New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Extend and Customize Profiles from Other Extensions

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 11th of the new functionality in the Development section is extend and customize profiles from other extensions.

One of the current extensibility gaps is the lacking ability to extend profiles. This implies that partners have been forced to copy profiles defined in other extensions whenever they needed to do some changes for them. In this release, it’s now possible to define profile extension objects.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

With this feature, you can now create profile extension objects in your AL code. They can be used to modify the target profile’s caption, role center, or even include/remove it from the role explorer. It’s also possible to add page customizations to a specified profile.

In addition to the language support, additional coverage in IntelliSense, AL Explorer, and analyzer rules have been added.

The following code example shows a profile extension:

Example of extending a profile in AL

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New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Extend Al Interfaces

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 10th of the new functionality in the Development section is extend AL interfaces.

The support for extensible interfaces in programming languages offers significant business value by enabling creation of flexible and adaptable extensions that can evolve over time to meet changing business needs. They enable developers to add new functionalities without altering the core system, which can save time and resources while reducing the risk of introducing errors into the existing codebase. They are a key component in modern software engineering, providing the agility and flexibility needed to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

You can now extend one or more existing interfaces when you declare an interface. When implementing an interface that extends other interfaces, the implementor must also implement all methods from all extended interfaces.

The feature also works with the testing and casting operators is and as, which are also new additions to the AL language in this release.

The syntax is shown in example below. Here, TheImplementor can be used as both IFoo, IBar, and IFooBar.

Example of extending an existing interface.

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In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… Create a Flow for a Record on Delete

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis article is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… series, a sub-series of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate), how do I… series and of the wider In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I… series which I am posting as I familiarise myself with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

There are a number of triggers available in Power Automate for Business Central which allow flows to be started. In this small series, I am going to take a look at creating a flow for each of the triggers.

The third trigger which is available is the When a record is deleted (V3). This trigger seems t be of very limited use; it triggers when the record is deleted, which means that by the time the first action within the flow runs, the record is already gone and all you have is the record id (not the number or code, but the GUID ID which is of no practical use.

This type of flow is created as an automated flow in the Power Automate portal; enter a Flow name and search for Business Central, scroll down the list of available triggers and select When a record is deleted (V3). Click Create:

Build an automated cloud flow page with name entered

Continue reading “In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… Create a Flow for a Record on Delete”

New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Type Testing and Casting Operators for Interfaces

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 9th of the new functionality in the Development section is type testing and casting operators for interfaces.

The contractual behavior of interfaces has been a limiting factor with regards to update and future extensibility. Adding casting will greatly increase the usefulness of interfaces in AL. In this version, Microsoft introduce support for type testing and casting interfaces in the AL language. Two new operators, ‘is’ and ‘as’, have been added to facilitate these operations. The ‘is’ keyword checks if an interface is of a specific type, which is useful for ensuring type safety within code. The ‘as’ keyword, on the other hand, attempts to cast an interface to another interface. These operators improve the extensibility and usefulness of interfaces in AL and align with the broader programming practice of ensuring that systems are built with future growth and adaptability in mind, allowing for seamless updates and maintenance.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

In this version, Microsoft introduce support for casting between AL interfaces. Given an interface A, you can cast it to the interface B if the underlying object (only codeunit for now) implements B. Two new operators, ‘is’ and ‘as’, are added to facilitate these operations.

The is operator

The is operator allows you to test whether an instance of an interface, or the content of a variant supports a specific interface. Here’s the syntax for using the is keyword:

Example of testing if a given instance of an interface supports a specific interface

You can also use the is operator with variants:

Example of testing if a given variant supports a specific interface

The as operator

The as operator is used for casting an instance of an interface to a specific interface. If the source interface doesn’t implement the target interface, it will throw an error at runtime. Here’s an example:

Example of casting an instance of an interface to a specific interface

Similarly, the as keyword works with variants:

Example of casting a variant to a specific interface

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New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Run Code Action for ‘With’ for File, Project, or Workspace

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 8th of the new functionality in the Development section is run code action for ‘with’ for file, project, or workspace.

