Updating custom report layouts using upgrade codeunits

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, a report has a built-in report layout by default; it can be a Word report layout, a Standard RDLC report layout, or both. You can update custom report layouts with the help of upgrade codeunits. It handles all the changes in the report datasets that affect the report layouts. Upgrade codeunits enable you to programmatically update multiple custom report layouts in the database to changes in report datasets, which cannot be resolved by users from the Microsoft Dynamics NAV client; however, there are certain changes to the dataset that the user is required to modify manually in the report layouts before they can be used. These types of change include, for example, deleted fields or field name conflicts as a result of renaming. Upgrade codeunits enable you to handle these breaking changes to report datasets and layouts without requiring end user interaction.

To design the report upgrade logic in an upgrade codeunit, you add the C/AL code that implements the report upgrade API (through .NET Framework interoperability) and a set of functions which are available in codeunit 9651: Document Report Mgt.. In the Microsoft Dynamics NAV application, codeunit 9651: Document Report Mgt. is the main component for running and maintaining customized report layouts.

We will talk more about this in Chapter 3, The C/AL and VB Programming.

Note

There are other C/AL upgrades such as the Try function, the FILTERPAGEBUILDER datatype, the HyperlinkHandler function type in test code, the Metadata Virtual table, the CLIENTTYPE option, and others, which are explained in Chapter 3, The C/AL and VB Programming, in detail.