Preface

We have been in the technology field for a long time and we have seen a lot of changes in technology over the course of our careers. Some of the most exciting changes in technology have been in the last couple of years. The emergence of Business Central as a cloud-based application and the ability to extend it using the Power Platform has opened a lot of opportunities for people like us, who are a little technical and understand the database structure and functionality of Business Central. Over the last couple of years, we have been lucky enough to work with Belinda Allen, who taught us the definition of a citizen developer and mentored us as we explored the Power Platform.

In this book, we are going to show you what your journey can look like to become a citizen developer. We will get you started on your journey with the basics, and then it’ll be up to you to build on top of that.

Power Platform is the next step to learning how to maximize your business’s capabilities by seamlessly integrating it with Business Central on-premises and in the cloud. After that, you will learn how to set up virtual tables and create a simple model-driven application using Dataverse. Your objective is to develop apps based on Business Central processes through Power Apps, including both Canvas apps and model-driven apps. The book also discusses how Power Automate incorporates new processes and automation into business processes, as well as creating or modifying them. As you advance, you’ll connect to Business Central APIs that can be implemented to connect with Business Central data, and finally integrate Power BI natively with Business Central to construct advanced reports and dashboards.

Throughout this book, you’ll gain experience in customizing Business Central with Power Platform to deliver more scalable and maintainable solutions.