New
capability highlights
The 2020
release wave 1, brings to market significant new services and capabilities to
enable digital transformation for businesses. For Dynamics 365 Business
Central, these new capabilities include:
Improved
usability
•
Search for features in the role explorer
•
Enable non-interactive printing
•
Import profiles and UI customizations
•
Show parts that are hidden on pages
•
Go to related records from list pages
•
Improve pages that have multiple parts
•
Bookmark reports
•
Categorize data
•
Enter data more easily
•
Filter data and create views
Enhanced
application features
•
Use resources in purchase documents
•
Send the right documents to your contacts
•
Receive more goods than you ordered
•
Undo shipment or receipt lines for non-items
Better
tool for admins and partners
•
Integrate with Common Data Service
•
Manage permissions with deeper insight
•
Sync users with the Microsoft 365 admin center
•
View data sizes per table
•
Cancel sessions
•
Use AL interface objects
Improved
usability
Search
for features in the role explorer: The
Business Central Role Explorer has a new addition that complements manual
navigation and expanding or collapsing menu groups. Users can now open the Role
Explorer, with either the "hamburger" icon or the Shift-F12 keyboard
shortcut, and then start typing what they are looking for.
The
Role Explorer does not filter the results but instead highlights the hits, as
shown in the next image. Also, when a result is contained in a collapsed group,
the Find function annotates that group using a teal-colored circle. Users can
browse through the results using arrows or Ctrl+Up/Down keyboard keys. The Esc
key closes the Find box and removes the value typed, so that new searching or
browsing can be started. Note also that switching to the Explore all view
retains the find value making it easy to navigate.
Enable
non-interactive printing: Users
can print reports directly from the desktop using the predefined printers
configured on the Printer Management page. If the printers are selected and set
up properly, then no additional steps, such as downloading files or navigating
through previews, are necessary. In addition, administrators can have the power
to configure print jobs for specific tasks, users, orfor more complex printer
setups.
Complex
printing scenarios where labels must be sent to one printer and a packing slip
to another are common in many businesses. Users expect to be able to configure,
save, and retain certain properties describing such flows, and they expect to
print each report directly to a predefined printer.
Printing
directly to a printer is now possible from the modern desktop clients. The
setup that you make on the Printer Management page allows you to control which
device to print to, including to cloud printers as defined by extensions. Using
the Business Central modern clients, users who work in the browser can set up a
printer selection for each report so that documents, labels, and other content
are printed automatically on the selected printer. Administrators can manage a
list of printers (including cloud printers), for example, by creating a
friendly name for each and setting defaults. Additionally, for on-premises installations,
any network printer that the server has access to will be available on the
Printer Management page.
Import
profiles and UI customizations: Administrators
and consultants benefit from a rich toolset that supports role-tailoring in
Business Central. By having both an export and import function for profiles
(organizational roles) and their corresponding user interface customizations,
customers can easily back up their profile customizations before making further
changes, replicate profiles across environments, or safely explore
possibilities in an online sandbox before importing into production. All this
without requiring the assistance of developers.
Show
parts that are hidden on pages: Business
Central is able to adapt to the unique needs of the user, department, or
organization.
When
personalizing pages in Business Central, users can show a hidden part on any
page, such as a
FactBox
on a sales document. This unlocks two common scenarios:
Business
users can personalize their pages and bring back a part that they have
previously hidden. Similarly, power users and consultants can unhide parts that
they have previously hidden.
Developers
can now choose to place secondary content on a page object and hide it, giving
their customers a simple starting point with the page and the ability to unhide
that content if it is relevant to their business processes.
Go
to related records from list pages: Navigating
through your business data, jumping from one context to the other or simply
drilling through data is essential fora busy professional.
We
are adding capabilities for users to navigate via links to even more places
than today. This allows you to open a related card from a list, such as a
customer or item card from a sales order.
Improve
pages that have multiple parts: Some
business tasks require advanced screen layouts that reflect the nature of the
task and the volume of data associated with the task. By having highly optimized
layouts, users get the best overview of their data to quickly make decisions
and act, reducing the need to scroll and navigate to get the task done.
Improvements
to pages composed of multiple parts
The
desktop client adds full support for page objects that are composed of multiple
parts, such as ListParts or CardParts. This capability was already possible on
a Role Center or FactBox pane. But the canvas of other page types wasn't
optimal for displaying parts alongside other content, resulting in overlapping
UI elements or unreachable data.
