Probably most of Dynamics 365 Business Central users out there know, that new release of Wave 1 is coming out this spring. So, what’s new, and what new features we are going to experience in Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 1 version?
First of all, here are the main dates that you need to know right now:
27th of January, 2020: Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 1 Release plans available. The plans include all information about new features and data integration.
3rd of February, 2020: Early access available. Try new features of the upcoming version before the release. Microsoft let us have a glance at this version before it‘s an official release in April.
1st of April, 2020: Official Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 1 release date.
Now, let‘s discuss briefly more interesting features of Wave 1, which should be real game-changers. Here are our technical team picks of the new features (in random order!):
- Enhanced mobile accessibility related to devise orientation.
In the previous version, the enhanced mobile accessibility was not always fully available, however, with the upcoming version the users will be able to “pull” the related information on the screen everywhere and any device. What is more, the tablets users will face the redesigned Role Center view in Landscape mode. It seems that the new version will make it way easier and more efficient for users on the road.
- Improved load time for pages
They say time is the most valuable thing we have. Well, Microsoft just saved us some by improving Dynamics 365 Business Central pages loading time, and making them open faster. The rendered page is cached after you open it for the first time, that way improving your next loading experience.
- Import profiles and UI customizations
The new version lets use an export and import function for profiles and their corresponding UI customizations without any developers’ assistance. Back up your profile customizations before making any changes, replicate profile across environments, and search through sandbox.
- AL Interfaces
This new feature allows users to write a code that is easy to reuse and is not so dependant on implementation details. A new interface object helps to declare an interface name and methods, apply the implements keyword with the interface names on objects. We will review this feature more in-depth in a separate blog post once the 16.00 version is out.
- Camera/location AL API available in the browser
This feature allows us to modernize experience, and also reduce data entry time. It has a lot of possibilities, e.g integrated into Azure service, it could be used for machine learning, face recognition, etc. Developers will be able to activate the camera, as long as the user‘s device and browser support that function.
- Look up events and insert event subscriber in code
When it comes to events, in most cases developers are either aware of the event they want to subscribe, or they want to have a convenient and fast way to search for the event. Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 1 release allows invoking the list of events by using a shortcut Shift+Alt+E in the AL code editor.
- Ability to refactor a field from a table to a table extension
By using Sync-NAVApp, move a field from a table to a table extension without any upgrade code. Thanks to this feature, customers who have customizations to the Microsoft base application will be able to transition to Business Central online.
- Multiple variable declarations of the same type in the same line
No more endless scrolling and reading! This new feature reduces our time by letting to add the same type multiple variable declarations in a singular line, just use a comma to separate variable names.
- API for continuous delivery of the AppSource apps via Azure DevOps services
From now on, use Azure DevOps to coordinate the build process and deployments to Business Central Online. This feature will implement continuous apps delivery to the customers by using a new API and Azure DevOps services.
That‘s all the features that we wanted to highlight today, but as mentioned at the beginning of the blog post, more of them you can find in the Dynamics 365 Business Central Wave 1 Release plan here. What new features of the upcoming release do you find useful? Please let us know in the comments!