Al: Question : How to add FunctionVisibility/External Property for Procedure in AL

[srinivasGangadhara]

Hi,

In C/AL we have property for Function like below,

C/AL : Business Central CU3

AL in Visual Studio Code : Business Central CU3

Please let us know how we can use?

[dNsl9r]

You don't need it, [External] is only for C/AL Functions

[srinivasGangadhara]

i have created codeunit with some procedures and published same in web services
now i have the SOAP url , But am not able to see my procedures in explorer(Refer Standard Like below screenshot).

then i was tried by publishing the standard codeunit 1544 , then am able to see functions in explorer those are having the FunctionVisibility external , so i thought it because of External property ,
that's the reason am raised question.

may be am missing something please could you help me out? how can move further.

[strophanthus]

Hello, we are experiencing issues with this as well. Our web service functions are not accessible in on premise installs of BC. This is on CU06

[atoader]

@srinivasGangadhara
In C/AL we have 2 attributes [External] and [Internal]. In AL, they are mapped to [Scope('Extension')] and [Scope('Internal')]. The main use of this attributes was to limit what functions from the BaseApp can be used in the Cloud i.e. in the Cloud you cannot use a function that is marked with [Internal]/[Scope('Internal')].
Starting with the Spring Release 2019, we have deprecated [Scope('Internal')] and replaced it with [Scope('OnPrem')] and we have deprecated [Scope('Extension')] and replaced with [Scope('Cloud')].

@strophanthus In the latest release, these attributes are also used to mark what functions are accessible from web services. Functions marked with [Internal] are not accessible from web services.

[coffeecup007]

To make it extra fun 'External' in C/AL gets converted to [Scope('Personalization')] in AL with txt2al.
On the C/AL side the breaking change is no decorator seems to default to Internal (meaning a breaking change).
Will this also be an issue where the lack of an explicit decorator will default to Internal (causing breaking changes) instead of External (backwards compatible changes)?

[atoader]

In the latest version of Txt2Al [External] gets converted to nothing, because it is the default in AL, [Internal] gets converted to [Scope('OnPrem')] or [Scope('Internal')] depending on your target runtime. The latest Txt2Al will be available in a few weeks through the Docker image preview from master.

[strophanthus]

Does this mean the property will matter in BC SaaS?

[coffeecup007]

Also, does this mean that the behavior for an un-decorated function exposed through a SOAP webservice to 'External' is the 'correct' behavior, and the behavior of the un-decorated function when using a FOB defaulting to internal is incorrect? (This is referring to the breaking change introduced in BC on-prem where un-decorated functions have a different default behavior than previous versions). This discrepancy is problematic for those of us that need to maintain source for .app and as a .fob.

[atoader]

Hi @coffeecup007 ! For web services, make sure to set the attribute Scope to External for functions created in C/SIDE. In AL, the default is External so you don't have to do anything. The defaulting is different depending on whether you write C/AL code or AL code, but it is correct in its own right.

[gintuoklis]

@srinivasGangadhara
In C/AL we have 2 attributes [External] and [Internal]. In AL, they are mapped to [Scope('Extension')] and [Scope('Internal')]. The main use of this attributes was to limit what functions from the BaseApp can be used in the Cloud i.e. in the Cloud you cannot use a function that is marked with [Internal]/[Scope('Internal')].
Starting with the Spring Release 2019, we have deprecated [Scope('Internal')] and replaced it with [Scope('OnPrem')] and we have deprecated [Scope('Extension')] and replaced with [Scope('Cloud')].

@strophanthus In the latest release, these attributes are also used to mark what functions are accessible from web services. Functions marked with [Internal] are not accessible from web services.

Hey @atoader
few questions regarding scope attribute:

• is there any official documentation regarding scope attribute? could not find it.
• I tried to use [Scope('Extension')] with AL Lanauge 3.0.126610, and it did not work? Is't it released yet?

[atoader]

@gintuoklis you don't need to use [Scope('Extension')] in AL, but it should work in version 1.0 and later. I will create a bug for our docs team.