Execute JavaScript with WebPageViewer for Business Central

TL;DR

The WebPageViewer add-on has an overload to accept some JavaScript. You can use that to execute arbitrary script locally. WebPageViewer.SetContent(HTML: Text; JavaScript: Text);

JSON Formatting

This post starts with me wanting to format some JSON with line breaks for the user to read. It’s the response from an Azure Function which integrates with a local SQL server (interesting subject, maybe for another time). The result from SQL server is serialized into a (potentially very long) JSON string and this is the string that I want to present in a more human-readable format.

Sometimes I converge on a solution through a series of ideas, each of which slightly less bad than the previous. This was one of those times. If you don’t care about the train of thought then the solution I settled on was to use the JavaScript parameter of the WebPageViewer’s SetContent method.

If you’re still here then here are the stations that the train of thought pulled into, starting with the worst.

Requirement

Have some control on my page for the user to view the JSON returned from the Azure Function, formatted with line breaks.

1. Format at Source

Why not just add the line breaks when I am serializing the results in the C# of my Azure Functions? That way I don’t need to change anything in AL.

No, that’s dumb. That would make every response from the function larger than it needs to be just for the rare occasions when a human might want to read it. Don’t do that.

2. Call an Azure Function to Format the Result

I could have a second Azure Function to accept the unformatted result and return the formatted version. I could have a Function App which runs node.js and return the result in a couple of lines of code.

Wait, that’s absurd. Call another Azure Function just to execute two lines of JavaScript? And store the Uri for that function somewhere? In a setup table? Hard-coded? In a key vault? Seems somewhat over-engineered.

3. Create a User Control

Hang on. I’m being thick. We can execute whatever JavaScript we want in a user control. I can create a control with a textarea, or just a div, create a function to accept the unformatted JSON, format it and set the content of the div. No need to send the JSON outside of BC.

Closer, and if you want more control over how the JSON looks on screen probably the best bet. But, is it really necessary to create a user control just to execute some JavaScript? Still seems like too much work for what is only a very simple problem.

4. Use WebPageViewer

The WebPageViewer has a SetContent method (which I’ve written about before) which can accept HTML and JavaScript.

If you pass some script it will be executed when the page control is loaded. Perfect for what I need. I can just use the JSON.parse and JSON.stringify functions to read and then re-format my JSON text. I’m also wrapping it in pre tags and removing any single quotes in the text to format (because they will screw the JavaScript and I can’t be bothered to handle them properly).

The AL code ends up looks like this:

local procedure SetResult(NewResult: Text)
var
    JS: Text;
begin
    NewResult := NewResult.Replace('''', '');
    JS := StrSubstNo('document.write(''<pre>'' + JSON.stringify(JSON.parse(''%1''), '''', 2) + ''</pre>'');', NewResult);
    CurrPage.ResultsCtrl.SetContent('', JS);
end;

If you’re not using 26 single quotes in three lines of code then you’re not doing it right 😉

Tip: Editing RapidStart Configuration Package Files

TL;DR

Extract the package with 7-Zip
Open the extracted file in a VS Code / Notepad++ / text-editor-of-choice
Edit the xml as required
Use 7-Zip to compress in gzip format

Editing Config Packages

Sometimes you might want to edit a config package file without having to import and export a modified copy from BC. In my case I wanted to remove the Social Listening Setup table from the package. Microsoft have made this table obsolete and BC throws an error if I try to import the package with this table present. (Probably not a bad idea – stopping listening to socials).

Fortunately, a rapidstart file is just a compressed xml file. Extract the rapidstart file with 7-Zip and then open the extracted file in a text editor. The format of the file is pretty straight forward. Each table is represented with an XYZList node where XYZ is the name of the table which the table-level settings followed by one or more XYZ nodes with the data.

Here are two records for the Payment Terms table.

