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Mergetool Classes 

Three of the most difficult issues partners and clients face when building a team to work in C/SIDE customizing or implementing Microsoft Dynamics NAV are:

  1. How to bring new developers "up to speed" in C/SIDE, perhaps without much outside assistance.
  2. How to keep programmers from overwriting each other's code during development.
  3. How to make sure that the upgrade process from one version to another is cost effective and can be accomplished with a minimum of disruption to business operations, while respecting the modifications that have been paid for and implemented.

These issues must be addressed and solved if the partner or client is to work with Microsoft Dynamics Nav for the long term.

Mergetool has long been known by senior NAV developers as the premier tool for maintaining and upgrading versions in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. This is true both for client customizations and ISV applications. Mergetool was originally provided with the upgrade toolkit that ships with all versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Mergetool.com has continued to develop this tool for over 15 years and it is still provided free of charge to NAV developers, but it does not ship with support. With it, programmers can compare modifications made from several programmers, then merge them together while maintaining the underlying integrity of the modifications. In addition, Mergetool allows object upgrades to be largely automated, with as little user input as possible when the NAV development standards are followed.

Mergetool is much more than an upgrade and version control tool, though. It is also an excellent tool to inspect NAV code of any kind. For example, in the latest version a developer can search any version of NAV, along with any modifications or ISV add-in's, and find any object or variable. Mergetool will let you see where the object is used, any relationships to or from the object or variable from other objects and take you to the source code. This inspection will help new developers learn the syntax of the language by searching on the calls to see how the base product uses them. Thus insuring that they are used as designed. This will allow the new developer to quickly understand how base NAV implements features and then follow their lead, insuring better coding practices and more reliable customizations with fewer problems when upgrading to the next version.

Mergetool Basics Class

In this course you will learn to use the Mergetool to both Compare different versions of C/SIDE objects and Merge them together successfully. These skills are vital to successfully supporting the long term needs of your clients and upgrading them with a minimum of interruption when new versions are released . The course will lead participants through a series of hands-on labs to show how to maintain customizations to base NAV, with an emphasis on best practices to insure successful merges. Students will also learn the basic procedures for Merging objects by merging new customizations into an already modified set of objects.

There will also be demonstrations of the latest features as well as tips and tricks to use the tool effectively.

Mergetool Advanced Class

In this course you will work through an actual upgrade of a client from one version of NAV to the latest version and work with the Transformation tool for the RTC. The upgrade will be followed by a series of labs to teach you how to use Mergetool to transform objects for use in the RTC.

Both these one-day classes are programming intensive. A solid understanding of the basic concepts of C/SIDE programming is essential to understanding the concepts and participation in this course.

Audience Profile

This course is intended for Microsoft Dynamics NAV developers who have either taken both the Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 and C/SIDE Solution Development in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 or have equivalent work experience. Partners and Clients with at least the Application Designer license are welcome, both will benefit from learning to use this tool.

At Course Completion

After completing this course, students will understand:

  • Basics of working with text object files
  • How and why to compare objects
  • How to use the merge functions to maintain versions
  • Best practices for successful merges of different versions
  • Programming Standards to follow when modifying base NAV
  • How to upgrade between NAV base versions
  • How to use the Mergetool with the Transformation Tool

Price

$650.00 per student per class.

Instructor

The instructor for this class is Mike Doster. Mike is an MCT with 15 years experience in NAV. He has extensive experience as a NAV developer, working on projects in all areas of NAV. He has sucessfull upgraded many clients and has acted as a consultant to partners and clients in setting up development standards and best practices for NAV development. He was the lead trainer for Development in the US for 3 years and wrote much of the early course material and development tests for all the Development courses. Recently he wrote the Development exam for C/SIDE Solution Development in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009  and the Dynamics NAV 2009/Sharepoint Integration class. Last year he received the 2010 Top Instructor award for Microsoft Dynamics NAV from Microsoft.

Location

Courses are held each quarter in Atlanta, GA. Please contact us to get a schedule of upcoming classes.

Courses can be tailored to the needs of your organization and can be held at your site. Travel and expenses will be billed as used. 

Related resources

A list of scheduled classes can be found here