A query object is used to collect and read data from Business Central. The data will always be retrieved from SQL, meaning that you may not get the dynamic data that is currently in the middle of being processed. What makes a query object more powerful than reading from a table object is the ability to join multiple tables in one “dataset”.
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When using templates to create AL objects for MicrosoftDynamics 365 Business Central, there are often many properties that are listed by default. If they are part of a template, then they must be important. So one question I had from new developers is what is a UsageCategory, and why should we be setting it.
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So you want to develop custom code for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central? The code for BC is written in AL, which stands for “Application Language”, and is a specific language only used for Business Central. To start writing AL code, you need to make sure you have Visual Studio Code installed, along with the AL Language extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. If you need more information on setting up your development environment, check out this blog post. At this point, we are ready to create our first AL project!
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You have an AL project that you want to work on within your new container. How exactly do you connect your code to your container BC instance? It’s pretty easy!
Within your AL Project you should have a .vscode folder, with a file called launch.json This is a configuration file that is used to define settings for launching and debugging applications. The following configurations should be set to work with a Business Central Container:
Have you ever been walking through a process in Business Central, and realize you want to debug, but don’t want to wait to publish, and get back to the exact spot where you were testing something? Or for some reason you were debugging something, and the debugger stopped, and you want to jump right back in to the process you were examining. This is where “Attach Debugger to this session” comes in handy,
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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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BC Development Notebook 