BCTalent – Escape Rooms
For a Red Carpet event in Microsoft's BCTalent program, the author and AJ built a proof-of-concept Business Central app that runs escape rooms. Consultant and developer venues contain rooms that unlock as trainees complete tasks inside BC. Tasks are checked automatically through event subscribers and test codeunits, progress is logged with telemetry, and the author hopes the framework will later reach ISVs and events.
"90 minutes in Business Central, where you need to gain access to different rooms by discovering and executing Business Central related tasks."
Key points
- A venue is a set of rooms, and each room unlocks only after all tasks in the previous room are done; there are separate venues for consultants and developers
- Tasks evaluate themselves, for example by subscribing to OnAfterInsert to detect a new customer, or by running test codeunits to check fields and behavior
- The framework app defines interfaces for almost every entity, each venue app implements them, and every task and room needs its own implementation codeunit
- Instructions and solutions are HTML resource files loaded through the GetResource capability; rooms also offer hints and full solutions
- Telemetry records timings, tasks and hints used, shown in Azure Data Explorer dashboards; the author hopes the framework will become available to ISVs and for interviews or training
Quotes
- “90 minutes in Business Central, where you need to gain access to different rooms by discovering and executing Business Central related tasks.” (This describes the core mechanic of using BC itself as both platform and training mechanism.)
- “I even see opportunities for you, ISVs, to be able to download the framework app and create your own rooms for your own products.” (Indicates the framework’s extensibility and future commercial potential beyond Microsoft training.)
Context
- Features: Escape Room Framework, Task Auto-Evaluation, HTML Resource Files, Event Subscriptions, Telemetry Tracking, Azure Data Explorer Dashboards, Interface-Based Architecture
Source: waldo’s blog, community blog. Summary, key points and quotes are derived (CONTENT-NOTICE.md); read the original for the full text.