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Tutorial: Create client plugins for Copilot in finance and operations apps

  • Article

Client plugins, or client actions, are Microsoft Copilot plugins that invoke client code and are available for users in the context of client experiences for finance and operations apps. Developers can extend the Copilot chat capabilities in finance and operations apps by defining plugins that convert the functionality, operations, and business logic of the X++ code base into actions that users can invoke through natural language. For more information about client plugins and syntax, see Create client plugins for Copilot in finance and operations apps.

Scenario

There are many possible use cases for client plugins, and for exposing business logic in X++ to Copilot, making the logic something that Copilot "knows" how to do, and enabling the user to interact with the logic in natural language. In this scenario, you're adding a simplified client navigation action as a Copilot capability. Users can then go to specific forms in the application through natural language in the Copilot chat pane.

Here's an overview of the steps in this tutorial.

  1. Create a client-side action in X++ that defines the logic to invoke for the action.
  2. In Copilot Studio, create a topic that's triggered by a Copilot prompt to go to a defined form, and that invokes the client action that you created in step 1.
  3. Create a topic that's triggered by the completed client action and returns a response to the user in the Copilot chat pane.

Prerequisites

This tutorial has the following prerequisites:

Step 1: Create a client-side action

In your unified developer environment, create an X++ class that defines the navigation action. The action includes input and output parameters that pass properties between the client and Copilot.

  1. In Visual Studio, in your development project, create a class that's named SysCopilotChatCustomNavigateAction.

  2. Add the following code to the new class.

    /// <summary>
/// Provides a client-side action for copilot that navigates to a defined form in the application.
/// </summary>
[DataContract]
[SysCopilotChatGlobalAction]
[SysCopilotChatActionDefinition(
    identifierStr(MS.PA.CopilotExample.ClientNavigate),
    'Navigate',
    'Navigates to or opens a defined form in the application client',
    menuItemActionStr(SysCopilotChatCustomNavigateAction), MenuItemType::Action)]
public final class SysCopilotChatCustomNavigateAction extends SysCopilotChatAction
{
    private MenuItemName menuItemName;
    private str navResponse;

    [DataMember('menuItemName'),
    SysCopilotChatActionInputParameter('The name of the menu for the form to launch', true)]
    internal MenuItemName parmMenuItemName(MenuItemName _menuItemName = menuItemName)
    {
        menuItemName = _menuItemName;
        return menuItemName;
    }

    [DataMember('navResponse'),
    SysCopilotChatActionOutputParameter('The response from the navigation, whether an error or successful navigation')]
    public str parmNavResponse(str _navResponse = navResponse)
    {
        navResponse = _navResponse;
        return navResponse;
    }
    public void executeAction(SysCopilotChatActionDefinitionAttribute _actionDefinition, Object _context)
    {
        super(_actionDefinition, _context);

        if (this.parmMenuItemName())
        {
            // Navigate
            MenuFunction::runClient(this.parmMenuItemName(), MenuItemType::Display, false, new Args());
            this.parmNavResponse("You were successfully navigated to the " + menuItemName + " form.");
        }
        else
        {
            throw Error(Error::wrongUseOfFunction(funcName()));
            this.parmNavResponse("There was an error navigating you to the " + menuItemName + " form. See the action menu for more information.");
        }
    }
}

  3. In your development project, add an action menu item. Set the following property values for it:

    • Name: SysCopilotChatCustomNavigateAction
    • Object Type: Class
    • Object: SysCopilotChatCustomNavigateAction

  4. Save and deploy the code to your environment.

Step 2: Create a topic to invoke the action

For this example, you create two topics in the Copilot in Finance and Operation chatbot in Copilot Studio. The first topic initiates the plugin when the prompt that a user enters in Copilot indicates intent to go to a form. When this topic is triggered, it determines the input parameters for the action and sends them as an event to X++ to call the action.

  1. In Copilot Studio, open the Copilot in Finance and Operation chatbot.

  2. Create a topic that's named CustomClientNavigation and has the following trigger phrases:

    • "Navigate to form"
    • "Open page"
    • "Take me to form"

  3. In the new topic, create Question nodes to ask the user to define the form that the client should go to.

    • In the message field, enter What form do you want to navigate to?
    • In the Identify field, select Options from a list variable.
    • In the List variable field, specify Global.PA_Copilot_ServerForm_NavigationContext.
    • In the Save user response as field, create a local topic variable, Topic.SelectedTarget.

  4. Create an Event activity node that invokes the X++ class.

    • In the Name field, enter MS.PA.CopilotExample.ClientNavigate.

    • In the Value field, enter the following Power Fx formula.

      Concatenate("{""menuItemName"": """,Topic.SelectedTarget.MenuItem, """}")

  5. Create an End current topic node to end the topic.

  6. Save the new topic.

Step 3: Create a topic for returned output parameters

The second topic receives the output parameters that are returned from the X++ class. It then returns the response to the user in the Copilot chat pane.

  1. In the Copilot in finance and operations chatbot, create a topic.

    • Set the trigger type to Event received. For more information, see Changing the trigger for a topic.
    • In the On Event Activity properties pane, set the Event name property to MS.PA.CopilotExample.ClientNavigate.

  2. In the new topic, create a Parse value node to parse the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) string from the event payload.

    • In the Parse value field, enter System.Activity.Text.

    • In the Data type field, specify From sample data.

    • Select Get schema from sample JSON, and enter the following JSON string to define the schema of the returned parameters.

      {
    "isResponse":true,
    "menuItemName":"EInvoiceExtCodeWeightUnit_MX",
    "navResponse":"You successfully navigated to the EInvoiceExtCodeWeightUnit_MX form."
}

    • In the Save as field, create a Topic.NavigationResponse variable as the record type for the parsed response.

  3. Create a Message node. Set the message value to the Topic.NavigationResponse variable.

  4. Save the topic.

  5. Publish the changes to the chatbot.

Step 4: Test the plugin

After you create the action and the topics to manage the execution and response, and after you publish and deploy the code, the Copilot chat has a new capability. Users can now go to specific forms in the application as part of a Copilot natural language chat in finance and operations apps. For example, the user can enter the following prompts in the Copilot chat pane:

  • "Open form: Default dashboard" – This prompt has the client go to the DefaultDashboard form.

  • "Navigate to page" – This prompt provides a list of menu items that are available to the user, based on their permissions. The user can then select a menu item.

    Note

    Depending on a user's permissions, the list can be long. However, it's limited to 500 menu items.