Set up the development environment

  • 5 minutes

To get started writing extensions for Business Central, you will need a Dynamics 365 Business Central tenant, Visual Studio Code, and the AL Language extension. Visual Studio Code is a cross-platform editor that you'll use for coding and debugging.

Follow these steps if you want to set up a sandbox environment:

  1. Sign up for a Dynamics 365 Business Central sandbox.

  2. Download Visual Studio Code.

  3. Download the AL Language extension.

  4. Press the Alt+A, Alt+L shortcut keys to trigger the AL Go! command, and then select a path to a new empty folder and the version to run.

  5. Select Microsoft cloud sandbox as the server.

  6. Enter the credentials that you provided during signup.

  7. Press the F5 key to deploy and run the extension on your online sandbox tenant.

You now have a HelloWorld sample that compiles and runs. The JSON files in the project are automatically updated with the settings that allow you to press the F5 key to build and deploy the solution.