Create Dynamics 365 Business Central-Connected Business Apps in AppSheet

AppSheet provides a no-code development platform for application software, which allows users to create mobile, tablet, and web applications. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Dynamics 365 Business Central data for business applications. This article shows how to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central in Connect Cloud and build a simple app from Dynamics 365 Business Central data in AppSheet.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics 365 Business Central, allowing you to build reports from live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in AppSheet — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you create applications to work with data, AppSheet generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central in Connect Cloud

CData Connect Cloud uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from AppSheet.

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central in AppSheet

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from AppSheet to create a new Dynamics 365 Business Central data source.

1. Log into AppSheet
2. Click "My account" in the menu
3. Click the Sources tab and add a new data source
4. Select Cloud Database and set the connection information
   • Type: Sql Server
   • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Database: the Dynamics 365 Business Central connection, for example, D365BusinessCentral1
   • Username: a Connect Cloud user, for example, user@mydomain.com
   • Password: the PAT for the above Connect Cloud user
   • SSL: Require SSL
5. Click "Test Connection"
6. Click "Authorize Access"

Create an App

Once you create the data source for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you can start building apps on Dynamics 365 Business Central data. Start by clicking "My apps" in the menu.

1. Click to create a new app and select "Start with your own data"
2. Name the app and select an appropriate category, based on your data
3. Select the newly created data source
4. Select the table or view with the data you want

At this point, you can configure the design of your app, selecting which columns from the selected table to display, use as labels, and more. Preview the app in the preview panel and then publish or share it when ready.

To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect Cloud today!