This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1.
The first of the new functionality in the Development section is AL Explorer And AL Home In Visual Studio Code AL Extension.
Over the last several releases Microsoft have made a remarkable transformation of their development tools, to align them with the expectations of the worldwide community of developers. Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and Application Insights are the tools used by millions of developers worldwide, and they can now join the Business Central developer community much easier, with less ramp-up time needed.
On the other hand, regardless of their efforts in scaling the developer community, the broader trend shows that we won’t be able to keep up with the demand in that area, so Microsoft need to focus their efforts on increasing pro developer productivity as well as re-enabling consultants to do more on their own, like in the classic C/SIDE RAD experience, with little to no dependency on scarce pro developer resources or need to work directly in source code, and still abiding to proper quality and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) processes.
Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Feb 2023
General Availability: Apr 2023
Feature Details
With the introduction of the AL Explorer, we are bringing a powerful tool to the hands of pro developers and technical consultants, allowing both roles to explore, navigate, and better understand objects in extensions, including object details, dependencies, and extension points, without looking at the code. This increases daily productivity for developers and allows technical consultants to understand high-level structures of extensions in order to specify new features, or even do light troubleshooting.
It also introduces a foundation for future visual editors that can further improve productivity and lower ramp-up time for new developers. In addition, it empowers technical consultants to perform mock-ups and light modifications to Business Central without having to work directly in code, but still be part of integrated CI/CD processes including pro developer reviews, approvals, and automated test and deployment.
View, search, and filter objects
You can easily see an overview of all objects in a given app scope—for example, a whole workspace or selected project—and you can search in object names, and group objects by type.
Go to source code
For a selected object, you can quickly jump to source code, whether it’s to develop, read, and understand it, or whether it’s to add breakpoints as part of troubleshooting.
Bookmark
You can bookmark objects used frequently to easily filter a list of objects to only the bookmarked ones—for example, when navigating between those you currently work on.
View extension points – events, APIs, and enums
To ease creating extension points and to extend existing ones, AL Explorer also allows fast overview of all events and API pages as well as extensible enums that implement interfaces.
AL Home
Finally, the new AL Home startup page introduces a new communication channel, allowing Business Central R&D to efficiently share news, best practices, upcoming events, urgent information and status, learning content, and more to all users of the AL Visual Studio Code extension.
| New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2023 Wave 1 |
| Use Business Events To Notify And Trigger External Systems |
| Get Started With More Sample Power Automate Templates And Power Apps |
| New Approval Workflow Experience With Power Automate Templates |
| Support Dynamic Environment And Company In Power Platform Connector |
| Remove Modification Limits For Triggering Flows |
| Use Power Automate To Post Adaptive Card Or Link To Business Central Record |
| Adjust Exchange Rates Easily, Replace The Built-In Batch Job |
| Use Different General Ledger Accounts For Payables, Receivables |
| Avoid Document Number Errors When You Post Item Journals |
| Company Hub Now Lets Admins Add User-Specific Settings |
| Define Content Of Created Warehouse Documents With Filters |
| Intercompany Posting Setup Supports More Transaction Types And Streamlines Flows |
| Preview Item Journals Before Posting |
| Review General Ledger Accounts Faster |
| Set Up And Sync Master Data Across Companies |
| Ship And Receive Non-Inventory Items On Warehouse Documents |
| Shopify Connector Becomes Extensible |
| Shopify Connector Becomes Extensible |
| Synchronize Returns, Refunds From Shopify |
| Undo Transfer Shipments |
| Swedish Localization Delivered As Extension |
| Supporting More Countries And Regions |
| AL Explorer And AL Home In Visual Studio Code AL Extension |
| Attach AL Debugger To Active Session Or Next Session |
| Improved Compiler Resource Handling And Faster Code Analyzers |
| Optimized Runtime Package Generation For Sharing |
| Provide Title And Custom Actions To Error Dialogs |
| Control Database Locking Behaviour |
| AL-Go For Github – Modern Devops For Partners |
| ISVs Can Organize A Preview For Their Appsource Apps |
| Experience Improved App Management Settings |
| Get An Improved Cloud Migration Status Overview |
| Include Or Exclude Tables From Cloud Migration |
| Transfer Environments Between Azure Ad Tenants |
| Non-Deductible, Partly Deductible Vat Expands Functionality |
| Audit File Export Eases Saf-T Compliance |
| Easily Find And Install Payroll Apps From Within Business Central |
| Modern Tooltips Are Easy To Read And Understand |
| Refresh Of Content To Support Modern Tooltip UI |
| Experience Enhanced Adaptive Cards In Teams |
| Configure Security Controls For Teams Cards |
| Add Existing Table Fields To Optimize Your Pages |
| Drag And Drop Files Onto The File Upload Dialog |
| Access Actions And Navigation Menu Efficiently With Keyboard |
| Get More Productivity Out Of An Optimized Action Bar On All App Pages |
| Get Unblocked Using Actionable Error Messages In Select Application Areas |
| Tailor Action Bar To Fit Your Needs On Document Lines |
| Copy And Paste Readable Hyperlinks |
| Removed Functionality |
| Add More Columns to Pages for Better Insight |
| Catalog Items Use Standard Number Series, Can Include in Blanket Sales Orders |
| Demo Tool and Data for Warehouse and Inventory Scenarios |
| Easier to Create Opening Balances for Item Tracked Inventory |
| Post multiple transfer orders at the same time |
| Set Default Dimensions on Locations, Inventory Documents and Journals |
| Usability Improves for Transfer Order: Select Multiple Items, Mandatory Fields |
| Usability Improves for Warehouse, Inventory and Tracking Areas |
| Use Advanced Warehouse Functionality With Minimal Complexity |
| Use Statistical Accounts to Collect Data for Financial Reports |
| Save Time With Automatic Account Codes (Sweden and Finland Only) |
| Country/Regional Expansion – Andorra |
| Define Regional Settings Per Report Using a Region Property |
| Extensions That Fail Pre-Upgrade Validation Get More Detailed Error Insights |
| Delegated Admin’s Job Queue Entries Are Run by User |
| Manage User Permissions Using Security Groups |
| Analyze, Group, and Pivot Data on List Pages Using Multiple Tabs |
| Allow Application and Tenant Databases to Differ in Collation |
| Business Central server runs on .NET 6 |
| New telemetry events and data |
| Performance – OData calls are now faster |
| Improved Alignment of Headers in Statistics Pages |
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