Developers
are now able to implement pages by choosing from prescribed AL patterns that
give predictable outcomes. For example, they can display two lists side by side
on a ListPlus page. Or, have multiple dependent lists shown above each other on
a Document page. Pages already using these control patterns will automatically
benefit from this change with no further development effort needed.
Available
April 2020: Optimizations for ListParts as used on List pages, Document pages,
Card pages, and ListPlus pages.
Available
after April 2020: Optimizations for List Parts as used on Worksheet pages, and
CardParts as used on various page types.
Categorize
data: Users
get a better overview of their data when it is grouped into categories. Some
data is best represented as a deep hierarchical list. Business Central empowers
developers to design pages for both of these scenarios, so that users can get
the best possible overview and navigate to the relevant records.
On
page objects where a repeater control has the Show As Tree property set to
True, users will experience a new level of efficiency when working with the
data tree. Users can easily drill down and back out again, using a keyboard or
mouse, by expanding and collapsing groups or by using the Expand all and
Collapse all actions.
Developers
can also specify if a tree should start as fully expanded or fully collapsed.
Enter
data more easily: Back-office
workers often need to capture information or digitize paper material at high
speed. For some users, this is their main activity for the whole workday. When
this cannot be automated through means like OCR and AI, users require an
efficient interface that does not get in the way of quickly typing in data.
Various
adjustments that enhance typing or navigating fields in a list.
In
editable lists, users will be able to use the left and right arrow keys to
navigate to the previous or next cell in a row. This provides a consistent
experience between editable and non-editable lists and increases the speed and
agility of exploring data in a list or worksheet.
Similar
to Microsoft Excel, we've introduced the F2 key that toggles between selecting
the entire value of a field and placing the cursor at the end of the value.
This allows users to quickly replace the value or add to it. The F2 key is
available for editable fields and editable cells in lists.
When
typing to fill in a row of data, the Tab key no longer sets focus to the
ellipses that bring up the context for the row. This improves efficiency when
rapidly entering data and ensures that Tab key presses are predictable. The
context menu remains reachable using the left or right arrow keys.
Filter
data and create views: As
the business grows, so does table data in the database, making quick analysis
of the data or even finding records more challenging without the right tools.
Defining the perfect set of filters can be a time-consuming, iterative process
where the ability to persist filters will save having to recreate them the next
time they are needed.
The
2019 release wave 2 eliminated the need to recreate commonly used filters by
allowing users to permanently save filters as a view in the web client. Based
on community feedback, we're now improving the filter experience further:
When
authoring filters that use expressions, such as date ranges or filter tokens,
you can toggle the filter field to display either the expression or the
corresponding value. To view the expression, simply set the focus to the filter
field using a keyboard or mouse. This is particularly useful when saving list
views so that date-or time-sensitive expressions can easily be modified when
needed.
While
on a list page, saving the URL as a browser favourite will include the current
view, allowing you to link directly to the view when you navigate to that favourite.
Note that the web client URL will only include views and filters that have been
saved.
When
working with lists, Business Central will help you pick up where you left off
if you are disconnected or you reload the web page by trying to return to the
last view you visited.
Enhanced
application features
Use
resources in purchase documents: Most
businesses tend to outsource or hire external, named resources on a temporary
basis, such as for a particular project or job. The ability to purchase
resources allows you to track and process such transactions.
You
can now use Resource as a line type of purchase documents. For example, you can
add resources on purchase orders, invoices, and credit memos and post purchase
transactions for them. You can correct purchase documents with resource lines,
copy them, or use resource extended text.
Send
the right documents to your contacts: Businesses
deal with multiple customer and vendor contacts who are responsible for
different areas of operation, such as accountants, purchasers, and warehouse
people. Each of these contacts must be sent different sets of documents
generated by Business Central.
You
can now save time while sending documents to different customer or vendor
contacts by setting up specific contacts to use with specific documents. For
example, customer statements will be sent to accountant contacts, sales orders
to your customers' purchasers, and purchase orders to vendors' salespeople or
account managers.
You
can now populate the Document Layouts page for vendors and customers based on
settings on the Report Selection page. To send specific documents to specific
company contacts, choose the company contacts to use for specific document
layouts.
The
Document Layouts page for a customer now contains additional usage options for
reminders and posted shipments. The Document Layout page for a vendor now
contains additional usage options for purchase orders and posted return
shipment.
