What's New: Business Central Mobile Apps Featuring Brand New Barcode Scanning Capabilities (2023)

Overview

The video, published 2023-12-04, walks through the October 2023 mobile app release, version 4.0. It covers Tell me and data search on phones and tablets, both enabled in feature management, and worksheet page support for phones, which is described as coming in version 23.1.

Most of the session is about barcode scanning. It explains the approaches (camera, dedicated devices, AL API), then demos item references with a barcode type, GTIN label printing, item bin content inquiry, sales order lines, assembly orders and scanning serial numbers in item tracking lines. It closes with the AL code for camera scanning and the barcode scanner provider.

Key points

• Mobile app version 4.0 was released in October 2023, and the app is backward compatible with older Business Central versions, including on-premises.
• Tell me (alt Q) and data search on mobile must be turned on in feature management. Data search honors permissions as on desktop, and administrators can configure which tables are searchable.
• Worksheet pages on phones are announced for version 23.1 (November time frame), with a header, footer and lines experience like document pages.
• Camera scanning is enabled by annotating a Code or Text field with the extended data type property set to barcode. It supports 1D and 2D formats including QR codes.
• Dedicated barcode scanner devices are supported only on Android. All the barcode scanning capabilities require mobile app 4.0 and Business Central release wave 2.
• Item references can use a barcode type, and GTIN barcode labels can be printed. Scanning is demoed in item bin content inquiry, sales order lines and the Scan multiple action in item tracking lines.
• For the AL barcode scanner provider API, several providers can register, but only the topmost page receives the data. The camera provider check returns false when running in a browser.

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.

• page 6530 “Item Inquiry” at 13:42
• page 6531 “Item Bin Content Inquiry” at 13:42
• page 6510 “Item Tracking Lines” at 11:42
• page “serial number information card” at 12:02
• page 902 “Assembly Orders” at 11:35
• page “warehouse worker role center” at 13:42
• other “extended data type property equals barcode” at 7:57
• other “barcode scanning provider” at 16:53
• other “barcode available function” at 17:13
• other “barcode failure function” at 17:33
• other “barcode scanner provider” at 20:09
• other “barcode received trigger” at 20:30

Not found in BC28-30: page “serial number information card”, page “warehouse worker role center”.

Quotes

• 0:38 “in October 2023 we have released the new version of our mobile app this is version 4 4.0 available of course for um IOS”
• 0:58 “this app is Backward Compatible so you can download it from the store and U used on your devices even if you are connecting”
• 1:38 “in order to enable that feature you have to go to feature management and turn it on and of course if you have a”
• 3:48 “coming in version 23.1 so not right now in October but a little bit later in November time frame uh this type of experience”
• 5:29 “we now in the new mobile application we support native barcode scanning that can be enabled via the AL language”
• 6:22 “we do support QR codes as well because we do know that our partners have actually asked for this specific thing”
• 7:23 “we are integrating in this new mobile app release with dedicated bar Cod scanner devices however with the caveat we only support devices that”
• 7:57 “all you need to do is actually annotate annotate a field of type code and text with the extended data type property equals barcode”
• 13:42 “two new actions one is called the item inquiry and the second is called item bin content inquiry both of these actions allows us”
• 14:03 “just by defining the uh extended data type as barcode and it automatically uh picks it up over here the barcode”
• 16:53 “the first step is to Define your barcode scanning provider and then you have to in Step number two you have to see if”
• 18:33 “this third scenario is actually tailored and um targeted specifically for warehouse employees who are actually used to scan multiple items in a span”
• 19:34 “only send the information to the topmost page that is the current page that the user sees and now in terms of code”
• 21:10 “this is only supported in the latest version of the mobile app that is version 4.0 and also is only supported in the new”

Disclaimers in the video

• 3:27 coming-later: coming in version 23.1 so not right now in October but a little bit later in November time frame
• 19:14 other: only send the information to the topmost page that is the current page that the user sees
• 21:10 other: this is only supported in the latest version of the mobile app that is version 4.0 and also is only supported in the new business Central release wave two

Presenters (as heard): Baj Koto, Kim, Gloria, Claus, Kasim, Aim.