Business Central 29: New ModuleInfo Properties Explained

Overview

The video explains ModuleInfo, the AL type that returns information about an application or extension. In Business Central 29 it has four new properties: help, ULA, privacy statement and context sensitive help URL. They return links taken from the app metadata, so the values do not need to be hardcoded and are refreshed when the extension is updated.

The presenter shows how to get a ModuleInfo for the current app with NavApp.GetCurrentModuleInfo, or for a specific app by GUID with NavApp.GetModuleInfo. A demo compares the version 28 approach with the version 29 one. The ModuleDependencyInfo type is also shown for inspecting the dependencies listed in app.json.

Key points

Version 29 adds four ModuleInfo properties: help, ULA, privacy statement and context sensitive help URL.
The new properties require Runtime 18.0 or later.
The help property returns the help link of the specified application. The ULA property returns the end user license agreement link. The privacy statement property returns the privacy statement link.
The context sensitive help URL property gives the help URL in the user locale.
The values come from application metadata, which is refreshed when the extension is updated, so they need not be hardcoded.
NavApp.GetCurrentModuleInfo needs no app GUID. NavApp.GetModuleInfo takes an app GUID for a specific app.
ModuleDependencyInfo lets AL code iterate over the dependencies defined in app.json.

Features

Feature	Status	At
ModuleInfo help property	generally available (roadmap Access application links through ModuleInfo), demoed	2:33
ModuleInfo ULA property	generally available (roadmap Access application links through ModuleInfo), demoed	2:44
ModuleInfo privacy statement property	generally available (roadmap Access application links through ModuleInfo), demoed	2:55
ModuleInfo context sensitive help URL property	generally available (roadmap Access application links through ModuleInfo), demoed	3:00
ModuleInfo type enhancements	status not stated, demoed	1:39
ModuleDependencyInfo type	status not stated, demoed	6:08
NavApp.GetCurrentModuleInfo function	status not stated, demoed	5:08
NavApp.GetModuleInfo function	status not stated, demoed	4:54

A status with a roadmap link comes from the Microsoft 365 roadmap feature this part of the video covers (matched by Haiku; links Opus dropped are not used); other statuses need a status word in the video itself.

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

other “ModuleInfo” at 1:39
other “NavApp.GetCurrentModuleInfo” at 1:55
other “NavApp.GetModuleInfo” at 1:55
other “ModuleDependencyInfo” at 6:08

Quotes

0:14 “in version 29 the module info type that has been expanded with four new properties that give AL developer access to help”
1:23 “in version 29 with runtime 18.0 and later we have a much cleaner way to retrieve some of this meta …”
1:39 “module info is an al type that provides information about an application or extension or module whatever you want to call it”
2:33 “The first one is help. This returns the help link of specified application.”
4:03 “because this information comes from the application metadata which will be refreshed whenever the extension get updated, you don’t have to hardcode those values”

Disclaimers in the video

1:23 other: in version 29 with runtime 18.0 and later we have a much cleaner way to retrieve some of this meta …

Presenters (as heard): Sarrahani.