Why Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 makes PowerShell more important than ever

Windows PowerShell is not new, but it is a tool that is gaining in importance as Microsoft Dynamics NAV upgrades grow increasingly complex and deployments enter the cloud, demand greater scale, automation, and reliability.

PowerShell is a shell scripting application - a command-line program that can accept advanced technical commands - developed by Microsoft for the purposes of task automation and configuration management of its applications and operating systems. The shell is based on the .NET framework and includes a command-line shell itself and a scripting language.

Simply put, PowerShell is a Microsoft programming tool that enables users to simplify and automate monotonous and repetitive tasks by creating scripts that combine multiple commands to improve efficiency, ensure accuracy and reduce the risk of mistakes.

So where exactly is PowerShell positioned in the Dynamics NAV universe?

"It's in the tooling," says Dynamics NAV MVP Eric Wauters, founding partners of iFacto Business Solutions and a blogger who has been a long time champion of PowerShell. By tooling, Wauters is referring to three primary domains: development tools; server administration; and object management.

Many people compare PowerShell to the Microsoft DOS command prompt, Wauters says.

"When you see the DOS prompt, you type in a command and you expect results," he says. "And that is basically what PowerShell is."

PowerShell relies on the Cmdlet (pronounced "command-let") - a simple, single-function command-line tool built into the shell. When you put in a command you expect a result from the system, like getting back a collection of objects as a result.

"You can ...