Technical code changes in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2021 release wave 1 [1]

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Reading time: 6 minutes

April 1^st is the official release day of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central 2021 Wave 1 (version 18). You can review the list of new and planned functionality and the list of functionality that has been moved, removed, or replaced by Microsoft. Along with newly introduced and changed functionality, a lot of code changes have been made.

After the in-depth review of the latest code changes, I created a two-part blog series, in which I compare Dynamics 365 Business Central versions 18, 17, 16 and 15, to see the differences between the versions and to understand the necessary adjustments that need to be made to make Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central solutions code compatible with new and future releases.

In the first part of this two-part blog series, I focus on pending and removed ObsoleteState functionality:

• Pending ObsoleteState functionality which still remains from the previous Dynamics 365 Business Central releases.
• Pending ObsoleteState functionality in Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18.
• Removed ObsoleteState functionality in Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18.
• How to adapt to the changes of the new Dynamics 365 Business Central release.

Pending ObsoleteState functionality which still remains from previous Dynamics 365 Business Central releases

There is quite a lot of pending ObsoleteState functionality from Dynamics 365 Business Central version 15 which hasn’t been removed yet, but the pending ObsoleteState indicates that it will be removed in the future. It is important to review Dynamics 365 Business Central Online solution code and plan the adjustments that will be needed when those functionalities are removed.

Below is the list of ObsoleteState pending functionalities that have been replaced and will be removed entirely in the future, but are still available to be used in current versions:

• User Tasks functionality in RoleCenters is replaced with User Tasks Activities part.
• Requests to approve activities in RoleCenters is replaced with Approvals Activities part.
• Cross-Reference No. is replaced with Item Reference No.
• Sales Prices functionality is replaced with new implementation V16 of price calculation. This can be enabled in Features.
• SMTP Emails functionality is replaced with Email Accounts.
• Copy Item report is replaced with Copy Item page.
• Id GUID fields are replaced by “systemID” or “systemLastModifiedAt” fields.
• Customer Templates are replaced with other templates.

You should also check and adjust the other pending ObsoleteState functionality that is left from the previous releases, such as:

• Analysis by Dimensions is deleted, and Analysis Views should be used instead as it has the same functionality.
• The old Assembly Quotes functionality is still there, but it is currently being reimplemented.
• TableType=Temporary property has a pending ObsoleteState warning to make sure this table does not store any data because this property will be used for Buffer Tables in the future.
• Customer Document Nos, Finance Charge Memo Nos, and other Nos. reports will be removed in the future because they are not used frequently.
• What’s New wizard and notifier functionality that was created in Dynamics 365 Business Central version 16 is still used, but it is a temporary hardcoded solution.

New pending ObsoleteState functionality in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18

 On top of the pending ObsoleteState functionality that is left from the previous releases, there are new pending ObsoleteState warnings introduced in this release that are worth your attention:

• All .NET run OnClient Codeunits and functions were reviewed by Microsoft and have become obsolete, such as EditWordReportLayout, EditRDLC Report Layout.
• DotNet Regex used Codeunits are becoming obsolete as this functionality was centralized to Regex Module.
• File management Codeunit was reviewed by Microsoft. There are 27 procedures in Dynamics 365 Business Central that use Client files or DotNet variables RunOnClient. Those procedures are not working anymore and will be removed in the future releases. Suggestion is to treat this warning as error in current releases.
• The beta API version will be deprecated. Microsoft plans to remove it in Dynamics 365 Business Central version 19 and the recommendation is to use v2.0 of the standard APIs instead.
• A lot more code in Sales Price becomes obsolete because the new functionality is being implemented in the Sales Price area, such as Price Lists.
• The Legacy GL Entry Locking option is being removed.

Removed ObsoleteState functionality in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18

Some functionalities that had pending ObsoleteState warnings in the previous Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central releases are removed entirely in Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18. All the removed functionality used in code gives errors in the new release and must be adjusted to deploy the solution, such as:

• Eight BLOB fields with name ‘picture’ and ‘subtype = Bitmap’. Previously, those BLOB fields held pictures but from now on you should use the Image media field instead.
• Message fields which had Message 2, Message 3. In addition, the first Message field length has increased to 2048 characters.
• Banking functionality is removed and moved to the AMC Banking 365 Fundamentals Extension.
• VAT Groups functionality is removed and moved to the VAT Group Management Extension.
• Sales & Receivables Setup and Purchase & Payables Setup have the previously pending fields removed.
• Headline RoleCenters was removed. Instead, the new RC Headlines User Data functionality should be used.

How to adapt to the changes of the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central release

Even though it seems there are quite a lot of code changes made in the latest release of Dynamics 365 Business Central version 18, it shouldn’t be a lot of work to adjust removed functionality in the current version. Many pending ObsoleteState warnings were introduced in the previous releases, and if you were keeping Dynamics 365 Business Central Online solutions up to date, it is easy to make the code compatible with the newest release now.

If you struggle to make adjustments on time and there is the risk of extension maintenance tasks taking over and obstructing the other tasks, check out 1ClickFactory’s Extension Maintenance service .

And if you are considering upgrading Dynamics NAV/365 Business Central On-Premises solution to Dynamics 365 Business Central 2021 release Wave 1 and would like to know how much it will cost, check out 1ClickFactory’s Upgrade Analyzer.

For more information you can watch my Business Central 2021 Release Wave 1 webinar.  Also, read the second part of my blog post, where we will review and compare these code changes: