The traditional Add-on installation method described here must be used when installing E-Commerce for Dynamics NAV versions 2015 and below.
While it is preferred to install E-Commerce B2B Add-on as an Extension when using Dynamics NAV 2016 and above, sometimes it makes sense to carry out the traditional installation for the latest versions anyway. While the Extension method provides more flexibility and automation with future upgrades, it may limit your customization options, e.g. you cannot develop reports based on E-Commerce Extension tables, or modify Extension tables via the Object Designer.
The method desribed is only available for Dynamics NAV reselling partners, and you must use your development license that includes access to E-Commerce B2B objects. Your development license will include the access to module objects once you enter the partnership agreement with Select Solutions.
The traditional add-on installation involves the following procedure, which will normally be performed in the development / testing environment, and moved into production once completed and tested.
Step 1 - Acquire the Add-on objects
Upon licensing E-Commerce B2B, Select Solutions will deliver you the product package, and the package will include the following NAV object files:
ECM-AddOn.fob ECM-MenuSuite.txt ECM-ModifiedStd.txt
The package will also include the file with the list of the standard Dynamics NAV objects modified:
ModifiedStd-List.txt
Related topics:
Step 2 - Import the Add-on objects
Start Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment, and open the respective database using File / Database / Open…
Open the Object Designer located in the Tools menu.
Click File / Import… and select the ECM-AddOn.fob that you downloaded.
The objects will import without any conflict warnings, as all the objects in ECM-AddOn.fob are using Add-on reserved range numbers specific to Select Solutions E-Commerce B2B.
Step 3 - Import the MenuSuite
MenuSuite objects for various Add-ons in Dynamics NAV share the common MenuSuite object number range, which is 1051 through 1059. As you may already have another Add-on solutions present in your Dynamics NAV database, you must choose an available number from this range for E-Commerce B2B.
Click MenuSuite in the Object Designer to view the MenuSuite objects currently present in your database.
The ECM-MenuSuite.txt includes the MenuSuite object for E-Commerce B2B, and uses ID 1057. If 1057 is available and not used by any other MenuSuite objects, you do not need to modify the ECM-MenuSuite.txt file. If, on the other hand, there is already another MenuSuite object with ID 1057, you must open the ECM-MenuSuite.txt using a text editor, e.g. Notepad, and change the object number (located on the first line of the file) to a currently unused number 1051 through 1059.
Next, click File / Import… and select the ECM-MenuSuite.txt.
The file will import without any messages, which is the standard behavior for text file imports.
Step 4 - Merge the modified standard objects
While kept at the minimum, E-Commerce B2B also needs some standard Dynamics NAV objects modified. In order to install the modifications necessary for E-Commerce B2B, you must manually compare and merge the application objects included in the ECM-ModifiedStd.txt file with the exact same objects from your Dynamics NAV database.
While you may already have experience and tools in place to carry out such merging procedures, the following method is reccomended.
Open the ModifiedStd-List.txt file to view the list of the objects you need to merge.
In Object Designer, Mark the objects listed in the ModifiedStd-List.txt. Click View / Marked Only, then click All for the object types.
Select all the objects, click File / Export…, choose Text File (.txt) as the file format, and save your objects as Standard.txt in the same folder where ECM-ModifiedStd.txt resides.
Using a compare / merge tool, e.g. the free WinMerge tool, do a side-by-side comparison of Standard.txt and ECM-ModifiedStd.txt.
Copy any field / page amendments from ECM-ModifiedStd.txt into Standard.txt, and save the result as Standard-Merged.txt when done.
Note: Be sure to also merge the object Version field, so that the merged objects carry the ECMB2Bx.xx identifier.
Note: Save a copy of original Standard.txt for reference, as you may need the original objects in case you decide to later uninstall E-Commerce B2B.
Tip: If the compare tool reveals a multitude of differences because of additional translations in your database and the easy spotting of changes is thus complicated, you can work around the issue by first exporting the language modules of the objects and deleting the additional languages (other than ENU), and importing the language modules back after the merged objects have been imported to Dynamics NAV.
Next, click File / Import… and select the Standard-Merged.txt.
The file will import without any messages, which is the standard behavior for text file imports.
Step 5 - Compile and finalize
As the final step, you must compile all the objects that have been imported in the previous steps.
In Object Designer, filter the objects by *ECM* version tag, select all the objects and click Tools / Compile. There should be no compile errors if the merge has been successfully performed.
At this point, you have successfully installed E-Commerce B2B Add-on module.