Category: API

#HumpDayHacks a cat sitting at a desk in front of a camel standing on a football field

#HumpDayHacks – Avoiding Validation Chaos

Tonya Bricco-Meske, Microsoft MVPLeave a comment

Have you used the AZ AL Dev Tools New AL File Wizard to create objects? It’s probably as fast as my cats running into the kitchen when they hear the pantry door open.  Quick, efficient, and surprisingly satisfying.

But speed isn’t everything, especially when it comes to creating pages in AL for Business Central. If you’re not careful, that lightening-fast setup can lead to subtle issues that only show up later when your page doesn’t behave quite the way you expect. One of the most overlooked culprits? Field Order.

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The comprehensive guide to using Business Central Excel Report Metadata with refreshable APIs

The comprehensive guide to using Business Central Excel Report Metadata with refreshable APIs

Tonya Bricco-Meske, Microsoft MVP6 Comments

Excel Reports are extremely useful when you need a detailed dataset. They not only provide a denormalized dataset, but also facilitate the creation of meaningful data connections, pivot charts, visualizations and more. A notable drawback has been the cumbersome process of generating an Excel Report from Business Central. This involves running a report request page, downloading the file, then opening and enabling the workbook before you can access any data. Moreover, once the report is generated, you are left with a static dataset that lacks a refresh option. This means the data remains unchanged from the moment the report was run.

In Business Central 23.3 we were given the ability to create refreshable datasets by calling Business Central APIs from within Excel. Here is a deep dive into how you can create a refreshable Excel Report Layout — all you need is a Business Central API and a Report.

[NOTE]: This blog post was written before the release of BC25 (2024 release wave 2). Extensive improvements have been made to make connecting to APIs through Excel Report Layouts easier. So if you are working with BC25, please check out this blog post

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