One of the powerful feature of the future Dynamics NAV 5.1 version is surely the new web service layer: Dynamics NAV will finally permit us to expose tables and business logic to other external applications, so a new world of possible application scenarios wil be opened to the NAV users.
But one of the common questions I receive is: should I become a web service expert in order to use these new features?
Although understanding the core concepts of .NET web services is always the best way to approach the new NAV service layer, Dynamics NAV will offer a simple and intuitive way to expose standard logic to the outside world, without knowing a lot about how to develop a .NET web service.
With Dynamics NAV 5.1, pages (the old forms, all table-backed forms are supported) and codeunits are potentially web service (with multiple methods for insert, delete, update, retrieve etc., validation triggers etc.). In order to expose data to external application, you have to access the new Web Service table, select the Object Type you want to expose (page or codeunit), give a name for your newly created service, select the corresponding object ID and then published it (with a checkbox).
Now you've exposed your service and other applications will be able to connect to it and invoke the methods you've exposed.
So easy isn't it? 
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