Dynamics Business Central / NAV Developer Digest - Vol. 465
ArcherPoint’s Developer Digest focuses on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV development. This week’s volume includes using Bound Actions in Business Central, debugging AL code in BC, new features in GitHub Copilot, and the impact of ChatGPT one year later.
The Dynamics 365 Business Central community comprises professionals devoted to advancing the success of their customers. Developers, project managers, and consultants collaborate to share helpful information across blogs, forums, and social media sites. From discovering new solutions to finding answers to complex issues, these dedicated individuals are constantly sharing their knowledge with others. At ArcherPoint, we recognize and appreciate this highly engaged community’s creativity, hard work, and collective intelligence. To ensure all users can benefit from their expertise, we want to share their wealth of information with everyone.
Using Bound Actions in Business Central
Bound Actions can be very useful when using API calls to integrate Business Central to external systems.
Bound Actions in Business Central let developers link an action that performs business logic to a particular data set. An API call to another system can then trigger this logic. Bound Actions can also be used with the Power Platform to automate processes. You can select from standard Bound Actions or create your own custom ones.
Business Central Geek Alberto Sobén’s recent blog covers what Bound Actions are, where to find a list of available Bound Actions, how they are used, and how to create your own.
Read his blog, What Are Bound Actions In Business Central APIs.
Debugging AL code in Business Central
What happens when you get an error message and don’t have an extension’s source code?
That’s the question posed and answered by Saurav Dhyani. Saurav covers configuration settings (localhost, SQL Server, Web Client), publish settings, and break settings. He also highlights the all-important “Debug without publishing” option, which lets you debug your code without deploying it.
Watch his video, AL Debugging in Business Central.
New features in GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot has added a host of new features that make it much more productive, including:
- Removing the limitations of the Large Language Models (LLMs) with workspaces so that Copilot can view your entire project instead of just parts of it.
- The ability to open up an inline chat window without having to access the sidebar.
- A new #context command that looks at the recent activity to help find and solve errors.
- The new VS Code Speech extension that offers speech-to-text support for prompt input.
Check out their video, GitHub Copilot just got exponentially smarter, to see what all the buzz is about.
The impact of ChatGPT one year later
Speaking of AI…
In just one year, ChatGPT, which started out as a tech demo, has ended up being one of the most talked about applications on the internet. ChatGPT, one of the most advanced Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT) available to the public, has the ability to understand speech conversations, create software code in just about any language, and generate and interpret images. As a result, ChatGPT has become a boon for writers, software developers, and image creators, has prompted calls for government regulation, and has created crisis for educators.
OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT) fired its CEO, Sam Altman, on November 17, 2023, only to have him return as CEO on November 29, 2023.
ChatGPT uses a Large Language Model (LLM) for its knowledge database. In November 2023, OpenAI updated ChatGPT-4 Turbo’s knowledge cutoff from September 2021 to April 2023. Currently, the free version of ChatGPT states that it is based on the GPT-3.5 architecture, which was last updated in January 2022.
Ars Technica takes a look back at the past year and discusses the impact ChatGPT has had on the technology world, including tech giants like Microsoft and Google.
Read the article ChatGPT is one year old. Here’s how it changed the tech world.
Interested in Dynamics NAV and Business Central development? Be sure to see our collection of NAV/BC Development Blogs.
Read “How To” blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Dynamics 365 Business Central.