<PaymentTermsList>
  <TableID>3</TableID>
  <PageID>4</PageID>
  <SkipTableTriggers>1</SkipTableTriggers>
  <PaymentTerms>
    <Code PrimaryKey="1" ProcessingOrder="1">10 DAYS</Code>
    <DueDateCalculation ProcessingOrder="2">&lt;10D&gt;</DueDateCalculation>
    <DiscountDateCalculation ProcessingOrder="3">
    </DiscountDateCalculation>
    <Discount ProcessingOrder="4">0</Discount>
    <Description ProcessingOrder="5">Net 10 days</Description>
    <CalcPmtDisconCrMemos ProcessingOrder="6">0</CalcPmtDisconCrMemos>
    <LastModifiedDateTime ProcessingOrder="7">
    </LastModifiedDateTime>
    <Id ProcessingOrder="8">{6BD87497-B233-EB11-8E89-E8FD151D8C93}</Id>
  </PaymentTerms>
  <PaymentTerms>
    <Code>14 DAYS</Code>
    <DueDateCalculation>&lt;14D&gt;</DueDateCalculation>
    <DiscountDateCalculation>
    </DiscountDateCalculation>
    <Discount>0</Discount>
    <Description>Net 14 days</Description>
    <CalcPmtDisconCrMemos>0</CalcPmtDisconCrMemos>
    <LastModifiedDateTime>
    </LastModifiedDateTime>
    <Id>{6DD87497-B233-EB11-8E89-E8FD151D8C93}</Id>
  </PaymentTerms>
</PaymentTermsList>

All I need to do is find the offending Social Listening Setup node in my file and remove it. Here it is:

Once you are finished editing you can use 7-Zip to compress the file again with the gzip method and import.

Pre-Releases & GitHub Actions for Visual Studio Code Extensions

Intro

This post is going to be a bit of a brain dump about developing my VS Code extension, branching strategy for pre-releases and releases and using GitHub actions to stitch it all together.

If you’re only here for the AL / Business Central content then you might want to give this one a miss. Then again, Microsoft are increasingly using GitHub for AL projects themselves (e.g. AL-Go for GitHub) – so it might be worth a look after all.

Objectives

What am I trying to achieve? I want to have a short turn around of:

Have an idea for a new feature
Implement the feature
Test it and make it available for others to test
Release

I use the extension pretty much every day at work so I am my own biggest customer. I want to write some new feature and start working with it in a pre-release myself to find any issues before I release it.

I also want to have a little fun with a side-project – learn a little typescript, practice some CI/CD, GitHub Actions and Application Insights. If anyone else finds the extension useful as well then that’s a bonus.

Overview

This is my workflow. I want to get the feature into the pre-release version of the extension on the marketplace quickly. That way I will get the new pre-release myself from the marketplace and use it in my daily work. I’ll make any fixes or improvements in updates to the pre-release before merging the code to the release version and publishing to the marketplace.

GitHub Actions

The GitHub actions definition is fairly self-explanatory. The yaml is bellow, or here if you prefer. Run whenever some code is pushed. Build, test, package with npm and vsce. Run the PowerShell tests with Pester. Upload the built extension as an artifact. If the pre-release branch is being built then use vsce to publish to the marketplace with the --pre-release switch.

The actions definition in the master branch is similar but publishes to the marketplace without the --pre-release switch.

name: CI

# Controls when the action will run. Triggers the workflow on push or pull request
# events but only for the master branch
on:
  push:
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master ]
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: windows-latest

    steps:
      # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: npm install, build and test
        run: |
          npm install
          npm run build
          npm test
      - name: package with vsce
        run: |
          npm install -g vsce
          vsce package
      - name: run pester tests
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
          Set-PSRepository psgallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted
          Install-Module Pester
          Install-Module bccontainerhelper
          gci *ALTestRunner.psm1 -Recurse | % {$_.FullName; Import-Module $_.FullName}
          Invoke-Pester
      - name: Upload a Build Artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2.1.4
        with:
          name: AL Test Runner
          path: ./*.vsix

      - name: Publish to marketplace
        if: github.ref == 'refs/heads/pre-release'
        run: |
          vsce publish -p ${{ secrets.VSCE_PAT }} --pre-release

The personal access token for my Visual Studio account (used to publish to the marketplace) is stored in a repository secret.

You can create and update these from the settings for the repository. You can read more about creating the personal access token and the option for publishing extensions to the marketplace here: https://code.visualstudio.com/api/working-with-extensions/publishing-extension

Conclusions

It is rewarding to make some changes to the extension, push them to GitHub and then 10-15 minutes later be able to use them in a new version of the extension which has been automatically published, downloaded and installed. It allows you to publish more frequently and with more confidence.

