Glossary
The terms this manual uses for Prism for C/AL, in alphabetical order.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Control Panel | The name a workspace window uses for the main window, where you open object stores and manage mirrors, settings and the license. File › Control Panel… in a workspace window shows it. See Control Panel. |
| Design area | The band of object ids an object falls in, which says who designed it, as Microsoft's object numbering does: Base application (1–9 999, and Microsoft's blocks above 99 999 such as manufacturing from 99 000 750), Country/region (10 000–49 999), Customer (50 000–99 999) and Partner (from 100 000). The object index filters by design area, and the Solution page counts objects per design area. |
| Development environment |
C/SIDE, the NAV development environment, finsql.exe. A
mirror runs it to export objects
as text, so each mirror names the one that belongs to its database in its
finsql.exe setting.
|
| Directory store |
An object store read from a
folder of object text files, one object per file. Prism reads an unstructured folder, its own
layout (table\18.txt) and the ReVision layout (Table\Table 0000000018.txt).
A folder suits objects kept under version control.
|
| File store | An object store read from a single object text file, such as an export of all objects from C/SIDE. |
| Find Usages | The command that lists every place an object, field, procedure, variable or key is used, grouped by object. Prism finds usages from the parsed code, not from text matches. See Find Usages. |
| Granule | A line item of a NAV license, which grants a set of features and the objects that go with them. Prism groups objects by their ids into design areas, not by granule. |
| Limited features | How Prism runs without a license. A feature that needs a license shows Not enabled in this edition and is disabled. See License. |
| MCP server | A Model Context Protocol server that lets an AI agent search and read the objects of an object store. See MCP server. |
| MenuSuite layer | A MenuSuite object that changes the menu nodes of the MenuSuites below it. Prism groups each layer's nodes as added, modified, re-linked and removed; see Object view. |
| Mirror |
A local copy of the objects of a NAV database, which Prism exports through finsql.exe
and keeps in sync. A mirror opens as an
object store, so you
browse a database's objects without exporting them by hand. See
Mirrors.
|
| NAV adapter |
The part of Prism that works with a mirror's
database: it reads the object list to find changes and runs finsql.exe to export them.
Prism has one for NAV 2013 and one for NAV 2015 and later, and picks it from the version of
finsql.exe. Its source is open on GitHub. See
NAV adapters.
|
| Object index | The Objects panel on the left of the Objects page, which lists the objects of the store by type, with a search box and a filter. See Object index. |
| Object store |
A set of C/AL objects in text format that Prism opens: a
file store, a
directory store or a
mirror. Prism reads text
only, never .fob files or a database directly. Each object store opens in a
workspace window of its
own. See Opening an object store.
|
| Object view | The middle of the Objects page, which shows the open object on three tabs: Prism (properties, declarations and code), Dependencies and Source. See Object view. |
| Outline | The panel on the right of the Objects page that lists the declarations of the open object as a tree. See Outline. |
| Parse error | What Prism reports for an object whose text it could not fully parse. Only that object is affected: its Prism tab shows the error in place of the declarations, and its outline and analysis are not available. The Health card on the Solution page and the Object Errors window list them; see Objects fail to parse. |
| Post-update hook | A script of yours that Prism runs each time a synchronization writes object files to a mirror, for instance to copy them to a version control folder. One script serves all mirrors; Prism passes the mirror and its changes in environment variables and, if you choose, on standard input. See Run a script after an update. |
| Prism Path |
An address of an object or a declaration in it, such as prism:Table/Customer/Field/Name.
A Prism Path names the object, not its id, so it reads the same in any store.
Copy Prism Path to Clipboard copies one; Go to path and position,
Universal Search and the MCP server read them.
|
| Service tier |
A NAV Server instance. finsql.exe contacts one to export objects, so a
mirror may need to name it; see
A mirror cannot contact a service tier.
|
| Synchronization | How Prism keeps a mirror up to date. The first synchronization exports every object; later ones export only new and changed objects and remove deleted ones. Prism synchronizes each mirror with Automatic synchronization on two minutes after it starts, then every synchronization interval, 15 minutes by default. Synchronize on the Mirrors page starts one now, and Re-initialize makes the next one export every object again. See Synchronize mirrors. |
| System function |
A function built into C/AL, such as FINDSET, MODIFY or DELETE.
Find System Function Usages… finds where the system functions you choose are applied
to one object, including calls in the object's own code. See
System Functions.
|
| Trial license | A license key that gives all features for a limited time. Request one in the Trial license window. When it ends, Prism runs with limited features. |
| Universal Search | The search that finds objects, members, Prism Paths, menu commands and pages from one box. Open it with Ctrl+T or Search › Search Everywhere…. See Universal Search. |
| Version List |
The object property that holds a comma-separated list of tags, such as NAVW17.00, naming
the product versions and changes the object belongs to. Prism counts the tags and filters by them.
|
| Workspace window | The window an object store opens in, with its pages on a rail on the left. Each open store has its own. See Workspace window. |