Receive
more goods than you ordered: When
you receive more goods than you ordered and it's cheaper not to return such
goods or your vendor offers you a discount, order processors and warehouse
workers must be able to handle such receipts without going through a lengthy
process of preparing and getting approval for a new purchase order.
You
can now receive a quantity higher than the ordered quantity on purchase orders
according to an over-receive policy that you set up on the Over-Receipt Codes
page. Here you can fill in the Over-Receipt Tolerance % field and select a
policy to be used by default.
If
your company uses purchase order approval, over-receiving can trigger a re-approval.
You define this on the Over-Receipt Codes page. The Approve Over-Receipt
workflow response is available in the workflow engine for this purpose.
On
the cards for items and vendors, you can select in the Over-Receipt Code field
which policy to use by default on purchases.
When
you have selected an over-receipt code, you can enter a higher-than-ordered
quantity in the Quantity to Receive field on released purchase orders and
warehouse receipts.
Better
tools for admins and partners
Integrate
with Common Data Service: A
new Common Data Service on boarding experience will be provided, where users
will be able to connect to a Common Data Service environment and associate a
Business Central company with a Common Data Service business unit. This will
allow for multiple companies to connect to a Common Data Service instance.
During setup, the Common Data Service connection entities from the default
Common Data Service database will be synchronized.
This
provides extensibility support for developers developing integrations for
Common Data Service.
Common
Data Service is at the center of the Dynamics 365 suite. Common Data Service
enables users to have a 360-degree view of their business as data is available
in Common Data Service. Once data is in Common Data Service, users will have a
shared, consistent view of data across the Dynamics 365 solution. Dynamics 365
Business Central will support a set of entities in the Common Data Service
default database provided in a "Business Central CDS Base Solution,"
which other integrations will depend on. The base solution will bring the
capability to map a Company entity to a Business Unit entity in Common Data
Service.
When
developing extensions that integrate with Common Data Service, Business Central
2020 release wave 1 will bring extensibility capabilities, where Common Data
Service tables and Common Data Service table extensions can be created. This
will allow for any custom attribute to be synchronized.
Get
telemetry in Application Insights: Partners
can monitor performance of web service requests and reports.
The
Business Central server will emit telemetry about the execution time and
timeouts of web service requests and reports.
Partners
and customers can use this to monitor their environments for performance issues
caused by web service requests and reports and be more proactive in preventing
these issues from occurring.
AL
interfaces: An
interface is used when you want to decide which capabilities need to be
available for an object, while allowing actual implementations to differ, as
long as they comply with the defined interface.
This
allows for writing code that reduces the dependency on implementation details,
makes it easier to reuse code, and supports a polymorphic way of calling object
methods, which again can be used for substituting business logic.
Use
the new interface object to declare an interface name along with its methods
and apply the implements keyword along with the interface names on objects that
implement the interface methods.
The
interface object itself does not contain any code, only signatures, and cannot
itself be called from code, but must be implemented by other objects.
The
compiler checks to ensure implementations adhere to assigned interfaces.
A
new Quick Fix Code Action can be used to insert interface stubs, if the
compiler errors on one or more interface implementations are missing.
You
can declare variables as a given interface to allow passing objects that
implement the interface, and then call interface implementations on the passed
object in a polymorphic manner.
Performance
tuning guide: Understand
and improve the performance of Business Central. The content is centred on the
different ways a functional consultant, a developer, or an administrator can
make changes with a performance impact.
Visit:
aka.ms/bcperformancefor more details.
View
data sizes per table: When
troubleshooting performance issues, sometimes it is necessary to see the
distribution of data size across tables. This feature makes it easy for an
administrator to look up this information.
A
new page called Table Information shows the following:
•Company Name
•Table Name
•Table No.
•No. of Records
•Record Size
•Size (KB)
Information
is shown for all companies for which the user has SUPER permissions.
Cancel
sessions: Sometimes,
cancelling a session is the only way to unblock a customer. For example, a
long-running report is locking data in a table, preventing warehouse employees
from working.
Prior
to this feature, partners would need to contact support to locate and terminate
the session.
In
the Business Central administration centre, an administrator can see a list of
active sessions on an environment and cancel one or more of them. All existing
resources consumed by a session will also be cancelled.
For
more details, please visit Microsoft’s Business Central page & below are
few links which might helpful to understand above in details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jqzveL_Nu4&feature=youtu.be
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/dynamics365-release-plan/2020wave1/dynamics365-business-central/planned-features
