END OF SUPPORT

Dynamics NAV 2013 is no longer supported by Perfion after version 2024-R1

Perfion Release2ERP for NAV 2013-2018 allows you to import and persist information from Perfion to the NAV environment.
This document will describe the installation and configuration of Perfion Release2ERP for the typical NAV environment.

If you have special use cases or need custom setup tailored to your needs, please contact your Perfion partner for more information.

FAQ regarding installation for Perfion Release2ERP for NAV

Introduction

Perfion Release2NAV allows you to import and persist information from Perfion to the NAV environment.

This document will describe the installation and configuration of Perfion Release2NAV for the typical NAV environment. If you have special use cases or need custom setup tailored to your needs, please contact your Perfion representative for more information. If you have any questions regarding the information in this document, please contact your Perfion representative for more information.https://perfion.force.com/CustomerCommunity/

General Considerations

A Word of Caution

Any changes made to you ERP system should be tested in a proper test environment before being deployed to the live ERP system. Please consult with your Microsoft Dynamics Partner about the changes required to implement this software, before continuing further.

Supported NAV Versions

The following versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is supported:

Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013R2
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2017 (CU05 minimum)
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2018

Supported NAV Clients

Only the Role Tailored Client (Also known as the Windows client) is supported.

Prerequisites

The Service Layer server needs Microsoft .Net 4.5 installed.

NAV Object scope

Installation

Release2NAV is very simple to install. Just import the Fob file and handle any conflicts you might have.

Configuration

Release2NAV is a very versatile tool that can be configured to fit many different use cases. In this document, we will show simple examples that illustrate what is possible and discuss the options available.

Basic settings in Release2NAV

Go to Departments/Perfion Release2NAV/Setup and choose Release2Nav Setup.

You should see a page like this:

For most, the default values will be perfectly fine.

Log: The log field is where you choose what type of events to log. The options are: Error, Success, All

Log Period: this field is where you set how far back in time the log entries will be kept. It is expressed as a date formula DateFormula Property - Dynamics NAV

Chunk Size: This value sets the number of records retrieved from the Perfion API at a time, when dealing with large amounts of records.

Setting up a Perfion Connection for Release2NAV

Go to Departments/Perfion Release2NAV/Setup and choose Perfion Connection List.

You should see a page like this:

Click the New button to add a new line.

Fill in the fields to match your setup.

Fields	Buttons
Code: This is the code for this connection.	You can press the Test Connection button to test the connection.
Connection Type: for Release2NAV you need to choose API
Login Type: For API connections you need to choose API
Description: Enter a description of this connection.
Perfion API URL: Enter the full URL of the API service. Example: http://url.com:8080/Perfion/GetData.asmx
Perfion API Image URL: Enter the full URL of the API Image service. Example: http://url.com:8080/Perfion/Image.aspx
Perfion API User Name: If authentication is enabled on the API service then enter the username here.
Perfion API Password: If authentication is enabled on the API service then enter the password here.

Setting up a Release2NAV Integration

Go to Departments/Perfion Release2NAV/Query Processing and choose Release2NAV Integration List.

Click the New button to open the Integration Card.

You should see a page like this:

However, the page does not yet have any values entered. Let’s go through it section by section.

The General Section

This section contains the general setup elements for the integration.

Code: This is the code for this integration.

Connection Code: Here you select which connection the integration will use to import data.

Description: Enter a description of this integration.

Last Run Date: This field is not editable; it will automatically be updated whenever the integration is run successfully.

The Query Section

This section contains the settings that are related to the query of the API service.

For information about how to write a query, please see the Perfion API documentation.

In addition to that: Any instance of %LASTRUN% will be replaced by the Last Run Date value.

Here is an example query:

<Query>
      <Select languages='EN, DE' view='Normal'>
            <Feature id='ItemNumber' />
            <Feature id='ShortText' />
            <Feature id='Description' />
            <Feature id='Image' />
      </Select>
      <From id ='Product'/>
      <Where>
            <Clause id='brand' operator='=' value="Normal" />
            <Clause id='ModifiedDate' operator='>' value="%LASTRUN%" />
      </Where>
</Query>

Here is an overview of the fields in the query section:

Query Type: This indicates the type of query storage used. Currently this is limited to File only.

Query File Name: This is the full path to the text file that contains the query that is sent to the API service.

Record Root Node: XPath that is used as root node in the result set of the query.

The Field Mapping Section

This is what we are here for: Mapping data fields from Perfion to data fields in NAV. It is simple, but there are a few things you have to keep in mind.

Each line represents one value mapped from Perfion to NAV.

