With the release of Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 release wave 1 so many new lists features that are planned to release from April 2020 through September 2020.
In this blog post, we will see about below listed Service Fundamentals features in detail.
Enable features ahead of time
Administrators can use the new Feature Management page to:
Learn which new features and feature enhancements can be enabled ahead of time in minor updates.
Turn individual features on and off again for all users of any environment.
Safely try out a feature in a new browser tab without enabling the feature for all users.
Plan an approach to testing and preparation in time for upcoming change. For example, they can test on a sandbox environment with a copy of production data before they enable a feature in production.
There are no features that you can enable ahead of time in Update 16.0 (April 2020). Features will begin to appear in the list starting from Update 16.1.
About the features listed in the Feature Management page:
Only a subset of features releasing in minor updates are available in the page.
Features are primarily platform changes that affect the user experience.
Features are optional for a while, after which they’re permanently enabled in a future service update.
Ability to see current database locks
A new page called Database Locks is available in the client.
The page shows a snapshot of all database locks. Where possible, it displays details on the AL session that is causing the database lock.
Ability to see table sizes
A new page called Table Information shows the following:
Company Name
Table Name
Table No.
No. of Records
Record Size
Size (KB)
Information is shown for all companies for which the user has SUPER permissions.
Ability to view a list of sessions and cancel one or more of them
In the Business Central administration center, an administrator can see a list of active sessions on an environment and cancel one or more of them. All existing resources consumed by a session will also be canceled.
Performance of web service requests and reports added to Application Insights telemetry for partners
The Business Central server will emit telemetry about the execution time and timeouts of web service requests and reports.
Partners and customers can use this data to monitor their environments for performance issues caused by web service requests and reports and be more proactive in preventing these issues from occurring.
Business Central artifacts (Reports, API Pages, and Queries) now can get access to a read-only replica of the database.
The Page, Report, and Query objects have a new property called “DataAccessIntent” that can take values ReadOnly or ReadWrite. This property works as a hint for the server, which will connect to the secondary replica if possible. When a workload is executed against the replica, insert/delete/modify operations are not possible, so a new validation is introduced for ReadOnly objects. Any of these operations will throw an exception at runtime (new compile-time validation will be added in the future).
Resource limits for reports and web service calls
The Business Central server will have new settings where an administrator can set limits on the execution time for reports and SOAP web service calls. When the limit is reached, the server cancels the operation.
In Business Central online (software as a service), the default values are set by the Business Central operations team and cannot be overridden by customers or partners. In the 2020 release wave 1, the default values will be set to hours (actual values are to be determined).
For Business Central (on-premises), an administrator can control the settings in the server.
In this blog post, we will see about below listed Modern Developer Tools features in detail.
Application version for aliasing base application
Embed partners and on-premises solutions can create a parent extension named Application, versioned according to base version, and with an appropriate, unique publisher. This parent extension is mainly used as an indirection proxy, and should contain explicit dependencies to the extensions actually implementing the application. In addition, the propagateDependencies property in the app.json file should be set to true. This will expose the dependencies to any extension taking dependency on the proxy Application version.
Partners will use the Application version property in their extension’s app.json file to specify the expected application version.
In Visual Studio Code, the full set of symbol packages that make up the “application” will be pulled in when specifying an Application version in the app.json file.
An explicit dependency to Microsoft’s Base Application will take priority over the Application version, but is redirected to “application” if the Base Application is not present on the system.
Note
ApplicationVersion only allows resolving dependencies on compile. Whether the extension is in fact compatible with the provided alias is up to the embed extension authors to ensure and test.
Camera/location AL API available in the browser
Developers can now programmatically activate the camera or get the current location coordinates through an AL-based API when Business Central is accessed through the browser. With support for both browser and apps, developers can rest assured that their scenarios light up on any form factor, as long as the user’s device and browser support those capabilities.
Additional details
Users remain in control of their privacy settings and can choose to grant or deny access to camera and location similar to other websites.
CameraProvider.IsAvailable and LocationProvider.IsAvailable now return True if the browser and device support the capability.
The camera provides a viewport as well as Use and Retake buttons.
The location is returned as longitude and latitude coordinates.
Multiple variable declarations of the same type in the same line
Declare multiple variables of the same type in the same line, using a comma to separate variable names. For example, “foo, bar : Integer;”
Ability to refactor a field from a table to a table extension
Using Sync-NAVApp, a developer can move a field from a table to a table extension without the need to write upgrade code.
