Microsoft Dynamics NAV By Binesh & Shilpa: ADCS NAV 2016 OVERVIEW

ADCS NAV 2016 OVERVIEW

Hi All,

Today I'm going to describe how you can do ADCS Installation & Configuration in NAV 2016, also Testing using Hyper terminal.

Overview

The Automated Data Capture System (ADCS) solution provides a way for Microsoft Dynamics NAV to communicate with handheld devices through web services. You can test your solution by using the VT100 plug-in.

Overview and Architecture

ADCS enables you to accurately capture data for inbound, outbound, and internal documents, primarily for warehouse activities. For example, you can have users scan the bar codes of items in your warehouse as they perform daily tasks, and that information is recorded from these handheld device activities in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server processes the data coming to in from the handheld devices via the plug-in and sends the appropriate response back to the handheld devices via the plug-in. An XML format is used to send and receive the data. The VT100 plug-in makes sure that the response from Microsoft Dynamics NAV is directed to the correct handheld device. This reduces the load on the server.

The VT100 plug-in provides the link between the server and the Access Points for the handheld devices and acts as a virtual Telnet server. All connection requests and data transmissions are handled by this service, and the incoming native protocol is transformed into standard XML that the server can interpret. After a request has been transformed, the request is forwarded by the VT100 plug-in to the server. When a reply is received, it is converted from XML into the native protocol of the handheld device. Function keys are mapped using an XSLT file that you can modify. After the data has been transformed and formatted, it is forwarded to the handheld device.

Design Overview

The following illustration provides a simple diagram of ADCS. The part of the illustration that is shaded, which does not include ADCS, represents what could be developed.

Consider the following when you deploy an ADCS solution:

You can configure multiple instances of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server on a single computer, but each instance can only access one company. Therefore, if you want to access several companies from the same computer, you must configure several Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server instances for NAS Services.
You can only install one instance of the VT100 plug-in on a single computer. The VT100 plug-in can only serve one company but it can communicate with multiple instances of Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server. This means that all of the instances of the server that use the same VT100 plug-in can only access the same company.
If you want to communicate with more than one company, you must install the VT100 plug-in on more than one computer, one for each company. Each of the VT100 plug-in installations must then use a separate Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server to access one of the companies.

NOTE:

You can also install the VT100 plug-in multiple times on the same computer, one for each company.

Supported Devices

An ADCS device includes devices such as bar code readers or optical character readers that are used to mechanize the entry of information into the database.

All character-based handheld devices that have a VT100 interface will work with ADCS, although you may have to implement minor adjustments with some models. When you use a handheld device, you must be able to connect either the Access Point or the RF terminal to the IP or port address of the ADCS server.

If you want to use a graphics-based handheld device, you will have to develop your own plug-in.

You can connect multiple handheld devices to the VT100 plug-in. However, if performance becomes an issue, you can always add an additional Microsoft Dynamics NAV Server and direct the VT100 plug-in to also connect with the new server to improve performance.

Configure the ADCS:

Installation of ADCS [Microsoft Dynamics NAV VT100 Plugin]
NAV configuration changes for ADCS
Logon permission to VT100 Service
ADCS config file.

Let me install ADCS in my System and describe the steps to you:

1. Installation of ADCS [Microsoft Dynamics NAV VT100 Plugin]:

Ø I have already installed NAV 2016 in my System, so I am opening “Add / remove programs” and adding the ADCS component to the same by clicking on the ‘Change’.

Ø Once you clicked on Change, the “Maintenance window” opened.

Ø Click on “Add or Remove Components”, then click “Automated data Capture System” And then select “Run from My Computer” [See the Bellow Screenshot].

Ø Click on “Next” Button, Then “Specify parameters” window will appear.

Note: If you have already installed NAV 2016, then you don’t really need to change anything in this window.

Ø Click on the “Apply” Button from the “Specify parameters” window.

This will start installing the ADCS component for Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016.

2. NAV configuration changes for ADCS:

Ø Once the installation is successfully done, then open NAV RTC and check few things in which will enable ADCS to communicate with NAV server / database effectively.

ADCS User:

Ø You need to create an ADCS user which will be used for authenticating the device’s access to the database.

Ø Type “ADCS Users” in RTC Search Box and then click relevant menu.

Ø Create a new user and assign a password to it. The same user id and password you need to pass while connecting NAV from the handheld device [See the Below Screenshot].

Connect ADCS user with the Warehouse Employee:

Ø Identify the ADCS user as one of the Warehouse employee [which in turn identify itself as one of the window’s login in NAV.

Ø Create a New/Edit “Warehouse Employees” and assign a password to it.

Ø Link between windows user [warehouse employee] and the ADCS user you have just created in previous step.

Ø Now this user will have a default location [Default will be ticked next to the location code] which he can use in his warehouse related transactions in NAV.

Ø The same location must be ADCS enabled too. This step need to be repeated if the user has access to multiple location [See the Below Screenshot].

Enabling Location for ADCS use:

Ø Open the location card [where the above defined user has access to work on] according to our setup, “White” Location is default, for testing purpose “Edit” the “White” location, and then expand Warehouse “Fast Tab” [See the Below Screenshot].

Check the Miniforms:

Ø Type “miniforms” in RTC Search Box and then click relevant menu.

Ø These are the default miniforms available in ‘Cronus’ company and the same can be copied to any new company / installation you have created.

Ø These miniforms can manage all the standard warehouse functions / activities but you have the liberty to create additional miniforms to cater to additional custom activities [If you create any additional miniforms, the same may need changes in the associated ADCS related codeunits in NAV [See the Below Screenshot].

Note: These codeunits are between 7700 and 7714]

Publish the ADCS Web Service:

Ø Publish the Web Service which will be called by the VT100 Component [Check the architecture at the top of the post] of NAV. Open the Web services window and add a new service with the object type ‘Codeunit’ and select 7714 in ‘Object Id’.

Ø Be sure, to keep the Service Name as ‘ADCS’. Check the service availability by copying the SOAP URL and pasting it in your browser. This should display the details of the Web Service [See the Below Screenshot].

3. Logon permission to VT100 Service:

Ø Additionally the ADCS component of NAV [Microsoft Dynamics NAV VT100 plugin] must have the access to NAV database. This is determined by whether the logon user used for this plugin has the necessary permission in NAV database or not.

Ø You can use an existing user id already used in NAV as logon user id for VT100 or you can create a dedicated windows user id for this use. The same user must have ‘ADCS ALL’ Permission Set. If you are not sure about the permission set you can go ahead with the ‘Super’ Permission Set assigned to the user.

Ø For example, here I am using my user id as logon user for Microsoft Dynamics NAV VT100 plugin. [Services can be opened by typing in ‘services.msc’ in your Search / Run box]

Ø Start the service of this plugin once you are done with logon information changes [See the Below Screenshot].

4. ADCS config file:

Ø Open the ADCS config file and update the configuration according to your VT100 Plugin. [See the bellow Screenshot].

Note: If you have changed any text in this file for your environment, please make sure that you have restarted ‘Microsoft Dynamics NAV VT100 Plugin’ service.

Congratulations… ADCS Installation & Configuration completed successfully!

TESTING ADCS USING HYPER TERMINAL CLIENT APPLICATION

Ø Open “Hyper Terminal Client” and type the Host address & Port Number, then click OK button [See the bellow screenshot].