How to pipe Dynamics NAV Data to CSV in PowerShell

The CData Cmdlets Module for Dynamics NAV is a standard PowerShell module offering straightforward integration with Dynamics NAV. Below, you will find examples of using our DynamicsNAV Cmdlets with native PowerShell cmdlets.

Creating a Connection to Your Dynamics NAV Data

Before you can connect, OData Services will need to be enabled on the server. Once OData Services are enabled, you will be able to query any Services that are published on the server.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid Dynamics NAV user credentials. In addition, you will need to specify a URL to a valid Dynamics NAV server organization root and a ServerInstance. If there is not a Service Default Company for the server, you will need to set the Company as well.

$conn = Connect-DynamicsNAV  -http://myserver:7048 "$http://myserver:7048" -User "$User" -Password "$Password" -ServerInstance "$ServerInstance"

Selecting Data

Follow the steps below to retrieve data from the Customer table and pipe the result into to a CSV file:

Select-DynamicsNAV -Connection $conn -Table Customer | Select -Property * -ExcludeProperty Connection,Table,Columns | Export-Csv -Path c:\myCustomerData.csv -NoTypeInformation

You will notice that we piped the results from Select-DynamicsNAV into a Select-Object cmdlet and excluded some properties before piping them into an Export-Csv cmdlet. We do this because the CData Cmdlets append Connection, Table, and Columns information onto each "row" in the result set, and we do not necessarily want that information in our CSV file.

Deleting Data

The following line deletes any records that match the criteria:

Select-DynamicsNAV -Connection $conn -Table Customer -Where "Name = Bob" | Remove-DynamicsNAV

Inserting and Updating Data

The cmdlets make data transformation easy as well as data cleansing. The following example loads data from a CSV file into Dynamics NAV, checking first whether a record already exists and needs to be updated instead of inserted.

Import-Csv -Path C:\MyCustomerUpdates.csv | %{
  $record = Select-DynamicsNAV -Connection $DynamicsNAV -Table Customer -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  if($record){
    Update-DynamicsNAV -Connection $dynamicsnav -Table Customer -Columns ("Name","Prices_Including_VAT") -Values ($_.Name, $_.Prices_Including_VAT) -Where ("Id = `'"+$_.Id+"`'")
  }else{
    Add-DynamicsNAV -Connection $dynamicsnav -Table Customer -Columns ("Name","Prices_Including_VAT") -Values ($_.Name, $_.Prices_Including_VAT)
  }
}

As always, our goal is to simplify the way you connect to data. With cmdlets users can install a data module, set the connection properties, and start building. Download Cmdlets and start working with your data in PowerShell today!