Register and Consume Codeunit as a Web Service in NAV 2013 R2

Hi Guys,



Today we will be learning :

1. How to Register a Web Service in NAV 2013 R2.
2. How to Consume it using Visual Studio.

Step 1. Register a Web Service in NAV 2013 R2

To Register a Web Service we need to open Web Services in RTC.

Department > Administration > IT Administration > General > Web Services

Step 1.1 - To Register a new Codeunit web service we need to create a Codeunit first (and then we will register it). For this article, I will Create a Codeunit which will Sum 2 Numbers. I am taking a very basic program of Sum to start with, so that all of us developers are able to do this exercise easily and then go-to more advanced programs & services.

• Open the Development Environment.
• Create a new Codeunit.
• Open C/AL Globals and Under the Functions Tab, create a new function with the Name 'Sum' .
• Open C/AL Locals of 'Sum'. Define Locals as shown in below screenshots,

• Write code in the function just defined as shown below,

• Save the Codeunit and exit the development environment.

Step 1.2 - Open Web services in RTC and click New.

• Enter Codeunit in Object Type.
• Select the Object ID on which you saved the Codeunit.
• Enter a Service Name (Mandatory Field).
• Mark the Published field to True.
• As soon as Published field becomes True, the OData URL & SOAP URL are filled automatically. (OData field will show 'Not applicable' as a Codeunit can not be consumed with OData web services.)

You have Registered the Web Service Successfully. 

You can test your Web Service,

- By clicking small globe icon which appears on the right side as soon as you click on SOAP URL field.

OR

- Copy and paste the SOAP URL in any of your Internet Browser.

Step 2. Consume a Web Service in NAV 2013 R2

Step 2.1 - Open Microsoft Visual Studio and Create a new project. 

• Click File > New > Project.
• New Project Window opens. 
• Expand Installed node > Expand Templates node > Expand Visual C# node > Click Windows > Select Console Application.
• Enter Name of the project as Numbers.
• Click OK.

VS will open a new window having name Program.cs as shown below,

Here we will write the C# code to consume the Codeunit Web Service created in Step 1.

But first we need to add reference of our web service to our Project in VS.

Step 2.2 - Add Service Reference to our project in VS.

• In the Solution Explorer which on the right hand side in VS. Right-Click on the Project you created and select Add Service Reference option.

• Add Service Reference window opens. Click on Advanced...

• Service Reference Settings window opens. Click Add Web Reference...

• Add Web Reference window opens. Type the URL same as this one "http://localhost:7047/DynamicsNAV71/WS/Codeunit/Numbers"

And if you are working with a Remote Server, Replace localhost with that Server's IP Address and rest of the URL remains same.

• Press Enter OR click on the arrow image placed to the right of URL Text box.
• Enter the Web reference name such as 'NumbersWS'.
• Click Add Reference.

And the web service will be added to your Project.

Step 2.3 - Add the following code to Program.cs

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace Numbers

{

    // Import the newly created Web Service

    using NumberWS;

    class Program

    {

        static void Main(string[] args)

        {

            // Create an instance of the Web Service

            Numbers ws = new Numbers();

            

            // Use Default credentials for authentication to Microsoft Dynamics NAV

            ws.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

            // Declare Variables

            decimal a, b, result;

            

            a = 15;

            b = 17;

            

            // Call the Codeunit web service

            result = ws.Sum(a,b);

            // Print the Output

            Console.WriteLine("Result: {0}", result);

            // Keep the console open until we press ENTER

            Console.ReadLine();

        }

    }

}

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Once you have added the code, Press F5. And see the output which will print the sum of the two numbers.

• Press ENTER to close the console.

And now you're ready to create Codeunit web services in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. Try other examples such as UPPERCASE, LOWERCASE etc. C/AL functions and create web services to consume these.

Cheers!!!

Ishwar

Post your comments and doubts I will be happy to answer them.