Update 2021/2/10: Microsoft stopped creating images for Docker in the summer of 2020. We now publish artifacts, which can be used to spin up containers and BcContainerHelper has replaced NavContainerHelper. This blog post reflects the old way of using NAV/BC on Docker and references NavContainerHelper, which is outdated.

This blog post will take you through the steps needed to convert a C/AL solution to an AL extension. When moving a solution from C/AL to AL, it is important that you first move the C/AL solution to the version of Business Central you want to utilize for the move.

Note, this blog post doesn’t describe the code changes you need to do, it mainly focuses on the process for moving the C/AL code to AL. 

Create a container with the solution you want to convert

I will use Business Central Spring release for the move and my solution was originally created in NAV 2017 CU3. The first blog post in this series explains how you can move your solution from NAV 2017 CU3 to Business Central, but I am sure most partners have mechanisms and processes in place to perform this move. If you didn’t go through the process in the first blog post, you can create a container with the result of the first blog post by running this script:

# Settings
$imageName = "mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral/onprem:1904-rtm"
$auth = "NavUserPassword"
$credential = New-Object pscredential 'admin', (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'P@ssword1' -AsPlainText -Force)
$licenseFile = "C:\temp\license.flf"
$demoSolution2Path = "C:\ProgramData\NavContainerHelper\DemoSolution2.txt"

# Create Business Central container
New-NavContainer -accept_eula `
                 -imageName $imageName `
                 -containerName "bc" `
                 -licenseFile "C:\temp\license.flf" `
                 -auth $auth `
                 -Credential $Credential `
                 -updateHosts `
                 -includeCSide
#
# Import and compile objects
#
if (!(Test-Path $demoSolution2Path)) {
    Download-File -sourceUrl "https://bcdocker.blob.core.windows.net/public/DemoSolution2.txt" -destinationFile $demoSolution2Path
}
Import-ObjectsToNavContainer -containerName "bc" -objectsFile $demoSolution2Path
Compile-ObjectsInNavContainer -containerName "bc" -filter "Modified=Yes"

Create a development container

Next up, I need to create a development container for my AL extension. I will not be doing any changes in C/AL, meaning that I do not need to use -includeCSIDE and I don’t need -enableSymbolLoading. I also won’t need -includeAL as I won’t be doing base app modifications in AL.

# Settings
$imageName = "mcr.microsoft.com/businesscentral/onprem:1904-rtm"
$auth = "NavUserPassword"
$credential = New-Object pscredential 'admin', (ConvertTo-SecureString -String 'P@ssword1' -AsPlainText -Force)
$licenseFile = "C:\temp\license.flf"

# Create Business Central container
New-NavContainer -accept_eula `
                 -imageName $imageName `
                 -containerName "mydev" `
                 -licenseFile $licenseFile `
                 -auth $auth `
                 -Credential $Credential `
                 -updateHosts

Create an AL project

Grab the AL extension from the container (if you don’t already have it) and install the .vsix in VS Code. In VS Code, use Ctrl+Shift+P and use AL Go! to create a new project.

Select your own server and modify launch.json to match your container settings, download symbols and delete the HelloWorld.al file:

Convert your C/AL solution to an AL extension

In NavContainerHelper, you will find a function called Convert-ModifiedObjectsToAl, which will export the objects matching a filter (default is modified=Yes) and run Convert-Txt2Al on the resulting files. Running this command:

Convert-ModifiedObjectsToAl -containerName "bc" -sqlCredential $credential -startId 50100 -alProjectFolder "C:\Users\freddyk\Documents\AL\DemoSolution"

will populate my AL solution with the files from my demo solution.

Post-Conversion modifications

As we saw during preparations, the demo solution included a menusuite item, which isn’t automatically converted. I will have to open the Directions Sessions List and add ApplicationArea and UsageCategory:

Compile and publish your AL extension

Pressing F5 compiles and publishes the app and starts the Web Client. Searching for Directions Session List and opening the list reveals that the initialization code has run and the table has been populated:

Conclusion

Extensions is the future and if possible you should move your solution to extensions. If, for some reason it isn’t possible to move your solution to an extension at this time, you can also move your solution to code customized AL as described in this blog post.

Enjoy

Freddy Kristiansen
Technical Evangelist