Project Changes

All notable changes to the scaffolded project scripts will be documented here.

Full-text and semantic extractions for search, SQL feature required in Business Central 25.0. (2024-10-21)

Business Central 2024 Wave 2 (v25) now requires the Full-text and semantic extractions for search feature in SQL Server. This feature is available in the advanced edition of SQL Server Express, which has not been included in Update Service before and therefore is likely you need to upgrade your SQL server.

We have released a new package for the advanced edition, sql-server-express-advanced, which includes the Full-text search feature by default. The package can also be used to upgrade an existing SQL server to the advanced edition. If an existing SQL server is detected with the instance name SQLEXPRESS, the package will upgrade the instance if needed and add the Full-text search feature to it. It does not matter if the SQL server is installed as part of the Update Service or not.

We recommend:

  • to individually upgrade the SQL server from the bundle.
  • to test the upgrade in your test lab using a setup as similar as possible to the POS machine to identify any potential issues (see known issues below).
  • begin the rollout slowly, starting with one or a few, then gradually increase the pace.

Known issues:

  • You may need to uninstall ODBC and OLE driver before upgrading the SQL server due to conflicts. alt text

Project lifecycle changes

Update GetLsCentralPackages.ps1 and NewBundlePackage.ps1 by replacing sql-server-express with sql-server-express-advanced.

Runtime apps for Business Central are no longer necessary (2024-06-12)

From Business Central 22.0, runtime versions of the Business Central apps are no longer necessary and may cause licensing issues. This means that you can now use the standard Business Central apps in your projects.

To remove the runtime apps from your project, follow these steps:

  1. In GetLsCentralPackages.ps1 and NewBundlePackage.ps1, rename the following packages:
    • bc-base-application-LOCALIZATION-runtime -> bc-base-application-LOCALIZATION
    • bc-system-application-runtime -> bc-system-application
    • bc-application-runtime -> bc-application

Business Central Management module moved (2023-05-30)

In Business Central 22.0, the PowerShell management module has been relocated to a subdirectory called management, whereas in earlier versions it was located in the same directory as the service tier executable. This change may impact scripts that reference the module.

Previously, the path to the module was: path\to\servicetier\Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Management.dll, but it is now path\to\servicetier\management\Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Management.dll.

As a result, the UpdatePosMaster.ps1 script needs to be updated as follows:

Before:

Import-Module (Join-Path $BcServer.Info.ServerDir 'Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Management.dll')

After:

$ModuleDir = $BcServer.Info.ServerDir
if (!(Test-Path (Join-Path $ModuleDir 'Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Management.dll')))
{
    $ModuleDir = Join-Path $BcServer.Info.ServerDir 'Management'
}
Import-Module (Join-Path $ModuleDir 'Microsoft.Dynamics.Nav.Management.dll')

Support for .bclicense files (2023-04-18)

You can now generate a license package that includes both the new .bclicense type and the older .flf type. The appropriate license type will be applied based on the Business Central version in use.

To incorporate support for this in your current project, simply replace your existing NewLicensePackage.ps1 script with the one provided below. Remember to retain the version number from your original script and update it accordingly in the new script. You must also update the package ls-package-tools to version 0.8.2 or later.

param(
    $Path,
    [switch] $Import,
    $Server,
    $Port,
    [switch] $Force
)

$ErrorActionPreference = 'stop'

Import-Module LsPackageTools\LicensePackageCreator
Import-Module (Join-Path $PSScriptRoot 'Utils.psm1')

$Config = Get-ProjectConfig

if (!$Path)
{
    $Path = Join-Path $Config.InputDir 'License'
}

$Arguments = @{
    Id = "$($Config.PackageIdPrefix)-license"
    Name = "$($Config.Name) License"
    Version = '1.0.0'
    LicensePath = $Config.InputDir
    OutputDir = $Config.OutputDir
}

$Package = New-LicensePackage @Arguments -Force:$Force
$Package
if ($Import)
{
    $Package | Import-UssPackage -Server $Server -Port $Port -Force:$Force
}

DLL's removed in 20.5 (2022-10-08)

In LS Central 20.5, the toolbox add-in was removed and therefore no longer needed. Previously, the Data Director add-in was also removed.

