Preface

We have been in the technology field for a long time and we have seen a lot of changes in technology over the course of our careers. Some of the most exciting changes in technology have been in the last couple of years. The emergence of Business Central as a cloud-based application and the ability to extend it using the Power Platform has opened a lot of opportunities for people like us, who are a little technical and understand the database structure and functionality of Business Central. Over the last couple of years, we have been lucky enough to work with Belinda Allen, who taught us the definition of a citizen developer and mentored us as we explored the Power Platform.

In this book, we are going to show you what your journey can look like to become a citizen developer. We will get you started on your journey with the basics, and then it’ll be up to you to build on top of that.

Power Platform is the next step to learning how to maximize your business’s capabilities by seamlessly integrating it with Business Central on-premises and in the cloud. After that, you will learn how to set up virtual tables and create a simple model-driven application using Dataverse. Your objective is to develop apps based on Business Central processes through Power Apps, including both Canvas apps and model-driven apps. The book also discusses how Power Automate incorporates new processes and automation into business processes, as well as creating or modifying them. As you advance, you’ll connect to Business Central APIs that can be implemented to connect with Business Central data, and finally integrate Power BI natively with Business Central to construct advanced reports and dashboards.

Throughout this book, you’ll gain experience in customizing Business Central with Power Platform to deliver more scalable and maintainable solutions.

Who this book is for

The target audience of this book is Business Central Power Users and technical consultants who want to expand their capabilities using the Power Platform. Basic familiarity with Business Central is needed; however, you need not have any technical expertise in programming or software development.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Business Central and Power Platform – Better Together, provides an overview of how Business Central and the Power Platform can be used to build solutions. This will be an introduction to some core concepts every user needs to know and understand to be able to start working. There has been a fundamental shift in designing solutions for Business Central since the platform moved to the cloud. With the release of Business Central in the cloud, and other low-code/no-code tools, Microsoft created a platform that is more than just an ERP. It is important to understand all the tools in the ecosystem that can be used to create solutions. We provide an overview of the different tools in the ecosystem, including Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Power BI, Dataverse, Teams, SharePoint, and Office 365.

Chapter 2, Getting to Know Business Central APIs, provides an introduction to Business Central APIs. We will also dive into how you access the APIs in Business Central. We’ll explore what is available as an API, how to know what endpoint to use, and what the limits to using the APIs are. Lastly, we’ll provide some tips on working with APIs.

Chapter 3, Connecting to Business Central in the Cloud and On-Premises, discusses how the first and most critical step of using Business Central with the Power Platform is to understand how to connect the two. In this chapter, we will explore all the ways to do that and what to do if you are running Business Central on-premises versus in the cloud.

Chapter 4, Working with Virtual Tables and Dataverse, provides an introduction to Dataverse and virtual tables. You will learn how to set up virtual tables and use Dataverse to enhance Business Central’s functionality, as well as creating a simple model-driven app.

Chapter 5, Best Practices for Building Power Apps for Business Central, covers the concept of Power Apps, what different types there are, how the different types can be used, and when to use each type. You will learn best practices and examples of how Power Apps can extend Business Central’s functionality.

Chapter 6, Building Flows for Business Central, teaches you about the concept of Power Automate, which uses well-documented business processes and turns them into instant flows. You will learn about flow triggers and actions and how they are used. Finally, key components will be discussed in creating, editing, and managing flows.

Chapter 7, Delivering Solutions, teaches you how to create a solution. After that, you will learn about the managed and unmanaged solution concepts. Lastly, the chapter will discuss application life cycle management for Power Platform.

Chapter 8, Automating Approvals and Reducing Manual Business Processes, teaches you how to connect Business Central and Power Automate and the advantage of combining Business Central workflows with the functionality of Power Automate. We will review what is needed to be set up in Business Central and how it is used with common business processes. Lastly, you will learn about common troubleshooting flow error messages and the Vendor portal.

Chapter 9, Connecting Power BI for Business Central Data, explains how to connect to Business Central and use out-of-the-box APIs. We will review setting up parameters in your BC report to connect to different databases and company portals, along with basic best practices in data modeling. In this chapter, we will use Power BI Desktop and publish it to a workspace and BC. We will review different visuals and give hints about which visuals to use for the story you are trying to tell.

Chapter 10, Extending Functionality by Using Several Power Platform Solutions, uses an example of using BC data, the power of Power BI, and use Power Apps to provide an organization with an easy way to make decisions and update Business Central data using Power Apps. Finally, you will learn how to create a custom API.

Chapter 11, User Adoption and Licensing Mapping Guides, gives the reader a better understanding of the importance of user adoption and licensing guides. The reader will learn what the dual license includes. After that, readers will gain an understanding of when a premium license is required and learn how to get up-to-date license requirements. Lastly, we will provide links to user adoption tools and resources.

Chapter 12, Understanding the Central of Excellence and Why It Is a Valuable Tool, teaches you the concepts and methodology around the Power Platform Center of Excellence. It will cover getting started with the Center of Excellence and how to take advantage of what the tool has to offer.

To get the most out of this book

To get the most out of this book, you will need access to the Microsoft developer environment. This is an environment that will allow you to use a free trial of the Power Platform, Outlook, Office, and other Microsoft services.

The second thing you will need is a Business Central environment. Microsoft enables you to set up a free trial for that as well. We have provided URLs for logging in to the various environments after you have created them. We will assume that you have a basic working knowledge of Business Central for this book and that you do not have a basic working knowledge of the Power Platform.

Software required	Links
Microsoft developer environment sign-up	https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program
Business Central free trial	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/trial-signup
Power Platform login	https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/
Power Automate login	https://powerautomate.microsoft.com
Power BI login	https://powerbi.microsoft.com
Power App login	https://powerapps.microsoft.com
Business Central	https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/

We will cover signing up for a free trial of the developer environment and Business Central in the first chapter of the book.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Extending-Business-Central-with-the-Power-Platform. If there’s an update to the code, it will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Log in to Business Central and search for Purchase.”

A block of code is set as follows:

SubmitForm(frmEditCustomer);
Navigate ('Home Screen');
'PowerApp->Refreshadataset-2'.Run()

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select Licenses and then Dynamics 365 Business Central for IWs.”

Tips or important notes

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Get in touch

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