#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs - Installing Visual Studio Code
In the previous 3 articles of the series, I talked about the rationale for selecting a container based environment for development purposes, we also installed Docker and downloaded and installed the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central containers for Docker. This then set us on a path to installing the development IDE and selecting a source code control provider to host our AL solutions.
See:
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 1/3
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 2/3
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 3/3
This article in particular, will focus on the installation of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and the AL language extensions for the environment.
Installing VS Code
VS Code is to BC developers what Dexterity is to Dynamics GP developers. VS Code provides the IDE required to incorporate the AL language extensions to develop BC integrating solutions. Although SanScript is integrated into the Dex IDE, the analogy still holds.
1. To get started, download VS Code from https://code.visualstudio.com
2. Click on the Download button on the upper right corner of the menu bar. You will then select the Windows 7, 8, 10 option to download the actual installer.
3. Once you have downloaded the installer, choose to run the executable. This will initiate the wizard from which you will follow a set of guided prompts to complete the installation.
4. Acknowledge the license agreement and click on Next to continue. You will then be asked to enter a new installation folder or accept the default - personally, I find that the defaults work best.
5. The installation process will then lay down all the files and register all appropriate components so you can begin using the application.
6. Once the installation is complete, please proceed to click on Finish. This should launch VS Code if you left the checkmark selected.
Installing AL language components and utilities
One of the aspects I like about VS Code is the extensions concept. Extensions are simply, plug ins that augment the VS Code environment. One such extensions is the AL language extension, created by Microsoft.
1. Click on the Extensions button on the left Activity Bar (square button). Type "AL" in the search bar to proceed. This should surface the "AL Language" extension by Microsoft. Click on Install to add this extension to VS Code.
2. Install PowerShell by Microsoft. Following similar process, click on the Extension button and type PowerShell. If you prefer working in the PowerShell ISE environment or from the PowerShell command prompt, that's entirely up to you, but know there's a PowerShell extension for VS Code, which brings the entire language into the VS Code IDE.
3. Install GitLens by Eric Armodio. Following similar process, click on the Extension button and type GitLens. With GitLens you can visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain insights via powerful comparison commands, and much more.
4. Install Insert GUID by Heath Stewart. Insert GUID is a simple command extension for Visual Studio Code to insert globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) into the Code text editor in a variety of formats.
5. Install Docker Explorer by Jun Han. With Docker Explorer you can manage Docker containers, Docker images, Docker Hub and Azure Container Registry right from VS Code.
"Hello World"
The "Hello World" project serves to test the entire installation up to this point and is the first foray into the world of AL extensions.
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P on your keyboard to open the VS Code Command Palette (Alternatively, you can choose View | Command Palette from the menu). Type AL:Go! to locate the option to create an AL project.
2. Enter a local folder where you would like to store the project. In this case, I simply removed the last portion of the folder name and replaced with HelloWorld.
3. You will immediately be prompted to select the server type you will be running this project against. Since we've deployed the local containers, it's safe to say we can choose Your Own Server from the drop-down
The above operation results in the creation of a launch.json file that is added to the project.
4. Proceed to replace the server name, currently defaulted to localhost, to the name assigned to your BC container, in this case http://demo-bc. Change the instance to NAV from the default, BC130.
Press Ctrl+Shift+P and type AL:Download Symbols to retrieve all the Windows symbol packages for debugging purposes. More information on AL Windows Symbol Packages here.
5. Press Ctrl+Shift+B on your keyboard to compile the project and create the publishing package for our "Hello World" extension.
This extension simply sets a trigger to the OnOpenPage() event of the Customer List page that displays the message "App published: Hello word". The page is loaded by default as specified in the launch.json file.
6. Press F5 on your keyboard to launch the application in debugging mode. This should launch BC and present the message above.
Once the message has been cleared, the application will continue to load the Customer List.
In the next article, I will talk about connecting to a source code repository and what else we need in order to get our environment fully ready. I will also cover some techniques that are much more adaptable to Microsoft Dynamics GP developers as far as working with AL files and folders and how we can leverage our Dexterity knowledge here to help us administer our projects.
