NAV 2009 – How to – Simple Form Transformation

This post describes the simplest possible way to transform a form into a page in NAV 2009. Both Pages and Transformation is documented in more details elsewhere. Here, I just want to make the simples possible example, just to get a simple form transformed into a simple page.

Prerequisites:

You need to have at least a NAV 2009 classic client and the Transformation tool. To test the page, of course you also need the Rolebased client. But to just transform a form, you don’t need it.

Import the tool:

1. Open a classic client, go to Object Designer and import the file TIF.fob from the folder TransformationTool\TIF Editor\
2. Create a new form in NAV, as simple as possible. For example a Card form based on the customer table, with just a few fields on it. This is the form you want to transform.

Setup and use the Transformation tool:

3. Run form 177000 “Transformation Forms”
4. Click Import -> “Import PageType – FormType mapping”, and select the file TransformationTool\TIF Editor\FormToPagetypeMapping.txt.
5. Click Functions -> Get Forms. Filter on Type = Form, and ID = the new form, then click OK. This gets the form(s) that you want to transform.
6. In the FormType field, select “Card” (“Form with TabControl only and a source table”).

Run the transformation:

7. Export the settings from form 177000: Click on Export -> “Transform Pages”. You must export it to the TransformationTool folder, and it must be called TransformPages.xml.
8. From Object Designer, export the form (Tools -> Export) as xml.You must export it to the folder TransformationTool, and it must be called Forms.xml.

You now have the form you want to transform, and the meta-data that tells the TranformationTool how to transform it.

9. Run the file FormTransformation.exe from the TransformationTool folder. This generates a new file called Pages.xml. It also logs any progress or errors in the file Transformation.log.

Import the new page:

10. Back in NAV (classic client): Go to Object Designer, and import the file Pages.xml, and then compile it.

If all steps ran without any errors, you have now transformed your form into a page which can be displayed in the rolebased client.