When preview goes wrong and why it’s not a problem
A practical guide for Business Central ISVs explaining how Marketplace preview submissions behave, how validation works, and why a failed preview won’t block your next release.
What is preview?
Preview is a way to submit your application to the Marketplace while stopping just before it goes public. Its purpose is to verify, in an online sandbox environment, whether the submitted version works as intended-based on realworld scenarios, not only developers’ assumptions. Preview is only possible to install as trial version in the online sandbox enviroment.
To make preview submision you need to set the Preview key, and don’t press “Go Live” after technical validation of application.
The preview key is not a publicly accessible piece of information. It is used to restrict access to the preview version of the app, and you should share it only with the customers you want to allow to install the preview. To set Preview Key go to: Availability > Preview Audience > Hide Key.
Of course, the submission must include the application provided correctly by uploading the .app file and setting the appropriate version number - just like every day normal release.
Then, by selecting Publish, the preview process starts.
When the application reaches the Go Live stage, it means that the preview is available for installation. But don’t use the button!
How to install preview?
To install the preview version you need to:
- prepare special instalation link https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/%5BTenantID%5D/?noSignUpCheck=1&filter=%27ID%27, where:
- TenandID - The ID of the tenant on which the preview version of the application is to be installed,
- AppID - application ID,
- Preview Key - A identifier for the preview.
- Paste the prepared installation link in the browser, you will open a page with sandbox environments available for the selected tenant.
- Select the specific instance where the preview app should be installed. Review the preview installation message, then select Install.
Go Live
You can make your preview publicly available by clicking “Go Live”. And after it became normal public version for all online enviroments.
When preview goes wrong
But what if the app used for the preview doesn’t work as expected? Simply create a new application submission. There is, however, one limitation: the new submission must have a higher version number than the preview version. The new submission will be validated against the last successfully published version, not against the preview. This means that if the preview introduced new objects that were not part of the last successful release, you do not need to include them again in the new submission. The validation process does not compare against the preview version at all-it is treated as if it never existed.
So, if you have a significant new feature that you want to test with selected customers, using a preview submission is a good option. If something goes wrong, you can simply overwrite it with a new submission.