Case – Webservice Management System in Business Central

About this case

This case study describes how a public-sector energy organization built a centralized webservice management layer inside Business Central. Rather than scattering HTTP calls and credentials across individual codeunits, all external API communication runs through a single, configurable framework with built-in authentication, endpoint management and full request/response logging.

Client

European public-sector energy organization

Industry

Government / Energy / Public Sector

Engagement

Design and development of a reusable webservice management framework inside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to centralize all outbound and inbound API communication.

Challenge

The organization integrated with multiple external services, each with its own authentication method, endpoint structure and payload format. Credentials were spread across different modules, HTTP calls were hard-coded in codeunits and there was no unified way to monitor, debug or audit API traffic.

Solution

A centralized webservice management system providing:

  • Configurable webservice records with URL, authentication and connection details
  • Webservice line definitions for individual API endpoints and HTTP methods
  • OAuth 2.0 client-credentials flow with automatic token expiration and refresh
  • Bearer token support for simple API-key style authentication
  • Custom HTTP header support via a dictionary-based approach
  • Full request/response logging with blob storage for large payloads
  • Automatic file-type detection (JSON / XML) for messages
  • Configurable HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH

Key Capabilities

  • Single setup page to manage all external webservice connections
  • Endpoint registry with per-method configuration (URL path, HTTP verb, content type)
  • OAuth 2.0 token lifecycle: request, store, validate expiry, auto-refresh
  • Comprehensive log viewer with request body, response body and HTTP status code
  • Blob-based storage so large JSON/XML payloads never hit record size limits
  • Webhook registration and deregistration for bi-directional communication
  • Role-based permission sets separating user, admin and read-only access

Results

  • All external API communication managed from a single, auditable location
  • New integrations added through configuration instead of custom code
  • Complete audit trail for every HTTP request and response
  • Faster debugging thanks to structured log entries with payload inspection
  • Secure credential storage with token refresh handled automatically
  • Consistent error handling and retry patterns across all integrations

Role

Solution architect & lead Business Central developer

Next step

Need a webservice management layer in your Business Central environment?

Whether you are connecting to one external API or dozens – I can help you design a centralized, auditable integration framework that keeps your credentials safe, your calls traceable and your codebase clean.

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