What's New: Exporting and Importing Agent in Business Central

Overview

The video shows how to export an agent definition as an XML file, either from the agent card using an export agent definition action or from the agent list. The file holds the agent’s name, display name, permissions and instructions. Reasons given for exporting are backing up agents while working on them and sharing them across environments.

The import part walks through the import agent definition wizard: selecting a file, previewing the definitions and their effect on existing agents, reviewing validation warnings, choosing which agents to import, and deciding whether to replace existing agents or create new instances. After import, agents can be activated from the results view or reviewed on the agent card first. The video also mentions that agents can be productized through AL code via the API, using exported definitions as a reference.

Key points

• Export an agent definition as an XML file from the agent card (Design > export agent definition) or export multiple agents from the agent list.
• The XML contains the agent’s name, display name, permissions and instructions.
• Import runs through an import agent definition wizard (Design > import agent definition, then select XML file) that previews the agents and what will change for existing agents before anything is imported.
• You can view each agent’s instructions in the preview and check a validation status column with warnings and errors, for example a profile that was not found in the system.
• An agent imported without a profile cannot navigate the UI, so this must be fixed manually after import.
• During import you choose to replace existing agents or create a new instance, and you can select only the agents you want.
• After import, a results view lists what was imported; clicking an agent’s initials opens the agent card where you can activate it and review permissions, user access and other settings.

Features

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 “agent list” at 1:10
• other “agent card” at 0:47
• other “inventory agent” at 1:10
• other “sales validation agent” at 3:16

Quotes

• 0:16 “It is quite useful sometimes to back up your agents when you are working on them and you want to make sure that you”
• 0:27 “The other thing is that you might want to share them across environments and easily import them.”
• 1:43 “It will contain its name, its display name, the different permissions it’s using and also the instructions that it is using.”
• 1:59 “The importing experience is designed to offer both security and convenience uh for viewing what changes will happen to existing agents.”
• 4:02 “a warning which says that the profile that it is being imported with was not found in the system”
• 4:17 “want to replace existing agents or to add a new one in which case a new instance will be”