Developing Extensions in AL Using Visual Studio Code - Part 2

In the Part 1 of this tutorial, we learned how to create table and page.

In this second part, we will extend a standard object by adding field to a table and page and we will learn how to translate your AL project into a variety of languages.

So, let’s open our ClaimManagementExt application into Visual Studio Code.

Implement No. Serie Design Pattern

1. Extend standard object

Create new file and call it "MarketingSetupExt.al"

Note: We will use only one file to extend both table and page but it’s not mandatory.

Use shortcut ttableext to create the basic layout for a table extension and tpageext to create the basic layout for a page extension. 

1. Add new field

The keyword addafter() allow us to place fields and groups on the page.

1. Open Claim.al and add new field and add a new field "No. Serie"

1. Modify the field No. like below

1. Add OnInsert trigger  

1. Publish and Test Application

As you can see, the field is added in the page after the “Opportunity Nos.”

Navigate to Claim list and create a new claim

Translate application

Now, we need to manage languages for our application.

To do this we need to update our app.json by adding this setup then publish.

 "features": [
    "TranslationFile"
  ]

A new directory Translations which contain a new file ClaimManagementExt.g.xlf are generated.

Note: The auto generated file is not a properly formatted translation file.

Normally in a properly formatted file, we had both the ‘Source’ and the ‘Target’ properties.

As we can see is the .g.xlf file generated, there is only a ‘Source’ property even though the ‘Target-language’ of the file is set to ‘en-US’.

Thanks to Tobias Fenster who has developed a good VSCode extensions ALRunner, we can convert the translation file into a properly formatted file.

After installing the ALRunner extension, press Ctrl+p and choose ALRunner: Convert generated. xlf to real one

Save the generated file under Translations Directory

Note: The .g.xlf file gets overwritten each time we build our AL project, so use it as source for generating other translation file.

For our purpose, we generate two files:

• ClaimManagementExt_EU.xlf (Contain the English caption)
• ClaimManagementExt_FR.xlf (Contain Frensh caption)

For the ClaimManagementExt_EU.xlf we set the value of ‘Target-language’ to ‘en-US’ and ‘fr-FR’ for in ClaimManagementExt_FR.xlf

For both files, keep value of the ‘Source’ Property and modify the ‘Target’ value’s if needeed.

For our purpose, we will just modify the ClaimManagementExt_FR.xlf

When done, just publish your application and ENJOY.

In the next part of this guide, we will be seeing the procedure to create a custom workflow based on events.

Stay tuned.