AL Bridge

AL Bridge is the bridge between Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central cloud and the on-premise/external world: a local agent and a set of cloud services, orchestrated from BC through an encrypted job queue, that do what SaaS alone cannot - direct printing, file-system access, PowerShell/SQL, carriers and document conversions - driverless and licensable per module. It is the foundation that the AppLibra connector family builds on.

Key capabilities

• Local agent via an encrypted job queue - modules queue an encrypted job; a local service at the customer verifies the module licence, decrypts and runs it locally (print, file, PowerShell, carriers...), driverless, with nothing installed on BC.
• File-system operations - save, create/check folders, move/copy, read file/folder, delete and extract XML, including reading inbound folders for e-invoicing.
• AppLibra cloud services - PNG-to-GRF for Zebra labels, PDF from a JSON template, PDF page count, and P7M decoding and attachment extraction for e-invoices.
• Generic REST client - REST calls with Basic Auth / Bearer Token, headers and body, used by modules to talk to external APIs.
• Across the board - a PDF viewer, job logs, AES encryption of job content and cloud-service credentials in Isolated Storage.

Why it matters

• SaaS without limits - print, file access and local integrations from a cloud ERP.
• Driverless - no Windows drivers or installs on Business Central.
• One foundation, many modules - a single shared infrastructure, each capability licensed as a module.
• Document services - PDF rendering, GS1 GRF and e-invoice signature/attachment handling from the cloud.

Built for

Anyone running Business Central cloud with on-premise needs (printing, file exchange, local integrations) or document capabilities (PDF, GS1 GRF, e-invoice) - it is the infrastructure under the AppLibra connector modules.

What makes AL Bridge different

• One shared foundation - a single encrypted job queue and cloud-service layer for the whole connector family.
• Driverless local execution - a local agent runs print/file/process jobs without BC installs.
• Per-module licensing - each capability is a licensable module.
• Document cloud services - PDF, GS1 GRF and e-invoice P7M/attachments built in.

How it works

A module (for example a print or file module) queues an encrypted job in the Bridge job queue; the local agent picks it up, verifies the module licence, decrypts it and runs it on-premise (printing, file operations, a process, a carrier dialog), then writes back the status. For document capabilities, a module invokes a Message Passing event and Bridge calls the AppLibra cloud service (PDF, GRF, P7M) and returns the result; the generic REST client handles calls to external APIs.

Requirements

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central online (SaaS), version 25.0 or higher.
• Local agent - required at the customer for on-premise operations (printing, file system, processes).
• Cloud services - require connectivity to services.applibra.com.
• Dependencies (installed automatically) - AL Message Passing, AL Cryptography and AL License and Trial Management, from AppLibra.