The first annual Holiday Special video is out. In this video I answer questions and show tips and recommendation from the world of Business Central.
As part of the Holiday Special, I’m having a giveaway, where you have a chance to win a copy of the Field Guide. Follow the below link to participate in the giveaway.
In this holiday special episode of Business Central Ale, Erik takes a break from the usual deep-dive technical content to answer community questions from Twitter, share valuable tips and resources, and give away copies of the Business Central Field Guide. The video covers topics ranging from report modifications and recommended learning resources to career advice, a fun snake game side project, and Erik’s most memorable project experiences.
Community Questions and Answers
How to Modify Reports to Include Fields from an Extension
This was one of the first questions Erik tackled. At the time of recording, report extensions were confirmed to be coming in version 18. However, for those who needed a solution immediately, the approach was:
- Make a copy of the report
- Use the report substitution event to select your custom report instead of the standard one
Erik had previously covered this exact topic in a dedicated video called “How to Customize the Standard Report” on his channel.
What Skills Are Most Desirable for the Future?
Stefan asked whether developers should focus on JavaScript, C#, PowerShell, or other languages. Erik’s answer was nuanced and insightful:
Learn the platform, not just the language. Erik explained that JavaScript can be learned in an afternoon, but mastering the thousands of JavaScript frameworks and libraries takes a lifetime. The real skill lies in understanding the platform you’re working on.
Erik drew from his own experience, having progressed through DOS 2.0, OS/2, Windows, and now the web platform. He noted that much of what he demonstrated in his UI-hacking videos for Business Central was essentially DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation — understanding how the browser works and how web pages are structured.
His key points:
- Languages are tools; tools change all the time. If you understand the concepts of object-oriented programming, picking up a new language isn’t that difficult.
- To truly expand your skills, learn a radically different language. Erik mentioned his attempts at learning Haskell, his use of F#, and his years of working with Lua — all languages that challenge you to think differently.
- Don’t forget the application. One of Erik’s biggest grievances with the Business Central developer community is that too few developers actually understand the application itself. You might be a world-class developer, but if you don’t understand how dimensions work, how Codeunit 80 posts an invoice, the relationship between item ledger entries and value entries, or how posting setup combines general posting groups and general business posting groups — it doesn’t matter how good a programmer you are. You need to know the application to deliver great solutions.
Egg or Chicken: Which Came First?
In a delightful departure from technical content, Erik answered this classic question with scientific reasoning: DNA doesn’t change through the process of hatching, but a non-chicken creating an egg can produce offspring with different DNA. Therefore, the egg came first — it was laid by a non-chicken, but a chicken came out of it.
Top Five Books for Learning AL and Business Central
Drew asked about recommended books. Erik’s honest take was that the platform is moving so fast that traditional books become outdated quickly — something correct in version 16 might be wrong in version 17, and something right in version 15 could be obsolete by 17.
His recommendations and observations:
- The Business Central Field Guide — not a development book, but essential for understanding the application, the environment, tips and tricks, and how to get around Business Central
- Mike’s Cookbook and other AL development books — useful but subject to rapid obsolescence
- Christoph’s free book on AL development for beginners — a great starting resource from the newly minted MVP from Poland, though it may not be updated to the latest versions
Erik advocated for the concept of “books as a service” — he publishes the Field Guide on Leanpub, where he can continuously update the content as Microsoft releases new versions. Readers who purchased the book can always download the latest version. He expressed hope that other authors in the development space would adopt this model.
Tools for Project Lifecycle Management
Gerardo asked about tools for the full project cycle — from analysis to development to testing — and how to control extensions, versioning, and numbering.
Erik emphasized that everything is connected. It’s not a standalone dev project — the business consultant, sales people, customers, and everyone else are all involved. His approach:
Collaboration Tool: Erik’s company built their own web-based project management tool that runs on top of the Jobs module in Business Central. Every job they work on is a job in their own Business Central instance, every task is a job task, and they’ve added a web interface where customers can log in, see progress, add new tasks, and upload documentation. This provides clear visibility into what’s in analysis, development, testing, or done.
Development Environment:
- Visual Studio Code is mandatory
- Depending on customer size and app dependencies, they use either cloud sandboxes provided by the customer or Docker images
- If a customer depends on an AppSource-delivered app (like AvaTax from Avalara), development must happen on a cloud sandbox since those apps can’t be loaded into Docker
- Customers get three sandboxes by default, with the option to purchase additional environments
Branching and Deployment Strategy:
- Git is used through either Azure DevOps or GitHub
- A branch is typically dedicated to each sandbox
- Some sandboxes are for pure development, some for dev testing, and some for UAT
- Merges flow from development branches → UAT branch → production branch
- Builds and deployments are triggered from the appropriate branches
Version Numbering: Erik considers version numbers somewhat irrelevant in his workflow since what matters is which Git commit has been deployed. When version numbers are used, they follow the Linux convention where even numbers indicate one type of release and odd numbers indicate another.