When updating to LS Central 20.5, you must remove any references to the packages ls-central-toolbox-server and ls-dd-server-addin in your project.

  1. In GetLsCentralPackages.ps1 and NewBundlePackage.ps1, remove any lines where ls-central-toolbox-server and ls-dd-server-addin occur.
  2. If you have extended the project with more bundles or scripts:
    1. Open the root folder (i.e. C:\LS Retail\My Project) with VS Code.
    2. Press CTRL + SHIFT + F, and type in ls-central-toolbox-server
    3. Remove any references to package.
    4. Repeat step 2. for ls-dd-server-addin.
  3. Continue with updating the application and platform.

Localization app changes (2021-06-16)

There have been changes to the localized LS Central apps. In general, now there are up to two apps for each locale, one app for the languages and one app for localized functionality.

These apps are available in Update Service as ls-central-LANGUAGENAME-language and ls-central-app-LOCALE, respectively. In addition to the new LS Central localization apps, we have also included the Business Central language apps in Update Service, bc-base-application-is-is-language.

To simplify the selection of available localization apps in Update Service, we introduce a new locale package called locale/ls-central-LOCALE-runtime (where LOCALE is a locale).

The locale packages bear some similarities to bundle packages, as they only have dependencies on the relevant packages for the specific locale. For example:

  • IS Locale: locale/ls-central-is-runtime has dependencies to
    • ls-central-icelandic-language (IS specific)
    • bc-base-application-is-is-language (IS specific)
    • ls-central-app-runtime
    • bc-base-application-is-runtime (IS specific)
    • bc-system-application-runtime
  • US Locale: locale/ls-central-us-runtime has dependencies to
    • ls-central-app-na-runtime (NA specific)
    • ls-central-north-america-languages (NA specific)
    • bc-base-application-en-us-language (US specific)
    • ls-central-app-runtime
    • bc-base-application-us-runtime (US specific)
    • bc-system-application-runtime

Update Project lifecycle and Hybrid cloud components project

The following guide describes how to upgrade your existing project to use the new locale/ls-central-LOCALE-runtime packages instead of the old localization app.

Steps

  1. In your project directory, change the following package ID:
    • ls-central-app-xx-runtime to locale/ls-central-xx-runtime
    • Replace xx with your preferred locale.
  2. In the following files:
    • GetLsCentralPackages.ps1
    • NewBundlePackage.ps1
  3. Get LS Package, to download the new packages to your server.
  4. Update POS bundle, to include the new locale package in your bundle.

New script NewAppPackages.ps1 (2021-06-16)

With the latest version of ls-package-tools, when scaffolding projects for Business Central 15.0 and above, a new scripts called NewAppPackages.ps1 is created instead of NewAppPackage.ps1 (notice plural/singular). The new script uses New-AppPackageFromContext instead of New-AppPackage and can create packages for multiple apps and automatically adds dependencies to them.

To get the new script, NewAppPackages.ps1:

  1. Update ls-packages-tools to the latest version:

    Install-UscPackage -Id 'ls-package-tools'
  2. Scaffold a new project.
  3. Copy the new script NewAppPackages.ps1 to your existing project.
  4. See here for usage.

Upgrade from NA to CA, MX or US

In Business Central 17.0, Microsoft released three localizations CA, MX or US which replace the NA localization.

The following guide describes how to upgrade existing project from NA to CA, MX or US. No actions are required if the project was started in 17.0 or later.

Make sure to:

  • Update to the latest Update Service server.
  • Get the latest version of ls-setup-helper:
    • Copy-UssPackageFromServer -Id 'ls-setup-helper' -Version '' -SourceServer 'gocurrent.lsretail.com' -SourcePort 443 -SourceUseSsl -SourceIdentity 'lsretail.com'
    • Or using Server to Server in the Update Service Server management portal.
  • Update the client to the latest version, before upgrading an instance to CA, MX or US.

In your project directory, change the following package IDs:

  • bc-base-application-xx-runtime to bc-base-application-xx-runtime
  • ls-central-app-xx-runtime to locale/ls-central-xx-runtime
  • Where xx can be ca, mx or us

In the following files:

  • GetLsCentralPackages.ps1
  • NewBundlePackage.ps1

Then proceed with updating the application and platform as instructed here.