AL interfaces
Use the new interface object to declare an interface name along with its methods, and apply the implements keyword along with the interface name(s) on objects that implement the interface methods.
The interface object itself does not contain any code, only signatures, and cannot itself be called from code, but must be implemented by other objects.
The compiler checks to ensure implementations adhere to assigned interfaces.
A new QuickFix CodeAction can be used to insert interface stubs, if the compiler errors on one or more interface implementations are missing.
You can declare variables as a given interface to allow passing objects that implement the interface, and then call interface implementations on the passed object in a polymorphic manner.
Look up events and insert event subscriber in code
Use the new Shift+Alt+E shortcut in the AL code editor to invoke a list of all events.
You can use type ahead to dynamically search and filter the event list
When pressing return to select an event entry, an event subscriber for the event will be inserted at the cursor position in the active AL code editor window.
Obsolete tag property
Objects that support the ObsoleteState property or Obsolete attribute today will get additional ObsoleteTag property for tracking processes and provide additional information on obsoleted objects.
Partners can choose their own scheme for what to track in ObsoleteTag, such as date or build, and it could be provided during development or internal build processes (requiring custom file patching). Developers can also search for ObsoleteTag content across all files (e.g., to get an overview of changes in a certain version).
With the release of Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 release wave 1 so many new lists features that are planned to release from April 2020 through September 2020.
In this blog post, we will see about below listed Modern Clients features in detail.
Collapse and expand document lines
On sales and purchase documents, and similar document pages, users can collapse the document lines section on the page. Users are in control. They optimize their space as they work through a task by giving more space to the content below the lines section. This feature effectively means there are now three ways in which the lines section is displayed, including the ability to focus entirely on lines.
The ability to collapse lines has been extended to any ListPart displayed outside of a group on a Card or Document page.
Similarly, to other collapsible content on the page, Business Central remembers your last preference by storing it on your device.
Disable export of data to Excel
Business Central administrators have the option to disable features that allow users to export data to Excel. The ability to export data from Business Central is controlled by a new D365 Excel Export Action permission set. If the permission is removed for a specific user, then the Edit in Excel and Open in Excel actions are no longer available to the user on any pages in the application.
Enable non-interactive printing in the cloud
Printing directly to a printer is now possible from the modern desktop clients. The setup that you make on the Printer Management page allows you to control which device to print to, including to cloud printers as defined by extensions. Using the Business Central modern clients, users who work in the browser can set up a printer selection for each report so that documents, labels, and other content are printed automatically on the selected printer. Administrators can manage a list of printers (including cloud printers), for example, by creating a friendly name for each and setting defaults. Additionally, for on-premises installations, any network printer that the server has access to will be available on the Printer Management page.
In this version, a predefined Email Printer extension is installed and ready for customers to use. This supports major printer manufacturers that enable email printing scenarios. Both Microsoft and partners are creating additional extensions for additional cloud printing technologies. Those can be found on AppSource soon.
Enhanced mobile accessibility related to device orientation
This enhancement makes access to information in FactBoxes reachable regardless of the device orientation by displaying a small chevron (either on the side or at the top of the page), allowing the user to “pull” the related information onto the screen. In previous releases, this action was only available with certain screen orientations. Now, it is available everywhere on any device. In the common scenario where a mobile phone is mounted on a holder in a vehicle (not driving), it is now possible for the operator to quickly access related information about a customer while the phone is in the holder.
Another change related to this enhancement is the redesigned Role Center view in Landscape mode on tablets. The navigation controls have been moved to the left pane, allowing users to quickly jump to a different page and get started with tasks. In previous releases, this was hidden under a menu. The change also allows users and administrators to personalize a Role Center with richer navigation by adding more elements to the Home group (for example, by bookmarking them). As a result, the cues have been moved to the right pane, allowing users to scroll the entire Role Center content.
Enter data more easily
Various adjustments that enhance typing or navigating fields in a list include:
Similar to Microsoft Excel, we’ve introduced the F2 key. This key toggles between selecting the field’s entire value and moving to end of the value. This allows users to quickly replace the value or add to it. The key allows users to quickly replace the value or add to it. The F2 key is available for editable fields and editable cells in lists.
When typing to fill in a row of data, the Tab key no longer sets focus to the ellipses that bring up the context for the row. This change improves efficiency when rapidly entering data and ensures that Tab key presses are predictable. The context menu remains reachable by using the left or right arrow keys. It can be activated using the space bar or Enter key.
