Dynamics Business Central / NAV Developer Digest - Vol. 472
ArcherPoint’s Developer Digest focuses on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Dynamics NAV development. This week’s volume includes insights into the MB-820 Business Central developer exam structure and content, how to obtain a table number from a RecordRef variable, an extensive guide for developers who are preparing for the BC MB-820 Certification Exam, best practices and performance considerations for working with the Bulk Insert feature, and Microsoft’s announcement of Dynamics 365 2024 release wave 1.
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.
Review of the BC Developer Exam
Recently, Matt T took the BC Developer Exam and offered valuable insights into the exam structure and key content areas.
Matt’s review of the MB-820 – Business Central Developer Exam:
This was interesting. It was much more like the other Microsoft exams now. My test consisted of:
- The test consisted of 54 questions, comprised of 2 case studies (8 and 6 questions, respectively) and 40 grab bag questions.
- A collection of multiple choice, multiple answers, fill in from the drop-down, and drag and drop/put in the correct order.
- No free response type questions.
I had access to Microsoft Learn during the test, which was helpful on some questions but useless on others. I took the full two hours, which I usually do not do. In my opinion, there were not a lot of “memorization” questions.
I won’t get my score for at least two weeks since it’s a Microsoft certification beta exam, but I definitely passed. With that being said, it did not test what I thought it would.
I did a quick review of this “study guide”/topic list and spent a couple of hours looking over things I hadn’t seen in a while
There were very few basic coding questions. Common things, such as transfer fields and other basic commands, were not found on the exam. If I were to describe this exam in one sentence, it would be “A test on what has changed since C/AL.” If you could do it in C/AL, the odds of it being asked on this test are very slim (at least on the version I took).
I found that the exam was heavy on the following topics:
- Report triggers
- XMLPorts
- Queries
- APIs, both calling external APIs from BC and creating with AL
Things that were on my test that you may not traditionally have exposure to:
- Basic automated testing
- Basic telemetry, including KQL
- Install / Upgrade Codeunits and Data Transfer
- AppSource Technical Requirements
- Working with JSON and HTTP object types
- Report substitution/extension
- Extending permission sets
- Creating profiles and page modification objects
- Access Modifiers (internal, protected)
I wasn’t asked about assisted setup, teaching tips, or onboarding checklists. Nothing about report layouts.
Overall, I thought the questions were fair to ask, but not necessarily about what I think most developers spend their day doing. Most people shouldn’t have any issue passing, especially if you do some prep. If you want to “pass with flying colors,” so to speak, you may need to put a little work in.
In response to Matt T’s developer exam review, Pranav J asked: Nothing about code quality or performance? What level of KQL questions were asked?
To which Matt answered:
The amount of questions regarding actual code, and not what properties you would set to what, was astoundingly low. The closest thing to a performance question I got, without revealing the question, was essentially “why is this dataset too big?” Code quality is in the eye of the beholder, so I’m not surprised there was nothing on that.
Regarding KQL on the exam, there was only one question, and it was about keywords for structuring a basic query.
Obtaining table number from a RecordRef variable
Denise B asked: How do I tell what table is being passed in for NewRecRef and OldRecRef variables? Are they Sales Line table, Purchase Line table, etc.?
local procedure OnBeforeVerifyFieldNotChanged(NewRecRef: RecordRef; OldRecRef: RecordRef; FieldNumber: Integer; var IsHandled: Boolean)
To which Tom H replied: The RecordRef.Number() property will tell you which table you’re in so that you can do:
RecRef.Number() = Database::”Sales Line” then [stuff] else [other stuff]”.
Denise B:
Ok, thanks!! Less code if I use RecRef.Number(). Thank you Tom!
var
TableID: Integer;
RecID: RecordId;
begin
RecID := NewRecRef.RecordId;
TableID := RecID.TABLENO;
end
Guide to preparing for the MB-820 – Business Central Certification Exam
Alberto Sobén, the Business Central Geek, provides an extensive guide for developers who are preparing for the BC MB-820 Certification Exam. The guide covers each certification domain, including describing BC architecture and apps, as well as developing using AL objects. Relevant Microsoft documentation, learning paths, and examples are provided to support the learning process. The content covered matches up with Matt T’s review of the exam.
Learn more about preparing for the MB-820 Certification Exam, by reading Sobén’s guide, Business Central Developer Certification Ultimate Guide.
Bulk Insert best practices
Duilio Tacconi, a Microsoft Certified Trainer and author, offers key insights regarding best practices and performance considerations when working with the Bulk Insert feature in BC. Tacconi runs experiments to evaluate the performance optimization of the Bulk Insert feature, which decreases the required number of server calls.
Learn more about the Bulk Insert feature and key considerations regarding its use through Tacconi’s blog, The incredible BULK (INSERT).
Microsoft announces plans for Dynamics 365 2024 Release Wave 1
Mo Osborne, Corporate Vice President and Chief Operating Office Business Applications & Platform at Microsoft, has come out with the core highlights and plans for the 2024 Release Wave 1 of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform. Business Central is projected to see significant performance enhancements related to workflow automation, project and financial management, and increased productivity gains using Copilot-driven reporting and data analysis capabilities.
Learn more about the features and plans for Dynamics 365 2024 Release Wave 1 by checking out the article on Microsoft’s website, 2024 release wave 1 plans for Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform now available.
Waldo’s take on Dynamics 365 2024 Release Wave 1
Waldo shares his views on the upcoming release. Read his blog, Microsoft Dynamics 365 2024 Release Wave 1 plan for Business Central.
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.