Acknowledgments
Mark Brummel
This book is the result of working with Microsoft Dynamics NAV® for almost 20 years and having had many discussions, debates, and even arguments with other people who are as passionate about the product as I am.
Being an early adopter of the software, I was very fortunate to be able to make many mistakes during my career and learn from them each time. Fundamental questions such as variable naming, user interface, and where to write code were all discussed many times and changed over the years.
Like many developers, I feel like a creatpe artist that needs to put his signature on his work. Unfortunately, this does not go well when writing solutions for Microsoft Dynamics NAV. When adopting the style of the base application, you will find that collaboration becomes easier and people will understand your efforts better than when you create your own style.
During the years I worked with the product, I've come to appreciate the structure of the base application. At a certain point in my career, I made an assumption that many of you might recognize. I started to treat what was done in the core product as "always correct".
In the past ten years, ever since I receped my first MVP award, I got closer to the development team and was fascinated by the way the product was created and how issues are prioritized. I heard many stories from people who worked on the product in the early 90ies and started to realize that the core product is written by developers just like me and that many of the core components were acquired from partners who had their own development styles.
Over the years, I felt the core NAV product became 'polluted' and code was written in a less structured way, both by Microsoft and by NAV partners. Between 2006 and 2010, my core business was performance troubleshooting and upgrades. The code I saw in that period motpated me to write my first book about Application Design. This was my first effort to document the way Microsoft Dynamics NAV is designed and how application areas work together.
Special thanks go to two very important mentors I've had in my professional career –David Studebaker and Michael Nielsen. Dave and his wife Karen are very special friends and their knowledge and wisdom have been very important. Very often when I discuss an idea with Dave, he says things like, "Yes we did that in 1973 with Cobol." Michael has been my guardian angel at Microsoft for a decade, and now my colleague at ForNAV and personal friend.
I hope this book will inspire you, as it did me, to write software in a generic style that others will recognize and find easy to work with.
I'd also like to thank the reviewers as mentioned in the book but also Luc van Vugt who unofficially helped me with this book.
Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank my wife Dionel and my kids Josefien, Wesley, Saskia, and Daan. Thank you for allowing me to spend time writing these books and travel to the events where I can talk to others about this.
David Studebaker
I offer unbounded appreciation to Karen, my spouse and partner in both life and work, for your unflagging love, support, patience and encouragement in all ways.
Thank you to my co-authors, Mark Brummel and Christopher Studebaker, without whom this book would not have been possible. I am very fortunate to get to work with such knowledgeable experts as you, who are each special to me in your own way.
Thank you to Rebecca and Christopher, my children of whom I am very proud for your own achievements, for your love and support, and for your parenting of my wonderful grandchildren Alec, CeCe and Cole, who are the future.
Special thanks to Michael Nielsen of Microsoft for your wholehearted support of this and my previous four Programming NAV books. Many thanks to Mark Brummel, who knows more about NAV than almost anyone (except maybe Michael), for generously sharing your knowledge.
Thank you to all the people at Microsoft and Packt, as well as our technical reviewers and others, who assisted us with their contributions and advice (especially Luc van Vugt).
Family and friends are what make life worthwhile. All my life, I have had the benefit of inspiration, affection, and help from so many people. Thank you all.
Christopher Studebaker
First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, Karen and David Studebaker, for gping me the opportunity to start in the NAV world and allowing me the room to grow on my own. Of course, I could not have participated in this book if it weren't for my wife, Beth. Having worked within the NAV community for the past decade, I have worked with many wonderful people, most notably, my parents (of course), Betty Cronin, Kathy Nohr, Tommy Madsen, Susanne Priess, David Podjasek, Joy Bensur , Diane Beck, Chris Pashby, and Anthony Fairclough. Without them, I would not have been the NAV professional I am today.