In editable lists, users can use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the previous or next cell in a row. This capability provides a consistent experience between editable and non-editable lists and increases the speed and agility of exploring data in a list or worksheet. Similarly, when you place the cursor before the first character in cell, pressing the left arrow key will exit the cell and set focus to the previous cell. The reverse also works when the cursor is placed after the last character.
Import profiles and UI customizations
A step-by-step wizard walks you through the process of importing a package in three simple steps:
Select the profile package to import. The package is a file with the .zip extension that you exported earlier from the profiles list.
Get an overview of which profiles are in the package. Decide whether you want to overwrite any profiles in your environment that have the same Profile ID.
See which profiles were imported successfully and which have issues that you may need to resolve.
Importing a package of profiles into your environment will add or replace profiles along with their settings and page customizations.
Improvements to filter expressions
Business Central 2019 release wave 2 eliminated the need to recreate commonly used filters by allowing users to permanently save filters as a view in the web client. Based on community feedback, we’re now improving the filter experience further.
When authoring filters that use expressions, such as date ranges or filter tokens, you can toggle the filter field to display either the expression or the corresponding value. To view the expression again, just set the focus to the filter field by using the keyboard or mouse. This feature applies to:
Filters on lists. Here, it is particularly useful when saving list views so that date- or time-sensitive expressions can easily be modified when needed.
Filters to filters on report request pages, XmlPort request pages, and similar filter screens.
Navigate trees more easily
On page objects where a repeater control has the ShowAsTree property set to True, users will experience a new level of efficiency when working with the data tree. Users can easily drill down and back out again, using a keyboard or mouse. They can expand and collapse individual groups or use the Expand all and Collapse all actions.
Developers can also specify whether a tree opens fully expanded or fully collapsed by using the new property TreeInitialState that is available on repeater controls.
Optimized use of space on a page
Improvements to pages composed of multiple parts
The desktop client adds full support for page objects that are composed of multiple parts, such as ListParts or CardParts. This capability was already possible on a Role Center or FactBox pane. But the canvas of other page types wasn’t optimal for displaying parts alongside other content, resulting in overlapping UI elements or unreachable data.
Developers are now able to implement pages by choosing from prescribed AL patterns that give predictable outcomes. For example, they can display two lists side by side on a ListPlus page. Or, have multiple dependent lists shown above each other on a Document page. Pages already using these control patterns will automatically benefit from this change with no further development effort needed.
Available April 2020: Optimizations for ListParts as used on List pages, Document pages, Card pages, and ListPlus pages.
Available after April 2020: Optimizations for ListParts as used on Worksheet pages, and CardParts as used on various page types.
More content on screen
When users display a page wide across the screen, they’ll benefit from more compact page captions and reduced gray-space along the sides. Take a basic list page as an example. Compared to past versions of the Business Central Web client, it gains approximately 15% horizontal space and 5% vertical space for content. These gains result in two more columns and one more row being displayed.
FastTabs with no specified caption are treated as groups that define the structure of a page. As a result, “caption-less” FastTabs have reduced whitespace and can no longer be collapsed by users.
Pages open faster
Users will find that the pages they use often are now quicker to open. The structure of the page is shown first, giving context until data is loaded.
Technically, the rendered page is now cached the first time it is opened. This is done without persisting any business data or sensitive information to the user’s device. The next time the page opens, it will immediately render from the cache while the latest data is fetched from the service.
In Update 16.0, pages are cached for the duration of the user’s session. Users will only benefit from the performance gains while they remain signed in.
Update 16.1 improves the functionality by caching pages across sessions. Users benefit from improved load-time even when they sign in again after they close the browser or sign out.
While it is busy fetching data from the service, Business Central displays distinctive, pulsating UI elements to indicate that data has not yet been loaded.
Resiliency of UI customizations
In 2020 release wave 1, we are hardening our UI customization features to make user personalization and role customization more resilient to changes in minor and major updates. As the Business Central platform and business application evolve over time, some mappings between UI customizations, their target UI elements, and how they are interpreted become problematic. With this update users:
are no longer prevented from signing into Business Central if a severe error occurs with UI customization.
experience significantly less problematic UI customizations after their environment is upgraded.
Administrators also get a new diagnostic tool to assess the health of UI customizations in an environment at any time. They use the tool to troubleshoot:
user personalization from the Personalized Pages list (formerly User Page Personalizations).
role customization from the Customized Pages list (formerly Profile Customizations).
If any problematic UI customizations are impacting users, administrators are now able to identify and delete UI customizations for the problematic page.
