Book Image

Mastering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

By : Stefano Demiliani, Duilio Tacconi
Book Image

Mastering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

By: Stefano Demiliani, Duilio Tacconi

Overview of this book

Dynamics 365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution, which is easy to adopt and helps you make smarter business decisions. This book is a comprehensive guide to developing solutions with Microsoft ERP (in the cloud and also on-premises). It covers all aspects of developing extensions, right from preparing a sandbox environment to deploying a complete solution. The book starts by introducing you to the Dynamics 365 Business Central platform and the new Modern Development Environment. You'll then explore the sandbox concept, and see how to create sandboxes for development. As you advance, you’ll be able to build a complete advanced solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central with AL language and Visual Studio Code. You'll then learn how to debug and deploy the extension and write automatic testing. The book will also take you through advanced topics like integration (with Azure Functions, web services, and APIs), DevOps and CI/CD techniques, and machine learning. You'll discover how Dynamics 365 Business Central can be used with Office 365 apps. Finally, you'll analyze different ways to move existing solutions to the new development model based on extensions. By the end of this book, you'll be able to develop highly customized solutions that meet the requirements of modern businesses using Dynamics 365 Business Central.

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Table of Contents (25 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Section 1: Dynamics 365 Business Central - Platform Overview and the Basics of Modern Development
Section 1: Dynamics 365 Business Central - Platform Overview and the Basics of Modern Development
2
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Overview
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Overview
Understanding the customer perspective
Understanding the partner's perspective
Under the skin of Dynamics 365 Business Central
Understanding the future perspective
Summary
3
Mastering a Modern Development Environment
Mastering a Modern Development Environment
Mastering Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code – the editing features
Understanding the AL Language extension
Understanding symbols
Understanding AL Language extension configuration
Mastering AL Language code snippets
Summary
4
Online and Container-Based Sandboxes
Online and Container-Based Sandboxes
Creating online sandboxes
Introducing Docker
Locally available environments using pure Docker commands
Connecting to an existing SQL Server
Handling your running containers with Docker cmdlets
Creating locally available environments using navcontainerhelper
Pulling new image versions
Handling your running containers with NavContainerHelper
Centrally available on-premise environments
Containers hosted on Azure VMs
Choosing the right image
Summary
5
Section 2: Developing Extensions for Dynamics 365 Business Central
Section 2: Developing Extensions for Dynamics 365 Business Central
6
Extension Development Fundamentals
Extension Development Fundamentals
Technical requirements
Basic concepts regarding extensions
Understanding the basics of the AL Language
Understanding AL project structure best practices
Naming guidelines and AL object ranges
Working on AL coding guidelines
Summary
7
Developing a Customized Solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central
Developing a Customized Solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central
Translating a business case into a real-world extension
Understanding a dependent extension
Summary
8
Advanced AL Development
Advanced AL Development
Understanding immutable keys
Handling files with AL
Handling attachments
Reading and writing text data to and from BLOB fields
Using XMLports in AL code
Creating and extending Role Centers
Handling XML and JSON files with the AL language
Consuming web services and APIs from AL
Publishing Dynamics 365 Business Central objects as web services from AL
Using Azure Functions to replace .NET code
Understanding Isolated Storage
Working with control add-ins
Notifications inside Dynamics 365 Business Central
Understanding page background tasks
Summary
9
Report Development with AL
Report Development with AL
Anatomy of the AL report object
Tools to use for Word and RDL layouts
Converting an existing C/AL report into AL
Feature limitation when developing an RDL or Word layout report
Understanding report performance considerations
Summary
10
Section 3: Debugging, Testing, and Release Management (DevOps)
Section 3: Debugging, Testing, and Release Management (DevOps)
11
Installing and Upgrading Extensions
Installing and Upgrading Extensions
Deploying extensions
Deploying the main extension
Deploying a new version of the main extension
Summary
12
Debugging
Debugging
Running in debug mode
Understanding code analyzers
Understanding Event Recorder
Summary
13
Automated Test Development with AL
Automated Test Development with AL
Test automation and testing design principles
Designing tests with ATDD
Preparing the environment
Setting up test development for extensions
Learning about the technique behind test code
Designing our test scenarios
Implementing our test scenarios
Summary
14
Source Control Management and DevOps with Business Central
Source Control Management and DevOps with Business Central
Understanding Azure DevOps and what it offers
Managing tasks, sprints, and boards in Azure DevOps
Creating a repository for your code
Managing repositories
Branching policies
Branching strategies
Understanding Git merge strategies
Exploring Git with Visual Studio Code
Understanding Azure DevOps Pipelines
Understanding the YAML pipeline
Summary
15
Section 4: Advanced Integrations with Dynamics 365 Business Central
Section 4: Advanced Integrations with Dynamics 365 Business Central
16
Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
Comparing OData and APIs in Dynamics 365 Business Central
Using Dynamics 365 Business Central standard APIs
Creating a custom API in Dynamics 365 Business Central
Creating an application that uses Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs
Using bound actions
Using Dynamics 365 Business Central webhooks
Working with Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs in Microsoft Graph
Automation APIs in Dynamics 365 Business Central
Summary
17
Serverless Business Processes with Business Central and Azure
Serverless Business Processes with Business Central and Azure
Technical requirements
Overview of Microsoft Azure serverless services
Getting an overview of Azure Functions
Developing an Azure function with Visual Studio
Developing an Azure function with Visual Studio Code
Calling an Azure function from AL
Interacting with Azure Blob Storage to handle files in the cloud
Summary
18
Monitoring, Scaling, and CI/CD with Azure Functions
Monitoring, Scaling, and CI/CD with Azure Functions
Technical requirements
Monitoring Azure Functions
Scaling Azure Functions
Summary
19
Business Central and Integration with the Power Platform
Business Central and Integration with the Power Platform
Technical requirements
Introducing the Power Platform
Understanding Flow
Understanding PowerApps
Integration scenarios with Power Platform
Summary
20
Section 5: Moving Solutions to the New Extension Model
Section 5: Moving Solutions to the New Extension Model
21
Integrating Machine Learning into Dynamics 365 Business Central
Integrating Machine Learning into Dynamics 365 Business Central
What are AI and ML?
An overview of the ML process
Understanding the Business Central ML Framework
Understanding the ML Prediction API
Summary
22
Moving Existing ISV Solutions to the New Extension Model
Moving Existing ISV Solutions to the New Extension Model
Preparing the transition from C/AL to AL and extensions
Planning the number of extensions to code
Converting existing solutions into AL
Handling customer-specific personalization's
Other things to remember
Dynamics 365 Business Central wave 2 release changes
Summary
23
Useful and Proficient Tools for AL Developers
Useful and Proficient Tools for AL Developers
Who is Waldo?
What tools to use
Summary
24
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Creating an application that uses Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs

As we've mentioned in this chapter, APIs are extremely useful for integrating external applications with Dynamics 365 Business Central (they permit us to use simple HTTP calls to manage ERP entities and business logic). As an example, here, we will create a C# .NET application that creates Customer records in a Dynamics 365 Business Central SaaS tenant.

This scenario is very useful for implementing custom data loading procedures. By using APIs, you can create very powerful data transfer routines that permit you to load tons of data by avoiding standard tools such as configuration packages.

This application is a .NET Console application that does the following:

  • Connects to a Dynamics 365 Business Central tenant by using basic authentication (a username and a web service access key)
  • Reads the company in this...
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