('objCell', XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID));// Add excel cell object
autScriptControl.AddObject('objList', autDictionary);                    // Add dictionary object
autDictionary.Add(intI,txtFormula);                                      // Add formula to dictionary object
autScriptControl.ExecuteStatement(txtCode);                              // Execute javascript
autDictionary.RemoveAll();                                               // Remove item from dictionary
autScriptControl.Reset();                                                // Reset Script object for next using
END;
//CRQ.001 end insert
IF Comment <> '' THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).AddComment := Comment;
IF Bold THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Font.Bold := Bold;
IF Italic THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Font.Italic := Italic;
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Borders.LineStyle := XlLineStyleNone;
IF Underline THEN
XlWrkSht.Range(xlColID + xlRowID).Borders.Item(XlEdgeBottom).LineStyle := XlContinuous;
UNTIL NEXT = 0;
//CRQ.001 start insert
CLEAR(autDictionary);
CLEAR(autScriptControl);
//CRQ.001 end insert
XlWrkSht.Range(GetExcelReference(5) + ':' + xlColID + xlRowID).Columns.AutoFit;
END;

Let’s have a look at the “Export to Excel …” function on the Budget form again.

English NAV Client and Spanish Office, correct formula

That’s all, it is that simple, no more text constants, no more looking for translations of a formula, just put all your fomulas in English and let Excel do the work. Please let me know if you know a faster/better/cleaner way to do this.

Show Shipment Information on Sales Invoices

When using combined shipments or when using the “Get Shipment Lines…” function on the invoice form, a line with shipment information is shown for all shipments linked to the invoice lines.

Sales Invoice with shipment information.

This is very useful information for the customer and for customer service. It gives them a direct link between shipments and the invoices. Unfortunately this information line is not added when you “Ship and Invoice” an Order.

With the following adjustment to codeunit 80, the extra line is also added when you post “Ship and Invoice” an order.

Codeunit 80 – Sales-Post

...
IF Invoice THEN BEGIN
// Insert invoice line or credit memo line
IF "Document Type" IN ["Document Type"::Order,"Document Type"::Invoice] THEN BEGIN

//insertion start
//Add shipment info if this is the first line of an invoice and there is shipping info.
recSalesInvLines.SETRANGE("Document No.",SalesInvHeader."No.");
IF recSalesInvLines.ISEMPTY AND (SalesShptHeader."No." <> '') AND (SalesShptHeader."Shipment Date" <> 0D) THEN BEGIN
SalesInvLine.INIT;
SalesInvLine."Document No." := SalesInvHeader."No.";
SalesInvLine.Description :=
STRSUBSTNO(Text92000,SalesShptHeader."No.",SalesShptHeader."Shipment Date");
SalesInvLine.INSERT;
END;
//insertion end

SalesInvLine.INIT;
SalesInvLine.TRANSFERFIELDS(TempSalesLine);
SalesInvLine."Document No." := SalesInvHeader."No.";
SalesInvLine.Quantity := TempSalesLine."Qty. to Invoice";
SalesInvLine."Quantity (Base)" := TempSalesLine."Qty. to Invoice (Base)";
...

Multilanguage Value of Text92000: ENU=Shipment No. %1 of %2:;DES=Lieferung Nr. %1 vom %2:;ITS=Fornitura Nr. %1 del %2:;FRS=Livraison n° %1 du %2.

A text line with the Shipment No. and the Shipment Date will now be added to the invoice every time you ship and invoice an order.

Avoid “not a valid time unit” Errors with Multilanguage Calcdates

I had some problems with a German report giving errors when I tried to run it. The people that programmed it put not only the comments in German, but also all calcdates.

As all calcdates where entered in German when I ran the report in an English client, I got an error that ‘-1T’ was not a valid time unit. This is because in English you need to write D for day not T for Tage.

To avoid errors like this and make your reports multilanguage, always write your date formulas in English surrounded by ‘<’ and ‘>’. The report will now use the correct date calculation mo matter what the language of the client is.

Example: CALCDATE(‘+12M-1T’,BeginnGeschäftsjahr) becomes CALCDATE(‘<+12M-1D>’,BeginnGeschäftsjahr).

The date formula '-1T' should include a time unit.