Sharing links to records
Business Central will now automatically update the URL in your browser more frequently as you explore and navigate your data. As a result, the web client URL includes more hints about your current context whenever you need to share it or add it to your favorites. This is beneficial in numerous scenarios:
When you have set focus to a record in a list, copied and shared the URL, or add it to your favorites, this URL will navigate to the list page and highlight that record.
When you have navigated to a card or document page or used the Next record or Previous record buttons, copied and shared the URL (or added it to your favorites), this URL will now navigate to the details page for that record.
When you have navigated to a list view or saved a view, copied and shared the URL, or added it to your favorites, this URL will navigate to that specific view.
When working with lists, you were disconnected or reloaded the browser web page. Business Central will help you pick up where you left off by trying to return to the last view you visited.
Show and go to related records from a list
We have added some capabilities for users to navigate via links to related entries or even more places. Business Central web client introduces links allowing users to traverse to different entities from a list. This allows you to open a related card from a list, such as a customer or item card from a sales order (note that the document card page needs to be in view mode for this to work).
Partners can reuse existing or create new table relations (see here) and light up new experiences in their apps.
Unhide parts on a page
When personalizing pages in Business Central, users can show a hidden part on any page. This unlocks two common scenarios:
Business users can personalize their pages and bring back a part that they have previously hidden. Similarly, power users and consultants can unhide parts that they have previously hidden.
Developers can now choose to place secondary content on a page object and hide it, giving their customers a simple starting point with the page and the ability to unhide that content if it is relevant to their business processes.
Examples of parts that can be brought into view on a page:
The headlines on a Role Center home screen
A related details FactBox on the Customer list
A chart part directly on the canvas of a card page
Use the Find function on the Role Explorer
The Business Central Role Explorer has a new addition that complements manual navigation and expanding or collapsing menu groups. Users can now open the Role Explorer and start typing they’re looking for. The text they type appears in the Find box at the top of the page. Selecting the Find action or pressing F3 also starts the Find function.
The Role Explorer doesn’t filter the results but instead highlights the hits, as shown in the image below. When a result is contained in a collapsed group, the Find function annotates the group using a teal-colored circle. Users can browse through the results using arrow icons or keyboard keys (Ctrl+ArrowUp/ArrowDown and F3/Shift+F3). The Esc key closes the Find box and removes the value typed, so that a new search or browsing can be started. Also, switching to the Explore all view keeps the find value, making it even easier to navigate and find a necessary page.
Long-running operations can be canceled from the web client
You can now cancel long-running operations or application jobs. The user is presented with a progress window that shows the number of processed rows with the option to cancel the entire operation. When canceled, the system asks for confirmation and then requests the job to be cancelled.
A typical scenario is the ability to cancel reports or long-running batch jobs, but this feature extends to canceling other long-running operations, such as bulk posting of invoices.
New URL parameter hides web client header
A new showHeader parameter is now supported in the URL to access Business Central so that developers and administrators can hide the Office 365 Header from the web client.
This can be used to improve the user experience in various controlled integration scenarios, such as:
Embedding the Business Central web client in other web applications.
Freeing up more screen space for client Control AddIns that are intended to occupy most of the screen.
This behaves similar to other URL parameters that strip away elements in the UI to create more focused space. By hiding the header, users will not be able to reach any functionality that is exposed through the header, such as the ability to sign out or switch to different apps using the App Launcher.
With the release of Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 release wave 1 so many new lists features that are planned to release from April 2020 through September 2020.
In this blog post, we will see about below listed Cloud Migration Tools features in detail.
Enhanced Dynamics GP Chart of Accounts migration
In this release, we will build out the migration tool to have the segments migrated as dimensions on the G/L transactions.
Migrate all or only active customer master records from Dynamics GP
The migration tool will allow the user to migrate either all customers or only customers who have an active status in Dynamics GP. Along with that change, we will also migrate all customer addresses. Currently we only migrate the primary address associated with the customer card in Dynamics GP.
Migrate all or only active vendor master records from Dynamics GP
The migration tool will allow the user to migrate either all vendors or only vendors who have an active status in Dynamics GP. Along with that change, we will also migrate all vendor addresses. Currently we only migrate the primary address associated with the vendor card in Dynamics GP.
Enhanced Dynamics GP inventory data migration
We will also bring over serial and lot setup information, and serial and lot numbers for the quantities of items that are on hand.
Migrate data from Business Central 14.x on-premises to Business Central 15.x online
A customer who uses Business Central April ’19 on-premises can load the cloud migration extension and migrate their data to Business Central 2019 release wave 2 online.
