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Extension types and scope

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This article provides an overview of the different extension types and their scope.

An extension can move from one scope to another under certain circumstances. For more information, see Moving Between Extension Scopes.

Global apps

The definition of a global app is that it fulfills one or more of the following criteria:

  • It's published by Microsoft
  • It's installed from the AppSource marketplace
  • It's provided by embed ISVs if your environment uses a code-customized base application. For more information, see Publishing a Code-Customized Base Application.

Global apps are uniquely defined by their id and version.

You can't deploy a Global app with the same id and version, but different content to multiple environments.

You can choose to install, uninstall or upgrade Global apps, but you don't control when they're published or unpublished because they might be used by other environments in the service. It's also not possible to force sync a Global app.

Global apps can only depend on other global apps.

Environment types

Global apps can exist in Production and in sandbox environments. For more information, see Production and Sandbox Environments.

How to install

For AppSource and Microsoft apps:

  • From the AppSource marketplace, choose Contact Me, Free Trial, or Get It Now and follow the steps.
  • From the Extension Management page in Business Central, you can navigate to the AppSource embed view, locate the app, and install it. For more information, see Installing and Uninstalling Extensions in Business Central.

Note

The AppSource offer listing contains the list of supported countries/regions. You must verify that the app is available for the country/region of your environment. If it isn't available for the country/region of your environment, the installation will fail.

For apps provided by Embed ISVs, installation is handled by the Embed ISV partner.

Behavior on environment upgrade

Global apps are preserved on upgrade for both production and sandbox environments.

AppSource apps

  • AppSource apps are never uninstalled unless they're preventing the tenant to upgrade. For more information, see Maintain AppSource apps and per-tenant extensions.
  • AppSource apps are updated to the latest version during upgrades to a new Business Central major version (for instance 19.5 to 20.0), but are preserved during minor version upgrade (for instance 19.0 to 19.1) - unless the app was marked as incompatible by the extension publisher through a support request.

Microsoft apps

  • Microsoft apps are always updated to the latest compatible version for the corresponding major/minor during upgrades to a new Business Central version.

Embed apps

  • Embed apps behavior on environment upgrade is controlled by the partner deploying the apps.

Per-tenant extensions (PTEs)

These apps are unique per environment. Per-tenant extensions are uniquely defined by their app id, version, and the environment where they're deployed.

  • You can deploy multiple PTEs with the same id and version, but different content to multiple environments. This might, however, cause you extra overhead when managing these environments.
  • You control when to publish, install, upgrade, uninstall, or unpublish the app because it's specific to your environment. You may also choose to force sync a PTE.
  • A PTE can have dependencies on Global apps, on other PTEs, or on DEV extensions.

Environment types

PTEs can exist in Production and sandbox environments. For more information, see Production and Sandbox Environments.

How to install

From the Extension Management page in Business Central, you must upload the .app file. For more information, see Installing and Uninstalling Extensions in Business Central.

Behavior on upgrade

PTEs are never uninstalled from a production environment, unless they're preventing the environment to upgrade. For more information, see Maintain AppSource apps and per-tenant extensions. PTEs are uninstalled when the sandbox environment is relocated if they dependent on DEV extensions, but the data isn't removed. PTEs can be upgraded to a newer version during the environment upgrade if a newer version has been staged from the Extension Management page.

DEV extensions

DEV extensions are used for development purposes. This includes extensions published from Visual Studio Code or created using Designer in Business Central.

You can deploy a DEV extension with the same id and version, but different content to multiple sandbox environments. You control when to publish, install, upgrade, uninstall, or unpublish the app because it's specific to your environment. You can also force sync the app. For more information, see Launch JSON file and Retaining table data after publishing.

Note

The resourceExposurePolicy applies differently to DEV extensions. For more information, see Resource Exposure Policy Setting.

DEV extensions can have dependencies on Global apps, on per-tenant extensions, or on other DEV extensions.

Environment types

DEV extensions can only exist in sandbox environments. For more information, see Production and Sandbox Environments.

How to install

For information on how to install, see Use Designer and Building your first sample extension that uses new objects and extension objects.

Behavior on upgrade

DEV extensions are uninstalled when the sandbox environment is upgraded or relocated within our service. However, the data of an app is not removed, so you only have to republish and install the app to make it available. Any PTE that depends on a DEV extension is also uninstalled in that case.

Constraints on extension types

In general, extensions are uniquely defined by their id. A specific version of an app is defined by the id and version, adding environment for per-tenant extensions.

  • It isn't possible to deploy a Global app and a PTE with the same id. During the upload of a PTE, we're validating that there is not a Global app with the same id. Currently, the AppSource validation process doesn't detect all identity conflicts with PTEs and uploading an app with the same id as an existing PTE to AppSource means that it isn't possible to update the PTE anymore. For more information, see the Technical validation checklist.

  • It isn't possible to deploy a Global app and a DEV extension with the same id and version. When deploying the DEV version of a Global app from Visual Studio Code to a sandbox environment, for example, for development or troubleshooting, you must make sure that your DEV extension has a different version than what is published to AppSource. Similarly, after you're done developing/testing your extension, you should increase the version before submitting to AppSource.

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