Question 570
At fictional Trinity Trading, the Business Central development team is supporting cross-border purchasing and reviewing object model and application extensibility during a sandbox design review (MB820-3.2-075). The observed development issue is that a business needs to adjust an existing Microsoft report while preserving compatibility with future upgrades. Which Business Central or AL development principle best explains the right response?
Explanation
Correct Answer
The governing principle is that report extensibility should avoid unnecessary base application duplication. The engineering response is to use reportextension capabilities or supported layout substitution hooks rather than copying the original report as an unmanaged fork. Verification should show that the customized output works while base report fixes remain independently serviceable.
Incorrect Answers
“Report dataitem hierarchy determines record repetition and scope” supports the separate task “adjust the parent/child dataitems, grouping and iteration behavior in the report model”, not the reported problem: a business needs to adjust an existing Microsoft report while preserving compatibility with future upgrades. This case instead calls for “use reportextension capabilities or supported layout substitution hooks rather than copying the original report as an unmanaged fork”.
“Request pages let users supply report parameters” concerns the separate step “add a report request page exposing the supported filters and options”. The reported issue is that a business needs to adjust an existing Microsoft report while preserving compatibility with future upgrades, so the direct response is to use reportextension capabilities or supported layout substitution hooks rather than copying the original report as an unmanaged fork.
“Report logic should minimize repetitive database queries” concerns the alternative task “move expensive aggregations to appropriate query or dataset design and profile execution”, but the stated failure is that a business needs to adjust an existing Microsoft report while preserving compatibility with future upgrades. The required measure is to use reportextension capabilities or supported layout substitution hooks rather than copying the original report as an unmanaged fork.