Business Central and Integration with the Power Platform

In the previous chapter, we saw how to use Azure Services combined with Dynamics 365 Business Central to implement modern serverless business processes and we had an extensive overview of how to use Azure Functions from AL.

In this chapter, we will introduce an important part of the Dynamics 365 family: Microsoft Power Platform. We'll cover the following topics:

• An introduction to Microsoft Power Platform
• Microsoft Flow and PowerApps overview
• Implementations of real-world scenarios by using Flow and PowerApps integrated with the Dynamics 365 Business Central ecosystem

By the end of this chapter, you will have a complete overview of Power Platform and be able to use Flow and PowerApps to implement custom solutions and workflows with Dynamics 365 Business Central in a low-coding way.

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Technical requirements

To follow the examples described in this chapter, you'll need the following:

• An Office 365 subscription with access to Flow and PowerApps
• An active Dynamics 365 Business Central online tenant 

Introducing the Power Platform

Power Platform combines the features of applications such as Flow, PowerApps, and PowerBI into a unified business application platform. The importance of this platform in the Microsoft ecosystem has been explained many times directly by Satya Nadella in his talks. In a modern business application's implementation, we need to seriously consider the Power Platform.

The platform embraces the Analyze, Act, and Automate paradigm. Each component of the Power Platform is built on top of the Common Data Service for Apps (a platform that allows users to quickly integrate programs, build new custom applications, and create automated workflows), and the platform brings data together into what is called the Common Data Model.

A schema of this platform is displayed in the following diagram:

Flow and PowerApps are low-code development...

Understanding Flow

Flow is a platform that was built with the purpose of providing a way to create automated workflows and integrating Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies through connectors and triggers. These tools are available for the end user so that they can build business processes in a visual way. More information can be found at https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/.

Flow has more than 180 different connectors that you can use through actions and triggers to build automated workflows. One of these connectors is the Dynamics 365 Business Central connector, and it's the standard connector for interacting with Dynamics 365 Business Central from Flow. The connector is available at https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/?filter=business+central&category=all.

One of the biggest advantages of using Flow is that it gives us a visual way...

Understanding PowerApps

PowerApps is a platform that was built with the purpose of creating business applications that can be used on mobile phones, tablets, and web browsers, all using a very easy user interface. It also uses connectors to integrate those apps with Microsoft and non-Microsoft platforms.

The distribution, permission, licensing, and authentication for the use of those apps is based on Microsoft 365 licenses, so it is already totally integrated with your Microsoft 365 environment.

More information about PowerApps and its licensing can be found at https://powerapps.microsoft.com/.

In the PowerApps Studio (https://web.powerapps.com), you can create apps easily:

Since PowerApps also work with the same connector concept that's in Flow, we can also create apps that connect and interact with our data on Dynamics 365 Business Central environments, giving...

Integration scenarios with Power Platform

Now that we have had an overview of Flow and PowerApps and we know that they allow us to build powerful integrated solutions with Dynamics 365 Business Central to provide more control, integration, and extension, let's discuss and learn how to combine these technologies to do more with our environment.

The following scenarios are just ideas to help you brainstorm and to show you some of the features that are available to you. However, the platforms are so flexible and adaptable to different use cases to the extent that we would need an entire book to cover all the bases, so remember to use these scenarios to extract some ideas for your daily needs.

Scenario 1 – creating a human resources recruiting/onboarding process...

Summary

In this chapter, we had an overview of the Microsoft Power Platform, with a special focus on two important applications: Microsoft Flow and Microsoft PowerApps.

We saw the implementation of three real-world business scenarios by integrating Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Flow and PowerApps, and all of this was done with zero coding. This is the power of this business platform!

We also learned how to embrace the entire Dynamics 365 platform in order to extend our ERP solutions and create modern business applications.

In the next chapter, we'll look at another interesting integration scenario: how to use Dynamics 365 Business Central with machine learning.