[BC Idea]: Number Series Copilot

[DmitryKatson]

BC Idea Link

https://experience.dynamics.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=ae4b0c3a-30d6-ee11-92bd-000d3adb9365

Description

Introducing the concept of a "Number Series Copilot" for Business Central, an innovative feature designed to simplify the creation of number series through natural language commands. This idea allows users to effortlessly set up number series for specific entities like customers, vendors, or even across all entities, by simply describing their needs or specifying a format example.

Idea Highlights:

• Natural Language Processing: Users can interact with Business Central in everyday language to request the creation of number series, making the system more intuitive and user-friendly.

• Customizable Formats: By providing examples or masks, users can define how their number series should be structured, offering flexibility and control over their data organization.

• Efficiency and Time-Saving: Eliminates the complexity and manual effort involved in setting up number series, streamlining administrative tasks.

• Accessibility: Makes the process of creating number series accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise, democratizing the use of Business Central features.

This concept envisions a more interactive and intelligent Business Central, where routine tasks are automated and simplified through AI, enhancing the user experience and operational efficiency.

Linked ideas - Document numeration series templates

Number of Votes - 47

I will provide the implementation for this BC Idea

• I will provide the implementation for this BC Idea

Fixes AB#503148

Internal work item: AB#503148

[ikoletic]

@DmitryKatson , @JesperSchulz approving, but let's have a short discussion on this before we dive in. Want to understand if we'll be able ask for generation for master data documents posted documents (that may need year in no series and or not allow gaps) separately and apply no series in various setup pages, updating existing number series, generating new no series lines on top of your existing ones to make this an E2E story.

[JesperSchulz]

Setting up meeting to discuss.

[DmitryKatson]

@ikoletic great questions, basically defining a possible set of questions that LLM should cover in the AI implementation is the right way to start

[JesperSchulz]

PG Review conducted today. Discussed the need to follow Microsoft's responsible AI practices and agreed upon feature set.
@DmitryKatson, you're good to go!

As agreed, I tried to run .\build\scripts\DevEnv\NewDevEnv.ps1 -containerName 'BC-BusinessFoundation' -userName admin -password 'somePW' -projectPaths '.\src\BusinessFoundation\*'

Unfortunately it deletes the Business Foundation and System Application in the end, which leaves an environment without any apps, but @mazhelez has agreed to look into this right away and you should soon be good to take your first steps into the world of code contributions 🥳

Again, if you have any questions, don't ever hesitate to reach out to me! We'll be in touch 😊

[mazhelez]

@JesperSchulz @DmitryKatson, earlier I tried running:

.\build\scripts\DevEnv\NewDevEnv.ps1 -userName admin -password '<pass>' -projectPaths '.\src\BusinessFoundation\*'

And it worked as expected.

Unfortunately, after some recent changes, it is painfully slow, it took a bit more than 30 minutes, but once set up, the container is ready with all the apps installed.

If something fails on your side, can you check if apps are created in an .artifactsCache folder? Or check the logs, maybe something failed silently.

Let me know if there is more I can help out with!

[DmitryKatson]

Great. I will write down here steps I did to proceed with the development (so to make a full blog about the process at the end).

1. Submit the idea at https://experience.dynamics.com/ideas/
2. Get enough votes
3. Submit [BC Idea] issue at https://github.com/microsoft/BCApps/issues , link to the idea and assign to myself
4. Wait "Approved" status
5. Make fork from https://github.com/microsoft/BCApps
6. Clone locally and create feature branch
7. Locally: run Powershell (as Administrador) on the project folder path
8. Run command .\build\scripts\DevEnv\NewDevEnv.ps1 -userName admin -password '<pass>' -projectPaths '.\src\Business Foundation\*'

[DmitryKatson]

@mazhelez I have weird error

Seems that container was created, but i can't open it.
This is the full log full log.rtf.zip

[mazhelez]

Which BCContainerHelper version are you using?

You'd need the latest one.

[DmitryKatson]

Seems the fix for this error is this commit and it's been deployed to the version 6.0.7-preview1150 of BCContainerHelper.

To get this i had to run Install-Module -Name BcContainerHelper -AllowPrerelease -Force in Powershell (as Administrator).

[DmitryKatson]

@JesperSchulz how should I create app.json file for "Number Series Copilot" ?
Should it be something like this?
What Id range to use?

