Linting and Formatting: Copilot automatically enforces coding standards and best practices, ensuring a consistent codebase. Example: Enforcing Coding Standards with GitHub Copilot and Additional Tools Here's how you might integrate GitHub Copilot with other tools to promote coding standards and best practices in a BC Application Language development project: Using GitHub Copilot for Code Suggestions: Scenario: You are developing a custom module in AL to handle inventory adjustments. Copilot Suggestion: You start typing a comment or a function signature, and Copilot might suggest: Here, Copilot suggests a basic inventory adjustment function. The use of Commit might be appropriate depending on the broader transaction context. 2. Linting and Formatting Tools for AL Linting and formatting tools help identify problems in code before deployment, which can reduce time and costs. Linting tools, also known as lint tools, analyze source code for stylistic and programmatic errors. Formatting tools automatically format source code to make it easier to read and understand. Linting is different from formatting because linting analyzes how code runs, while formatting only restructures how it appears. Tools like AL Linter or AL Formatter: After writing code, running it through linters and formatters can help ensure it adheres to coding standards specific to AL. These tools can enforce naming conventions, check for unused variables, and ensure best practices in error handling and transaction management. 3. Static Code Analysis Tools: Tools like the AL Code Analyzer: Integrate these tools into your CI/CD pipeline. In software engineering, CI/CD or CICD is the combined practices of continuous integration and continuous delivery or, less often, continuous deployment. They are sometimes referred to collectively as continuous development or continuous software development. Wikipedia They can analyze the codebase for potential errors, code smells, and even performance issues by enforcing rules such as avoiding overly complex functions or ensuring proper transaction handling. 4. Code Review Practices: Manual and Automated Reviews: Utilize GitHub pull requests for peer code reviews. Automated tools can be integrated to review pull requests and enforce rules, such as requiring certain test coverage or checking for specific code patterns. 5. Pre-commit Hooks: Using a version control system like Git with pre-commit hooks: Configure hooks to run formatting and linting before code is committed, ensuring all code meets the team’s standards. Example pre-commit hook for AL might include running AL Linter or AL Formatter before each commit. Example Scenario Using Copilot in AL Suppose you are developing a custom sales order processing feature in AL. You might write a comment or start defining a procedure, prompting Copilot to suggest: With this suggestion: Best Practices Enforced: Basic validation is implemented, checking the order status and document date. Additional Steps: Enhance the function by adding more complex business rules validations, checking for credit limits, or ensuring inventory availability. After coding, use AL Code Analyzer to check for any potential issues or improvements. While GitHub Copilot can accelerate development by suggesting code snippets and patterns, a consistent and standard-compliant codebase in AL often requires combining Copilot's capabilities with robust development practices, including code reviews, static analysis, and adherence to a structured coding standard. Refactoring Suggestions Copilot provides intelligent recommendations to improve the structure and maintainability of the Application Language Extension code. Code improvements and Refactorings GitHub Copilot, powered by AI, can assist developers by suggesting code improvements and refactorings, particularly by providing snippets that optimize or enhance existing code. While Copilot doesn't refactor code automatically in the traditional sense, it does provide intelligent suggestions based on the code context you're working within and the patterns it has learned from a vast corpus of publicly available code. Below are some examples of how GitHub Copilot could potentially help with refactoring and improving the maintainability of Application Language (AL) code used in extensions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Example 1: Simplifying Conditional Logic Original Code: procedure CheckCreditLimit(Customer: Record Customer) begin if Customer."Balance" + Customer."Sales (LCY)" > Customer."Credit Limit" then if Customer."Credit Limit" > 0 then Error('Credit limit exceeded.'); end; Copilot Suggestion for Refactoring: Copilot might suggest combining the conditions to make the code cleaner and more readable: procedure CheckCreditLimit(Customer: Record Customer) begin if Customer."Credit Limit" > 0 and (Customer."Balance" + Customer."Sales (LCY)") > Customer."Credit Limit" then Error('Credit limit exceeded.'); end; Example 2: Extracting Reusable Code Original Code: procedure PostSalesOrder(SalesHeader: Record "Sales Header") begin // Some posting logic if