Extending Microsoft Business Central with Power Platform

Extending Microsoft Business Central with Power Platform

by Kim Congleton, Shawn Sissenwein
Released August 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781803240718

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

Discover how you can extend the capabilities of Business Central by building and deploying Power Platform solutions Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Key Features

  • Unlock the full potential of Business Central using Power Platform, including Power Apps, Power Automation, and Dataverse
  • Gain proficiency in using standard Business Central APIs and creating new APIs
  • Implement best practices for developing and rolling out Business Central projects with enhanced functionality

Book Description

Unlock the untapped potential of Business Central by harnessing the power of the Power Platform with this comprehensive guide, transforming your cumbersome manual processes and limited customization capabilities into a vast array of extended functionalities and possibilities.

You’ll begin by exploring the potential of Power Platform and its seamless integration with both the on-premises and cloud versions of Business Central, amplifying the capabilities of your business operations. You’ll then learn how to set up virtual tables and use Dataverse to create a simple model-driven app. As the book progresses, you’ll leverage Power Apps, including both Canvas apps and model-driven apps, to build apps around Business Central processes. The book also highlights Power Automate’s capabilities to create or modify business processes while incorporating new processes and automation. As you advance, you’ll connect to Business Central APIs that can be implemented to connect with Business Central Data and finally integrate Power BI natively with Business Central, empowering you to construct advanced reports and dashboards.

With the hands-on experience gained throughout the book, you’ll build expertise in customizing Business Central with Power Platform to deliver more scalable and maintainable solutions.

What you will learn

  • Build and deploy robust Power Platform solutions for Business Central
  • Seamlessly integrate Business Central both in the cloud and on-premises with Power Platform using a wide range of connectors
  • Set up virtual tables and gain insights into the extensive capabilities of Dataverse
  • Build and connect Power Apps, enabling seamless Power BI integration for Business Central
  • Create exceptional automated flows with advanced Power Automate configurations
  • Understand user adoption strategies and the center of excellence

Who this book is for

Whether you’re a Business Central Power user, technical consultant, or solution architect looking to expand your capabilities using the Power Platform, this book is for you. No prior technical expertise in programming or software development is required; all you need is a basic familiarity with Business Central.

