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Business Central (BI Endpoints)

BI Endpoints is a Business Central app by Datawareness. It publishes a catalogue of entity sets, each with its business key, its relationships to other entity sets, a delete feed, and descriptions, so Cloud Connector can set a Business Central dataset up in one click and keep it in step with the app.

Setting up​

Install the Business Central template from the Templates gallery (see Templates), or create a source system whose instance base URL points at the app's API, …/api/datawareness/endpoints/v<N>/…. That path is how Cloud Connector recognises a BI Endpoints source system; the instance authenticates with Session Bearer and a Form data body (the Entra client-credentials flow). The app registration needs the DTW BI ENDPOINTS permission set (BI Endpoints - Read) in Business Central; see App registration and permissions.

The catalogue, the data model and the custom endpoints are read through the source system's first enabled instance, in alphabetical order. Custom endpoint definitions live in Business Central and apply to every company.

The catalogue​

The Data catalogue of a BI Endpoints source system lists every entity set the app publishes that is not a dataset yet: Name (with the Business Central table underneath), Category, Business key, Description, and Preview (the first 20 rows, read-only). A Category filter and a search box narrow the list. A partial chip means some of the entity set's loads are already set up and only the missing ones will be added; a no delete feed chip explains why deletions cannot be tracked for that entity set.

Assign opens Add <entity set> as a dataset with the name and description editable and the business key and unpack path set by Business Central. It creates the dataset with up to three endpoints: a full read, an incremental read filtered on systemModifiedAt since the last load, and a delete read of the app's deleted-entries feed. Relationships and descriptions are copied at the same time.

The data model​

Data model on the source system's row draws every entity set as a box and every relationship as a line from the entity set that owns a key to the ones that refer to it. Hover a box to light what it links to and see the keys. Solid boxes are datasets; dashed boxes are not added: click one to add it as a dataset at once, named after the entity set. A Category filter narrows the graph, and the arrangement you drag into place is saved for everyone (Reset layout undoes it).

Apply to datasets (shown with Business Plus) copies Business Central's relationships and descriptions onto your datasets for the Data API. It runs by itself when you add a dataset; use the button after a BI Endpoints upgrade. A description you wrote yourself is kept.

Custom endpoints​

A custom endpoint exposes one Business Central table of your choice through BI Endpoints, with the columns you pick. Custom endpoints in Business Central on the source system's row opens the management dialog, which needs BI Endpoints 26.4 or later, a Premium subscription, and the management API enabled on the app's setup page.

  • New custom endpoint — pick the Business Central table, give the endpoint a name (camelCase, for example salesHeader), a Type (Master Data or Transactional Data) and a Description. The table's primary key columns are mapped automatically; Create publishes the endpoint and opens the column view.
  • Columns (the pencil) — Add columns maps up to fifty columns per endpoint; a primary-key column cannot be cleared. The Published switch takes the endpoint in and out of the catalogue.
  • Delete in Business Central removes the definition; datasets that read it are left alone and their next load fails.

A published custom endpoint appears in the Data catalogue like any entity set. When it is assigned, the dataset stores the columns under their real names (Field names, see Field names) rather than the col1…col50 the app serves.

Typed columns. A custom endpoint serves every column as text. Cloud Connector reads the column types the app publishes and stores decimals and integers as numbers and true/false as booleans, so the SQL export types those columns as it would from a standard entity set. Needs BI Endpoints 26.4.0.1 or later; an older version renders decimals in the company's language, and those stay text.

When the columns change in Business Central. The catalogue checks, when it opens, whether a dataset still matches its custom endpoint, and shows a banner with an Update button when the published columns changed. Update rewrites the endpoint's column list and renames the stored columns through a field-rename job; the dataset is locked and its loads paused while that runs. A changed primary key is reported but never applied, because a new key changes which rows are which; change it on the dataset yourself.