How to Create Functionality to Attach Multiple Files to Records in NAV

In the Stock Exchange Bookkeeping App I wanted to be able to attach multiple files (ex: PDFs) to BVB Entries.

The attachments are files received from the brokerage firm and they refer to a transaction. For example, if I buy 1 stock, I will have 3 BVB Entries with the same Transaction Number. If I attach files, they will be linked to the Transaction Number and visible as below, in a Factbox, for all BVB Entries with the same Transaction Number:

If I double click on a “File Name” in the Factbox, I have the possibility to Open or Save the file:

I also have 2 more options:
–> Delete an Existing File:

–> Upload a New File:

Let’s see now how I made this small functionality:

–> First, when we post a Journal, we need to create a Transaction No. for all Entries related to a transaction. I inspired from standard NAV Codeunit 12 and wrote some functions for this:

–> Then, because we can have multiple attachments linked to a Transaction Number, I created a new Table where I store the Attachments in a Blob field:

–> In this table we also have some functions:
* Function to View the file from the Blob field:

ViewBlob(BlobFieldNo : Integer;FileName : Text)
RecRef.GETTABLE(Rec);
FldRef := RecRef.FIELD(BlobFieldNo);
IF FORMAT(FldRef.TYPE) <> 'BLOB' THEN
  EXIT;

FldRef.CALCFIELD;
TempBlob.Blob := FldRef.VALUE;
IF NOT TempBlob.Blob.HASVALUE THEN
  ERROR('no value');

FileManagement.BLOBExport(TempBlob,FileName,TRUE);

* Function to Upload a new file as an Attachment:

InsertAttachment(SourceTableNo : Integer;SourceTransactionNo : Integer)
IF UPLOADINTOSTREAM('','','',FileName,Instr) THEN BEGIN
  INIT;
  "Source Table No." := SourceTableNo;
  "Source Table Reference No." := SourceTransactionNo;
  "File Name" := GetFileName(FileName);
  Attachment.CREATEOUTSTREAM(OutStr);
  COPYSTREAM(OutStr, Instr);
  INSERT;
END;

* Function to get the File Name from the File Path:

LOCAL GetFileName(FullFileName : Text) : Text
FileNameWithoutPath := FullFileName;
WHILE STRPOS(FileNameWithoutPath, '\') <> 0 DO
  FileNameWithoutPath:= COPYSTR(FileNameWithoutPath, 1 + STRPOS(FileNameWithoutPath, '\'));

EXIT(FileNameWithoutPath);

–> Next step was to create a Factbox in which we display the attachments:
* Factbox has Source Table the Attachment table and one field “File Name” inside a repeater group:

* Inside the OnDrillDown trigger of field “File Name” of Factbox I call function “ViewBlob” from Attachment table. This is why, when we double click a File name in the Factbox, we can Open or Download the file:

File Name - OnDrillDown()
ViewBlob(FIELDNO(Attachment),"File Name");

* I also used a global BVBEntry variable that is initialized in the FactBox page using a function:

SetBVBEntry(BVBEntry : Record "BVB Entry")
GBVBEntry := BVBEntry;

* This global is Initialized and Changed when we change the current BVB Entry (OnAfterGetCurrRecord of page “BVB Entries”):

OnAfterGetCurrRecord()
CurrPage.AttachFactbox.PAGE.SetBVBEntry(Rec);

* The Factbox is linked in the “BVB Entries” page in this way:

* Then, when we use Actions “New” and “Delete” in the Factbox, the following code is executed:
– Upload New Attachment:

AttachFile - OnAction()
RecRef.GETTABLE(GBVBEntry);
BVBAttachment.InsertAttachment(RecRef.NUMBER, GBVBEntry."Transaction No");

– Delete existing attachment:

DeleteFile - OnAction()
DELETE;

I hope you ejoyed this post.