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Business Central Sandbox for learning AL dev auth issue

Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
edited 2019-07-26 in NAV Three Tier
First step, signing up for an online Sandbox. Interestingly it does not use my existing Microsoft Account, but new username and password. OK. Sandbox works, I can enter a sales order etc. (not a good UI but whatever). Install VSCode. AL!Go. Pops up a window that asks for not this new username and password, but for the Microsoft Account. Which is not linked to the Sandbox at all. Aaaargh. Any ideas? This would be easiest way for learning AL coding.

Then trying to local Docker container stuff. One of the available documentation says click on the lightbulb or magnified glass icon and type sandbox container (hosted). OK. It says it is only available in the production environment, not in the online sandbox.

OK. Another docu says it is "docker pull 3G blahblah" the other one the same with 4G. Will try this, but is this supposed to work?

A third docu says use NavContainerHelper. I do. One parameter it wants is licencefile. What licencefile? We are a customer, we definitely have an Application Designer licence for C/AL programming, but that is for NAV2017, for this BC we have no licence. But I thought a sandbox dev environment is free. All I want is learning how I am gonna customize the damn thing if we ever upgrade from NAV to BC although I think users would kill me if they had to enter 30 sales orders a day on this GUI but whatever.

Go with the docker pull thing?

Best Answer

Answers

  • ShaiHuludShaiHulud Member Posts: 228
    NavContainerHelper is an "advanced" docker pull - it downloads, prepares and starts the docker image, sets up ports, license, database (if external SQL), etc.
    You're going to need a valid license to do any customizations. You can try pointing to your NAV 2017 license, but it's most likely not going to work. If you don't specify a license, it will use standard CRONUS license, which has a LOT of limitations
  • Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
    Thanks. Any idea about the first one? Why Visual Studio Code wants Microsoft Account when the Online Sandbox as an entirely separate signup and password.
  • Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
    ShaiHulud wrote: »
    NavContainerHelper is an "advanced" docker pull - it downloads, prepares and starts the docker image, sets up ports, license, database (if external SQL), etc.
    You're going to need a valid license to do any customizations. You can try pointing to your NAV 2017 license, but it's most likely not going to work. If you don't specify a license, it will use standard CRONUS license, which has a LOT of limitations

    I managed to get to the point where New-NavContainer really does something. However, it says web client is http://test/NAV but there is nothing there. Well, then I found a desktop shortcut to the powershell prompt of the container, found there stuff like .\start.ps1 and .\navstart.ps1 but in both cases the web client link was left empty. Then I found Start-NavContainer in powershell, but it says "waiting for container test to be ready" forever.
  • Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
    Great, thanks! After logging in nothing happened for minutes, but then I got the GUI. At least I can test functionality. I will need a licence for developing. One last question. What do I need, licence or similar vise, to be able to see error messages of the base app in the VSCode debugger? I mean without that even basic user support would not really be possible...
  • ftorneroftornero Member Posts: 524
    Hello @Miklos_Hollender ,

    You can develop using the 50000..99999 range for free if your target is Cloud or Extension, without any license.

    71eqo1m9745a.png


    You can use the AL:Go! command to create a simple app and test it.

    Regards.
  • Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
    Thank you, ftornero, but the issue is -includeAL requires a licence. And developing extensions without reading a lot of the standard code would be a bad idea. Very bad. It is like when in the old times some Java programmer without reading the standard C/AL code would have started developing: big mistakes and the whole thing looked "unnavisionic".

    Besides, extensions are a luxury. The first job of a consultant is to ensure the standard app is usable for doing the mandatory regulatory compliance accounting. This means 1) supporting users who get error messages by checking the explanation with the debugger 2) fixing Microsoft's bugs by customizations. In the mandatory Italian electronic invoicing we had a friendly competition between me and our consulting company about who finds and fixes more bugs :)
  • Miklos_HollenderMiklos_Hollender Member Posts: 1,598
    I just realized the debugger works even without -includeAL and a licence! https://navitips.blogspot.com/2019/08/learning-business-central-and-al-part-2.html
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