Actions

Path: Development > Programming in the AL language > Pages and the user interface > Actions · tier official · system development · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

Overview

Actions are the commands users run from Business Central pages. This section explains how to define them in AL, place them in action areas and menus (Actions, New Document, Navigate, Report), and promote frequently used ones to the action bar. It also covers icons, keyboard shortcuts, the RunObject property and Power Automate flow integration.

The pages split into three groups. Basics: Actions overview, Adding actions to a page and Actions in the user interface (page-level and part-level actions, placement, split buttons). Promoted actions: Promoted actions, Organizing Promoted Actions, Common Promoted Action Groups and Behavioral Changes for Promoted Actions, which cover actionref syntax, legacy category syntax, grouping and visibility rules. Action bar changes: Action bar improvements, Pages with Action Bar Improvements, and Prompting using a floating action bar for Copilot prompt actions.

Start with Actions overview and Adding actions to a page. Then read Promoted actions and Organizing Promoted Actions. Check the behavioral changes page if you are migrating older code or see differences in visibility or personalization.

Key points

• Actions are placed in areas and menus such as Actions, New Document, Navigate and Report, and can be grouped, given icons and keyboard shortcuts, and use RunObject.
• Promoted actions use actionref syntax with split button groups; the legacy PromotedCategory syntax is still supported, with gradual migration between styles.
• 2022 release wave 2 changed promoted action behavior: new actionref syntax, better personalization, different visibility inheritance and recursive group rendering.
• Promote only frequently used actions, organize by page type and user needs, and use subgroups when there are more than 7 actions.
• Common promoted groups give standard patterns, such as Home/Process, Posting, Release, Approve, Entry, and Report.
• In 2024 release wave 1 the modern action bar is default, with split buttons, a pinned Home tab, and a toggle for the legacy action bar.
• A list of pages updated with action bar improvements in 2022 release wave 2 (version 21.0) covers card, list, document and worksheet pages.
• Prompt actions launch Copilot PromptDialog pages from List, Card, Document, ListPart, StandardDialog, ListPlus and Worksheet pages, using a Sparkle image and capability registration (2024 release wave 1, runtime 13 and 14).

Learn pages

• Action bar improvements: Introducing the modern action bar in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Actions in the user interface: Learn about the guidelines for organizing actions when creating, extending, and customizing pages in Business Central.
• Actions overview: Learn more about displaying actions on the action bar for pages in Business Central.
• Adding actions to a page: Create and display actions in the ribbon of all pages and group them together under Actions, Navigate, Reports tabs and preview it in the Windows Client.
• Behavioral Changes for Promoted Actions: The promoted action framework has been redesigned with Dynamics 365 Business Central 2022 release wave 2.
• Common Promoted Action Groups: Learn about the common promoted action groups in Business Central, their characteristics, and how to use them.
• Organizing Promoted Actions: Guidelines for which actions to promote in the action bar for Dynamics 365 Business Central
• Pages with Action Bar Improvements: Overview of pages in Dynamics 365 Business Central that contain the action bar improvements
• Promoted actions: Promoted actions are configured to display on the Home tab for accessing quick daily actions in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Prompting using a floating action bar: Learn how to create prompt actions to promote AI capabilities in Business Central

Videos, posts and code changes

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

• #10979 [Master] Promote Excise Taxes action on Item card (code change): “Excise Taxes action is now more prominent on the Item Card”
• #207 2 AL/BC UI patterns: client-expression in-list (AL0573) and Role Center AccessByPermission (code change): “in-list set-membership tests in client expressions such as Visible or Enabled on actions”

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