Pages

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

Overview

This section covers how to build the user interface of Business Central in AL. It starts with the basics: the Pages overview, Page object, Page types and layouts, and Page extension object. These explain page types, the SourceTable property, layout areas, actions and how to extend existing pages with keywords such as addlast and modify.

Design pages then cover specific types and layout controls. Card, document and list pages, the simple card and list examples, repeater controls, indented hierarchy lists and tiles (Brick field groups) handle records. FastTabs, the grid control and the fixed control handle field arrangement. Page parts (CardPart, ListPart, HeadlinePart, Power BI report parts) and FactBoxes embed related data. Further pages cover field formatting, tooltips, custom filter tokens, rich text and assisted setup guides.

A third group covers helping users find and learn the UI: Tell me, page discoverability, teaching tips and tours. Newer page types for Copilot and agents (PromptDialog, prompt guides, error handling in prompt dialogs, ConfigurationDialog) are also here. Start with Pages overview and Page types and layouts, then go to the page type or control you need.

Key points

• Core objects: Page object and Page extension object (addfirst, addlast, addafter, addbefore, modify, move keywords); page types include Card, List, Document, RoleCenter, Worksheet and dialogs.
• Layout controls: FastTabs with the Importance property, the grid control (GridLayout), the fixed control for matrix-like statistics, and repeater controls (Width, FreezeColumn, IndentationColumn).
• Page parts: CardPart, ListPart, HeadlinePart and Power BI report parts embed data from other tables; FactBoxes use SubPageLink and SubPageView to pass context.
• Lists can show indented hierarchies (indentationcolumn, showastree, treeinitialstate) and tiles defined by a Brick field group; DropDown field groups control dropdown content.
• Tooltips defined on table fields are inherited by pages from 2024 release wave 1 and can be overridden on page fields (CodeCop rule AA0234).
• Discoverability: set UsageCategory and AdditionalSearchTerms for Tell me; use teaching tips (AboutTitle, AboutText) and tours for onboarding.
• Copilot and agent pages: PromptDialog (runtime 12.1) with prompt guides and inline error display (2024 release wave 2), and the preview ConfigurationDialog with AgentSetupPart.
• Other topics: field formatting with AutoFormatType and DecimalPlaces, custom filter tokens via OnResolveTextFilterToken, Rich Text editor, assisted setup guides with NavigatePage, and embedding Power BI reports.

Learn pages

• Add FactBoxes to Business Central Pages: Learn how to add FactBoxes to Business Central pages, connect related records, configure system parts, and improve page-loading performance.
• Add pages and reports to Tell me: Description of how you use AL to add pages and reports so that they’re discoverable through search in the client.
• Add Tooltips to Table and Page Fields: Description of how you use AL to add tooltips to table and page fields so that they’re available when users hover over fields in the client.
• Arrange Fields Using Grid Control: Fields in a FastTab are arranged automatically. Use Grid control to manually set up rows, columns, span fields across, and show or hide captions.
• Arranging Fields in Rows and Columns Using a fixed Control: A fixed control is used to arrange page fields in rows and columns, similar to a matrix-like format, which is typically used to display statistical data.
• CardPart Pages in Business Central: Learn how to design a CardPart page in Business Central, add it to a Role Center or FactBox, and display data with fields, cue tiles, and control add-ins.
• Create a Role Center headline: You can provide information and insights as headlines on Role Centers.
• Create Custom Filter Tokens in Business Central: Learn how to create custom filter tokens in AL so users can enter shortcuts that resolve to reusable filter values in Business Central lists.
• Designing Assisted Setup Guides: Learn how to create wizards using the NavigatePage page type in Business Central”
• Designing card pages: Provides and overview of card page design.
• Designing Indented Hierarchy Lists: This article explains how to indent rows in a repeater control to design hierarchical lists. You can nest records that users can navigate, expand, and collapse.
• Designing List Pages for Business Central: Provides and overview of List page design
• Display Data as Tiles: Describes how to display a list as tiles
• Embed Power BI reports in pages: Explains how to display Power BI reports on pages in Business Central
• Error handling in prompt dialogs: Discover how to manage errors directly within Copilot prompt dialogs in Business Central.
• Field Arrangement on FastTabs: FastTabs in Dynamics 365 Business Central allow users to find key information on a page displayed in separate groups.
• Field groups: Discover how to use the fieldgroups keyword to configure DropDown and Brick field groups in table and table extension objects.
• Formatting the data in a field: Learn how to format data in a field, either on the table level or on the page/report level.
• ListPart Pages in Business Central: Learn how to create a ListPart page in Business Central and add it to a Role Center, FactBox, or document page to show a list of related records.
• Page discoverability: Introducing how to make Business Central pages discoverable by users.
• Page extension object: Extend page objects with page extension objects in AL for Business Central.
• Page object: Description of the page object and its syntax in AL for Business Central.
• Page Parts Overview: Provides and overview of the parts concept.
• Page types and layouts: Understanding page types to be able to create good user experience in Business Central.
• Pages overview: Pages are the main way to display and organize data.
• Prompting Using a Prompt Guide: Learn how to build a prompt guide for your PromptDialog pages in Business Central.
• Rich Text and content controls: How to create a functioning Rich Text Editor using ExtendedDataType and a table blob field in AL for Business Central.
• Simple card page example: Provides AL code for a simple card type page.
• Simple list page example: Provides AL code for a simple list type page
• Teaching tips and in-app tours for onboarding users: Learn about the teaching tips that you can apply to your Business Central to help users get started.
• The ConfigurationDialog Page Type (preview): Learn how to use the ConfigurationDialog page type to create focused configuration dialogs for managing agent settings in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• The PromptDialog Page Type: The PromptDialog page type allows you to integrate copilot capabilities into your custom scenarios.
• Work with repeater controls: A repeater is a control used to define a list of records from the source table of a page.

Videos, posts and code changes

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

• #10377 [Main][ALL-E] Sales Price from customer card and Purcase Price from vendor card is showing “All Customers/All Vendors” as header instead of the specific customer/vendor informationInitial commit (code change): “Price List Lines page now displays the correct customer or vendor name”
• #11901 Fix expense policy category mode (code change): “The category field is locked when the Expense Policies page is opened”
• #11920 Add title to field monitoring feature pages (code change): “Field Monitoring Setup, Monitored Field Log Entries and Monitored Fields Worksheet pages now have a title”
• #11960 [BC14] Classify historical entry pages as Archive in Tell Me (code change): “Changed UsageCategory from Lists to History on five read-only historical entry pages”
• #117 tooltip: PR review flags genuinely-missing tooltips instead of deferring to AA0218 (code change): “PR review now independently flags genuinely missing tooltips on page fields”
• #160 Clarify page field caption and tooltip inheritance (code change): “bound page fields inherit Caption and, from BC24 runtime 13.0, ToolTip”
• Understanding User Control Host in Business Central (community post): “User Control Host is a simplified page type that requires no source table”
• Dynamics 365 Business Central: controlling the Summary system part. (community post): “Developers can control the Summary part using the DefaultSummaryPart identifier on Card, Document, and ListPlus pages”

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