Mastering Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central is an all-in-one business management solution, which is easy to adopt and helps you make smarter business decisions. This book is a comprehensive guide to developing solutions with Microsoft ERP (in the cloud and also on-premises). It covers all aspects of developing extensions, right from preparing a sandbox environment to deploying a complete solution.

The book starts by introducing you to the Dynamics 365 Business Central platform and the new Modern Development Environment. You'll then explore the sandbox concept, and see how to create sandboxes for development. As you advance, you’ll be able to build a complete advanced solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central with AL language and Visual Studio Code. You'll then learn how to debug and deploy the extension and write automatic testing. The book will also take you through advanced topics like integration (with Azure Functions, web services, and APIs), DevOps and CI/CD techniques, and machine learning. You'll discover how Dynamics 365 Business Central can be used with Office 365 apps. Finally, you'll analyze different ways to move existing solutions to the new development model based on extensions.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to develop highly customized solutions that meet the requirements of modern businesses using Dynamics 365 Business Central.

• Create a sandbox environment with Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Handle source control management when developing solutions
• Explore extension testing, debugging, and deployment
• Create real-world business processes using Business Central and different Azure services
• Integrate Business Central with external applications
• Apply DevOps and CI/CD to development projects
• Move existing solutions to the new extension-based architecturE

Stefano Demiliani is a Microsoft MVP on business applications, a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD), Azure Certified Architect, and an expert in other Microsoftrelated technologies. His main activity is architecting and developing enterprise solutions based on the entire stack of Microsoft technologies (mainly focused on ERP and the cloud). He has worked with Packt Publishing on many IT books related to Azure cloud applications and Dynamics 365 Business Central, and is a speaker at conferences around Europe. You can reach him on Twitter (@demiliani) or LinkedIn.

Duilio Tacconi is a Microsoft Dynamics NAV/Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Escalation Engineer at Microsoft EMEA Customer Support & Services (CSS). He joined Microsoft in 2008 after working in a customer IT department with a focus on system administration and development.

Despite graduating with the highest score in Agricultural Science in 1996, he is in the ERP circuit since 1998 as developer and system implementer for several companies with Microsoft and non-Microsoft technologies.

Currently, he is a subject matter expert in EMEA for RDLC Report development and one of Microsoft EMEA CSS reference for Managed Service for Partners (MSfP).

Three times IronMan finisher, Duilio lives in Cernusco Sul Naviglio (Italy) with his beloved wife Laura and his 2 years old son Leonardo.

Table of Contents

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Overview
2. Mastering Modern Development Environment
3. Online and Container-based Sandboxes
4. Extension Development fundamentals
5. Developing a customized solution for Dynamics 365 Business Central
6. Advanced AL Development
7. Report Development with AL Language
8. Installing and Upgrading extensions
9. Debugging
10. Automated Tests development with AL
11. Source Control Management and DevOps with Dynamics 365 Business Central
12. Dynamics 365 Business Central APIs model
13. Serverless business processes with Dynamics 365 Business Central and Azure
14. Monitoring, scaling and CI/CD with Azure Functions
15. Dynamics 365 Business Central and integration with the Dynamics 365 Power Platform
16. Integrating Machine Learning into Dynamics 365 Business Central
17. Moving existing ISV solutions to the new extension model
18. Useful and proficient tools for AL developers