When you have a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part on a SharePoint Web Part page, you can connect it to other Web Parts. A Web Part connection lets you pass data from one Web Part to another Web Part or filter data in one Web Part by using values from another Web Part. Connecting two Web Parts makes it possible for the content of one Web Part to change because of user actions in the other Web Part. For example, you can connect a customer list page in one Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part to the customer details FactBox page in another Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part. When a user selects a customer from the customer list, then the customer details FactBox updates to display information about the selected customer.

How to Determine the Web Part Provider and Consumer

A Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part can connect to one or more Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Parts or any other Web Part that has connections that are compatible with Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Parts. Microsoft SharePoint Web Part Manager automatically detects compatible connection points between Web Parts.

Similar to other SharePoint Web Part connections, a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part can function as both a provider and a consumer of data. As a provider, a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part passes a current row of data from the page’s underlying table to another Web Part. As a consumer, a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part receives a value from a specific field in the row of data from the provider.

When you set up a connection to a Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part, you must specify a provider field and consumer field on which to map data. The following illustration shows the relationship between the provider and consumer in a Web Part connection.

Connecting a NAV Web Part to another Web Part

In this example, the customer list Web Part is the provider and the customer details FactBox Web Part is the consumer.

Data Type of Fields in a Connection

To form a connection, the consumer and provider must both recognize the same type of data. If the provider and consumer fields have different data types, a connection can be established, however, in some cases, a filter exception will occur at runtime when data is loaded.

For more information about how to provide, consume, and transform data in a Web Part connection, see Understanding Microsoft Dynamics NAV Web Part Connections.

Web Part Order

If you are connecting more than two Web Parts on a SharePoint page, the order in which you add the Web Parts is important. The provider Web Part must be added before the consumer Web Part.

See Also