To map anything in to a table in NAV, you have to map all primary key fields of the destination table as a minimum.

It is recommended to make a section step for each destination record being inserted or modified.

If you make changes to a line that affects the order of execution, it is not shown in the window until it is either refreshed or closed and reopened.

Here is an overview of the fields and buttons:

Fields	Buttons
Section Step: this is the logical top level container of lines. Section steps are executed in order from low to high.	Preview Query: This will let you see the raw Xml output from the API service.
Table No.: This is the number of the table that the line is pointing to.	Execute Query: This will run the integration.
Table Caption: This is the caption of the table that the line is pointing to. When Table No. is changed this is automatically filled in.	Edit Query: This will open the query file in a text editor.
Field No.: This is the number of the field that the line is pointing to.	Log Entries: This will open the Log Entries Page with a filter set for this integration.
Field Caption: This is the caption of the field that the line is pointing to. When Field No is changed this is automatically filled in.
XPath: This is the Xml XPath to the value that is being imported from Perfion. This is a relative path from the root node that was declared in the Record Root Node field, in the Query section.
Validate Data: This has 3 settings: Blank means no validation. When Different means that the data will be validated if the new value is different from the old value. Always means that the value will be validated every time the integration is run.
Accept Max. Length: When enabled, the value from Perfion will be truncated to the length of the destination field if necessary.
Allow Empty String In Key Field: Default behavior is to skip creation of records if they have blank values in any key field. Enabling this option will allow an empty string in the specific key field, and still create a new record if none exist in NAV.
Default Value: This is a constant value that will be inserted in the destination field if no value is was found in the XPath of the data from the API service. Default Value is used twice in the example integration shown above. First one is Section Step 1, Table No. 30 Field No. 2 where the Language Code is set to the constant DEU. Here no XPath value is defined because only the constant value is ever wanted in the destination field. The second one is Section Step 1, Table No. 30, Field No. 5400 where there are blank values in both XPath and Default Value. This means that a blank value will be inserted in the destination field. The reason for this last line is to fulfill the requirement to map all primary key fields of a record.
Conversion Code: If this is set to a valid Conversion Code, then the selected conversion will be applied to the value being imported.

Setting up a Release2NAV image parameters

Click the actions button and Choose Columns…

Now you can add the image parameters to the Field Mapping.

The Field Mapping will now also show the image parameters and thoese can now be assigned when importing images into NAV.

Field overview:

Image DPI: This parameter wills cale the image exactly to the specified resolution. This parameter cannot be combined with the fit or size parameters. For precision, the parameter value can include a decimal separator.

Image Fit: This parameter controls how to interpret the size parameter.
Fit is the default behavior (equivalent to omitting the parameter). Scale the image to fit within the specified size by keeping the aspect ratio.
Exact will stretch the image in one or the other dimension of the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image.
Crop will crop the image in either the sides or at the top/bottom, thereby leaving the contents of the image undistorted if the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image.
Smart will adjust the image via a 50% combination of the before mentioned exact and crop fitting methods if the specified size does not have the same proportions as the original image.

Image Format: This parameter will let you choose the format of the image import. The supported image formats are what is supported by the Microsoft .NET framework.

Image Height: Lets you decide the height of the image in pixels. The pixels must be expressed in whole integer numbers.

Image Width: Lets you decide the width of the image in pixels. The pixels must be expressed in whole integer numbers.

Setting up a Release2NAV Conversion

Go to Departments/Perfion Release2NAV/Setup and choose Release2NAV Conversion List.

Click the New button to open the Integration Card.

You should see a page like this:

The General Section

This section contains the general setup elements for the conversion.

Code: This is the code for this conversion.

Description: Enter a description of this conversion.

The Values Section

Here you will find the Conversion Lines. Each line describes one value conversion.

The lines have two columns:

Perfion Value: This value is used to compare values from Perfion against. Values are case sensitive and only exact matches are considered.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Value: If a match has been made then this value is used in NAV.

Setting up the NAV Job Queue to run a Release2NAV Integration

Go to Departments/Administration/Application Setup/Job Queue and choose Job Queue Entries.

Click the New button to open the Job Queue Entry Card.

You should see a page like this:

The values in the screenshot above is a good starting point, but should obviously be adapted to your needs.

Object Type to Run: this should be set to Codeunit

Object ID to Run: this should be set to 81004

Parameter String: this should be filled in with the Code of the Release2NAV Integration that you wish to run.

The remaining settings will need to be set according to your wishes.

When you are satisfied with everything, press the button Set Status to Ready and your scheduled job is now activated.

Last, press the OK button to close the window.