AL Test Runner Pre-Release Version

TL;DR

There is now a pre-release version of the AL Test Runner extension for Visual Studio Code. It will have the latest (and possibly unstable) features.

Pre-Releases

VS Code recently added support for pre-release versions of extensions. You can install a pre-release by clicking on the “Switch to Pre-Release Version” button from the extension details within VS Code. See https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_63#_pre-release-extensions for more details.

Up ’til now I have typically packaged a new version of the extension and used it myself for a week or two to check that it isn’t horribly broken before I push an update to the marketplace. Having a pre-release version will give me a better way to use the extension myself but also get feedback from anyone who is interested in being a beta tester. GitHub issues are the best place to log requests or bugs.

What’s in the Pre-Release?

There are few things which are currently in the pre-release but not in the release version.

Debug All Tests

Bit niche, but I have actually found it useful on a couple of occasions. There is an icon at the top of the Test Explorer view and a command in the command palette to debug all the tests, so I decided to add support for it in my extension.

A new version of the Test Runner Service app is required to support this. Install with the "Install Test Runner Service" command from inside VS Code or download the latest version from here: https://github.com/jimmymcp/test-runner-service/raw/master/James%20Pearson_Test%20Runner%20Service.app

Publishing Apps using PowerShell

There is a new setting to publish apps to the container using PowerShell (the bccontainerhelper module) rather than the publish command in VS Code.

Why? A couple of reasons.

I can’t know whether the app has compiled and published successfully when using the AL: Publish command. If publishing the app fails then VS Code is left thinking that the tests are running when in reality they never started. You need to manually cancel the test run before you can start another from the Test Explorer. Publishing from PowerShell gives a little more control
I’m toying with the idea of automating test runs in the background while developing, something along the lines that Luc suggested here: https://github.com/jimmymcp/al-test-runner/issues/42. This would require a more reliable to compile and publish the app(s) than just triggering the AL: Publish command and hoping that it worked

testRunnerCodeunitId

There is a new key in the AL Test Runner config.json file to specify the id of the test runner codeunit id to use. It defaults to the codeunit isolation runner but you can override with another if you like.

Various

Various other improvements – updated Pester tests, updated GitHub actions. Take a look on GitHub if you are interested.

Tip: Test for Tables Missing from Permission Sets

In PowerShell:

$tablesInPermissionSets = @()

$permissionSets = gci . -Recurse -Filter '*.al' | ? {(gc $_.FullName).Item(0).startsWith('permissionset')}
 $permissionSets | % {
    $content = gc $_.FullName -Raw
    [Regex]::Matches($content, '(?<=tabledata ).*(?= =)') | % {
        $tablesInPermissionSets += $_.Value
    }
 }

$tablesInTables = @()

$tables = gci . -Recurse -Filter '*.al' | Where-Object {(Get-Content $_.FullName).Item(0).StartsWith('table ')}
 $tables | % {
    $content = gc $_.FullName -Raw
    [Regex]::Matches($content, "(?<=table \d+ ).*(?=$([Environment]::NewLine))") | % {
        $tablesInTables += $_.Value
    }
 }

$missingTables = ""

Compare-Object $tablesInTables $tablesInPermissionSets | ? SideIndicator -eq '<=' | % {
    $missingTables += $_.InputObject + [Environment]::NewLine
}

if ('' -ne $missingTables) {
    throw "Missing table permissions: $missingTables"
}

In English:

Find all the files in the current folder, and child folders, with a filename ending in .al and which have a first line starting with “permissionset”
Build a collection of the tabledata objects that are referenced in those permission sets
Find all the files in the current folder, and child folders, with a filename ending in .al and which have a first line starting with “table ” (with a space to avoid matching “tableextension”)
Build a collection of the names of the tables
Use Compare-Object to compare the collections and find names which appear in the list of tables but not in tabledata permissions
Build an error message of missing table permissions
Throw the error

PowerShell Profile:

Like most small PowerShell scripts that I write, I’ve just added it to my PowerShell profile. Run code $profile in a PowerShell prompt to open the profile file in VS Code.

function Test-Permissions() {
  #...all of the above code
}

Maybe there is already a VS Code extension that checks for this? It would make sense, but I’m pretty minimalist with the extensions that I have installed anyway. I run it from the terminal in VS Code.