Viewing Dynamics NAV Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics NAV, you gain access to live Dynamics NAV data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve and update Dynamics NAV data. This article will walk through connecting to Dynamics NAV using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to Dynamics NAV

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, you will need to set the Company as well.

Connecting to Dynamics NAV Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying Dynamics NAV data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for Dynamics NAV and a new VCL Forms Application:

1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
3. Click Add New Connection.
4. Enter a name for the connection.
5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for Dynamics NAV.
6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the tables for the connection.

7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a table (for example: Customer) onto the form.

8. Select the CustomerTable object on the form and set the Active property to true.

9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Customer data.

Related Articles

Below you can find other articles for using the CData ODBC Driver with RAD Studio, Delphi, and C++ Builder.

• DataBind Controls to Dynamics NAV Data in C++Builder
• DataBind Controls to Dynamics NAV Data in Delphi
• Build a Simple VCL Application for Dynamics NAV Data