SalesHeader."Document Type" = SalesHeader."Document Type"::Order then // Logic to handle order else if SalesHeader."Document Type" = SalesHeader."Document Type"::Invoice then // Logic to handle invoice end; procedure PostPurchaseOrder(PurchaseHeader: Record "Purchase Header") begin // Some posting logic if PurchaseHeader."Document Type" = PurchaseHeader."Document Type"::Order then // Logic to handle order else if PurchaseHeader."Document Type" = PurchaseHeader."Document Type"::Invoice then // Logic to handle invoice end; Copilot Suggestion for Refactoring: Copilot might suggest creating a generic posting procedure to avoid duplication: procedure PostDocument(DocumentType: Enum "Document Type"; DocumentSubType: Option Order, Invoice) begin if DocumentSubType = Order then // Generic logic to handle order else if DocumentSubType = Invoice then // Generic logic to handle invoice end; This approach promotes reuse and minimizes code duplication across similar procedures. Example 3: Improving Error Handling Original Code: Copilot Suggestion for Refactoring: To improve maintainability and error handling, Copilot might suggest adding detailed error messages and possibly a logging mechanism: procedure ValidateItem(Item: Record Item) begin if Item."Quantity" <= 0 then LogError('Validation failed for Item No. ' + Item."No." + ' due to non-positive quantity.'); Error(StrSubstNo('Quantity for item %1 must be greater than zero.', Item."No.")); end; procedure LogError(ErrorMessage: Text) begin // Logic to log errors to a file or a monitoring system end; Example 4: Optimizing Loop Performance Original Code: To optimize performance, especially with large datasets: This change uses ModifyAll to update all records at once where possible, reducing the number of writes to the database. These examples illustrate how GitHub Copilot can suggest improvements based on typical coding patterns and practices. It's important to review all suggestions for suitability within your specific context, especially considering Business Central's transactional nature and the business logic implications of any change. Inline Documentation CoPilot can generate comprehensive documentation and comments, enhancing the readability and understanding of the Application Language Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Based on the Project.docx file I just uploaded, give me an example of Copilot generating comprehensive documentation and comments, enhancing the readability and understanding of the Application Language Extensions for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Example: Comprehensive Documentation for Automatic Lot Assignment /** Codeunit 50100 AutoAssignLot This codeunit automates the assignment of lot numbers to sales order lines based on specific business rules. The lot assignment ensures that no lot with an expiration date earlier than 9 months from the sales order date is assigned. It prefers lots with the earliest expiration date, and among those, the one with the lowest lot code. The following key processes are included: Iterative lot assignment ensuring the closest expiration date that complies with the time constraint. Handling multiple lots if a single lot does not cover the required quantity. Automatically updating the 'Lots Assigned' status upon completion. Dependencies: Requires the Sales Order and Lot Information tables to be predefined. Usage: This codeunit should be scheduled to run periodically and can also be triggered manually via a UI action on the Sales Order page. */ codeunit 50100 "AutoAssignLot" { /** * Runs the main process to assign lot numbers to all unprocessed sales orders. * It only processes orders where 'Lots Assigned' is marked as 'No'. */ procedure RunLotAssignmentForAllOrders() var SalesOrderHeader: Record "Sales Order Header"; begin SalesOrderHeader.SetRange("Lots Assigned", false); if SalesOrderHeader.FindSet() then repeat AssignLotsToOrder(SalesOrderHeader."No."); until SalesOrderHeader.Next() = 0; end; /** * Assigns lots to a single sales order based on its document number. * This method handles the logic to select appropriate lots and update order line information. * @param SalesOrderNo The document number of the sales order to process. */ procedure AssignLotsToOrder(SalesOrderNo: Code[20]) var SalesLine: Record "Sales Line"; LotInformation: Record "Lot Information"; NeededQuantity: Decimal; begin SalesLine.SetRange("Document No.", SalesOrderNo); if SalesLine.FindSet() then repeat NeededQuantity := SalesLine.Quantity; // Logic to find and assign lots if FindAndAssignLots(SalesLine, NeededQuantity) then MarkLineAsComplete(SalesLine); until SalesLine.Next() = 0; UpdateSalesOrderStatus(SalesOrderNo); end; /** * Updates the 'Lots Assigned' status of a sales order to 'Yes' after all lines are processed. * @param SalesOrderNo The document number of the sales order to update. */ local procedure UpdateSalesOrderStatus(SalesOrderNo: Code[20]) var SalesOrderHeader: Record "Sales Order Header"; begin if SalesOrderHeader.Get(SalesOrderNo) then begin SalesOrderHeader."Lots Assigned" := true; SalesOrderHeader.Modify(); end; end; }