Mastering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: The Complete Guide for Designing and Integrating Advanced Business

Cover
Copyright
Contributors
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s Online Momentum
	Dynamics 365 Business Central’s evolution
	The Universal Code initiative
	The role of open source and social networks
	The future perspective
	Summary
Chapter 2: Mastering a Modern Development Environment
	The Visual Studio Code user interface
		Code editor
		Status bar
		Activity bar
			Manage
			Command Palette
		Sidebar
			EXPLORER (Ctrl + Shift + E)
			SEARCH (Ctrl + Shift + F)
			SOURCE CONTROL (Ctrl + Shift + G)
			DEBUG (Ctrl + Shift + D)
			EXTENSIONS (Ctrl + Shift + X)
		Panels area
			PROBLEMS
			OUTPUT
			DEBUG CONSOLE
			TERMINAL
	Visual Studio Code – the editing features
		Comment lines
		Delimiter matching
		Text selection
		Code block folding
		Multiple cursors (or multi-cursors)
		Mini-map
		Breadcrumbs
		IntelliSense
		Word completion
		Go to definition
		Find all references
		Peek definition
		Renaming symbols
	Understanding the AL Language extension
		AL Language
			launch.json
			app.json
			Understanding symbols
			Inside symbols
		AL Language extension settings
	Understanding code analyzers
	GitHub Copilot for AL developers
	Summary
Chapter 3: Extension Development Fundamentals
	Technical requirements
	Basic concepts regarding extensions
	Understanding the basics of AL
		Creating a new workspace
		Defining objects using snippets
		Table object definition
		Page object definition
		Table extension object definition
		Page extension object definition
		Codeunit object definition
		Event object definitions
		XMLport object definition
		Query object definition
		Enum object definition
		Profile object definition
	Understanding AL project structure best practices
	Naming guidelines and AL object ranges
	Working on AL coding guidelines
	Summary
Chapter 4: Developing a Customized Solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Translating a business case into a real-world extension
		Developing the Dynamics 365 Business Central customization
		Customer category implementations
			Table definition
			Page definition
			The tableextension definition
			The pageextension definition
			Codeunit definition
			Handling event subscribers
		Gift campaign implementations
			Table definition
			Page definition
			Codeunit definition
		Vendor quality implementations
			Table definition
			Page definition
			The pageextension definition
			Codeunit definition
	Promoting actions
	Creating page views
	Installing and upgrading codeunits
	Defining permission sets in AL
	Summary
Chapter 5: Writing Code for Extensibility
	Why do we need extensible code?
	Business scenario
	Events and the “Handled” pattern
	Writing a dependent extension
	Interfaces in AL
	Extension’s code protection
	Summary
Chapter 6: Advanced AL Development
	Understanding immutable keys
	Access modifiers in AL
	Handling errors with TryFunctions
	Using collectible errors
	Handling actions on errors
	Creating and extending role centers
		Customizing the headline
	Handling XML and JSON files with the AL language
	Understanding Isolated Storage
	Working with control add-ins
		Creating a PDF-Viewer control add-in
	Notifications inside Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Understanding page background tasks
	Using Azure Key Vault in AL extensions
	Namespaces in AL language
	Summary
Chapter 7: Handling Files with Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Handling files with AL
		Handling attachments
		Reading and writing text data from blob fields
		Using the Media and MediaSet data types in AL code
		Using XMLport in AL code
		Handling XML and JSON files with AL
	Using persistent blobs
	Isolated Storage
	Using Azure Blob Storage from AL
		Creating a storage account in Azure
		Using Azure Blob Storage from AL code
		Handling Dynamics 365 Business Central attachments in Azure Blob Storage
	Using Azure file shares from AL
	Summary
Chapter 8: Report Development
	Anatomy of the report object
	The report extension object
	Tools to use for RDL, Word, and Excel layouts
		The RDL, Word, and Excel layout features
		Part 1 – Designing the dataset
		Part 2 – Creating a simple RDL layout
			Part 2.1 – Creating the RDL report header
			Part 2.2 – Adding a table control to the RDL report body
		Part 3 – Understanding grouping
		Part 4 – Building a simple request page
		Part 5 – Adding database images
		Part 6 – Adding a Word layout
		Part 7 – Adding an Excel layout
	Report extension object: a basic example
	Cloning and refactoring reports
	Feature limitations when developing RDL or Word layout document reports
	Understanding report performance considerations
	Summary
Chapter 9: Printing
	Understand cloud-ready printing
	Email printers
	Microsoft Universal Print printers
		Universal Print connector
		Universal Print portal
		Universal Print Integration extension
	Deep dive into the modern printing structure
	Alternatives to Microsoft Universal Print
	Summary
Chapter 10: Debugging
	Running in debug mode
		Debugging logs: verbose mode
	Visual Studio Code debugger sections
