Inspecting pages in Business Central
The page inspection feature enables you to get details about a page, providing insight into the page design, the different elements that comprise the page, and the source behind the data it displays. Page inspection is especially designed for administrators, power users, support personnel, and developers. It's ideal for learning the data model behind a page and troubleshooting. For example, if you're experiencing a problem with a page, you can use page inspection to get information to pass on to your system administrator or support personnel.
Note
With Business Central 2023 release wave 2, through page inspection, you can start Visual Studio Code from within the web client to further investigate and debug source code of an extension. For more information, see Troubleshoot in Visual Studio Code directly from the web client in the Business Central Developer and IT Pro help.
Tip
What about reports? Well, you can export the report results to an Excel file for viewing the full dataset, including all columns. The Excel file can help you validate that the report returns the expected data. To export a report, run the report and select the Send to > Microsoft Excel Document (data only) on the request page. For more information, see Work with Reports - Save a report to a file.
Work with page inspection
You start page inspection from the Help & Support page. Choose the question mark in the top right corner, choose Help & Support, and then choose Inspect pages and data. Or, you can just use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+F1.
The Page inspection pane opens on the side. When the pane first opens, it shows information that pertains to the main page object.
Use the keyboard or pointing device to move focus to different elements on the page. When you select a FactBox or a part on the main page, the bounding area is highlighted by a border, and the Page Inspection pane shows information about the selected element. For example, the previous figure shows information about the list part in the Sales Order page. As you navigate to other pages in the application, the Page Inspection pane will automatically update with page information as you move along.
For more information about what is shown in page inspection, see Inspecting and Troubleshooting Pages in the Business Central Developer and IT Pro help.
If you don't see the details that you expect to see in the Page Inspection pane, you probably don't have the required permissions, as described in the next section.
Controlling access to page inspection details
As an administrator, you can control access to the full details that are shown in the Page Inspection pane by configuring the permissions that users have. To grant a user permission to the full details, give users Execute permission on the System object 5330. You can grant this permission by using a permission set (such as D365 Troubleshoot) or a user group (such as D365 Troubleshoot). For more information about permissions, see Assign Permissions to Users and Groups.
Users who aren't granted permissions on System object 5330 can still access the Page Inspection pane, but they will only see the Page and Table fields, which display basic details that they can pass on to their support team.