Heard a fantastic programme on Radio 4 this morning all about probability.

Geeky fun, but kind of cool (all in the same sentence)

Cheer yourself up and just listen to this..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime.shtml

Further investigation today of NAV 2009's web-service architecture has lead to some amazing findings.

First there's abstraction,  something like get me a list of all items on an Item Card can be expressed as simply as -

        public test[] GetAll(int rowsback)
         {
            test_Filter[] filters = new test_Filter[0];
            return Binding.Find(filters, "", rowsback);

        }

Need to mass insert a load of records? -

       public void BulkInsert(test[] rec)
       {
           Binding.InsertAll(ref rec);
       }

Need to quickly locate a record from its key? -

       public test GetSingular(string no)
       {
           return Binding.Get(no);
       }

Just think how much SQL you'd need to type to achieve this...   Furthermore its all strongly typed, validated and all mapped correctly.

This is truly staggering.   Performance even on machine with 2gb of ram running Virtual PC, Visual Studio 2008, Mobile Device Emulator manager seems pretty good too.

I've made wired baby.

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/05/racing-balloons.html

Its amazing to see just how much functionality is now available within NAV's 2009 web-services.

Stuff that was previously next to impossible or just fell into the too difficult category.   Here's a great example.

I've consumed the NAV Item card as a web-service.    I don't just get field names,  oh no...   There's more, WAY more.     Look at this,  I've got valid values or what we call in .Net enumerations and NAV guys call option fields.

I've never had it so good. (or maybe I should get out more)

Super....

Today for me was historic.   For the past few years building mobile line of business solutions with Microsoft NAV meant hard graft.    Mimicking  functionality in .Net that NAV had built in, second guessing how functions inside NAV work and writing data straight into SQL bypassing all of NAV's validation.     We'll things for me changed today in that I was finally able to get a glimmer of things to come.  Using the Virtual PC image that provides a preview of NAV 2009 I was able to call directly into NAV using its new inbuilt web-services functionality.   

So here's how you do it.

First get the Virtual PC 2007 image at Partner Source.   You'll need to be a MBS partner to get this.

One done follow the instructions to get the Virtual Server up and running.    The instructions explain all this better than I could.   Finally logon as administrator.

Ok, over to my instructions.   First we need to start the web-services server.    You should find the start web-services icon on the desktop -

Ok,  next we need to expose something in NAV that we want to use.   Lets go for broke and use the Item card.    On the start menu,  launch the SQL NAV program.

When NAV starts up open the object designer and navigate to the 'Web Services' table as follows -

Run the Web Services table,   I've added a single row with a service name of test, publishing object ID 30,  which is the item card.   My resultant record looks like this -

Ok,  that's about it from the NAV side.

The final thing you need to-do is establish the IP address of the virtual server.   I did this by running ipconfig in a DOS box.

OK,  now over to .Net  I built a sample mobile application and added a web-reference to in my case -

http://10.2.62.18:85/dynamicsnav/ws/CRONUS_International_Ltd/services

I'm going to skip over a few of the details here, but here is a snippet of my code to produce a list of items

       nav2009.test_Binding  ourws = Elements.WS_binding();  // < get a reference to our web-service setting the credentials and the URL
       nav2009.test_Filter[] filters = new test_Filter[1];  // < setup a dummy array of filters, to get all items
       filters[0] = new NAV2009Mobile.nav2009.test_Filter();
       filters[0].Field = test_Fields.Description;
       filters[0].Criteria = "";

       this.dataGrid1.DataSource = ourws.Find(filters, "", 14); // < go get first few items

Final result is a very easy to accomplish list of items, aka THE MONEY SHOT -

People don't believe when I say I run this blog from a PC pretending to be a server running ontop of my fridge.

Well doubters...

Please note,  carrier bag full of fridge magnets and strange collection of plastic trays perched next to broadband router,

The only bit of 'glam' is the small LCD screen that rolls around RSS news, weather and how many www.racingballoon.com tickets have been sold.

Hi all.   So its finally upon us.   I'm hosting my first helium balloon race on the 5th of July.  

We are raising money for Watebeach Community Primary Schools swimming pool repair fund,  which need to find £40k.

So,  we're going for launching as many balloons as we can.     If you're interested in donating a couple of pounds, with each pound buying you a single balloon in the race,  have a look at -

www.racingballoon.com

On the 5th of July (and I'm praying) the virtual earth map of balloon finds gets switched on and we launch all balloons.   We should see in real-time as balloons are found and their location.

Microsoft are providing the prizes (thanks guys) for the finder of the furthest travelled balloon and the winning launcher.   Sorry to report its not an Xbox 360 :-(

One last minute addition made to the project is that when you buy a ticket you can leave a message that the finder of your balloon will see.

This is useful.    This is the url composition settings to draw maps using Maps.Live.Com

i.e

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?cp=37.814692~-122.477339&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=1140291

Full reference of how to build the query strings is here -

http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_local&querytype=keyword&query=url

After posting last week about the ability to email your current location, I have inundated with requests and improvement suggestions.

The top ask, has been the ability to send your location to not just an Exchange email account but to a POP account such as Gmail, Yahoo etc.

So your wish is my command you can download the new version HERE

Let me start off saying,  this isn't an original idea...   

But now that we're getting more and more mobile devices with built in GPS's or ability to triangulate their location.

I'd like to be able to post a text message not just to a person but to a location.    i.e I'd like to post a restaurant menu in space outside the restaurant so that I can browse it on my device when I get near.

Similarly, I'd like to have my agenda arrive to me when I pass a certain part of the railway line on my way to work.

Imagine what would happen,  if you used this to alert all motorists to accidents this way (or would it cause lots ?).    Anyway,    surely this is a perfect little Windows Mobile app. to be written.    Time to write some code....

Always in search of a good community activity.    This year,  I am running a balloon race for our village fate.    You know the type of thing lots of children buy a ticket.  Ticket gets attached to helium filled balloons and they are all launched.    The furthest found balloon results in a prize for both the ticket holder and the person who finds the balloon.

So,  how may you ask,  has this got anything todo with mobile line of business?       We’ll I’m going to use a Virtual Earth map on a website  to plot where all the balloons land.   Rather than the people that find the balloons posting their found ticket back   I’m going to have them register their find on the website also.   Anyway,   the website is up and running in test mode at the moment   with a launch date of the 5th July.    All proceeds are going to rebuilding the swimming pool at our children's school.    I'll let you know when the website is live so you can all go have a look.    Oh yes and the mobile bit.   All balloons are carrying a barcoded tag so we can spot check them at anytime using a Windows Mobile scanner.