		Debugger sidebar
			VARIABLES
			Watch
			Callstack
			Breakpoints
		Debugger toolbar
		Debugging in attach mode
		Non-debuggable items
	Snapshot debugging
	Performance profiling
	Summary
Chapter 11: Telemetry
	Signal fundamentals
		Dimensions
		Aggregated signals
		Microsoft’s recommendations
		Example
	Enabling partner telemetry in Dynamics 365 Business Central online
	KQL log analysis
		Statements
		Operators
		Functions
	Application Insights
		Alerts
		Dashboards
		Workbooks
	Tools to analyze telemetry data
	Power BI telemetry apps
	Custom signals
	Summary
Chapter 12: Coding for Performance
	Defining an efficient data access layer
		Table extension changes from Dynamics 365 Business Central version 23
		Setting the transaction isolation level in AL code
		Writing efficient pages and reports
		Writing performant installation and upgrade AL codeunits
	Events and performance
	Running asynchronous patterns
		Using StartSession in AL code
		Using Task Scheduler in AL code
	Testing and validating performances
	Summary
Chapter 13: Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
	Using the OData protocol for APIs
	Configuring OAuth authentication for Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
		Registering an application in Microsoft Entra ID
		Setting the application permissions
		Creating a client secret
		Microsoft Entra application registration in Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Acquiring an authentication token from Microsoft Entra ID
	Using Dynamics 365 Business Central standard APIs
	Creating a custom API in Dynamics 365 Business Central
		Implementing a new API for a custom entity
		Implementing a new API for an existing entity
		Using the read-only database replica
		Dynamics 365 APIs’ operational limits
	Using OData bound actions
	Using OData unbound actions
		Using OData batch calls with Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
	Using Dynamics 365 Business Central webhooks
	Summary
Chapter 14: Extending Dynamics 365 Business Central with Azure Services
	Overview of Azure Functions
	Creating functions with Azure Functions
	Using Azure Functions from AL
	Overview of Azure Logic Apps
	Creating workflows with Azure Logic Apps
	Summary
Chapter 15: DevOps for Dynamics 365 Business Central
	AL-Go for GitHub: an introduction
	Creating a new per-tenant extension with AL-Go for GitHub
	Branching strategies
		Master-only branch
		Feature/developer branches
		Release branching
		Other strategies
		Git flow
		GitHub flow
	Git merge strategies
		Fast-forward merge
		Squash commit
		Rebase
	Git in Visual Studio Code
		Visual Studio Code GUI for Git
		Workflow
	Handling the CI/CD pipeline
	Setting up your self-hosted GitHub runner
	Handling dependencies between applications
	Adding a test application to an existing project
	Registering a customer sandbox environment for continuous deployment
	Creating a release for your application
	Registering a customer Production environment for manual deployment
	Adding a performance test app to your repository
	Using AL-Go for GitHub for AppSource development
	Summary
Chapter 17: Dynamics 365 Business Central and Power Platform Integration
	Technical requirements
	Power Automate and Dynamics 365 Business Central
		Example 1: Adding a default image to a Customer record
		Example 2: Exporting a selected invoice as PDF to OneDrive
	Creating a Power Apps app with Dynamics 365 Business Central integration
		Scenario: Expense app with offline capability
		Part 1: Creation of the canvas app project
		Part 2: Establishing a data connection to Dynamics 365 Business Central
		Part 3: Working with Dynamics 365 Business Central data from the canvas app
		Part 4: Adding controls and business logic to the canvas app
		Part 5: Adding offline capabilities to the application
		Part 6: Calling a Power Automate flow to execute actions in the app
	Exposing Dynamics 365 Business Central data to Dataverse by using virtual tables
	Exposing Dynamics 365 Business Central events to Dataverse
	Summary
Chapter 18: Useful and Proficient Tools for AL Developers
	Who is Waldo?
	What tools to use
		The AL Extension Pack
		The waldo’s CRS AL Language Extension
			Run objects
			Renaming / Reorganizing files
			Search on Google/Microsoft Docs
			Snippets
			Feedback to Waldo
		Waldo GitHub repo
			Free Visual Studio Code extensions for AL developers
			 AZ AL Dev Tools/AL Code Outline (by Andrzej Zwierzchowski)
			 AL Code Actions (by David Feldhoff)
			 AL Object ID Ninja (by Vjeko.com)
			 BusinessCentral.LinterCop (by Stefan Maron)
			 AL Toolbox (by Bart Permentier)
			 AL Navigator (by Waldemar Brakowski)
			Free Visual Studio Code extensions for AL Language side features
	Summary
Chapter 18: Creating Generative AI Solutions for Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Introduction to generative AI main concepts
	Introducing Azure OpenAI Service
	Dynamics 365 Business Central and Azure OpenAI Service
	Deploy an AI model with Azure OpenAI Service
	Creating a generative AI solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central
	Summary
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