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Comments Action - Identify if Comments exist in table record

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Posted on by ME-31032107-0

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In various pages (Customers, Vendors, Sales/Purchase Orders), comments are being maintained in the various Comments Actions. But you cannot tell if Comments exist unless you open up the Comments Sheet. Is there a way to modify the Comments Caption to appear differently if Comments actually exist.

For example, in Dynamics GP & SL, the comments button has horizontal lines if comments exist, none if empty.

I know a field can have a different font color based on conditions, but can the same be done for an Action Caption? Or maybe change the Caption to "COMMENTS" when data exists?

Or, can I hide the existing Comments actions, create a new one on each page, and make the Image conditional depending on if data exists or not? I see in the App Action Icons page (https://bcicons-g9hhcpg4fqatfmbj.z01.azurefd.net/) there is an empty Comment (Comment) and a Lined Comment (ViewComments).

Thanks.

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Dynamics 365 Business Central

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Valentin Castravet 32,152 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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As far as I know, the icon is static and can’t be changed, though other users might have different ideas.

An alternative is to create two actions with different icons and control their visibility based on whether comments exist. This would make the icon appear dynamic.

However, a simpler approach would be to add a Comments FlowField on the document header, a Yes/No field that indicates whether comments exist, similar to many standard fields, see the example below:

Valentin Castravet
Work: Zander ERP Services
Blog: Dynamics 365 Business Central Insights
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/valentin-c-0500a247/

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YUN ZHU 99,049 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi, You can add a Flowfield and display "Yes" if it exists. It's not difficult. However, it does require a little simple customization.

PS: Dynamics 365 Business Central: FlowFields (Sum, Average, Exist, Count, Min, Max, Lookup)

https://yzhums.com/5802/

Thanks.

ZHU

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OussamaSabbouh 12,760 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

You can’t dynamically change an action caption or icon in standard AL. However, you can:

Hide the original Comments action,

Create a new custom action, and

Use logic to show either Comment or ViewComments icons based on whether comments exist (via Visible or Enabled conditions).

So yes, you can simulate the behavior, but only by replacing the action with two conditional ones.

Regards,
Oussama Sabbouh

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Gerardo Rentería Ga... 25,555 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi

According to the two colleagues, you could also consider creating a factbox that allows you to quickly view comments.

Best

GR

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Jainam M. Kothari 15,732 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

In Business Central, you can't directly change an action's caption or icon dynamically based on data, but you can work around this by hiding the default Comments action and creating two custom actions—one with an empty comment icon and one with a lined icon—then use conditional visibility based on whether comments exist for the record.

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Rishabh Kanaskar 6,219 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi,

Business Central does not support changing an Action Caption dynamically based on data. You cannot conditionally modify the caption or font color for actions.

This requires AL development; there is no out-of-the-box feature for conditional captions or icons.

Regards,

Rishabh

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Teddy Herryanto (Th... 14,302 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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We used to have the changing icon back in NAV days.

In BC, the only way to do that is to add a boolean flowfield to get a Yes/No text.

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ME-31032107-0 765 on at

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OK, with help from several suggestions, here is what I came up with for code (Example using the Item Card). Seems to work well, still doing some additional validation.

My only issue is where the new actions appear. I am trying to get them to be arranged where the original Comments action is displayed (after Approvals) , but it always appears at the end of the group.

pageextension 50114 ItemCardPageExt extends "Item Card"
{
actions
{
modify("Co&mments")
{
Visible = False;
}
addafter("Approval")
{
action("Comments Empty")
{
ApplicationArea = Comments;
Caption = 'Co&mments';
Image = Comment;
RunObject = Page "Comment Sheet";
RunPageLink = "Table Name" = const(Item),
"No." = field("No.");
ToolTip = 'View or add comments for the record.';
Promoted = True;
PromotedCategory = Category4;
Visible = CommentEmpty;
}
action("Comments Data")
{
ApplicationArea = Comments;
Caption = 'Co&mments';
Image = ViewComments;
RunObject = Page "Comment Sheet";
RunPageLink = "Table Name" = const(Item),
"No." = field("No.");
ToolTip = 'View or add comments for the record.';
Promoted = True;
PromotedCategory = Category4;
Visible = CommentData;
}
}
}

trigger OnNewRecord(BelowxRec: Boolean)
begin
CommentEmpty := true;
CommentData := false;
end;

trigger OnAfterGetRecord()
begin
GetComments();
end;

procedure GetComments()
var
Comments: Record "Comment Line";
TableName: Enum "Comment Line Table Name";

begin
Comments.SetRange("Table Name", Comments."Table Name"::Item);
Comments.SetRange("No.", Rec."No.");

if Comments.FindFirst() then begin
CommentEmpty := false;
CommentData := true;
end
else begin
CommentEmpty := true;
CommentData := false;
end
end;

var
CommentEmpty: Boolean;
CommentData: Boolean;
}

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