{
    "id":  "7efce506-def2-4195-9d1e-bc538e729242",
    "name":  "No. Series Copilot",
    "publisher":  "Microsoft",
    "brief":  "",
    "description":  "",
    "version":  "25.0.0.0",
    "privacyStatement":  "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=724009",
    "EULA":  "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2009120",
    "help":  "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2103698",
    "url":  "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=724011",
    "logo":  "",
    "dependencies":  [
                         {
                             "id":  "63ca2fa4-4f03-4f2b-a480-172fef340d3f",
                             "name":  "System Application",
                             "publisher":  "Microsoft",
                             "version":  "25.0.0.0"
                         }
                     ],
    "internalsVisibleTo":  [
                               {
                               }
                           ],
    "screenshots":  [

                    ],
    "platform":  "24.0.0.0",
    "target":  "OnPrem",
    "idRanges":  [
                     {
                         "from":  1,
                         "to":  9999
                     },
                 ],
    "features":  [
                     "TranslationFile",
                     "GenerateCaptions",
                     "NoImplicitWith",
                     "NoPromotedActionProperties"
                 ],
    "resourceExposurePolicy":  {
                                   "allowDebugging":  true,
                                   "allowDownloadingSource":  true,
                                   "includeSourceInSymbolFile":  true
                               },
    "contextSensitiveHelpUrl":  "https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/"
}

[DmitryKatson]

@mazhelez with the latest (preview) bc container helper the script was executed successfully. However for some reason I can't access container from the browser.

This is the status

 BcContainerHelper version 6.0.7-preview1151
BC.HelperFunctions emits usage statistics telemetry to Microsoft
PS C:\Users\vmadmin> Restart-BcContainer BC-BusinessFoundation
Removing Session BC-BusinessFoundation
BC-BusinessFoundation
Waiting for container BC-BusinessFoundation to be ready

Initializing...
Setting host.containerhelper.internal to 172.19.176.1 in container hosts file
Restarting Container
PublicDnsName unchanged
Hostname is BC-BusinessFoundation
PublicDnsName is BC-BusinessFoundation
Using NavUserPassword Authentication
Starting Local SQL Server
Starting Internet Information Server
Starting Service Tier
Container IP Address: 172.19.185.225
Container Hostname  : BC-BusinessFoundation
Container Dns Name  : BC-BusinessFoundation
Web Client          : http://BC-BusinessFoundation/BC/
Dev. Server         : http://BC-BusinessFoundation
Dev. ServerInstance : BC

Files:
http://BC-BusinessFoundation:8080/ALLanguage.vsix

Container Total Physical Memory is 32.0Gb
Container Free Physical Memory is 26.7Gb

Initialization took 24 seconds
Ready for connections! 

but when i open http://BC-BusinessFoundation/BC/ i see

When I run download symbols i get

[2024-03-04 12:55:20.37] Using reference symbols cache paths: [c:\Users\vmadmin\Documents\AL\BCApps-Number-Series-Copilot\BCApps\src\Business Foundation\App\.alpackages]
[2024-03-04 12:55:20.41] Targeting server 'http://BC-BusinessFoundation', server instance 'BC' and tenant 'default'.
[2024-03-04 12:55:20.62] Please authenticate in the Visual Studio Code...
[2024-03-04 12:55:28.28] Using reference symbols cache paths: [c:\Users\vmadmin\Documents\AL\BCApps-Number-Series-Copilot\BCApps\src\Business Foundation\App\.alpackages]
[2024-03-04 12:55:28.28] Targeting server 'http://BC-BusinessFoundation', server instance 'BC' and tenant 'default'.
[2024-03-04 12:55:28.30] Using user name and password authentication. User name used is: 'admin'.
[2024-03-04 12:55:28.32] Sending request to http://bc-businessfoundation:7049/BC/dev/metadata?tenant=default
[2024-03-04 12:55:29.41] Error: No such host is known. (bc-businessfoundation:7049)
No such host is known.

[2024-03-04 12:55:29.41] Error: An error occured while processing the request.
Request ID: 6a3a9330-c44c-433d-a5a1-45dae9c2eee0
Session ID: e222fbd6-cee4-4eba-88a0-ab4c2efce434

If you are targeting a cloud instance, supply these IDs if contacting Microsoft support.
[2024-03-04 12:55:29.42] Sending request to http://bc-businessfoundation:7049/BC/dev/metadata?tenant=default
[2024-03-04 12:55:30.42] Error: No such host is known. (bc-businessfoundation:7049)
No such host is known.

[2024-03-04 12:55:30.42] Error: An error occured while processing the request.
Request ID: a8a69d2d-9b04-464f-8423-e880216aca15
Session ID: e222fbd6-cee4-4eba-88a0-ab4c2efce434

If you are targeting a cloud instance, supply these IDs if contacting Microsoft support.

[JesperSchulz]

Your app.json looks about right! You should indeed just use the ID range between 1 - 9.999. Try to find available IDs close to the IDs already in the module. E.g. codeunit 326 and up seem to be free. We want to use ID Ninja going forward, but not everyone is using it yet, which sometimes leads to ID conflicts when using it.