ArcherPoint Dynamics NAV Business Central Developer Digest - vol 324
This week in Developer Digest, we are talking about MSD365 Insider Builds, the financial dimension framework, selection filter management and more.
The Dynamics NAV and Business Central community, including the ArcherPoint technical staff, is made up of developers, project managers, and consultants who are constantly communicating, with the common goal of sharing helpful information with one another to help customers be more successful.
As they run into issues and questions, find the answers, and make new discoveries, they post them on blogs, forums, social media…so everyone can benefit. We in Marketing watch these interactions and never cease to be amazed by the creativity, dedication, and brainpower we’re so fortunate to have in this community—so we thought, wouldn’t it be great to share this great information with everyone who might not have the time to check out the multitude of resources out there? So, the ArcherPoint Microsoft Dynamics NAV Developer Digest was born. Each week, we present a collection of thoughts and findings from NAV/BC experts and devotees around the world. We hope these insights will benefit you, too.
Working with Microsoft Dynamics Business Central Insider Builds
Bill shares this post from Azure DevOps about working with Business Central insider builds.
Kyle wants to know: “Do you have any idea when they plan to start having version 18 builds available?”
Bill replies: “They only provide the next major release with the sandbox. I’d imagine once it’s feature-complete, Microsoft will provide for on premises, but I’m not positive.”
Developer Tip of the Day: License Information
Kyle provides another Developer Tip of the Day: “There is a hidden table called License Information that contains basic license details, similar to what you used to see in the old Development Client. If you define a list Page that sits on top of that, users will now be able see their own license.”
Dimension Table Changes in the Financial Dimension Framework
Suresh tweets about the need to prepare for the table changes in Dynamics 365 Financial Dimension Framework that became effective on Dec 1, 2020.
D365 Business Central 2020 Release Wave 1 Update Released
Kyle shares that BC16.8 is available. For details, see the Released Updates for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2020 Release Wave 1 page from Microsoft, including the anticipated 1099-NEC form, noting “I am sure the other version updates (that are still supported) will be out, or are already out, in the next few days.”
Here’s a Fun Code Unit: Selection Filter Management
Matt T gives us this: “There’s a fun little codeunit that I don’t see talked about much: SelectionFilterManagement. The code in it used to be contained in a bunch of list pages, but it has since been centralized. In short, it builds up an optimal filter string based on multiple selected records and a specific field number:
MyFilter := GetSelectionFilter(RecordRef, FieldToFilterOn)
It’s much better than the old pattern:
repeat
if FilterText <> ” then FilterText += ‘|’;
FilterText += value;
until Next() = 0;
Generic Business Central Images Are Being Moved
Freddy K provides the new location and tag of the generic image for Business Central and explains why the move is needed in Moving the Generic Images!
Printing Text on Printed Purchase Orders in D365 Business Central
Tom Hunt is looking for information: “I have a report question for everyone. A customer wants to include a terms & conditions letter with their printed purchase orders. I initially did this as two separate reports: one for the actual PO logic, and then one for the T&C text.
My thought was to combine the two using a Word layout, since I think that would let me put the T&C text onto a separate page better. I’ve never done this before, though. Has anyone done this? Do you have any ideas on the best way to accomplish this?”
Suresh offers his advice: “I have done this using RDLC, but my approach is little different. I have T&C stored in a location and then merge the Report PDF with T&C.”
Michael suggests: “I prefer to add another Integer DataItem that iterates through the T&C records (if the customer wants ability to modify T&C text), then page break before the T&C records print. In this way, no merging of PDF is required, and everything exists in one RDLC report object.”
Matt T offers: “For one client, there was so much text that we just added it as an image / blob and printed it on the last page.”
Kyle adds: “For another client, we did the same thing Matt described. Stored as a blob.”
If you are interested in Dynamics NAV and Business Central development, be sure to see our collection of NAV/BC Development Blogs.
Read the “How To” blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central.