Most Interesting/Crazy/Worst Project
Nicholas asked about Erik’s most memorable projects. Erik noted these are really three different questions:
Worst: Going back to older NAV versions. After working on SaaS with version 17 where everything is streamlined, having to return to NAV 5.0 or NAV 2009 Classic is a painful experience. Tasks that are trivially easy in modern Business Central become frustratingly difficult.
Most Interesting/Crazy: For nearly 10 years, Erik worked with the largest container shipping company in the world (a Danish company whose name he didn’t reveal, but which most in the industry would recognize). They ran NAV with thousands of users. What started as a front-end to prepare transactions for back-end systems evolved dramatically:
- They used almost no standard NAV functionality — NAV was essentially used as a development tool
- The company implemented three different accounting systems, but NAV became the only system deployed on every workstation
- It was the only system that could “debit one system and credit another” across all three accounting systems
- Everything ended up being built into NAV because it could talk to all other systems
- This resulted in one of the largest NAV installations Erik had ever seen or heard of
The experience taught Erik that NAV/Business Central technology could scale to work with thousands of users and massive transaction volumes. He also noted, as an amusing aside, that it took the company many years to convert what they had built into SAP.
Snake Attack: A Side Project Game
When asked about developing a game on his Commodore computers (he has two Commodore 64s and a VIC-20), Erik instead showed off “Snake Attack” — a C# game he developed partly with input from his kids, mostly written on airplanes during pre-pandemic travel.
The game is a classic snake game built as a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) application with a clean architecture:
- A portable .NET Standard library serves as the game engine, handling game logic, level definitions, and state management
- The rendering layer uses standard graphics elements drawn on a canvas
- Everything is tile-based, similar to old Commodore games
- Levels progressively add complexity — starting with stationary food, then adding walls, moving food, and walls with holes
Community Resources and Tips
Throughout the video, Erik highlighted several valuable resources for the Business Central community:
BCTech Repository on GitHub
The BCTech repository is a playground maintained by the Microsoft team that builds Business Central. It contains tech demos and examples including admin center API access, Azure IoT integration, Azure Service Bus usage, and customized CDS integration. The repo is actively maintained with frequent updates, making it an excellent resource for inspiration and learning.
Kerry Peters’ Blog (kerrypeters.com)
Kerry Peters, a Microsoft MVP and co-founder of New Strategies, was in the process of retargeting her extensive NAV training materials for Business Central. Erik particularly highlighted her work on Account Schedules — a feature that too few people understand, leading to unnecessary custom development when out-of-the-box functionality would suffice.
Steve Endow’s YouTube Channel
Steve Endow, coming from the Dynamics GP (Great Plains) world, was documenting his journey of retooling to Business Central on his YouTube channel. Erik recommended it as a great resource because Steve’s fresh perspective reveals things that longtime BC developers take for granted.
Vjeko’s YouTube Channel
Vjeko, a longtime veteran of the Navision/NAV/Business Central world, had launched a YouTube channel featuring deep-dive technical content and regular live shows.
MVP Directory (mvp.microsoft.com)
Erik recommended the MVP search function on Microsoft’s website as a way to find experts in specific technologies. Whether you need help with Power BI, Azure, or any other technology adjacent to Business Central, searching the MVP directory can connect you with knowledgeable people in that area.
Application Insights with Power BI
Erik highlighted a six-minute video from the BCTech repository by Kenny, demonstrating how to visualize Application Insights data using Power BI. The video covers topics like identifying long-running AL methods and job queue entries — a great introduction to monitoring your Business Central environments.
Book Giveaway
In the spirit of the holidays, Erik gave away 10 copies of the Business Central Field Guide (ebook version). The Field Guide is not a programming book — it’s focused on how to use Business Central, understanding the application from a user’s perspective, and is filled with tips and tricks for getting the most out of the platform.
Summary
This holiday special packed a lot of wisdom into a casual format. The key takeaways are: learn the platform deeply rather than chasing individual languages; don’t neglect understanding the Business Central application itself; take advantage of the growing ecosystem of community resources including YouTube channels, blogs, and the BCTech GitHub repository; keep your development workflow simple with clear branching strategies and appropriate use of sandboxes and Docker; and remember that in a fast-moving platform, staying current matters more than any single book or resource. Happy holidays, stay safe, and here’s to more Business Central content in the new year.
