14.1 Personalization, Profile Customization & Designer

14.1 Personalization, Profile Customization & Designer

Quick Summary: Dynamics 365 Business Central structures user interface alterations into three progressive tiers: Personalization (individual user tailoring via Settings > Personalize), Profile Customization (role-wide administrative layout standardization via Profiles (Roles) > Customize pages), and In-Client Designer (developer-grade extension creation restricted strictly to Sandbox environments). Users can modify field visibility, freeze panes, adjust column widths, and configure Quick Entry, while Profile Customization standardizes layouts across entire departments without AL code. Designer extends beyond surface adjustments by adding unexposed source table fields and generating deployable AL extension packages.

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The Three Tiers of User Interface Alteration

Modern enterprise ERP systems must balance individual worker productivity with corporate data governance and operational consistency. In Dynamics 365 Business Central, user interface modifications are divided into three distinct operational tiers, each serving a specific audience, scope, and technical governance level.

UI Alteration Hierarchy in Business Central:

[Tier 1: Personalization]        ──► Individual User (Current User Only)
                                     Settings ⚙️ -> Personalize | Stored in User Personalization

[Tier 2: Profile Customization]  ──► Role-Wide (All Users in Profile)
                                     Profiles (Roles) -> Customize pages | Stored in Tenant Page Customization

[Tier 3: In-Client Designer]     ──► Developer / Consultant (Environment / Extension)
                                     Sandbox Only -> Design | Generates AL Code & .app Extensions

Understanding where each tool begins and ends—and how personalizations interact with profile defaults—is a primary objective assessed on the MB-800 certification exam.

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Personalization: Individual User Tailoring

Personalization empowers individual end users to tailor their personal workspace to optimize repetitive data entry, eliminate screen clutter, and align page layouts with their specific daily workflows.

Accessing and Engaging Personalization Mode

Users initiate personalization from the web client banner by selecting the Settings gear icon (⚙️) -> Personalize.

UI Navigation Path:
Web Client Banner -> Settings (⚙️) -> Personalize -> Red "Personalizing" Banner Active

When personalization is active, a red banner appears across the top of the browser displaying Personalizing [Page Name], accompanied by a + Field action pane on the right. When hovering over page elements, red bounding boxes indicate customizable UI components.

Functional Capabilities of Personalization

While in personalization mode, users can perform several targeted layout adjustments:

1. Move Fields and Columns: Drag and drop fields, columns, FastTabs, FactBoxes, or action bar buttons to new positions on the page.
2. Hide and Show Elements: Click the red arrow on a field or FactBox and select Hide. To restore or show fields, click + Field in the personalization banner and drag the field from the pane onto the page.
3. Set Freeze Pane: On list pages (such as Customer List or Item List), users can select Set freeze pane on any column header. This locks all columns to the left of the freeze pane in place, ensuring primary identification data (such as No. and Name) remains visible when scrolling horizontally across wide data tables.
4. Adjust Column Widths: Drag column dividers to expand or contract visible text space.
5. Configure Quick Entry: By selecting Exclude from Quick Entry or Include in Quick Entry, users determine whether pressing the Enter key stops on that field. Quick Entry accelerates high-speed order processing by allowing data entry clerks to Enter-tab through mandatory fields (e.g., Item No. and Quantity) while skipping optional fields (e.g., Description and Unit of Measure Code).
6. Set Field Importance: On Card pages (e.g., Customer Card, Sales Order), fields can be assigned one of three importance states:
   • Standard: The field displays normally when the FastTab is expanded.
   • Promoted: The field displays when the FastTab is expanded AND its current value is rendered in the summary header bar when the FastTab is collapsed.
   • Additional: The field is hidden behind the Show more toggle on the FastTab, reducing visual noise during routine viewing.

[!NOTE] Personalization Boundary: Personalization can only expose fields that the underlying page object already includes in its AL definition. If a developer did not add a specific table field to the page object, an end user cannot add it via Personalization.

Storage, Reversion, and Governance

• Storage: Personalizations are saved automatically as delta metadata in the system database under the user's specific security identifier (SID) for that specific page and company (Table 2000000073 Page Data Personalization).
• Reverting Changes: To revert alterations, the user clicks Clear personalization in the red banner and selects either All (resets the entire page to default) or targeted components (e.g., Only actions, Only fields and columns).
• Administrative Oversight: System administrators can inspect, manage, and delete personalizations across all users by navigating to the Personalized Pages page (Alt+Q -> type Personalized Pages). Deleting a user's record from this list instantly restores the default layout for that user on their next session.

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Profile Customization: Role-Wide Layout Standardization

Profile Customization enables administrators and functional consultants to establish standardized, uniform page layouts across an entire organizational role without writing AL code.

Accessing Profile Customization

Profile customization is configured through the Profiles (Roles) administrative interface:

UI Navigation Path:
Tell Me (Alt+Q) -> Profiles (Roles) -> Select Profile (e.g., SALES ORDER PROCESSOR) -> Action: Customize pages

Clicking Customize pages opens a new browser session with a dark blue banner stating Customizing [Profile Name]. Any modifications made in this mode apply to all users assigned to that profile.

Operational Scope & Precedence Rules

• No-Code Standardization: Administrators can hide sensitive or irrelevant fields, reposition FastTabs, set role-wide freeze panes, and promote primary actions for an entire department (e.g., hiding cost figures from warehouse floor workers or sales reps).
• Layered Layout Precedence: Business Central resolves UI layouts hierarchically:
  1. Base Application & Installed AL Extension Page Definitions (Baseline)
  2. Profile Customization applied to the user's assigned Profile (Role Layer)
  3. Individual User Personalizations (Personal Layer - Highest Precedence)
• Interaction with Personalization: If an administrator customizes a page for the Sales Order Processor profile, all users assigned that role see the customized layout. However, if an individual order processor subsequently personalizes that same page, their personal changes override the profile customization for those specific elements.
• Storage & Lifecycle: Profile customizations are stored in the tenant database as Tenant Page Customization records. Administrators can clear profile customizations directly from the Profiles (Roles) page by choosing Manage -> Clear customized pages or Clear customized pages for a single page.

