AL-Go-PTE

Neil Haddley • August 26, 2023

Extensions

Microsoft Dynamics Business Central DevOpsal-goextensionsgithub-actionsci-cd

I changed Business Central by installing apps that add functionality, change behaviour, or give access to 3rd party online services.

AL-Go for GitHub is a set of GitHub templates and actions for setting up and maintaining DevOps processes for Business Central AL projects.

I used AL-Go for GitHub to create a Business Central per-tenant extension (PTE) with VS Code.

(I uploaded a Per Tenant Extension (PTE) to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central using the Business Central Extension Management page.)

I used the AL-Go-PTE GitHub template repository https://github.com/microsoft/AL-Go-PTE

I needed a GitHub account, a Windows machine, VS Code (with AL and PowerShell extensions installed), and Docker installed locally.

I created a new repository using the AL-Go-PTE GitHub template repository

I named the repository haddley-al-go-pte

Windows laptop

I installed Docker Desktop, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Git, GitHub Desktop, and Visual Studio Code on a Windows 10 laptop.

I installed Docker Desktop

I installed Windows Subsystem for Linux

I installed Git

I installed GitHub Desktop

I installed Visual Studio Code

I used GitHub Desktop to clone the haddley-al-go-pte repository

I switched Docker to support Windows containers (rather than Linux containers)

POWERSHELL

1Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName containers –All
2Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/57431890/error-response-from-daemon-hcsshimcreatecomputesystem-the-virtual-machine-co

I navigated to the .AL-Go folder and ran the localDevEnv.ps1 PowerShell script

Under the hood: What localDevEnv.ps1 does

Judging by the screenshots that follow, the script asks for a user name and password, has Docker download the Business Central image, builds a container, and shares my laptop folders with it. When it finishes, Business Central is running in the container, at an address that I opened in the browser. I published the hello world extension to it, and the settings were copied into launch.json.

I entered a username:admin and password:<password>

Docker downloaded the Business Central image

Docker created the image

Docker Desktop displayed the Business Central image

Docker Desktop displayed the Business Central container

The container was configured

Laptop folders were available inside the container

I needed to navigate to http://bcserver/BC/tenant=default

I re-entered my username:admin and password:<password> (see above)

Business Central was running in the local Docker container

I published the hello world extension (settings were copied to launch.json)

The sample extension was deployed — navigating to the customers page triggered the message

I installed the AL Language Extension

I updated the trigger's message, ran AL: Download Symbols (entering my username:admin and password:<password>), and clicked the Run | Start Debugging menu item