Customise pages for profiles

Article
10/12/2023

Business Central provides both personalisation for users and customisation for administrators. Personalisation allows users to tailor their workspace by adjusting page layouts to suit their own preferences. Administrators can customise page layouts for a specific profile, based on business roles or departments, so that all assigned users see the same customised page. While personalisation allows users to show, hide, and move fields and actions on a page, customisation offers extra capabilities. For example, customisation allows you to show fields that are in the page's source table or extension tables but aren't defined on the page object—this isn't possible personalisation.

Note

The typical business use of a profile is a role. A profile is therefore named Profile (Role) in the UI.

Page customisation starts from the Profiles (Roles) page, the administrator's starting point for managing users' profiles on individual profile cards. In addition to customising the page layout, you control various other settings for profiles on the Profile (Role) page for each profile. For more information, see Manage Profiles.

Prerequisites

Your Business Central account must have the D365 Profile Mgt. permission set or equivalent permissions.

The D365 Profile Mgt. permission set includes the execute permission on the system object 9026 Add Field to Table. If you don't have this permission, you're not allowed to add fields on the page unless they're defined on the page object.

Customise pages for a profile

Choose the icon, enter Profiles (Roles), and then choose the related link.
Select the line for the profile that you want to customise pages for, and then choose the Edit action.
Choose the Customise pages action.

Business Central opens on a new browser tab for the selected profile with the Customising banner activated. The Customising banner offers the same functionality as the Personalising banner that is available to users.
Customise pages according to the needs of the role or department in question in the same way as a user would do when personalising. For more information, see Personalise Your Workspace.

Note

To navigate during personalisation, use Ctrl+Click on an action if it is highlighted by the arrowhead.
When you have finished changing the layout on one or more pages, choose the Done button on the Customising banner.
Close the browser tab.

The customisation of pages is now recorded for the profile.

View all customised pages for a profile

You can get an overview of which pages are customised for a profile, for example to plan which pages to customise further or delete.

On the Profile (Role) page, choose the Manage customised pages action.

On the Customised Pages page, you can delete customisations and you can troubleshoot by scanning for potential issues.

Delete all customisations for a profile

You can cancel all customisations that you have made for a profile. Customisations introduced with an extension and personalisations made by a user aren't deleted. You can delete all personalisations with another action. For more information, see To delete all personalisations made by a user.

On the Profile (Role) page for a customised profile, choose the Clear customised pages action.

The layout on pages for the profile is reset to the default layout.

Delete customisation for specific pages for a profile

You can delete individual page customisations that you have made for a profile. Customisations introduced with an extension and personalisations made by a user aren't deleted. You can delete specific page personalisations with another action. For more information, see To delete personalisations for specific pages.

On the Profile (Role) page, choose the Manage customised pages action.
On the Customised Pages page, select one or more lines for page customisations that you want to delete, then choose the Delete action.

The layout on the selected pages is adjusted to the changes you made.

Add a field

You add fields to the page from the Add field to page pane, which you open by selecting the + Field action when in the customisation mode. It's important to understand that the Add field to page pane is used to show fields that already exist—either on the page and its source tables,—but are currently hidden from view. You can't create new fields.

The Add field to page pane presents all fields that can be shown on the page. Fields are divided into the following categories, as determined by the underlying design of the page itself, its source table, and extensions:

Category	Description
Table fields not on the page object	Includes fields that are defined in the base table or extension tables, but aren't defined on the page. The tooltip for these fields includes the label Defined by the table.
Page fields bound to a table	Includes fields that are defined in the base table or table extensions and are also defined on the page as either shown or hidden. The tooltip for these fields includes the label Defined by the page.
Page fields that aren't bound to a table	Fields that are only defined on the page, not in the base table or extension tables. These fields typically used for variable or calculation. The tooltip for these fields includes the label Defined by the page.

Use the filter button above the list to change what category of fields are presented the Add field to page pane.

Shows the filter button in the Add a field pane in the customisation mode.

Add table field that's not on the page object

If you want to make a table-only field available on a page to users, you must first add it to the page. Once you've added the field, users can choose to show or hide the field by using personalisation. There are couple ways to add a field.

One way is to drag it from Add field to page pane to the desired position.
Another way is to select the field in the pane to display the recommended location on the page. Then go to the field location on the pages, select the arrowhead, then select Add.

Once the field has been added, the tooltip for the field in the Add field to page pane switches to Defined by the page.

Note

The added field is locked from editing and can't be unlocked.

Remove a field

If you've added a table field that originally wasn't on the page object, you can remove it again. Removing a field is different that hiding it. When you hide a field, users can still show it on their workspace through personalisation. However, if you remove a field, the field is no longer available for users to show, or hide for that matter. If the field is currently displayed on a user's workspace, it disappears from their workspace when you remove it.

To remove a field, select the arrowhead on the field in the page and then Remove. If you can't find the field, select it in the Add field to page pane to indicate its hidden location.

Important

Removing a field doesn't delete data that's stored in the field or it's source tables. It just removes the field from view.

Lock and unlock editing

Customisation allows you to lock (allow editing) or unlock editing (prevent editing) of most fields on a page. To lock or unlock editing, select the field on the page, select the arrowhead, and then select Lock editing or Unlock editing. It's important to keep in mind a few rules about locking and unlocking fields:

Fields that were originally not on the page object but were added to the page by customisation are always locked, and can't be unlocked using customisation or personalisation.
The design of the field can also prevent it from being edited. If the AL developer set the field's Editable property to false, it's always locked and can't be unlocked.
It's important to note that the lock editing feature is intended to aid in the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data. It's not intended to secure data integrity.

Important information and tips

Not all table fields may be available for customisation from the Add field to page pane. The developer of a table can choose to prevent a field from appearing in customisation by setting the field's AllowInCustomisation property to false.
You can't customise a page that's in analysis mode. The Analyse switch is deactivated. If you switch to customisation mode while the page is in analysis mode, then analyse mode is automatically switched off.
Some pages have multiple page fields that map to the same source table. The Add field to page pane shows all of these page fields independently. You can show, hide, or move these fields independently without affecting the others.
If a part or group is hidden, you can still identify hidden fields inside the part or group, but you can't add, move or show fields in the part or group until they're made visible.