The code action to convert ‘with’ statements to explicit records has only been only available for individual ‘with’ statements. However, most apps have many, many uses spread across the codebase, leading to a lot of unnecessary manual work to convert code. With this release, the code action to convert ‘with’ usage can now be run on the whole Document, the active Project as well as the complete Workspace level.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

Previously, Microsoft added generic support for running code actions on the active document, active project, or the complete workspace. This has been adopted by code actions, which are used for converting uses of ApplicationArea or tooltips. In this release, the code action to convert the usage of with can now be run on the entire document, the active project, as well as the complete workspace level. This makes it much more productive to convert the usage of with statements in existing code to use explicit records.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Package Resources in Extensions and Access from AL

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 7th of the new functionality in the Development section is package resources in extensions and access from AL.

Often features require some data, for example to initialize and set up. Until now, it has only been possible to add such data and consume from AL through the use of labels or code. In this release, Microsoft are adding the ability to include resources in extensions and access these from AL.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

Developers will be able to package resources in extensions and access the content of these resources from within AL code. This can be used to ship data for setup and initialization features (for example, for RapidStart packages, demo data, templates, and more), thereby avoiding having to use labels or codeunits for this purpose.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Use Improved Features for Report Documents

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 6th of the new functionality in the Development section is use improved features for report documents.

Developers and power users can use more of the features that Word provides for document layouts. These improvements reduce time spent on designing layouts for documents and let more power users work with document layouts.

Enabled for: Users by admins, makers, or analysts
Public Preview: –
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

You use report documents in Business Central when you need to send a document such as a quote, order, or invoice to your customers or suppliers.

The following improvements are available for the Word layout feature:

  • You can use sections in Word layouts even when you use the WordMergeDataItem property. This unlocks the ability to change layout properties, such as margins, orientation (portrait or landscape), or columns inside your Word layout. Also, you can use different watermarks for different parts of the layout. For more information, go to Using sections in a Word layout.
  • From the Report Layouts page, you can download a Word layout template for a report. The layout template makes it easier to convert an RDL layout or a customer-supplied Word file into a Word layout for a report.
  • A new Word add-in lets you control conditional visibility of text, tables, or table rows/columns.

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New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2: Restore Extensions if Publishing from Visual Studio Code Fails

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2024 Wave 2.

The 5th of the new functionality in the Development section is restore extensions if publishing from Visual Studio Code fails.

If publishing an extension from within Visual Studio Code fails, the publishing process tries to restore any previously installed extensions, that were uninstalled and unpublished as part of the failed publishing. If a full restore fails, the developer is informed about which extensions could be restored and which ones failed, providing the developer with a better overview.

Enabled for: Admins, makers, marketers, or analysts, automatically
Public Preview: Oct 2024
General Availability: Oct 2024

Feature Details

When deploying an extension from Visual Studio Code, which is part of a graph of installed extensions on the target environment, first level dependent extensions are uninstalled and unpublished in order to be recompiled once the extension has been deployed. However, if the deployment from Visual Studio Code fails (for example, due to a compilation issue on the server), the server is left with an incomplete graph of installed extensions. This results in unnecessary manual work to redeploy the previously installed extensions in the correct order. With this release, Visual Studio Code now tries to restore the previous extension state, removing the need for manual work in most cases

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In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… Create a Flow for a Record on Create

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business CentralThis article is part of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… series, a sub-series of the In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate), how do I… series and of the wider In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, how do I… series which I am posting as I familiarise myself with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

There are a number of triggers available in Power Automate for Business Central which allow flows to be started. In this small series, I am going to take a look at creating a flow for each of the triggers.

The third trigger which is available is the When a record is created (V3). This trigger works when a record is created within Business Central, so you could, for example, send an email to a salesperson when a customer to whom they are assigned is created.

This type of flow is created as an automated flow in the Power Automate portal; enter a Flow name and search for Business Central, scroll down the list of available triggers and select When a record is created (V3). Click Create:

Build an automated cloud flow page with name entered

Continue reading “In Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (Power Automate Triggers), how do I… Create a Flow for a Record on Create”

MADIC dynamics Knowledge Hub Webinar on Tuesday 20th August 2024: Workflow in Business Central

MADIC dynamicsHere at MADIC dynamics we will be presenting a Knowledge Hub Webinar at 1400 UK time on Tuesday.

Explore the capabilities of standard workflows in Business Central and how Power Automate can be used to extend those capabilities.

The webinar is open to everyone who wants to sign up and join:

No aug-2024 events found.