Book Image

Programming Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Sixth Edition

By : Marije Brummel, David Studebaker, Christopher D. Studebaker
Book Image

Programming Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central - Sixth Edition

By: Marije Brummel, David Studebaker, Christopher D. Studebaker

Overview of this book

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a full ERP business solution suite with a robust set of development tools to support customization and enhancement. These tools can be used to tailor Business Central's in-built applications to support complete management functions for finance, supply chain, manufacturing, and operations. Using a case study approach, this book will introduce you to Dynamics 365 Business Central and Visual Studio Code development tools to help you become a productive Business Central developer. You'll also learn how to evaluate a product's development capabilities and manage Business Central-based development and implementation. You'll explore application structure, the construction of and uses for each object type, and how it all fits together to build apps that meet special business requirements. By the end of this book, you'll understand how to design and develop high-quality software using the Visual Studio Code development environment, the AL language paired with the improved editor, patterns, and features.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
9
Successful Conclusions

Designing a simple table

Our primary master data table will be the Radio Show table. This table lists our inventory of shows that are available to be scheduled.

First, create a new file in Visual Studio Code. Click on File | New and Visual Studio Code will create a new file and open the code editor window.

Each master table has a standard field for the primary key (a Code data type field of 20 characters called No.) and has standard information regarding the entity the master record represents (for example, Name, Address, and City for the Customer table, and Description, Base Unit of Measure, and Unit Cost for the Item table).

The Radio Show table will have the following field definitions (we may add more later on):

Field names

Definitions

No.

20-character text (code)

Radio Show Type

10-character text (code)

Name

50-character text

Run Time

Duration

Host No.

20-character text (code)

Host Name

50-character text

Average Listeners

Decimal

Audience Share

Decimal

Advertising Revenue

Decimal

Royalty Cost

Decimal

 

In the preceding list, three of the fields are defined as Code fields, which are text fields that limit the alphanumeric characters to uppercase values. Code fields are used throughout Business Central for primary key values. Code fields are used to reference or be referenced by other tables (foreign keys). No. will be the unique identifier in our table. We will utilize a set of standard internal Business Central functions to assign a user-defined No. series range that will auto-increment the value on table insertion and possibly allow for user entry (as long as it is unique in the table) based on a setup value. The Host No. references the standard Resource table, and the Radio Show Type field will reference a custom table that we will create to allow for flexible Type values.

We will have to design and define the reference properties at the field level in the table designer, as well as compile them, before the validation will work. At this point, let's just get started with these field definitions and create the foundation for the Radio Show table.