Upgrade automation – an overview
Upgrading your Dynamics NAV basically consists of three main parts:
- Convert the database to the new version
- Upgrade the application code to the new version
- Upgrade the data to the new version
Of the three processes, upgrading the application code and the data takes up the most time. This can cause companies to shy away from upgrading to the latest version of Dynamics NAV.
Upgrade automation – the application code
The first problem with upgrade is upgrading the application code. Prior to NAV 2016, to upgrade the application code, you had to export the objects of the previous version and the next version into text files. Then you would use any off-the-shelf software or freeware to merge the modifications done on the older version to the new version.
To remedy this, Microsoft introduced a PowerShell script called Merge-NAVApplicationObject
. When you run this command using PowerShell, it will automatically merge the code for you. If the...