Back from Microsoft Directions 2013 Where Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 Was Finally Released!

The big part of this release was “On” Microsoft Office 365 and “In” the cloud.  However, Aran has spoken to that already, so I will concentrate on two of the changes I think affect the end user the most with Dynamics NAV 2013 R2.

The first addition, which I think will result in lots of interest, is the ability to sort columns by clicking their headers.  A lot of users are used to this experience in other software and in fact to a certain degree expect to see it in Dynamics NAV. However, the technology behind this is all about database calls and the most efficient way to serve up data to the client is by using an Index. In this case, the new sort feature does not require an index on the field (which would be a lot of new indexes and bog down the system) so, as a result, could cause some performance issues when used on large lists of data that are unfiltered like the G/L Entry Table. This sort of feels like we are back to “find as you type” where the demand is there from the end user but those of us that have to support the application want to rip our hair out.

Here you can see I have sorted the Open Sales Order List by Location.