Development environment

Path: Development > Development environment · tier official · system administration · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

Overview

This section is for developers who build Business Central extensions in AL. It starts with configuring the environment (VS Code AL Language extension, performance settings, Docker containers, GitHub Codespaces) and then moves into how projects and multi-root workspaces are organized.

The subtopics follow the development cycle: code analysis, then compile, publish and debug (including app signing and the AL Profiler), then testing with AL tests, HttpClient mocking and page scripting. Sandboxes explains online versus container-based environments, and Working with apps covers the app.json manifest, runtime version, dependencies and install-time data.

Start with Configure the development environment to get a working setup, then Configure projects and workspaces if you manage several apps. Other tools (Page Inspection, Txt2Al, table data viewer) are useful helpers when debugging pages or converting older C/AL code.

Key points

• Configure the development environment: AL Language extension settings, performance tuning, runtime targeting in app.json, resource exposure policy, Docker containers and GitHub Codespaces.
• Projects and workspaces: group several AL project folders in a multi-root workspace, set per-folder settings and manage project references and dependencies.
• Code analysis: a nine-page subtopic that comes between project setup and compile, publish and debug in the development cycle.
• Compile, publish and debug: breakpoints, snapshot and attach debugging, the AL Profiler, compilation scope, RAD publishing, app signing and Entra authentication for on-premises.
• Testing: test codeunits, methods, test pages, handlers and test runners, running tests in VS Code, mocking HttpClient calls, performance testing and UI acceptance testing with page scripting.
• Sandboxes: online and container sandboxes differ; container environments run with Docker and BCContainerHelper; extensions can be tested under different user plans and entitlements.
• Working with apps: app identity in app.json, runtime version choice, bundled resources, data added at install, and library and dependency apps.
• Other tools: Page Inspection for page structure and data sources, Txt2Al for converting C/AL objects to AL (NAV 14 code), and the table data viewer for tenant tables.

Subtopics

• Configure the development environment (10 pages)
• Configure projects and workspaces (2 pages)
• Code analysis (9 pages)
• Compile, publish, and debug (12 pages)
• Testing (11 pages)
• Work in sandboxes (3 pages)
• Working with apps (5 pages)
• Other tools (3 pages)

Videos, posts and code changes

Linked by a Haiku matcher with a grounding quote from the item’s summary (link/topics.ts); machine-generated.

• #10212 Add SetReferenceType method to SignedXml and SignedXmlImpl (#10139) (code change): “SetReferenceType method is added to the SignedXml codeunit to allow callers”

Business Central pages and reports

The pages, reports and queries this hub’s Learn pages name (ms.search.form, API reference), joined to the code by exact object id (data/index/docs-objects.json); a page shows the table it runs on.

Learn also names 9 objects with no object page: page/149000, page/149001, page/149003, page/149004, page/149005, page/149006, page/149007, page/149008, page/149009.

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn’s own.