What’s New: Reporting Features (For Developers and Consultants) (2024 release wave 2)
Reporting features for developers and consultants in Business Central 2024 release wave 2: report layout lifecycle actions (export schema, blank layouts, update layout), Excel named formulas, layout lifecycle telemetry, the OnSetFileName event, and planned deprecation of layout properties on Report.
- Introduction to Report Layout Lifecycle
- Export Report Schema and Get Custom XML
- Mapping Report Fields to Word Documents
- Creating New Blank Report Layouts
- Updating Layouts with Latest Metadata
- Named Formulas in Excel Reports
- Lifecycle Telemetry for Report Layouts
- Additional Reporting Improvements
Overview
This 11-minute video from the Business Central channel covers what is new in report layouts in 2024 release wave 2. It walks through new actions on the report layouts page: exporting the report schema as XML for mapping fields in Word, creating blank Word, Excel or RDLC layouts, and updating a layout with the latest report metadata.
It also shows named formulas that simplify Excel reports, lifecycle telemetry for layout changes, a new event for setting the file name of downloaded reports, and a VS Code data item snippet. The presenter says the Report.WordLayout, RdlcLayout and ExcelLayout properties will be deprecated.
Key points
- The report schema can be exported as an XML file and injected into a Word document so report fields can be mapped to layout elements.
- A new action creates a blank layout in Word, Excel or RDLC format from the report object, so a layout can be built from scratch.
- The update and export layout action refreshes an existing layout with the latest metadata, useful when a report extension adds fields to the dataset.
- Named formulas in Excel reports reference aggregated metadata, so you can avoid writing complex XLOOKUP or VLOOKUP formulas.
- Lifecycle telemetry tracks layout changes: default layout changes, property changes, export, replace and delete.
- Subscribe to the OnSetFileName event to set the file name of downloaded reports.
- Report.WordLayout, Report.RdlcLayout and Report.ExcelLayout are to be deprecated; move the layout to the rendering section of the report object.
Features
| Feature | Status | At |
|---|---|---|
| Export Report Schema for Word | status not stated, demoed | 1:00 |
| Create Blank Report Layouts | status not stated, demoed | 3:04 |
| Update and Export Layout | status not stated, demoed | 4:01 |
| Named Formulas for Excel | status not stated, demoed | 5:02 |
| Report Layout Lifecycle Telemetry | status not stated, demoed | 7:42 |
| Set Report Filename Event | status not stated, demoed | 8:33 |
| VS Code Data Item Snippet | status not stated, demoed | 9:13 |
| Report Layout Property Deprecation | status not stated | 9:38 |
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.
- report “Sales Invoice” at 1:30
- report “General Journal Test” at 3:04
- report “Customer Top 10” at 5:33
Not found in BC28-30: report “Sales Invoice”, report “General Journal Test”, report “Customer Top 10”.
Quotes
- 0:06 “in this 2024 release Wave 2 video we’re going to talk about report layout in general so life cycle of layouts”
- 0:19 “we’re going to talk about some new actions you got on the report layouts page get custom XML for word create a new empty”
- 5:13 “we tried to make this a little better or a little easier with what we call named formulas”
- 7:42 “in this release wave we also added life cycle Telemetry for report layout changes on the report layouts page”
- 8:53 “there’s a new event in town called onet file name and you simply uh subscribe to that”
- 9:38 “we’re going to deprecate report. word layout rdlc layout and Excel layout because these don’t make any sense anymore”
Disclaimers in the video
- 9:38 coming-later: we’re going to deprecate report. word layout rdlc layout and Excel layout
Presenters (as heard): Kenny Paban.