Deciding on Your Tablet and Phone Strategy
To offer users a great mobile experience, you must decide on a strategy for how to accomplish this based on an analysis of your users’ needs. This topic explains the different options for developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client, but the documentation you will find in this section is primarily focused on the first of these scenarios.
Universal App Development Strategy
This section briefly describes some of the options that exist for Dynamics NAV.
| Development strategy | Advantages | What also to consider | Examples | For more information, see |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Use the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Development Environment to modify and extend the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client. This scenario resembles developing for Microsoft Dynamics NAV Windows client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web client. | - Extending and modifying Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client is useful for a minimal learning curve and a reduction of development costs; scenarios automatically work on multiple operating systems without having to worry about the maintenance. - Reusing existing investments in Dynamics NAV page objects, business logic, and javascript-based client add-ins. Ideal for user scenarios which can be achieved by using simple application pages. |
Dynamics NAV only supports a specific number of page types, and this can be a limitation in some type of development projects. | - For salespeople tracking customers, looking up item details, and capturing orders. - For technicians on the road using and re-ordering spare parts. - For simple approval scenarios. |
Introducing the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Universal App Getting Started Developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Universal App |
| Based on OData web services or SOAP web services technologies, write an app that interacts with Dynamics NAV. Visual Studio includes project templates for this kind of apps. | This strategy applies when you want to build a highly-custom app with your own UI design that takes advantage of all the rich features which native apps provide. | Cost to learn development tools and languages outside C/SIDE, preparing new development environments. Cost of licensing any one of these tools, and having to maintain code for different operating systems. | A simple touch interface for users to scan their access card for time registration. | Using OData Web Services to Modify Data OData Web Services SOAP Web Services Web Services Web Service Walkthroughs |
| Specifically for developers, use a browser for continuous development and test of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client solution that you are working on. | Switching to running in a browser is an easy and efficient way to test what new and modified pages look like. | Running the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet client and Microsoft Dynamics NAV Phone client in a browser is only recommended for development scenarios. | Testing a Role Center throughout the development process from a browser. | How to: Open the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Tablet or Phone Client from a Browser |
See Also
Developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Universal App
Getting Started Developing for the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Universal App