Table of contents

  1. Extending Microsoft Business Central with Power Platform
  2. Contributors
  3. About the authors
  4. About the reviewers
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the example code files
    5. Conventions used
    6. Get in touch
    7. Share Your Thoughts
    8. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1 – Part Fundamentals
  7. Chapter 1: Business Central and Power Platform – Better Together
    1. Technical requirements
    2. How Business Central and Power Platform are better together
      1. Setting up your development environment
      2. Business use case – the K&S Solutions Inc. company
      3. The Business Central and Power Platform ecosystem
      4. Power Pages
      5. Power Virtual Agents
      6. Power Automate
      7. Power Apps
    3. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Getting to Know Business Central APIs
    1. Technical requirements
    2. An introduction to Business Central APIs
    3. How to connect to Business Central APIs
      1. Configuring Azure Active Directory for OAuth use with Postman and Business Central
      2. Adding API permissions
      3. Creating your first GET request in Postman
      4. Exercise 2.1 – using Postman to call an API in Business Central
    4. What are the limits of working with APIs?
    5. Tips and tricks to work with APIs and Business Central
    6. Summary
  9. Chapter 3: Connecting to Business Central in the Cloud and On-Premises
    1. Key differences between connecting to Business Central versus on-premises
    2. Connecting to Business Central on-premises
    3. Connecting to Business Central in the cloud
      1. Building a Power Automate flow
    4. Summary
  10. Chapter 4: Working with Virtual Tables and Dataverse
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introduction to Microsoft Dataverse
      1. Setting up a Power Platform environment
      2. Creating a new table in Dataverse
      3. Integration between Dataverse and Business Central
    3. Understanding virtual tables
      1. Virtual tables – key benefits
      2. Virtual table restrictions and limitations
      3. Setting up virtual tables
    4. Creating a model-driven app
      1. Building the model-driven app
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
  11. Part 2 – Doing the Work of Designing, Building, and Implementing
  12. Chapter 5: Best Practices for Building Power Apps for Business Central
    1. Technical requirements
      1. Exercise for creating the Contact canvas app
    2. Citizen developers versus pro developers
    3. Different types of Power Apps and deciding which type of app to create
    4. Data sources and their different types
    5. Repeatable components
      1. Reference apps
      2. Fluent Theme Designer
      3. How to import components
    6. Creating a canvas app
      1. Customizing fields, labels, and descriptions
    7. Summary
    8. Further reading
  13. Chapter 6: Building Flows for Business Central
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Well-documented business process flows
    3. Triggers and actions for Power Automate
      1. Exercise – creating a flow for a new vendor
      2. Building a Power Automate flow from scratch
      3. Using a Business Event in a Power Automate flow
      4. Inserting a record into BC using Power Automate
      5. Advanced Power Automate setups
      6. Best practices
      7. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Delivering Solutions
    1. ALM for admin, citizen, and pro developers
    2. Environment overview
    3. Solutions
      1. Types of solutions
      2. Solution components
      3. Creating solutions
    4. Summary
    5. Further reading
  15. Part 3 – Common Business Cases in Business Central for the Power Platform
  16. Chapter 8: Automating Approvals and Reducing Manual Business Processes
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Setting up approvals in Business Central
      1. Configuring your environment for approvals
      2. Importing users into Business Central
      3. Configuring the approval process in Business Central
    3. Setting up Power Automate integration
      1. How to enable Power Automate in Business Central by user
      2. How to enable Power Automate permission in Business Central by user(s)
      3. Exercise for setting up purchase approvals using a Power Automate template
    4. Common troubleshooting tips for approvals
    5. Summary
  17. Chapter 9: Connecting Power BI for Business Central Data
    1. Technical requirements
      1. Exercise for creating a Power BI report and dashboard
    2. Enabling Power BI reports within Business Central
      1. Adding additional Power BI reports to the Business Central home screen
    3. Connecting to data in Power BI using out-of-the-box APIs
    4. Reviewing different visuals and publishing reports
      1. Power BI visuals
      2. Power BI report editor
      3. Publishing the report
      4. Dashboard
    5. Summary
    6. Further reading
  18. Chapter 10: Extending Functionality by Using Several Power Platform Solutions
    1. Extending functionality in Business Central using several Power Platform solutions
      1. Case study – creating a Power Apps app from Power BI Desktop
    2. Case study – a new item setup
      1. Creating a solution
    3. Best practices to extend functionality in BC using several Power Platform solutions
    4. Summary
  19. Part 4 – Tips and Tricks for Common Issues
  20. Chapter 11: User Adoption and Licensing Mapping Guide
    1. User adoption
      1. Envision
      2. Onboarding
      3. Scale
      4. Adoption best practices
    2. Power Platform Maturity Model
    3. Microsoft 365 plans and licensing
      1. The Microsoft 365 admin center
      2. Business Central license
      3. Power Platform license
    4. Summary
    5. Further reading
  21. Chapter 12: Understanding the Center of Excellence and Why It Is a Valuable Tool
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Center of Excellence
      1. Creating a dedicated environment to run a CoE and import a CoE solution
      2. Importing the Creator Kit and CoE solution
    3. Additional admin tools and monitoring Power BI dashboards
      1. Power BI dashboards
      2. Production CoE dashboard
    4. Governance and audit compliance processes
    5. Business Central plus Power Platform
    6. Summary
    7. Further reading
  22. Index
    1. Why subscribe?
  23. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Packt is searching for authors like you
    2. Share Your Thoughts
    3. Download a free PDF copy of this book

Product information

  • Title: Extending Microsoft Business Central with Power Platform
  • Author(s): Kim Congleton, Shawn Sissenwein
  • Release date: August 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781803240718