FlowField based on code

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Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

I am disappointed to find that a FlowField cannot use a small amount of CAL code.
I am trying to calculate a substring of a UK Postcode on the Customer table, e.g.: AB12 3CD -> AB12
I have done this outside NAV in Excel reports by: PostcodeDistrict = Delete3CharsFromTheEnd(StripSpaces(Postcode))

What is the best way to do this in NAV to act just like a FlowField? In other words:

Is not stored in the database
Is available on the customer page
Is available on the web service

Thanks!
(For anyone wondering, I did it this way because the first part is not a fixed length.)

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Answers (1)

Jeremy Vyska 727 on at

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RE: FlowField based on code

If you add the variable to the Page and add the variable to the page just like you would a field, and the Web Service exposes the Page object, then you will see the variable just like any field. Sounds like that will hit your needs. Hope that helps!
Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: FlowField based on code

Would the variable be defined on the Page or the Table?

And once I added it to the page, would the Web Service (based on that page) automatically get that variable?
Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: FlowField based on code

Thanks for the reply Jeremy.

I prefer your first variable solution over creating and updating a new database field, since the data is already in the database.
Verified answer

Jeremy Vyska 727 on at

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RE: FlowField based on code

Sadly, you just can't put code logic or even functions into FlowFields.

Generally, you'd have to, on the Customer Page and in the Web Service you're exposing, set a variable, populate that variable with your logic during OnAfterGetRecord, then add the Variable to the page.

Given the nature of the challenge you have, what you *could* do is make a new field that contains only the data you want. Then, a quick bit of additional validation on the field when it changes to update the new PostPrefix field, along with a one-time run Processing Only routine that populates the data initially.

Then you can do FlowFields all over the place against it.