Dynamics NAV extensions development

How are you today. I have taken quite a while without writing on this blog. For those of us from Uganda, i hope you have cleared your taxes on social media ? Let's get to business.

I shared about extensions one of the articles. If you want to know about extensions please read here.

1. Extensions is the new way of customizing our Dynamics NAV (Dynamics Business Central). Our code will be written in a new language AL. Previously it has been in CAL
2. Visual Studio Code (VS Code) will be our IDE for developing extensions.

Since it is our very first attempt on extensions. Let me share with you what you need to prepare for AL development.

You will need;

• Dynamics NAV 2018(Developer components) installed on your machine. We shall first test our extensions using the NAV instance you have installed
• VS Code IDE. Click for download
• You need to install AL language extensions in your VS code IDE
• You also need the AL Language formatter installed in your VS code IDE.

The AL Language extension enables you to write AL code using your IDE while the formatter enables you to format your code.

The instructions on how to install VS code are on the VS code website. Also find the instructions of installing Dynamics NAV 2018 on the Microsoft website.

Once you have installed Dynamics NAV 2018 and VS code IDE continue with these steps to enable your VS Code work with AL extensions
The first time you run your VS code, it will look like this. There will be no tab "Recent projects"

To install AL extension into your VS code;

• On your IDE select the extensions tab. It is the square just below the circle

• Go to assist edit up and select install from Vsix
• Browse for AL language extension present in your NAV setup folder. Mine was in DynamicsNAV setup folder\NAV 2018\ModernDev\program files\Microsoft Dynamics NAV\110\Modern Development Environment

Once you find the file [ALLanguage] select it and install.

Once you have installed Dynamics NAV 2018 Developer components along with VS code IDE, AL extension and AL formatter. You are ready to start your coding.
Thank you and see you in the next blog where we shall create our first AL extension.