The approach for preparing the application objects for merging resembles the process that you used to upgrade your Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 objects to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013.

You must analyze and process code changes by comparing and evaluating three separate versions of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV database:

After merging customizations into the New Base Version you will have a New Custom Version, which is the objective of the code upgrade. The product of the code upgrade is a .fob file that contains all Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 objects (including customizations), which you will use during the data upgrade. Customers can continue to work with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database (the old custom version) although you upgrade the code by using a copy of their database. However, we recommend that you avoid making any additional customizations to the old custom version while you work on the code upgrade.

Important

In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, report objects could have either a classic layout or a client report definition (RDLC) layout, and they could have a classic request form. In Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, classic reports are removed, and in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 the RDLC format has changed. As a result, all report objects in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 must be upgraded by using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013development environment before they can be used in a merge with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 reports. Also, before you start the merge, you must apply the changes to your Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 reports that are described in KB article 2804640 “Code corrections for some Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 reports to prevent compilation errors with Report Viewer 2012 when upgrading to later versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV”.

The following list describes the main steps of upgrading the application code:

1. Identifying customer-specific changes
   
2. Preparing the new base objects
   
3. Compare versions
   
4. Merging versions
   
5. Exporting the merged objects
   

To begin, create three folders on the computer and name them as follows:

• OldBaseVersion
  
• OldCustomVersion
  
• NewBaseVersion
  

To identify customer-specific changes, you must compare the objects in the customer's old custom version with the old base version.

Complete the following series of actions for the old base version of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database.

1. Open the database using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013development environment.
   
2. Export all objects in .txt format into the OldBaseVersion folder. Do not include system tables. Name the file OldBaseVersion.txt.
   
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the old custom version of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 database. Export the objects to the OldCustomVersion folder and name the file OldCustomVersion.txt.
   

1. Open the new base version database using the Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2
   
2. Export all objects in .txt format into the NewBaseVersion folder. Do not include system tables. Name the file NewBaseVersion.txt.
   

For each version, split the converted .txt files into single objects and review them using a file comparison tool. Delete the objects that are identical and not customized.

You can now start comparing the converted objects.

Use a file comparison tool to compare the files that you created in the previous procedure and find and view details about the objects changed during the upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. This process is easier if you split each of your three exported .txt files into collections of .txt files, with one object for each file.

As you compare the files, make a log of the differences and evaluate the changes that have been made.

Decide which changes from the old custom version you want to duplicate in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. Some of the customizations may correspond to new functionality in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2. In such cases, you do not have to move the changes from the old custom version.

To make the evaluation easier, determine if there is any document that describes the changes that have been made in the old custom version. Object names or field names that would be duplicated because of the merge must be renamed. Function numbers and control numbers must be renumbered.

You must now merge the customized objects into the new standard database to create the new custom database.

For this step, you should use a merge tool which lets you see all three existing versions at the same time and merge the changes into the fourth, new custom version.

Typically, you merge changes in the old custom version into the new base version. However in some cases, when the number of changes in the new base version is insignificant, it can be easier and faster to merge those changes directly into the old custom version and then copy merged objects into the new custom version.

The following table highlights the key code merging principles. We recommend that you use these principles for the merging process, depending on how a certain line or block of code that is located in the old base version is changed throughout the versions.

After you have completed the merge, export the new custom version to a text file, import it into the new Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 database, and then compile all objects. You can expect compilation errors. You must resolve the errors before you can continue.

You now have a new customized database. This database contains all the objects that have been customized to include the changes that were made in the old database.

Now, you must export all objects to an objects.fob file so that you can import them when performing the data upgrade. The export must include customized objects, upgraded reports, and all other Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2 objects.

To export all objects

This completes the upgrade of the application code. Next, you must upgrade the data in the database. For more information, see Upgrading the Data

Concepts

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