A Smarter Way to Test: Using Page Scripting to Accelerate User Acceptance Testing in Business Central

Let’s face it—testing in Business Central has always been kind of a pain. Whether you’re dealing with a big upgrade or just validating a small customization, someone always ends up clicking through a bunch of screens manually, trying to make sure nothing is broken. It’s tedious, it’s time-consuming, and it’s easy to miss things.

That’s why Business Central’s Page Scripting tool, introduced in the 2024 wave 1 release, is such a big deal. It’s a feature aimed at developers, consultants, and power users who are tired of repetitive testing and looking for a more reliable, efficient way to get it done.

What does the Business Central Page Scripting tool do?

So, what exactly is it? Page Scripting lets you record a process in the Business Central web client—say, creating a customer and posting a sales order—then replay it whenever you need to. It automates what used to be manual and error-prone. Instead of “I think this works,” you get “I know this works, and here’s the script to prove it.”

And it’s not just about playback. You can validate values along the way, insert conditional logic to handle “sometimes” pages (like pop-up dialogs), and even customize steps using Power Fx expressions. Using Power Fx is significant: You can dynamically generate values, insert randomness where needed, and check results against earlier steps using the clipboard. It turns static test scripts into flexible, intelligent flows that adapt to your data.

Page Scripting is also built to fit your environment, not the other way around. It works in the cloud, on-prem, sandbox, or Docker. And if you’re thinking about DevOps, yes, you can export scripts (YAML or shareable link) and integrate them into your CI/CD pipeline. That’s the kind of automation that shortens release cycles and builds trust in your delivery process.

Page Scripting tips and tricks

Now, if you’re planning to use Page Scripting, here are a few lessons from experience:

Start every script from a known state, like the Role Center. That helps avoid weird surprises during playback. If your test involves list pages, apply filters to surface the right data—scripts can’t always tell which row you meant to click. Better yet, don’t rely on pre-existing data at all. Have your script create its own test customers, vendors, items—whatever it needs—so the test is self-contained and repeatable.

Also, don’t try to build massive, end-to-end tests in one go. Break them into modular chunks: one script for setup, one for transactions, one for posting. It’s easier to debug, easier to reuse, and much easier to maintain.

Make use of the clipboard and session tools. Right-click controls to copy and paste values and session information (such as the session’s UserID) into inputs or validation steps to enable dynamic and responsive tests. If your process includes asynchronous steps—like external systems or integrations—drop in a few wait steps (in milliseconds) to give the system time to catch up. And when you hit a “sometimes” scenario, like a confirmation dialog that only appears for certain conditions, wrap it in a conditional step so your script doesn’t crash when things don’t go exactly the same way every time.

Make your testing more accurate and efficient

Ultimately, Page Scripting is about giving dev teams the tools to move faster without cutting corners. It helps catch issues before users do. It frees up time we usually waste on repetitive manual testing. And it creates confidence in the code we are releasing.

If you’re working through an upgrade, planning a release, or just want to clean up your testing workflow, Page Scripting is worth checking out.

And if you hit a wall, ArcherPoint by Cherry Bekaert can help. We’ve been there, and we’re happy to share what we’ve learned.

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