What this book covers
Chapter 1, Introduction to Business Central, starts with an overview of Business Central as a business application and functional terminology. It covers the basics of the base applications, 12 object types, and an introduction to Visual Studio Code integrated development environment (IDE). After stepping through setting up an AL project in Visual Studio Code, the chapter closes with an extended hands-on experience in the over-arching exercise scenario.
Chapter 2, Tables, focuses on the foundation level of Business Central’s data structure – tables and their components. This chapter covers properties, triggers (where AL business logic resides), field groups, table relations, and SumIndexFields. It will then present the hands-on creation and extension of several tables in support of an example application. The chapter will also review the types of tables found in Business Central applications.
Chapter 3, Data Types and Table Fields, will teach you about fields, the basic building blocks of Business Central’s data structure. It will review the different data types in Business Central and cover all its field properties and triggers in detail, as well as the different field classes.
Chapter 4, Pages – The Interactive Interface, reviews the different types of pages, their structures (triggers and properties), and general usage. The chapter will encourage you to build several pages for an example application using snippets. It will also explore the different types of controls and actions that can be used on pages. Client tools for page development and user search functions will be covered.
Chapter 5, Reports and Queries, delves into the data reporting capabilities of Business Central with report and query objects. Report structure, data flow, properties, and triggers are covered in detail. Layout formats including SQL Report Layout, Word, and Excel are reviewed. The chapter also covers ways that report objects can process as well as output data. An in-depth example of creating a report from scratch with a multi-sheet Excel layout allows you to build upon your knowledge so far. Query object structure, properties, and triggers, as well as use cases, are explored in detail.
Chapter 6, Introduction to AL, shows the level of flexibility Business Central has in implementing custom business logic. AL syntax, naming conventions, variables, operators, and frequently used AL methods are covered in detail. Custom procedures and data validation are discussed, along with an example of creating a sample report with a Word layout.
Chapter 7, Intermediate AL, digs deeper into AL development and techniques. It will review some more advanced built-in methods, including those relating to dates and decimal calculations—both critical business application tools. This chapter will also explore AL methods that support process flow control functions, CRUD operations, and filtering, before reviewing methods of communication between objects. Multi-language support and debugging are covered in detail. Finally, this chapter offers the opportunity to practically enhance an example application.
Chapter 8, Extensibility beyond AL, shows that developing in AL is not limited to data and processes inside a Business Central application. The various API types offered as input/output interfaces are discussed, and hands-on examples are available for XML and JSON data. We discuss the structure, properties, and triggers of Pages, Queries, XMLports, and codeunits used as SOAP and OData web services, as well as RESTful API pages. The final example in the sample solution involves using AL to access and consume an external API.
