How-to: Reset Object Properties After Importing a UI Translation

Did you ever use the ObjectTime tool? Or what I actually wanted to ask is: ever heard of the ObjectTime tool?

Haven’t checked it for all versions but in general it is delivered as part of the UPGTK (i.e. Upgrade Toolkit) on the product CD/DVD: \..\UpgradeToolKit\Multilanguage Tools. It’s actually one dataport (104010 – Import/Export Object Time) provided as a .fob file, called ObjectTime.fob, that allows you to export object properties of all C/SIDE objects:

• Type
• ID
• Modified
• Time
• Date

There is not separate documentation for the tool. It’s usage used to be described in the UPGTK manual (w1w1upgr.pdf), but, although the .fob is still there on the NAV 2009 (SP1) CD/DVD, the UPGTK  manual (Upgrade Toolkit Manual.pdf) does not mention it at all!

So what is its value?

ObjectTime’s main raison d’être is related to UI translation. The tool was provided to NAV partners at the time when NAV became multilanguage enabled. The artifact of having translated the UI and needing to import it back into the C/SIDE objects the import process will update the above mentioned object properties. So the Modified flag will be set, and both Date and Time will be synced with the system date/time. In general this is not what we want to happen to all the affected objects as we use these fields (including the Version List) to reflect the state of the objects based on the code.

And here is were ObjectTime comes in view. Before you import your UI translation run the dataport to export the current state of the objects and … after importing the translation you run the dataport to import that state into the C/SIDE objects again. A child can do the laundry. [I]