Today Microsoft has publicly released the planned list of enhancements for Dynamics 365 Business Central 2022 Wave 2 release (from October 2022 through March 2023). You can read the official list here.
I saw some comments and reactions on the network saying something like “why so small news?”, “where are the big announcements?”, “very poor enhancements” and so on.
As first, we need to clearly say that this list is not an agreement. Microsoft is not committed to release all the listed features and some of them can change or more can be added.
I want to emphasize here some improvements planned for 2022 Wave 2 release that could appear as small, but instead they’re great enhancements. Let me list some of them:
- Promoted action groups and action references: you will have a very cool new way of creating promoted actions, maybe more complex but extremely more flexible. Pages and page extensions can now contain a new action group for promoted actions. These groups can contain references to existing actions. It’s possible to add to already existing groups or add new groups in page extensions and all will be backward compatible. You will have also a code action to convert from the old model to the new. I promise that you will like it.
- Use ByRef, XmlPort parameters in OData: this seems quite unrelevant to many, but if you work with OData services in Business Central and expecially with Unbound actions, sometimes I think you have discovered the lack on having procedures with parameters defined by reference and parameters of type XmlPort. Now you will be able to do that.
- Improvements on upgrade code in extensions: when refactoring an app, it’s common to move a field from one table to another. With this feature, the developer can copy the data from the old field to the new field in upgrade codeunits in a set-based manner without the need to write a loop. How will it work? Expect a new AL datatype for handling this scenario.
- Restore deleted environments: this was a feature very requested. In this new wave release, when you delete an environment it will be placed into a soft-deleted state for 7 days after someone deletes them. During this time, admins can restore the deleted environment in the Business Central admin center.
- Power Apps and Power Automate support for document attachments: the updated Business Central connector will easily permits you to interact document attachments, record media (like images) and other data linked to business records.
- Choose the report layout on request page: on the request page of a report, users can use a dropdown menu to choose from available report layouts for the report.
- Switch companies across environments: a very cool new company switcher will be available. It will make easier to get an overview of the companies and environments you have access to, and to rapidly switch contexts. Activate the company switcher pane from anywhere in Business Central, either from the app bar or using a keyboard shortcut. Here a quick preview (not yet finalized):
As said before, consider this “official list” not complete at ths time. Some cool extra features are planned, expecially on the API and BI field.
Don’t consider it a small release, some surprises will come… 😉
Stefano Demiliani 