Announcing the Preview of Modern Development Tools for Dynamics NAV

In this blog, we’re excited to introduce you to the new tools you’ll use to build extensions and apps in and for Dynamics NAV. This December preview is meant as an appetizer and way for you to try out what we have so far. We’ve been looking forward to showing you what the new tools look like and let you take them for a spin.

The tools that you’ll be using come in two flavors and both are available in preview from today.

The in-client designer

adding-a-field

Make an extension in the client itself. Business consultants and UX designers will love using this drag-and-drop interface. Rearrange fields, rename groups, and reposition elements to build a perfect extension to support an industry-specific solution or implement a business process optimization.

Visual Studio Code

vscode

Use the AL Extension for NAV in Visual Studio Code to build powerful extensions based on tables, pages, and codeunits using the new objects: Page Extensions and Table Extensions. Follow this route to build rich extensions that reuse and extend core business logic in your application.

I’m keen! How do I get started?

Two steps to get set up and then you can put rubber to the road. First you need an Azure Subscription. If you don’t have one, you can get a free 30-day trial from https://azure.microsoft.com/free/ that will give you access to everything you need. If you do take the trial, you will need to provide a telephone number and credit card, but these are for ensuring you’re not a bot and you won’t be charged.

Secondly, head over to http://aka.ms/navdeveloperpreview. Login to your Azure Subscription. Select your subscription, resource group, location, name, and a VM Admin Password. Leave the remaining fields as their defaults. Accept the terms, Pin to dashboard and select Purchase. The instance takes about 5 minutes to set up, and the VM will be ready about 15 minutes after Azure says Deployment Succeeded. So go get a coffee and come right back.

How do I learn more?

Great question! We were hoping you’d ask that.

Check out our docs:

Tools overview

Getting Started guide

Object overview and AL language changes

This is great – how do I share the love?

Are you as excited as we are? Then blog or tweet using the tags #dyndev365, #msdynnav, and #code. Collaborate with us by adding your product ideas. Do that in GitHub https://github.com/microsoft/al/issues.

I found a bug – what do I do?

We’re sorry – we’re still in preview and still learning too. It would help us so much if you can track down the bug and tell us. During the preview, the best way to let us know is to file it as an issue in GitHub https://github.com/microsoft/al/issues. The sooner we know, the sooner we can patch it and get it back out there.

New builds! Where do I get a new build?

While we’re in preview we’re going to be fixing as many of those bugs as we can and we’ll be working on new features too. We’ll update the image on Azure Gallery about every month and let you know here on the blog when we do. We’re also working on a process to get them out faster but with Christmas and the New Year coming up, it might just take a bit longer the first time.

Another warning, when we do provide a new gallery image, we won’t be able to provide any upgrade tools between the versions. We’ll try our best to avoid breaking changes but there are no promises.