In the preceding sections, we saw all the steps that you have to follow in order to upgrade from the older versions of Dynamics NAV to Dynamics NAV 2013. In this section, we will explain all those steps in more detail.
No matter what your current version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is, before you can upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, a migration to SQL Server is needed if you are using a native database as it is no longer available.
A test of the database is also needed before starting the upgrade process. In this section, we will explain how to perform these two processes.
Microsoft SQL Server (on its 64-bit version) is the only database supported in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. The native database is gone. If you are using a native database in the older versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, you should upgrade to SQL before you start the upgrade process to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.
The steps to upgrade to SQL Server will not be explained in this book. You can use the official Microsoft Dynamics NAV documentation to do that.
This is a required step to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. The steps to test the database are as follows:
- Open your current database in the classic client (testing the database can be done in any version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV; if you are upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 from any version prior to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, you can do the test of the database in your current version).
- Go to File | Database | Test.
- The Test Database form will open.
- Click on the Options tab.
- Select the file's output and enter or browse to a path and filename.
- Click on the General tab.
- Choose Normal to test everything except the field relationships between the tables.
- If the test fails, follow the workflow for repairing damaged databases.
- Open the Test Database form again (File | Database | Test).
- Choose Custom and then check Test field relationships between tables to test the field relationships between the tables.
- This will determine if there is any data inconsistency in your database. You should determine whether errors detected in this test will affect the upgrade process.
- Compile all the objects in the database. Repair the objects that are not compiling correctly.
Customers typically want all the customizations that had been implemented in their old Microsoft Dynamics NAV databases to be implemented in their new Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database.
To achieve this goal, a sequence of development actions, intended to fully transfer the functionality of a customer's solution to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, have to be performed.
When working with code upgrade, it is important to analyze and process the changes by comparing and evaluating three separate versions of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV database:
- The old base version: This is the standard version of the current version of the Dynamics NAV database
- The old custom version: This is the old base's database plus the customer's changes and add-on solutions
- The new base version: This is the standard version of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database
Follow these steps to obtain the three .txt files:
- Open the standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV database of your current version.
- Navigate to Tools | Object Designer (or press Ctrl + F12).
- Click on All to see the list of all the application objects.
- Select all the objects (clicking on the upper-left corner of the grid will select all the objects).
- Go to File | Export.
- Select the destination folder and give the file the name
OldBase.txt. - Open your current customized Microsoft Dynamics NAV database.
- Navigate to Tools | Object Designer (or press Ctrl + F12).
- Click on All to see the list of all the application objects.
- Select all the objects (clicking on the upper-left corner of the grid will select all the objects).
- Click on File | Export.
- Select the destination folder and give the file the name
OldCustom.txt. - Open the standard Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database.
- Navigate to Tools | Object Designer (or press Ctrl + F12).
- Click on All to see the list of all the application objects.
- Select all the objects (clicking on the upper-left corner of the grid will select all the objects).
- Go to File | Export.
- Select the destination folder and give the file the name
NewBase.txt. - At this point, you should have three
.txtfiles namedOldBase.txt,OldCustom.txt, andNewBase.txt.
There is a tool called TextFormatUpgrade2013 that is explained later in this chapter, in the Upgrading tools section. Right after the OldBase.txt and OldCustom.txt files are obtained, they have to be converted to the format used in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.
This will make comparisons to the new standard application code (the NewBase.txt file) much easier.
New custom objects that do not exist in the standard application but only in the customized application (custom objects in the range of 50,000 to 99,999 or in add-on ranges) cannot be directly imported in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 in a .fob file (.fob is the extension of Dynamics NAV object files). Doing so will cause the application to crash as soon as the objects are accessed. For these objects, you have to use the TextFormatUpgrade2013 tool to do the appropriate formatting change, import them in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 in text format, and compile the objects in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.
Refer to the Upgrading tools section to know what exactly the tool does and how to use it.
As explained in the Upgrading philosophy section, carrying out customizations to the new version is actually the main point of the whole upgrade process.
There are a couple of ways to achieve this:
- Rewriting your customizations from scratch in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
- Using any merge tool to follow a compare-and-merge process to finally get the customized code into Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013
As the implementer, feel free to use the approach that best suits your needs. You can probably go for the rewriting method when just a few customizations exist, and use the compare-and-merge one when the old database has been customized a lot.
Where do draw the line between a few and a lot? We really don't know.
To rewrite your customizations, you will probably want to use a text compare tool to compare your old base application code to your new base application code. That way, you will understand what the differences are and you will be able to write them again on a Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database.
To do a compare-and-merge process, you need a tool that allows you to compare three text files at the same time (OldBase.txt, OldCustom.txt, and NewBase.txt) and automatically create the new application code (NewCustom.txt).
In the Upgrading tools section, we will talk about comparing the text tools and about MergeTool, which can be used for the purpose of the current section. Refer to them to get a detailed view of how to use them to carry out customizations to a new database.
The object type form is no longer available in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. The process of transforming forms to pages had to be done when upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 with an RTC installation.
If you intend to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 from Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 with an RTC installation, just skip this section. It's not for you.
For those using a classic installation in any previous version of Microsoft Dynamics NAV, this is a required step. Your own forms have to be transformed to pages. Also, the standard customized forms should be transformed to pages to carry out the customization done in the form to the standard page.
There isn't a form-transformation tool specific for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. The form-transformation tool that was released with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 can be used.
Refer to the Upgrading tools section to learn more about the form-transformation tool.
The report definition had already changed in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 compared to the previous versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, the report definition changes again. So, no matter which version you are upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 from, you will have to go through a report-transformation process.
The report-definition changes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 include the following:
- The report sections and section triggers are no longer available
- The request form is no longer available
- The RDLC definition of reports has changed
With the release of Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, a tool for report transformation included in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Development Environment has been shipped. This is the tool to use. It can be used for reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 that have both a classic definition and an RDLC definition and for reports in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, or any previous version, that only have a classic definition.
Refer to the Upgrading tools section to get detailed information on how to use this tool.
The steps explained to upgrade your data have been summarized to reflect the most important steps involved in the process. There are many other minor steps that are required to successfully upgrade your data to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013. A complete list of all the steps can be found in the official documentation provided by Microsoft, which can be downloaded from PartnerSource or CustomerSource from https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/msdyn_nav2013rtmdownload_cs.htm.
In this link, navigate to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 Documentation section and download the Upgrade Quick guide.
If you are upgrading from Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision 4.0 or from Navision Attain 3.xx, download that same guide, but from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 download page, which is available at https://mbs.microsoft.com/customersource/downloads/servicepacks/microsoftdynamicsnav2009r2.htm.
Follow the steps described on these documents to perform the data upgrade.
If you are upgrading from Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision 4.0 or from Navision Attain 3.xx, then to do the first data upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 you will not need a full application code upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009. You really only need to do an application code upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 for your table objects; and even for those, you don't have to upgrade all your code but only your own customized fields.
Just compare your old database version object tables to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 standard object tables to determine which fields were created by customization and create those same fields in a Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 database. There is no need to upgrade any other application code.