Microsoft AL Language

To access the AL Developer Preview builds, you must be a participant in the Ready2Go program.

Follow the detailed instructions provided in the official Microsoft documentation to get started: Ready2Go Program Instructions.

To develop extensions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, install the AL Language extension from the Visual Studio Code Marketplace. This extension provides the AL compiler and developer tools required for extension development.

Marketplace Link: ms-dynamics-smb.al

For comprehensive guides on using the AL Language to extend Dynamics 365 Business Central, refer to the following official Microsoft documentation topics:

• Getting Started: Link
• Building Your First Sample Extension: Link
• Developer Reference: Link

When building a Control Add-in for Business Central, you can define a JavaScript function that is callable from AL code. The CallJavaScript function in this example acts as an entrypoint that receives data passed from the AL side and updates the DOM.

To use this pattern, ensure your JavaScript file is included in your Control Add-in setup and that the function name matches the call made in your AL code.

function CallJavaScript(i, s, d, c) {    
    var div = document.querySelectorAll(".cb")[0];
    div.innerText = ['Received from AL:', i, s, d, c].join(' ');
}

In a Control Add-in implementation using HighCharts, you can define a LoadData(data) function to receive data from the AL environment. This function iterates over the incoming array and updates the first series of the HighCharts instance using setData. The expected input format for data is an array of objects where each object contains a code and a value property.

function LoadData(data) {
    chart.series[0].setData(data.map(x => [x.code, x.value]));
}

The highlightjs-al package provides a language definition for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central's AL language. It is exported as a default function that accepts a hljs (highlight.js) instance and returns a language configuration object. This configuration includes support for AL keywords, built-in types, metadata, strings, numbers, dates, and various object definitions (with and without IDs).

import hljs from 'highlight.js';
import alLanguage from 'highlightjs-al';

hljs.registerLanguage('al', alLanguage);
// or
hljs.registerLanguage('AL', alLanguage);