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
See:
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 1/3
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 2/3
#MSDYN365BC: Building a Development Environment for Microsoft Dynamics GP ISVs Part 3/3
This article in particular, will focus on the installation of Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and the AL language extensions for the environment.
Installing VS Code
VS Code is to BC developers what Dexterity is to Dynamics GP developers. VS Code provides the IDE required to incorporate the AL language extensions to develop BC integrating solutions. Although SanScript is integrated into the Dex IDE, the analogy still holds.
1. To get started, download VS Code from https://code.visualstudio.com
2. Click on the Download button on the upper right corner of the menu bar. You will then select the Windows 7, 8, 10 option to download the actual installer.
3. Once you have downloaded the installer, choose to run the executable. This will initiate the wizard from which you will follow a set of guided prompts to complete the installation.
4. Acknowledge the license agreement and click on Next to continue. You will then be asked to enter a new installation folder or accept the default - personally, I find that the defaults work best.
5. The installation process will then lay down all the files and register all appropriate components so you can begin using the application.
6. Once the installation is complete, please proceed to click on Finish. This should launch VS Code if you left the checkmark selected.
Installing AL language components and utilities
One of the aspects I like about VS Code is the extensions concept. Extensions are simply, plug ins that augment the VS Code environment. One such extensions is the AL language extension, created by Microsoft.
1. Click on the Extensions button on the left Activity Bar (square button). Type "AL" in the search bar to proceed. This should surface the "AL Language" extension by Microsoft. Click on Install to add this extension to VS Code.
2. Install PowerShell by Microsoft. Following similar process, click on the Extension button and type PowerShell. If you prefer working in the PowerShell ISE environment or from the PowerShell command prompt, that's entirely up to you, but know there's a PowerShell extension for VS Code, which brings the entire language into the VS Code IDE.
3. Install GitLens by Eric Armodio. Following similar process, click on the Extension button and type GitLens. With GitLens you can visualize code authorship at a glance via Git blame annotations and code lens, seamlessly navigate and explore Git repositories, gain insights via powerful comparison commands, and much more.
4. Install Insert GUID by Heath Stewart. Insert GUID is a simple command extension for Visual Studio Code to insert globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) into the Code text editor in a variety of formats.
5. Install Docker Explorer by Jun Han. With Docker Explorer you can manage Docker containers, Docker images, Docker Hub and Azure Container Registry right from VS Code.
"Hello World"
The "Hello World" project serves to test the entire installation up to this point and is the first foray into the world of AL extensions.
1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P on your keyboard to open the VS Code Command Palette (Alternatively, you can choose View | Command Palette from the menu). Type AL:Go! to locate the option to create an AL project.
2. Enter a local folder where you would like to store the project. In this case, I simply removed the last portion of the folder name and replaced with HelloWorld.
3. You will immediately be prompted to select the server type you will be running this project against. Since we've deployed the local containers, it's safe to say we can choose Your Own Server from the drop-down
The above operation results in the creation of a launch.json file that is added to the project.
4. Proceed to replace the server name, currently defaulted to localhost, to the name assigned to your BC container, in this case http://demo-bc. Change the instance to NAV from the default, BC130.
Press Ctrl+Shift+P and type AL:Download Symbols to retrieve all the Windows symbol packages for debugging purposes. More information on AL Windows Symbol Packages here.
5. Press Ctrl+Shift+B on your keyboard to compile the project and create the publishing package for our "Hello World" extension.
This extension simply sets a trigger to the OnOpenPage() event of the Customer List page that displays the message "App published: Hello word". The page is loaded by default as specified in the launch.json file.
6. Press F5 on your keyboard to launch the application in debugging mode. This should launch BC and present the message above.
Once the message has been cleared, the application will continue to load the Customer List.
In the next article, I will talk about connecting to a source code repository and what else we need in order to get our environment fully ready. I will also cover some techniques that are much more adaptable to Microsoft Dynamics GP developers as far as working with AL files and folders and how we can leverage our Dexterity knowledge here to help us administer our projects.
Until next post!
MG.-
Mariano Gomez, MVP
Comments