Business Central Mobile App - Customizing views / pages and features

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Posted on by SammySevens

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Hello BC Community,

The base BC Mobile App is nice - but as with many things, my stakeholders are asking for customizations.

With this in mind, could I ask some clarifying questions on the customization process?

To customize BC Mobile App - there is no way to modify the BC App that is downloaded from the Android/IOS Store
To create a customized app - must have a local server instance of Business Central (On-Prem)
Once this On-Prem environment has been created, then connect to the server and create a mobile App which is connected to your BC server
- If I am using BC-Cloud - can my on-prem be sync with my cloud instance so that I don't start from scratch (I have added many fields, customizations etc already)?
- Can my BC App be based upon the standard BC app that Microsoft provides? Meaning, I would rather customize an app based on the default one, than have to create a new one entirely from scratch
When you are satisfied with the mobile app, you can then push it to end user devices, or link to android store, and allow users to download this mobile app

Am I understanding this correctly? Are there some good tutorials that walk through this entire process - including a demo app development?

Thank you

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Jarrod Case on at

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RE: Business Central Mobile App - Customizing views / pages and features

Hi SammySevens ,

Check out a video I recorded for this subject here:

https://youtu.be/gFivvXn2aa0
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Mohana Yadav 59,139 Super User 2024 Season 2 on at

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RE: Business Central Mobile App - Customizing views / pages and features

yes, Mobile app cannot replace the web app.

It is for some specific tasks like time entry or releasing the documents or approving etc.
SammySevens 130 on at

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RE: Business Central Mobile App - Customizing views / pages and features

Hi JC,

Thank you for the clarification, tremendous response and I sincerely appreciate it! Very helpful and appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

One last question - it seems like the Mobile app (phone) is limited to the user profile. So by design (and I think I read this, but want to confirm), that the mobile app is really only for specific functionalities, and in most cases BC by design encourages use of the web app for more robust workflows.

For example, I can't search for anything in the mobile app....like one would in the web app. I mainly interface with the cue cards and some specific tables I can access based on the user profile that I am logged in as.

Is that correct?
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Jarrod Case on at

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RE: Business Central Mobile App - Customizing views / pages and features

Hi SammySevens ,

Forget the mobile app for a moment and lets get the fundamentals down pat.

To access BC you use the below example URL

https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/<tenantid>/Production

To access Mobile or Tablet you use the following

businesscentral.dynamics.com/.../Phone
businesscentral.dynamics.com/.../Tablet

The Mobile app has issues and is just a wrapper. IF you open your BC on a mobile device android or iphone with the above URL /phone - you will find it's the same BC loaded in full business central but adapted UI for phone.

SO - therefore if I publish code / a page / a customisation via AL - yes it can apear on the phone just like the computer, within the boundary of the UI design.

Here is a custom page I developed for manifest OCR Sales Orders

Here is the same on the mobile phone

So to answer you questions:

To customize BC Mobile App - there is no way to modify the BC App that is downloaded from the Android/IOS Store
Answer: The app is a wrapper therefore what you modify in BC online can adapt to phone or tablet

To create a customized app - must have a local server instance of Business Central (On-Prem)
Answer: Either/or Cloud

Once this On-Prem environment has been created, then connect to the server and create a mobile App which is connected to your BC server

If I am using BC-Cloud - can my on-prem be sync with my cloud instance so that I don't start from scratch (I have added many fields, customizations etc already)?
Answer: You can migrate to cloud

Can my BC App be based upon the standard BC app that Microsoft provides? Meaning, I would rather customize an app based on the default one, than have to create a new one entirely from scratch
Answer: BC is BC.. The app extension will be based on the extension you write and can be installed on any BC instance

When you are satisfied with the mobile app, you can then push it to end user devices, or link to android store, and allow users to download this mobile app
Answer: The app again is just a wrapper. Get satisfied with your PC UI, and put Chrome into developer mode, modify the URL to /phone and test there. When happy it's live when you move it from your sandbox to production.

Please confirm I've answered your question above - please click Yes

Thanks,

JC