[!TIP] In AL development projects, profile customizations can also be authored programmatically using pagecustomization objects linked to a profile object in an extension, enabling version-controlled CI/CD deployment across enterprise tenants.

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In-Client Designer: Developer Extension Authoring in Sandbox

In-Client Designer (frequently termed Designer) represents the bridge between visual no-code configuration and formal AL code extension development.

Critical Environmental Constraint: Sandbox Only

[!WARNING] Strict Certification Rule: In-Client Designer is strictly accessible in Sandbox environments. It is completely blocked and unavailable in Production environments to safeguard operational stability, database integrity, and code governance.

To activate Designer in a sandbox, a user with administrative or developer permissions clicks the Design icon in the web client banner (Settings > Design).

The Superpower of Designer: Adding Unexposed Table Fields

Unlike Personalization and Profile Customization—which can only toggle fields already placed on the page by an AL developer—In-Client Designer can access the entire underlying source table schema:

• When the consultant clicks + Field in Designer, the field drawer displays all fields existing in the underlying database table (e.g., Table 18 Customer), including fields that have never been placed on Page 21 (Customer Card).
• Dragging an unexposed table field onto the page instructs Business Central to generate a new AL page extension.
• Designer also allows adding new page actions, reordering FastTabs, and previewing page layouts across desktop, tablet, and mobile device emulators.

Saving and Exporting Code Packages

When exiting Designer by clicking Stop Designing, the consultant enters a design session summary:

• Extension Name: Specifies the target extension name (e.g., Customer Page Enhancements).
• Publisher: Corporate publisher identifier (e.g., Cronus Consulting).
• Version: Semantic version number (e.g., 1.0.0.0).
• Download Code: Selecting Download Code compiles the visual alterations into a .zip archive containing a fully structured AL project, complete with app.json manifest, .al page extension files (pageextension), and table extensions.

Consultants can open this downloaded code in Visual Studio Code, commit it to Git repositories, add custom business logic or C/AL-to-AL event subscribers, and deploy the resulting .app package to production via the Extension Management page.

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Comprehensive Comparison: The Three UI Alteration Tiers

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Step-by-Step UI Configuration Workflows

Workflow A: Personalizing a Sales Order for High-Speed Entry

1. Open any Sales Order from the Sales Orders list (Alt+Q -> type Sales Orders).
2. Click Settings (⚙️) -> Personalize to initiate personalization mode.
3. On the Lines FastTab, hover over the column header No., click the red arrow, and select Set freeze pane to lock line item identifiers.
4. Hover over the Quantity column, click the arrow, and ensure Include in Quick Entry is enabled.
5. Hover over Unit Price Excl. VAT, click the arrow, and select Exclude from Quick Entry so the cursor skips price review during rapid line scanning.
6. On the General FastTab, click the arrow on Due Date and select Importance -> Promoted so the due date remains visible even when the General FastTab is collapsed.
7. Click Done in the red personalization banner to save and commit changes.

Workflow B: Customizing a Role Profile Layout for Order Processors

1. Press Alt+Q, type Profiles (Roles), and select the related link.
2. Locate and select the SALES ORDER PROCESSOR profile row.
3. In the action bar, select Customize pages.
4. A new browser tab opens with the blue Customizing - Sales Order Processor banner.
5. Navigate to the Sales Quotes list page.
6. Select + Field in the customization banner and drag Sell-to Contact into the visible list columns.
7. Select Done in the banner to commit the change for all users assigned to the Sales Order Processor role.

Workflow C: Adding an Unexposed Table Field Using Designer in Sandbox

1. Log into a Sandbox environment (verified by the Sandbox environment badge).
2. Click Settings (⚙️) -> Design.
3. Navigate to Customers and open a Customer Card.
4. Click + Field on the design banner. In the field drawer, locate EORI Number (a field residing in Table 18 that is not placed on Page 21 by default).
5. Drag EORI Number onto the Shipping FastTab.
6. Click Stop Designing in the top banner.
7. Enter Extension Name: Customer Customizations, Publisher: Implementation Team, and check Download Code.
8. Click Save to generate the AL extension package.

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Common Implementation Pitfalls & Exam Traps

• Pitfall 1: Attempting to Add Missing Table Fields via Personalization. End users frequently complain that they cannot find a specific field in the '+ Field' pane during personalization. If the field is not defined in the underlying page object, it is impossible to add via Personalization or Profile Customization; it requires Designer in sandbox or AL code.
• Pitfall 2: Searching for Designer in Production. A common exam scenario asks how an administrator can open Designer in a live production environment to fix a layout. Designer is blocked in production by platform architecture; any layout changes requiring Designer must be developed in sandbox and deployed as an extension.
• Pitfall 3: Assuming Profile Customizations Override Personalizations. When an administrator customizes a profile, users who previously personalized their own pages may not see the changes because personal personalizations take precedence. Administrators must clear individual personalizations via the Personalized Pages list if corporate uniformity is mandated.
• Pitfall 4: Conflating Promoted Actions with Promoted Fields. 'Promoted Actions' refer to ribbon buttons elevated to the home action bar for quick access. 'Promoted Field Importance' refers to card page fields displayed in the header band when a FastTab is collapsed.