ALbuild for Azure DevOps

Granular, composable Azure DevOps pipeline tasks for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central AL development — by 365 business development.

ALbuild is built on the businessdev.ALbuild PowerShell module. Every task is a thin wrapper that imports the module and calls a single cmdlet, so the same behaviour runs locally and in CI — with no dependency on BcContainerHelper.

Highlights

• Granular, composable tasks. The monolithic Create Build Container of the previous generation is split into small, reusable steps you arrange freely: Get BC Artifact → Create BC Container → Resolve Dependencies → Compile → Sign → Publish → Run Tests → Remove BC Container.
• BcContainerHelper-free. The container stack is reimplemented inside the module; the extension depends only on businessdev.ALbuild.
• Reproducible dependency resolution. Transitive resolution across NuGet v3 feeds, Azure DevOps Universal Packages and committed local .app files, captured in a dependencies.lock.json.
• Run pipelines locally. Reproduce a CI run on a developer machine with Invoke-ALbuildPipeline.
• Generous free tier. Every build, compile, test, sign and NuGet-publish task is free of license. Only the deployment tasks require a subscription — see Pricing.

Supported environments

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central On-Premises
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Online (SaaS)
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on Docker

Getting started

1. Open the Azure DevOps Marketplace and search for ALbuild for Azure DevOps.
2. Select the extension and choose Get it free to install it into your organization.
3. Add the tasks to your build and release pipelines.

The free-of-license tasks work immediately — no license key required. To use the licensed deployment tasks, acquire a license for your Azure DevOps organization at 365businessdev.com. Licensing is verified automatically per organization, and a free trial is available.

For detailed guidance, see the documentation and the ready-to-use pipeline templates.

Example pipeline

A minimal build pipeline that resolves the BC artifact, creates a container, restores dependencies, compiles, signs, installs, runs the tests, and removes the container:

trigger:
  - main
  - master

pool:
  name: Self Hosted

steps:
  - checkout: self
    persistCredentials: true

  - task: GetBcArtifact@0
    displayName: 'Get BC Artifact'
    inputs:
      type: 'sandbox'
      version: 'latest'
      country: 'w1'

  - task: StampBuildVersion@0
    displayName: 'Set Version Number'
    inputs:
      versioningSchema: 'major.minor.build.no-of-commits'
      onlyUpdateOnChangedSource: true
    env:
      AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT: $(System.AccessToken)

  - task: CreateBcContainer@0
    displayName: 'Create BC Container'

  - task: ResolveDependencies@0
    displayName: 'Resolve Dependencies'
    env:
      AZURE_DEVOPS_EXT_PAT: $(System.AccessToken)

  - task: CompileApp@0
    displayName: 'Compile'
    inputs:
      createNuGetPackage: true

  - task: SignBcApp@0
    displayName: 'Sign'
    inputs:
      signingAzureKeyVaultUrl: '$(SigningAzureKeyVaultUrl)'
      signingAzureKeyVaultTenantId: '$(SigningAzureKeyVaultTenantId)'
      signingAzureKeyVaultClientId: '$(SigningAzureKeyVaultClientId)'
      signingAzureKeyVaultClientSecret: '$(SigningAzureKeyVaultClientSecret)'
      signingCertName: '$(SigningCertName)'

  - task: PublishApp@0
    displayName: 'Publish & Install'
    inputs:
      schemaUpdateMode: 'Synchronize'

  - task: RunBcTests@0
    displayName: 'Run Tests'

  - task: PublishTestResults@2
    displayName: 'Publish Test Results'
    inputs:
      testResultsFormat: XUnit
      testResultsFiles: TestResults.xml
      failTaskOnFailedTests: true

  - task: RemoveBcContainer@0
    displayName: 'Remove BC Container'
    condition: always()

Tasks

Each task wraps exactly one businessdev.ALbuild cmdlet.

Free-of-license tasks

Available to everyone — no license required.

Licensed tasks

Deployment tasks that require a valid ALbuild license for your Azure DevOps organization — see Pricing.

The license check runs only on entry to a licensed task. If no valid license is found, the task fails with clear remediation guidance. Free-of-license tasks never perform a license check.

Pricing

ALbuild follows a simple, transparent model: the complete build toolchain is free of license, and you pay only when you need the premium deployment tasks (the Licensed tasks listed above). Subscriptions scale from pay-as-you-go to organization-wide, so you only pay for what you use.

A free trial lets you evaluate the licensed tasks before subscribing. Licensing is verified automatically per Azure DevOps organization — there is nothing to configure in your pipelines.

Every plan includes all free-of-license tasks plus the full set of licensed deployment tasks, the pipeline templates, and standard support through the Service Desk.

Need more than 5 repositories? Combine multiple Per 5 Repositories subscriptions, or move up to the Per DevOps Project or Per DevOps Organization plan for unlimited repositories.

To get started, visit 365businessdev.com.

Migrating from ALbuild V1

To keep existing pipelines running, the extension also ships the ALbuild V1 tasks (CreateBuildContainer, Compile, Install, AppVersioning, SignApp, ReleaseAppSource, …). They keep their original name, version and inputs, reproduce the V1 behaviour on top of the businessdev.ALbuild module, and emit a deprecation warning while still succeeding.

The V1 tasks are frozen — they will not receive new features or fixes. Migrate to the new tasks at your own pace to benefit from ongoing improvements.

Support

For questions, issues, or contributions, visit our GitHub repository.

Thank you for choosing ALbuild for your AL development and build pipelines.