With the release of Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 release wave 1 so many new lists features that are planned to release from April 2020 through September 2020.
In this blog post, we will see about below listed Application enhancements features in detail.
Extend ListPlus pages previously based on the Date virtual table
You can now extend ListPlus pages such as the Item and Resource Availability pages that were based on the Date virtual table by extending the underlying buffer table and subscribing to the OnAfterCalcLine event. All such pages in the base application now support this extensibility model.
Extend price calculation
This release wave introduces a second implementation of price calculation that will be available as an alternative to the calculation that was available in 2019 release wave 2 and earlier versions. This new implementation has the advantage that it is much easier to extend, for example, with new calculations.
The price calculation that was available in 2019 release wave 2 is unchanged. The new calculation in 2020 release wave 1 is an additional implementation that you can extend.
The new extendable price calculation capabilities currently exist in code only and do not include a user interface. We will provide that in an upcoming release. For now, you must create your own page to use the new capability.
Multiple languages
In 2020 release wave 1, languages are provided as apps that can be installed from AppSource to match the individual tenant’s needs. Different languages can be installed on the individual environments of the tenant. For on-premises, these language apps are part of the installation media and can be installed. This enables a customer from any country or region to use any supported language. See supported languages here: https://aka.ms/bccountries.
Auto-insert recurring sales and purchase lines
The existing Recurring Sales/Purchase Lines feature is extended to automatically insert on documents the recurring sales or purchase lines that are set up for the customer or vendor.
If multiple recurring sales or purchase lines exist for the customer or vendor, you will get a notification from where you can pick which one to insert. If only one recurring sales or purchase line exists, it will be inserted automatically.
Note that this works only if the new document was created from a document list—for example, by choosing the New action on the Purchase Orders page. It does not work if the document was created from a vendor card, for example.
Bank reconciliation improvements
The Bank Acc. Reconciliation page will have more space for data and allow better overview and understanding of the bank statement lines and the related bank account ledger e
ntries. A Bank Reconciliation report that can be used to report on both ongoing and posted bank reconciliations and statements is provided.
Enhanced customer and vendor document layout
You can now populate the Document Layouts page for vendors and customers based on settings on the Report Selection page. To send specific documents to specific company contacts, choose the company contacts to use for specific document layouts.
The Document Layouts page for a customer now contains additional usage options for reminders and posted shipments. The Document Layout page for a vendor now contains additional usage options for purchase orders and posted return shipment.
Manage direct-debit collections in Service Management
You can now view direct-debit collection information on service orders, invoices, and contracts. When posting service invoices, direct-debit information is stored in the related customer ledger entries and then transferred to the relevant payment journal during the collection process.
Notify requester about all changes for an approval request
You can set up an approval workflow to notify the approval requester about every change of an approval request up until final approval.
Print to attachment
You can now add document printouts to the Attachments FactBox using the Attach as PDF action.
Receive more items than ordered
You can now receive a quantity higher than the ordered quantity on purchase orders according to an over-receive policy that you set up on the Over-Receipt Codes page. Here you can fill in the Over-Receipt Tolerance % field and select a policy to be used by default.
If your company uses purchase order approval, over-receiving can trigger a reapproval. You define this on the Over-Receipt Codes page. The Approve Over-Receipt workflow response is available in the workflow engine for this purpose.
On the cards for items and vendors, you can select in the Over-Receipt Code field which policy to use by default on purchases.
When you have selected an over-receipt code, you can enter a higher-than-ordered quantity in the Quantity to Receive field on released purchase orders and warehouse receipts.
Register capacity in units of seconds
You can now define the capacity on work centers in units of seconds. By extending the Capacity Unit of Measure Type field, a developer can even enable milliseconds or another unit of measure.
Revert Qty. to Invoice when canceling order
You can now easily correct invoiced quantities on originating orders by canceling invoices created from them. The Qty. to Invoice field on the originating order is automatically updated.
Advanced planning parameters included in the Essentials experience
In the Essentials experience, you can configure the planning engine to fit your company processes on the Manufacturing Setup page. For example, set up planning for multiple locations, simultaneous calculation of MPS/MRP parameters, specify various defaults.
Use resources in purchase documents
You can now use Resource as a line type of purchase documents. For example, you can add resources on purchase orders, invoices, and credit memos and post purchase transactions for them. You can correct purchase documents with resource lines, copy them, or use resource extended text.
